The vibes in Edmonton aren’t the greatest these days, and it’s easy to see why.
The team is decimated with injuries to superstars Connor McDavid and Leon Drasiaitl, while their best all-around defenceman Mattias Ekholm is recovering from an ailment of his own. Their No. 1 netminder, Stuart Skinner, has been out for weeks after getting kneed in the head, while Evander Kane is still working his way back from abdominal surgery he underwent in September.
Oh yeah, and one of the three players they picked up ahead of the trade deadline — and already injured Trent Frederic just re-aggravated that ankle injury.
But fear not, says Daily Faceoff’s Matt Larkin, who sees the Edmonton Oilers as one of four teams that have six of seven key ingredients to winning a Stanley Cup.
The seven key ingredients Larkin has identified, looking back at the 10 most recent Stanley Cup winners, are: team weight, top-10 scorers, a top-10 goalie, a positive expected goal differential, penalty kill efficiency, Stanley Cup rings in the room, and trade deadline pickups.
Of the seven, the only one the Oilers don’t have is a top-1o goaltender.
The Oilers, health permitting, remain exactly what we thought they were: great in all facets of the game save for their obvious weakness, goaltending. Their 2024 Cup Final counterparts, the Panthers, check fewer boxes than they did last year, but their ceiling remains sky-high if their top talents, such as Matthew Tkachuk, are healthy in time for the postseason.
The “health permitting” part of that evaluation will be key. If the Oilers are able to get their stars back up to 100 percent, and the other pieces can get back to their game, Edmonton could still undoubtedly be a serious contender.
After all, sportsbooks like Bet 365 still see the Oilers as much, with +950 odds — implied odds of 9.52 percent — that are equal with the Colorado Avalanche, trailing the Florida Panthers (+650, 13.4 percent implied odds) and Dallas Stars (+560, 15.15 percent implied odds).
Just one of those teams also have six of seven Stanley Cup ingredients, the Avalanche, along with the Los Angeles Kings, and Winnipeg Jets. The Dallas Stars, Seattle Kraken, Tampa Bay lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs, Vegas Golden Knights, and Washington Capitals are the six teams who have five of seven ingredients.
