NHL power rankings: Where is the bottom for the Edmonton Oilers?

We’ve already flipped past the first calendar month of the season, and it still feels like it’s barely started. Unfortunately last week included a few stars getting hurt, including the league’s leading scorer in Jack Hughes, but at least a couple hockey hotbeds in Toronto and Edmonton have given us some drama with their slow starts.

Mike Gould and I continue to navigate the league through the first month of the season with another week of our co-op power rankings. I have my same old system which I aggregate six stats (points %, 5-on-5 goal differential, 5-on-5 xGF/60, 5-on-5 xGA/60, power play xGF/60, and shorthanded xGA/60, all coming courtesy of Natural Stat Trick) to come up with a list that eliminates my own biases, along with a rule that no team can be above a team that’s more than five points ahead of them in the standings, regardless of where the aggregate places them. On the other hand, Mike goes off his own intellect and pure vibes, and together we find a way to combine it and meet in the middle.

1. Vegas Golden Knights

Record: 11–1–1, +24
Last Week: 2nd (+1)
Mike’s Rank: 1st
Scott’s Rank: 2nd

Scott: Vegas reclaims the top spot after another strong week, with three straight wins before finally losing their first game in regulation on Sunday to the Anaheim Ducks. Ironically, their regulation loss marked the first time in six games that they had won the expected goals battle in a game, which has been a continuing flaw for them so far this year, and if not for the five-point rule ensuring that they could only finish behind the Bruins on my list, they would have been a lot lower than second.

2. Boston Bruins

Record: 9–1–1, +15
Last Week: 1st (-1)
Mike’s Rank: 2nd
Scott’s Rank: 1st

Mike: I don’t know what it’s going to take to get Scott to acknowledge the Golden Knights’ rightful position atop these power rankings, but I can at least understand why he picked Boston. Matt Poitras is sticking around and David Pastrnak is scoring like his life depends on it. I just can’t help but wonder whether the Bruins opt to leverage their enviable goaltending depth in a trade to add more firepower up front. If they were to flip Linus Ullmark for more scoring, I could see the Bruins doing just fine with a tandem of Jeremy Swayman and top AHL prospect Brandon Bussi.

Scott: I mean, the only difference between the Bruins and Golden Knights is that Vegas has two more wins in two more games played, and the Bruins have been much more dominant in their games. Easy choice for me.

3. Colorado Avalanche

Record: 7–3–0, +4
Last Week: 3rd (0)
Mike’s Rank: 4th
Scott’s Rank: 5th

Scott: The Avs have trailed off a bit more from the other two teams that spent a lengthy chunk of the young season undefeated, and getting smacked 7-0 by one of those teams in the Golden Knights certainly doesn’t help their case. Still, this start is significantly better than what they managed to do for all of last season, so it’s safe to say the true Avs are back.

4. Dallas Stars

Record: 7–2–1, +4
Last Week: 5th (+1)
Mike’s Rank: 3rd
Scott’s Rank: 7th

Mike: Dallas beat the Oilers and Flames by identical 4–3 scores last week before being shut out by the Canucks. Jake Oettinger has been absolutely dominant to begin the year but the same cannot be said about Jason Robertson, who has gone missing after scoring 46 goals and 109 points a year ago. Robo is stuck at just two goals in 10 games to start this season. When he wakes up … look out. (Bring up Logan Stankoven!)

5. Los Angeles Kings

Record: 7–2–2, +14
Last Week: 7th (+2)
Mike’s Rank: 8th
Scott’s Rank: 3rd

Scott: Nothing like a six-game point streak to get on everybody’s radar as one of the best teams in the league. They went a perfect three-for-three on their road trip out east, and made a pretty big statement by throttling a talented Leafs team and a surprisingly good Flyers squad. I wasn’t expecting this team to be as good as they are, but they just don’t let up, regardless of the opponent.

6. New Jersey Devils

Record: 7–3–1, +4
Last Week: 6th (0)
Mike’s Rank: 5th
Scott’s Rank: 6th

Mike: No Jack Hughes? No problem for these Devils, who cruised to a 4–2 win over the Blackhawks on Sunday. Someone named Max Willman scored a goal for New Jersey in that one. I assumed it was his first NHL goal, but nope: Willman scored four times with the Flyers in the 2021–22 season. Who knew?

