The Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings are pretty sick of each other at this point.
They've already played each other in the first round of the playoff three times in a row, and they're on a collision course once more. That makes it all the more surprising that they poached each other's free agents over the offseason, with Viktor Arvidsson heading to Edmonton from L.A. and Warren Foegele going the other way.
So far, the Kings are winning.
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While Viktor Arvidsson has had a difficult first year in Alberta, Foegele has taken very well to life in Southern California. His two-goal performance on Sunday against San Jose lifted his season totals up to 22 goals and 42 points, surpassing the career-highs of 20 and 41 he collected in his final season with the Oilers.
Arvidsson, meanwhile, has scored half as many goals and just 23 points in 58 games as he's scored at his lowest rate since his rookie year in 2015-16. Though he's missed some time, those numbers are nowhere near good enough, while Foegele has been a pleasant surprise for the surging Kings.
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Making matters worse, Arvidsson's most common linemate this season has been Leon Draisaitl, while Foegele has taken Arvidsson's spot on a checking line with Philip Danault and Trevor Moore in L.A. Danault and Moore are fine players, but they're not Leon Draisaitl, and Arvidsson and Foegele's deployment makes the gap in production that much harder to swallow.
Foegele's comments since joining the Kings are even harder to swallow.
"I hate the Oilers too, it's just part of the gig," he said in a recent video on the Kings' social media. Ouch.
For the Oilers, Foegele's improvement in Los Angeles and Arvidsson's regression in Edmonton should invite a lot of hard questions. What did they miss when evaluating these two players in free agency? Should they be focusing more on youth than past production in the offseason? How did they get this so wrong?
Between Foegele's big year with their division rivals and Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg's breakouts in St. Louis, the Oilers' 2024 offseason is looking worse by the day. Will they learn their lesson come July?
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