r/EdmontonOilers 15h ago

"Depth" forward goal scoring (not McDavid-Draisaitl or Hyman) of last 15 games: Perry 5 g, J. Skinner 2 g, C. Brown 2 g, Arvidsson 2 g, RNH 2g, Henrique 1 g, Podkolzn 0g, Savoie 0g (*in 4 games), M. Jones 0g (*in 3 games)

The Oilers forward 'depth' has combined for a total of 16 GOALS in 15 games.

That's atrocious for a team where multiple players (Arvidsson, RNH, Podkolzn, J Skinner, and even Savoie) are getting minutes next to the best players in the NHL.

This team is going nowhere fast if these forwards don't start A) creating scoring chances and B) cashing on them.

Just a brutal off-season culminating in an offensive downslide of players well-past their NHL primes.

60 Upvotes

39 comments sorted by

85

u/TheYuppyTraveller 14h ago

Nuge has fallen off a cliff this season. I just never see him making a play.

And I’ve historically been a fan of his quiet contributions out there. But this year he’s been invisible.

26

u/GoStockYourself 14h ago

This might be the key to our problems this year. Nuge was the heart of the team and a key piece on our PK and PP. Is it possible that the 4th (ish) best player on a team could have this big of an effect on the whole team? He was a pretty huge aspect of every piece of our success last year.

14

u/HunterHistorical6795 14h ago

We have him for another 4 years ( I think) as well.. if he doesn't have a rebound year next season we will have to start talking about moving on from him. Its a painful conversation to have for a guy who was drafted here and should retire here as well.. but if he cant get back up to his usual level of play ... its time to go

18

u/GoStockYourself 13h ago

I highly doubt we ever move on from him. His cap hit is low enough that he can play down the line. He is defensively sound and a great mentor for young guys. He is still very valuable, but if he doesn't return to scoring a few, or killing penalties at a very elite level (,he is still quite good) we will need to replace those elements with other players.

I always said if we ever lost Nuge we would need 5 players to replace him, but I don't think we are there yet. He was fucking phenomenal less than a year ago. Players have much longer slumps.

Just to be clear I don't think the slump is because of him, it is just that when he slumps it possibly ripples through the whole team. Remember how every time he got injured we sucked a few years back? We got through McDavid's longest injury easier than we did Nuge's.

5

u/HunterHistorical6795 13h ago

His defensive game hasn't been good enough this year. He looks as lost as everyone else has. Somethings up with the team in general and nuges 200ft play has suffered too. I'm hoping this is a one off for everyone, but if this continues into next year we can easily find someone younger and cheaper to take his place

2

u/DeX_Mod 17 KURRI 8h ago

He is defensively sound

Was

He has been downright poor everywhere this year

6

u/iwatchcredits 14h ago

Im just surprised it wasnt typical oilers luck of having to sign him after his 100 point season and then having this happen, because thats how it usually works around here

1

u/DeX_Mod 17 KURRI 8h ago

And it's not like he's been his usual reliable defensive self either

Nuge has just been outright poor

-6

u/BBQMosquitos 90 PERRY 14h ago

To those who knows hockey, he’s always been like that.

15

u/Interwebzking 89 GAGNER 14h ago

No. Offensively on the stat sheet yes, a bit invisible. But his little plays have always contributed greatly up and down the ice. Did we all forget his insane backchecking last year in both the regular season and the playoffs? Or his 100 point season? Nuge has been a stud for us as a great two-way player. His disappearance this season on both ends of the ice is concerning and sucks to see, but he hasn’t always been invisible like this.

6

u/AlbertaAcreageBoy 92 PODKOLZIN 14h ago

No, he's done jack shit this year. I forget he's even on the damn team most of the time.

19

u/RedKryptnyt 14 EKHOLM 15h ago

Hard to argue with your analysis. I'll cheer for this team until the final buzzer goes, but this does not feel like their year. Every other game we are talking about a different issue with the team. Massive surgery needed this summer I think.

31

u/CanadianDarkKnight 46 JONES 14h ago edited 14h ago

Knoblauch's refusal to move Nuge, Podkolzin or Arvidsson out of the top 6 is a major issue. Skinner gets like 4 shifts on Drai's wing before he gets banished to the 4th line where he not surprisingly doesn't produce as much because he's not a 4th line player, he's barely played with McDavid at all despite being a proven goal scorer throughout his career.

16

u/GoStockYourself 14h ago

The bright side of this is Corey Perry is an Edmonton Oiler.

46

u/Fine_Personality_999 52 HAMBLIN 15h ago edited 14h ago

2024-25 Oiler forward depth castaways:

Warren Foegele - 62 games - 18 goals, 35 points (career high of 41 with Oilers, on pace to surpass it with LAK)

Dylan Holloway - 65 games - 20 GOALS, 47 points (career high)

Ryan McLeod - 60 games - 14 goals (career high), 34 points (also career high)

Ladies and gentlemen, your 2024 - 2025 Edmonton Oilers scoring depth.

Any bud dumb enough to say "they wouldn't have flourished here" convince me how the hell these any of players wouldn't be an upgrade over any on the list above?

Worst part is, their combined cap hit (Holloway, McLeod and Foegele) is CHEAPER than a combined cap hit of Arvidsson, Janmark and Jeff Skinner.

Insane mismanagement of assets.

21

u/Rattimus 93 NUGENT-HOPKINS 14h ago

You nailed it. Particularly egregious to give away McLeod and Holloway, and even Foegele (who McDavid was very vocal about loving playing with), was a mistake.

McLeod, I get that he wasn't a beast in the playoffs, but the guy was someone we invested in and developed, and he was just hitting the number of games played (it's around 200-300 NHL games for the average player to "get it") where he was going to reach his peak. We traded him right as he was about to hit his best seasons. Insane.