7. Carolina Hurricanes

Record: 7–5–0, 0
Last Week: 9th (+2)
Mike’s Rank: 7th
Scott’s Rank: 4th

Scott: The Canes have quietly returned to normal recently with wins in four of their last five, and underneath the hood they’re looking like that possession-hungry team that punishes you on the forecheck. As they continue to get healthier, they should look to be a threat in the Metropolitan again, especially as the Devils and Rangers deal with injuries to several star players.

8. Vancouver Canucks

Record: 8–2–1, +26
Last Week: 13th (+5)
Mike’s Rank: 6th
Scott’s Rank: 10th

Mike: In true Monstars fashion, these Canucks seem to have stolen the Oilers’ hockey skills. Elias Pettersson is on track to make approximately $100 billion on his next contract. Quinn Hughes is almost a Top-10 defenseman in the league (he’d be better if he played in Toronto) and Filip Hronek has been outstanding in his first extended go-round in the blue and green. The Canucks aren’t going to score this much all season, but they seem to be coalescing under new head coach Rick Tocchet. That market is long overdue for a half-decent team.

9. New York Rangers

Record: 8–2–1, +10
Last Week: 4th (-5)
Mike’s Rank: 9th
Scott’s Rank: 8th

Scott: The Rangers haven’t let up in the past couple weeks, as they were off to a six-game winning streak before a blown lead at the hands of the Wild snapped that streak, although it was still in overtime. It’s amazing that they’ve dropped five spots after all that, but it just goes to show how interchangeable a lot of this top 10 is.

10. Winnipeg Jets

Record: 5–4–2, -3
Last Week: 19th (+6)
Mike’s Rank: 13th
Scott’s Rank: 9th

Mike: I honestly have no idea what the hell the Jets are doing in the Top 10. They’re not bad, but they also aren’t particularly good, and it’s not as though they’re being carried by one singularly dominant player. Connor Hellebuyck has been inconsistent, Kyle Connor remains a pure one-way guy, and beyond that … I just don’t know. I’m OK with the Jets being in the top half of the league, but this is a few spots too high for me.

Scott: It’s not like there’s any team below them being robbed of a top 10 spot with this ranking. Their defense has been surprisingly good to start the year, so that’s helped mask Hellebuyck’s troubles at least.

11. Florida Panthers

Record: 5–4–1, -2
Last Week: 14th (+3)
Mike’s Rank: 12th
Scott’s Rank: 11th

Scott: The longer the Panthers can hold up playing .500 without Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour, the more it bodes well for their playoff chances. They’ve been more or less alternating wins and losses recently, so while they haven’t been able to build any momentum yet, they also haven’t sunken themselves out of a playoff spot yet.

12. Tampa Bay Lightning

Record: 5–3–3, +4
Last Week: 10th (-2)
Mike’s Rank: 11th
Scott’s Rank: 16th

Mike: Ho-hum, Nikita Kucherov is off to another great start. Jonas Johansson has put up surprisingly strong numbers in Andrei Vasilevskiy’s absence. It’s also been cool to see Alex Barre-Boulet finally get an extended opportunity to play with some of Tampa’s top players. There’s not much to say here, beyond … this team is a machine. Sure, they lost to Seattle and Columbus last week, but I still wouldn’t want to face these guys in the playoffs.

13. Arizona Coyotes

Record: 5–5–1, +5
Last Week: 25th (+12)
Mike’s Rank: 15th
Scott’s Rank: 12th

Scott: The Coyotes really wanted to impress their No. 1 fan Mike Gould while he was in the desert and managed to get points in three straight games to start last week, including an 8-1 shellacking of the Blackhawks, before ending the week with a 5-3 loss to the Jets. Logan Cooley also managed to get his first NHL goal, but he clearly wanted to spite Mike by getting it in their lone game on the road last week.

14. Detroit Red Wings

Record: 7–4–1, +8
Last Week: 8th (-6)
Mike’s Rank: 14th
Scott’s Rank: 17th

Mike: I think the hype around this year’s Red Wings team is beginning to die down, but they’re still near the top of the Atlantic Division standings. They just handed the Bruins their first regulation loss of the season. I’m not entirely sold on their secondary scoring (Andrew Copp and J.T. Compher are just so … meh) but I don’t see why these guys shouldn’t be able to remain competitive into the mushy middle of the season. 

Scott: It helps that outside of Boston, no team in the Atlantic has really grabbed the bull by the horns and separated themselves from the rest of the group. As long as that remains the case, the Red Wings have a solid chance.

15. Toronto Maple Leafs

Record: 5–4–2, -1
Last Week: 11th (-4)
Mike’s Rank: 10th
Scott’s Rank: 21st

Scott: Hoo boy. It’s far too early to get concerned about their playoff chances just yet, but this start is almost getting as ugly as the one that got Mike Babcock fired in 2019. Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi haven’t been the offensive sparks that some hoped, Ryan Reaves and David Kampf are singlehandedly sinking the bottom six, and it’s getting to the point where the Leafs arena should just play the Benny Hill theme song when John Klingberg is in the defensive zone. It says a lot that Auston Matthews is scoring at a goal-per-game pace so far this season and the team has more losses than wins.

Mike: Brad Treliving, man. I do not know what cosmic force compelled him to make all those ghastly moves this summer, but the early returns have been appalling.

Scott: Hey, at least Reaves is around to sit on the bench and chirp Brad Marchand for injuring Timothy Liljegren, it’s a step up from doing absolutely nothing about William Nylander getting decked into the boards against the Panthers.

16. Philadelphia Flyers

Record: 5–6–1, -2
Last Week: 15th (-1)
Mike’s Rank: 17th
Scott’s Rank: 15h

Mike: I still can’t quite make heads or tails of these Flyers, who just split a home-and-home with the Sabres before being shelled by the Kings. At least they’re giving the good hockey fans of Philly something to cheer for, which hasn’t exactly been the case very often this decade. I do wonder if they sell high on Travis Konecny, who has nine goals in 12 games to start the year.

17. Washington Capitals

Record: 5–4–1, -9
Last Week: 26th (+9)
Mike’s Rank: 19th
Scott’s Rank: 14th

Scott: The Caps have been surprisingly solid recently. Not great, but not egregiously bad either, although they also haven’t played a legit playoff team in their last four games. Nicklas Backstrom stepping away from the game may actually help them in the long run with how bad he’s been lately, but it probably would have helped them even more if they could have used that extra $9.2 million in the offseason if this was going to be the result anyways.

18. Nashville Predators

Record: 5–6–0, 0
Last Week: 21st (+3)
Mike’s Rank: 20th
Scott’s Rank: 13th

Mike: My hot take that the Predators will finish 32nd in the NHL will almost certainly end up being wrong, but I still don’t think these guys are very good. Sure, they beat the Oilers, but that’s not exactly an accomplishment anymore. I still just don’t see this Preds team as being able to score nearly enough to be relevant. This week, with games against Calgary, Winnipeg, and Arizona, will be a great litmus test for Nashville.

19. New York Islanders

Record: 5–2–3, 0
Last Week: 16th (-3)
Mike’s Rank: 16th
Scott’s Rank: 18th

Scott: I know the Isles are an average team, but I wasn’t expecting them to need goaltending as much as they have to get wins. Poor Semyon Varlamov has as many shutouts as he does wins, so that should tell you the state this team is in right now. As long as Varlamov and Ilya Sorokin can keep this together, the Isles will be competitive, but they are playing with fire here.

Mike: I’m trying to imagine that old Billy Eichner “For a dollar, name a woman” gag, except it’s “For a dollar, name a New York Islander.” And you’re not allowed to say Barzal or Sorokin.

Scott: The Islanders are my kryptonite on Puckdoku because it’s been the same team for so long that I can’t imagine any player on this team playing for another team and any other player in the league playing for this team.

