July is supposed to be hopeful. New names arrive, old ones leave, and every contender talks itself into believing the roster took a step forward. The Edmonton Oilers have earned more benefit of the doubt than most teams get, mostly because they've spent the last several summers trying and failing to reshape the edges of a roster that somehow stayed near the top of the West.
The core, aside from Darnell Nurse, didn't move much this summer, unlike the depth.
Goaltending is still shaky, just not the same uncertainty as last year. Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard gave Edmonton a sense of familiarity even when the results weren't there. Now Tristan Jarry comes in off a rough stretch in Pittsburgh, Frederik Andersen is still fighting the health issues that have trailed him for years, and Devon Levi is now a long-term project in the system. Three goalies, three completely different resumes. At minimum, the season won't hinge entirely on one guy rediscovering his game the way it has in past years.
The blue line looks deeper top to bottom. Connor Murphy has built a career doing the stuff nobody wants to be doing: blocking shots, winning puck battles below the goal line, letting his partner play free. The Oilers have signed Ryan Shea and Shakir Mukhamadullin, the projected bottom-pairing defencemen, and judgment should probably be reserved until we can see them play in Oil Country.
Jason Dickinson fixes a problem this team has carried through more than one playoff run because now there are four lines—three at least—that the coach can trust. Dickinson wins draws, kills penalties, protects a lead, and can play without the puck on his stick. None of that seems to matter to a lot of people until game 5 of a second-round series.
Forward depth is better too. Injuries are guaranteed over 82 games, and the gap between Edmonton's regular lineup and whoever steps in next has gotten smaller. When the schedule is this long, everything gets exposed eventually, but a roster with more depth and more consistency is better suited to withstand such turnover.
Physicality is different this time around as well. Murphy, Dickinson and a few of the other additions have reputations for going hard on every puck, getting to the wall, and making sure guys like Connor McDavid don't have to go on the forecheck. Colton Dach went on Oilers Now and said that he's been watching Zach Hyman's film because he thinks that's the kind of player he can be. That's the kind of player Edmonton needs.
Listen, we'd all like to know what's happening in net, and we're probably not going to get an answer until the games start counting. Most contenders rarely get through a season without at least one real question. Edmonton's is a big one.
Even with that hanging over the group, the roster feels more complete than it did a year ago.
Improvements this late in a cup window rarely come from one expensive move. They come from stacking up players who can handle twenty hard minutes, win a defensive-zone draw, survive a Tuesday night in Nashville in January, and take some weight off the top line before April. Edmonton spent its summer doing exactly that, and there are fewer obvious soft spots in the lineup because of it.
Whether it adds up to a Stanley Cup is impossible to say in July. But if you're just looking at who's going to be in the lineup on opening night, this is a deeper, sturdier team than the one that started last season, and one that's better built for the grind that starts long before the playoffs do.
Bookmark The Hockey News Edmonton Oilers team site to never miss the latest news, game-day coverage, and more. Add us to your Google News favourites, and never miss a story.
