The Edmonton Oilers led the way in THN's web staff poll as the Canadian team most likely to go the furthest in the playoffs. Adam Proteau makes the case for them and the second-place Maple Leafs.

One of the many interesting elements of THN.com’s web staffers' pre-season poll was the question of which Canadian team would go furthest in the Stanley Cup playoffs next spring. 

The majority of the voters – 22 out of 34 – chose the Edmonton Oilers. The only other team picked was the Toronto Maple Leafs, who received the other 12 votes. And you can make a great case for either the Oilers or Leafs to go on a deep post-season run.

To wit: the Oilers have two of the top-five players on the planet in superstar forwards Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. They’re getting a full season out of last year’s trade acquisition, Mattias Ekholm, so their defense probably will be better, more consistently, in 2023-24. 

They’ve got a deep and well-balanced group of forwards, including Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. And they play in a Pacific Division that remains the weakest division in the NHL. Edmonton made it at least to the second round of the playoffs for the past two years, and there’s every reason to believe they’ll get at least that far again this season.

That said, there were compelling reasons to pick the Leafs as the team that goes furthest in the 2024 playoffs. (And full disclosure: your humble correspondent was one of those 12 voters who picked Toronto in the poll.) 

The Leafs improved their roster this summer, and it isn’t like they weren’t already one of the best teams in the league. Adding forwards Max Domi and Tyler Bertuzzi and defenseman John Klingberg and goalie Martin Jones gives the Buds a deeper, more skilled and ornery group of players. One of the reasons we ultimately chose the Leafs over the Oilers is we believe Toronto’s goaltending tandem of Ilya Samsonov and Joseph Woll is better than Edmonton’s duo of Stuart Skinner and Jack Campbell.

Similarly, we feel like the Leafs’ defense corps is deeper and more experienced than Edmonton’s. Klingberg gives them better offensive firepower than the departed Justin Holl, and a full season of second-pair blueliner Jake McCabe should help Toronto to be even better than they were in 2022-23. Yes, Edmonton has skilled defenders in Ekholm, Evan Bouchard and Darnell Nurse, but the Leafs have Morgan Rielly, TJ Brodie, McCabe, Klingberg and Mark Giordano, which in our opinion gives them the advantage over the Oilers.

As for Canada’s other teams, the Winnipeg Jets, Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks are more or less in the same boat. They have talent on board, but aren’t going to be locks to even make the playoffs, let alone go on a lengthy post-season rampage. Indeed, we can see a situation in which all three of those teams will miss the playoffs altogether.

Additionally, there’s very compelling reasons to think the Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators both are unlikely to be the last Canadian team standing. Montreal is in the midst of a full franchise rebuild and is projected by most observers to finish at the bottom of the Atlantic Division, while Ottawa’s on the rise and may wind up being the third Canadian team to make the playoffs. But if they get there, they’re not going to be a favorite in any first-round matchup or subsequent-round showdown.

This is why it all comes back to the Oilers and Leafs as Canada’s most successful playoff team this coming year. Both teams have generational talents. Both teams have sky-high internal expectations. 

Both teams have difference-makers and determined veterans who will only measure the quality of their seasons by playoff success. Edmonton may have the easier route to a deep post-season run, but the Leafs (50-21-11) had a slightly better regular season than the Oilers (50-23-9) did last year, and we’d argue they made better moves this summer than Edmonton did.

Almost assuredly, the Leafs or Oilers are likely to be the team that goes deepest in the playoffs. There’s a chance both or one of them underachieve, but when it’s all said and done, it’s more probable that one emerges as the class of Canada.