20. Pittsburgh Penguins

Record: 4–6–0, +5
Last Week: 12th (-8)
Mike’s Rank: 18th
Scott’s Rank: 20th

Mike: Even after scoring 10 goals against the Sharks, the Penguins still have one forward not in their top six with more than one goal this year: Radim Zohorna. They need way more from their depth if they want to turn their season around. And they kind of also need to find a way to get Jeff Carter off the team.

21. Anaheim Ducks

Record: 7–4–0, +5
Last Week: 23rd (+2)
Mike’s Rank: 21st
Scott’s Rank: 19th

Scott: The bar was really low for the Ducks after how bad they were last season, but they’ve really taken a step forward, especially during this six-game winning streak that includes wins over both the Bruins and the Golden Knights. We’ll see how long they keep this up, but at least they’re fun to watch again with Leo Carlsson and Pavel Mintyukov inserted into the lineup.

22. Ottawa Senators

Record: 4–6–0, +3
Last Week: 20th (-2)
Mike’s Rank: 24th
Scott’s Rank: 22nd

Mike: What a mess! The Sens don’t currently have a full-time GM and they might not have a head coach by this time next week. The losses are starting to pile up. Sure, they’ve dealt with a lot of bad injury luck, but c’mon. Something’s gotta give. The vibes coming out of Ottawa right now are flat-out alarming.

Scott: And of course the league has to pour some salt in the wound by leaving an investigation that cost them a first round pick until after they sold the team. Perfectly ethical stuff here.

23. Montreal Canadiens

Record: 5–4–2, -6
Last Week: 17th (-6)
Mike’s Rank: 23rd
Scott’s Rank: 24th

Scott: After a hot start, the Habs got humbled a bit on their road trip out West, and while the loss to Vegas is understandable, Arizona and St. Louis are ones they should have maybe had. Jake Allen is still carrying the team, but more interesting is that Cole Caufield only has four goals this season, although he’s still a point-per-game player thanks to seven assists.

24. Buffalo Sabres

Record: 6–6–0, +1
Last Week: 24th (0)
Mike’s Rank: 22nd
Scott’s Rank: 25th

Mike: The Sabres had a solid week, beating the Avalanche and Leafs while also splitting a series against the Flyers. I certainly don’t think they deserve to be below Ottawa and Montreal, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles. It’s good to see Tage Thompson starting to heat up. But if these guys want to go anywhere this year, they need to address their goalie situation. The three-headed monster of Devon Levi, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, and Eric Comrie has been, to put it mildly, volatile to start the season.

25. Columbus Blue Jackets

Record: 4–5–2, -6
Last Week: 27th (+2)
Mike’s Rank: 25th
Scott’s Rank: 23rd

Scott: The Blue Jackets have lost five of their last six games and are already getting behind the eight-ball on hoping for a chance at the playoffs, so Pascal Vincent has been making some statements recently to wake up the team. First they sent Kent Johnson to the AHL on Saturday, and then he benched Johnny Gaudreau in their loss to the Capitals on the same day. It’s not as chaotic in Columbus as it was before the regular season, but it’s still not pretty.

26. St. Louis Blues

Record: 5–4–1, -3
Last Week: 30th (+4)
Mike’s Rank: 28th
Scott’s Rank: 26th

Mike: The Blues closed out the week with wins over the Devils and Canadiens, exactly half of which were surprising. This team cannot score, at all. Robert Thomas is the only guy in St. Louis with more than two goals, and he has four. It might just be worth seeing whether any other team will pony up for the likes of Pavel Buchnevich and Brandon Saad, because these Blues are on a bullet train to purgatory.

27. Minnesota Wild

Record: 4–5–2, -7
Last Week: 22nd (-5)
Mike’s Rank: 27th
Scott’s Rank: 29th

Scott: It’s nice to see that Mike is finally starting to see what I’m seeing in this Wild team, and right now it’s pretty much nothing. There’s still plenty of time to recover this season, but when they’ve struggled to drive play and string together wins, it’s not exactly a recipe for success. Maybe a comeback win over the Rangers will finally light a fire underneath this team.

