Oilers Sunday Census: Which Oilers player is having the most disappointing start to the season?

The Edmonton Oilers are now 17–14–1 on the season, good for 35 points and the first wildcard spot in the Western Conference. The team has managed to stay floating in a wildcard position for a while now, relying heavily on Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl to win games. Although an argument could be made that this is mostly due to the many injuries the club has suffered this season, it also seems like some players have failed to achieve the same success they had last season.

This spurs the question: which Oilers player is having the most disappointing start to the season?

We asked, you answered. Let’s take a look!

Want to take part in Sunday Census polls? We send them out every week on our Twitter at @oilrigEDM. Follow along or send in ideas for the next poll!

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Darnell Nurse

					Scoring					Goals				Assists			Shots			Ice Time
Season	Age	Tm	Lg	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM	EV	PP	SH	GW	EV	PP	SH	S	S%	TSA	TOI	ATOI	FOW	FOL	FO%	BLK	HIT	TK	GV	Awards
2014–15	19	EDM	NHL	2	0	0	0	-2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	4	34	17:00	0	0		0	5	0	0
2015–16	20	EDM	NHL	69	3	7	10	-13	60	3	0	0	0	5	1	1	120	2.5	241	1396	20:14	0	0		103	160	13	43
2016–17	21	EDM	NHL	44	5	6	11	0	33	5	0	0	0	6	0	0	85	5.9	145	749	17:01	0	0		53	107	11	36
2017–18	22	EDM	NHL	82	6	20	26	15	67	6	0	0	2	20	0	0	194	3.1	366	1824	22:15	0	0		153	161	28	72
2018–19	23	EDM	NHL	82	10	31	41	-5	87	9	1	0	1	22	8	1	196	5.1	395	1953	23:49	0	0		146	162	30	73
2019–20	24	EDM	NHL	71	5	28	33	-2	48	5	0	0	1	23	5	0	170	2.9	329	1665	23:27	0	0		141	172	26	54
2020–21	25	EDM	NHL	56	16	20	36	27	57	15	1	0	2	14	6	0	154	10.4	288	1435	25:38:00	0	0		100	117	24	61	AS-8,Norris-7
2021–22	26	EDM	NHL	71	9	26	35	18	54	7	0	2	0	19	6	1	203	4.4	410	1778	25:03:00	0	0		132	196	33	67
2022–23	27	EDM	NHL	31	4	12	16	11	28	3	0	1	1	11	1	0	68	5.9	155	745	24:02:00	0	0		59	51	16	40
Career		9 yrs	NHL	508	58	150	208	49	434	53	2	3	7	120	27	3	1192	4.9	2333	11580	22:48	0	0		887	1131	181	446

With about a quarter of votes is Darnell Nurse, who is on the first year of his new massive eight-year $9.5M contract. Nurse currently has four goals and 16 points on the season with a plus-minus of 11 – these are pretty good numbers when compared to last season.

Nurse has struggled with giving the puck away this season with 40 giveaways in 31 games while he only had 67 all last year. Most fans have etched in their minds the giveaway and bad defensive coverage in Thursday night’s game against the St. Louis Blues, which cost the club a guaranteed two points with 20 seconds left while on the power play. Or the bad giveaway behind his own net against the Minnesota Wild on Friday last week. These giveaways are a concerning reoccurring trend in his game this season, and when looking at his trajectory for giveaways, he is on pace to set a new career-high of 106 in 82 games.

That being said, there are still 51 games left for him to clean up his play in the defensive zone before the playoffs, and chances are he does well before then, but as the leader of the defensive core, he needs to bare down and lead by example.

Evan Bouchard

					Scoring					Goals				Assists			Shots			Ice Time
Season	Age	Tm	Lg	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM	EV	PP	SH	GW	EV	PP	SH	S	S%	TSA	TOI	ATOI	FOW	FOL	FO%	BLK	HIT	TK	GV
2018–19	19	EDM	NHL	7	1	0	1	-5	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	10	10	25	86	12:21	0	0		8	6	3	2
2020–21	21	EDM	NHL	14	2	3	5	-2	2	1	1	0	0	3	0	0	38	5.3	69	208	14:50	0	0		11	11	4	10
2021–22	22	EDM	NHL	81	12	31	43	10	28	10	2	0	1	25	5	1	205	5.9	400	1604	19:48	0	0		112	80	37	79
2022–23	23	EDM	NHL	31	3	9	12	-13	10	3	0	0	0	5	3	1	69	4.3	152	569	18:21	0	0		34	47	22	29
Career		4 yrs	NHL	133	18	43	61	-10	42	14	4	0	1	33	8	2	322	5.6	646	2467	18:33	0	0		165	144	66	120

Less than a percentage of votes went to Evan Bouchard, who is a restricted free agent at the end of this year. Bouchard has had a slower start to the season than expected scoring only three goals and 12 points in 31 games with a plus-minus of -13.

Since Duncan Keith‘s retirement over the offseason, Bouchard has been expected to take charge of a role in the top four, and that has not come without some growing pains. He has now been dropped back down to the third pairing with Philip Broberg where the two have been holding their own.

Bouchard’s biggest asset has to be his incredible shot and puck-moving ability. When looking at his shooting percentage this season, we can see that it is considerably lower, going from 5.9% during the 2021–22 season to 4.3% so far this year. The considerable change could be attributed to a confidence issue and magnified by the fact that Tyson Barrie has been Jay Woodcroft’s go-to man on the first unit power play this season.