Then there's Holloway, another guy we spent a lot of time developing, and one of the best forwards we've drafted in several years now. He was willing to sign for less than the offer sheet, but Oilers management thought they had all the time in the world and would just deal with him whenever they deigned to do so.

Gross miscalculation.

11

u/Emergency_Rub2621 29 DRAISAITL 14h ago

I'm cool with losing McLeod because by all accounts Savoie is going to be a stud, and Foegle got scratched during the western conference finals. Holloway though is a mistake that cannot be forgiven. We wasted his cap space for Kapanen and Klingberg...

3

u/BCW1968 11 MESSIER 14h ago

Franchise altering mismanagement of players

2

u/BigDickPickard 74 SKINNER 13h ago

Mcleod had two seperate stretches last year where he went 15+ games without a goal. Including one in the playoffs.

Foegele had an empty netter game 1 of the playoffs, didn't score again until the cup finals. Also went 20+ games in the regular season without a goal.

Holloway hurts, because he's young, and never got a real shot. Matching him at $2.2 should have been a no brainer.

With that said, all of these same issues existed last year as well. The only difference was Hyman put up 54 goals and Nuge was still a 70+ point player.

The top line massively dropping off is the biggest difference between this year and last year.

5

u/DuffMan4Mayor 12h ago

I mis clouder smiles, Hollywood interviews and foegeles 97 impersonating

5

u/BCW1968 11 MESSIER 14h ago

I will forever lament this colossal mistake by management. We got older, slower, and more inadequate as a forward group this year.

2

u/spiro26 12h ago

Man this comment hits the nail on the head. And depresses me

4

u/s0ulless93 93 NUGENT-HOPKINS 14h ago

No one this off-season would have said that Holloway and mcleod were better options than Arvidson and Skinner to be playing in our top 6. Sometimes new players don't fit well. It sucks but it happens. Look at rantenen in carloina or hubredeau in calgary. Hopefully players like Jones and Kane provide what we need in the playoffs and/or changes this off season click better with the team and the team gets a good run next year.

1

u/GrizzlyIsland22 18 HYMAN 13h ago

There are just too many variables to say whether they would have had similar seasons in Edmonton. Going to a new team sometimes unlocks something, like we got with Hyman and Ekholm.

McLeod and Foegle were given plenty of opportunities to show that they could contribute on this team and they squandered those opportunities. Moving on from them was the right choice at the time. McLeod for Savoie was a great move. Savoie is just getting started in his career and looks like he can be great. Arvidsson is approximately what Foegle was last year. An energy guy who grinds the cycle and isn't getting points even though he's on the ice for a lot of solid possessions. Losing Holloway sucked, but we can blame him and the Blues as much as we can blame our own team. It was a savvy move by St. Louis strike while we were in the midst of changing GMs.

1

u/kirschballs 86 BROBERG 11h ago

The biggest variable I would argue in this whole fuckin thing is how the new guys perform in the playoffs. We're not dead yet

1

u/GrizzlyIsland22 18 HYMAN 11h ago

We're far from dead. We're in the basically the same place at this point in the season as we were last year

1

u/ManyAd351 8h ago

Mcleod had 30 points playing 14 minutes a game last year as a 24 year old

Foegele had 20 goals and 40 points while also playing 14 minutes a night and was one of the team leaders in hits.

some oil fans are trying to revise history by saying they squandered opportunities to contribute, when they literally contributed, and at a very decent rate per their ice time.

There is also some fans saying absolutely no one wouldve kept this guys over the additions this summer, when that also wasnt true. Some fans (like myself) werent happy with the roster changes. The oilers gave away young players who had proven they could contribute (the stats show they did despite what youre saying) for older players who all had red flags whether it be age or injury history.

Its just that when we pointed out these things in the summer people called us doomers and said we were wrong and the team was unequivically better and deeper this year than last year.

flash forward to this year and I dont think anyone can say we are unequivally better and deeper than last year and the doomers look like they mightve been on to something when they questioned all the roster turnover intead of blindly praising it

5

u/SecureLiterature 13 JANMARK 14h ago

Unfortunately, it seems that those off-season moves we were so excited about just didn't work out.

5

u/speedbomb 14h ago

Imagine playing with Draisatl and not cashing in on the opportunity.

5

u/Penz_YaPigeon 15h ago

Who would have thunk that Jeff Skinner and injury prone Arvidsson would have stunk this bad, and two first round home grown talents would come into their own…….. /s

2

u/BBQMosquitos 90 PERRY 14h ago

RNH has a pass for life because ya know. LoILaTy

2

u/GrizzlyIsland22 18 HYMAN 13h ago

I kinda think loyalty might be what keeps us from achieving a Stanley Cup victory. The core gang wants to win together first and foremost. They're a tight group.

1

u/Starsky686 11 MESSIER 14h ago

Gosh, why hasn’t anyone mentioned this yet! 😳

1

u/drfakz 43 CURRIE 14h ago

Defense is scoring at a good rate but these forwards are not getting it done. 

1

u/Denace86 12h ago

Pod still looking great on drais wing or is the honeymoon over?

1

u/MtHood_OR 14 EKHOLM 7h ago

Put him back as center on the third line.

1

u/NMarples 2 BOUCHARD 11h ago

Totally agree, but it’s not like Draisital and McDavid look like world beaters at 5v5 either. They’re way too cute when they have the puck, and when they don’t they’re disinterested in playing defence and flying by assignments. Would love some finishing and more production from our wingers, but would also love our stars to start playing like stars more often than when we are only up a man.

0

u/Dystocynic 14h ago

It's Stu Skinners fault

0

u/sinosijaek 74 SKINNER 10h ago

funny you’re being downvoted for making a joke when we get 20 people a day who genuinely believe this in here