Mike: I like the Coyotes’ chances to make the playoffs over these Wild at this point. Something’s not right with Kirill Kaprizov right now, and I don’t know what it is.

28. Seattle Kraken

Record: 4–6–2, -11
Last Week: 31st (+3)
Mike’s Rank: 26th
Scott’s Rank: 30th

Mike: The Kraken don’t have much star power. With Matty Beniers in the midst of a brutal sophomore slump and Shane Wright still in the AHL, the Kraken don’t currently boast the dominant one-two punch down the middle that Ron Francis surely hopes they’ll have in the future. For now, their most dangerous offensive players are Oliver Bjorkstrand, Jaden Schwartz, and Jared McCann. That’s a recipe for a bottom-10 team.

29. Calgary Flames

Record: 3–7–1, -13
Last Week: 29th (0)
Mike’s Rank: 29th
Scott’s Rank: 28th

Scott: Hopefully for the Flames’ sake their 6-3 win over the Kraken may spark something, but this team still just feels lifeless. Or maybe it’s not the best that the win sparks something, because with so many veterans set for free agency this offseason, this really is looking like the perfect time for a rebuild.

Mike: I love the smell of a Noah Hanifin trade in the morning.

30. Edmonton Oilers

Record: 2–7–1, -14
Last Week: 18th (-12)
Mike’s Rank: 31st
Scott’s Rank: 27th

Mike: What the Oilers have (or, more accurately, haven’t) done with a roster led by Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl is truly staggering. There’s no excuse for these guys not to be at the top of the league. It’s been over 36 years since Edmonton last won its division, and it doesn’t look like that streak will end this season. If these Oilers don’t turn it around quick, heads will roll.

Scott: If it’s any consolation for Oilers fans, McDavid has been mortal so far this season, so if he picks up steam again they should start winning games again. But I also wonder if we’re witnessing the impossible that is McDavid regressing, or at least his goal scoring.

31. Chicago Blackhawks

Record: 4–7–0, -12
Last Week: 28th (-3)
Mike’s Rank: 30th
Scott’s Rank: 31st

Scott: Sooooo, are we going to address the elephant in the room with this team again, or do you want to watch Connor Bedard sock a few dingers… er, score a few goals. I guess elephant in the room isn’t entirely accurate, as it’s more like a second elephant that the Blackhawks somehow managed to “sweep under the rug” while they were getting in trouble for having the first elephant, but I’m not sure whether to be more upset at Chicago or the league for that one. Still, it is an ugly look for this team and the league that this continues to be an issue.

Mike: Focusing squarely on the Hawks’ on-ice performance, they looked truly horrendous in their 8-1 loss to the Coyotes this past week. But that feels so irrelevant compared to the absolutely horrific off-ice news in Chicago, and I truly hope John Doe finds justice and peace.

32. San Jose Sharks

Record: 0–10–1, -43
Last Week: 32nd (0)
Mike’s Rank: 32nd
Scott’s Rank: 32nd

Mike: Remember that scene at the end of Jaws where Roy Scheider blows up the beast with a harpoon gun and an oxygen tank? That’s what it must feel like to allow 10 goals in back-to-back games. The last team to achieve that ‘feat’ was coached by a guy who was born in 1918. There were only six teams in the league when the 1965 Boston Bruins, led by Hockey Hall of Famers Johnny Bucyk, Leo Boivin, and head coach Milt Schmidt, gave up 20 goals over two consecutive games. In an era of unprecedented parity, the 2023 San Jose Sharks are to the rest of the National Hockey League what Ralph Wiggum was to the Springfield Elementary geography pageant. He was Idaho; they’ve hit a new low. The only appropriate word to describe this roster is “haphazard.” The notion that these Sharks could win a game, or even score more than two goals in one, is laughable — which is to say, we’ll all have a good laugh at the first team to lose to them. (Good news, Sharks fans: Edmonton is in town this week).

Scott: It’s pretty funny that I wrote about how they have been historically bad this season, and that was before the back-to-back 10-goal games. This isn’t a fantasy hockey article, but the go-to strat for waiver wire pickups this year might just be to add whoever is playing the Sharks that particular night. It got me 30 points on Saturday!