Although Bouchard had a slower start to the season, he does seem to be gaining more confidence as the year has gone along, and most fans are not too concerned as he is only starting his second full season in the NHL.

Jesse Puljujarvi

					Scoring					Goals				Assists			Shots			Ice Time
Season	Age	Tm	Lg	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-	PIM	EV	PP	SH	GW	EV	PP	SH	S	S%	TSA	TOI	ATOI	FOW	FOL	FO%	BLK	HIT	TK	GV	Awards
2016–17	18	EDM	NHL	28	1	7	8	5	10	0	1	0	0	7	0	0	41	2.4	69	315	11:15	0	1	0	10	11	12	10
2017–18	19	EDM	NHL	65	12	8	20	-1	14	10	2	0	2	8	0	0	136	8.8	232	869	13:22	0	3	0	23	67	27	40
2018–19	20	EDM	NHL	46	4	5	9	-14	16	4	0	0	0	4	1	0	53	7.5	112	550	11:57	2	2	50	26	46	20	29
2020–21	22	EDM	NHL	55	15	10	25	6	16	13	2	0	0	8	2	0	115	13	179	832	15:08	0	3	0	20	101	23	30
2021–22	23	EDM	NHL	65	14	22	36	22	20	10	4	0	1	19	3	0	160	8.8	264	1055	16:14	0	0		15	81	27	18	Selke-27
2022–23	24	EDM	NHL	31	1	5	6	-12	9	1	0	0	0	5	0	0	44	2.3	83	409	13:12	0	1	0	10	67	9	6
Career		6 yrs	NHL	290	47	57	104	6	85	38	9	0	3	51	6	0	549	8.6	939	4030	13:54	2	10	16.7	104	373	118	133

Coming in at 11% of poll voting is Jesse Puljujarvi, whose offensive numbers have been anemic since the start of the season, getting one goal and six points in 31 games, and plus-minus of -12.

Puljujarvi has played decent defensive hockey this season, but for a player who has played an extensive amount of time in the top six with McDavid and Draisaitl you would expect higher offensive numbers. Puljujarvi’s shooting percentage is at a career-low of 2.3%, a drop of 6.5% from last season.

Puljujarvi signed a one-year $3M deal with the Oilers in the offseason, and for a player making that kind of money, obviously, the team and fans have high expectations, and as of this moment, unfortunately, have not been met.

Jack Campbell

				Goalie Stats																			Scoring
Season	Age	Tm	Lg	GP	GS	W	L	T/O	GA	SA	SV	SV%	GAA	SO	MIN	QS	QS%	RBS	GA%-	GSAA	adjGAA	GPS	G	A	PTS	PIM	Awards
2013–14	22	DAL	NHL	1	1	0	1	0	6	47	41	0.872	6	0	60	0	0	0			7	0	0	0	0	0
2016–17	25	LAK	NHL	1	0	0	0	0	0	5	5	1	0	0	20	0		0			0	0.1	0	0	0	0
2017–18	26	LAK	NHL	5	4	2	0	2	11	145	134	0.924	2.48	0	267	2	0.5	0			2.7	1	0	0	0	0
2018–19	27	LAK	NHL	31	25	10	14	1	61	845	784	0.928	2.3	2	1593	16	0.64	3	80	15.2	2.45	6.3	0	1	1	0
2019–20	28	TOT	NHL	26	26	11	12	3	73	761	688	0.904	2.8	0	1567	11	0.423	4	106	-4.2	2.99	3.8	0	0	0	0
2019–20	28	LAK	NHL	20	20	8	10	2	57	572	515	0.9	2.85	0	1202	7	0.35	4	110	-5.3	3.05	2.7	0	0	0	0
2019–20	28	TOR	NHL	6	6	3	2	1	16	189	173	0.915	2.63	0	365	4	0.667	0			2.79	1.2	0	0	0	0
2020–21	29	TOR	NHL	22	22	17	3	2	46	585	539	0.921	2.15	2	1284	13	0.591	2	85	7.9	2.34	4.3	0	0	0	0	Byng-38
2021–22	30	TOR	NHL	49	47	31	9	6	123	1430	1307	0.914	2.64	5	2795	28	0.596	10	92	10	2.7	8.9	0	1	1	0	Byng-22
2022–23	31	EDM	NHL	14	14	8	6	0	53	423	370	0.875	4.04	0	788	5	0.357	5	132	-13	4.11	1.1	0	0	0	2

Two-thirds of votes went to Jack Campbell, who signed a five-year $5M AAV contract in the offseason with the Oilers, and has had a disastrous start to the season with a .875 SV% (74th among NHL goalies) and GAA of 4.04 (75th among NHL goalies) in 14 games this season. These are the worst numbers he has had since his first NHL season in 2016–17 season with the Dallas Stars.

Campbell did have a good game in his last appearance against the Nashville Predators, where he faced 32 shots and saved 29 in a 6–3 win. Campbell, like Puljujarvi, plays his best hockey when he’s feeling confident. Hopefully Campbell will be able to build off this performance and start to turn this season around.

That’s a wrap

Thank you to everyone who took part in the poll, stay tuned for next week’s Sunday Census!

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Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire