The 2023–24 season for the Edmonton Oilers was almost storybook: a horrifyingly bad start, followed by one of the longest winning streaks in NHL history, leading into a playoff season where everything clicked at the right time. The 2024–25 season, on the other hand, has been a struggle from day one.
At no point this season have we seen or felt the dominance of the 2023–24 Oilers. Win streaks were not often kept up, the occasional game of pure Edmonton domination was often followed up by an absolute stinker. Every single player with the exception of Leon Draisaitl has regressed in some way. And none of the acquisitons since last offseason have really worked in an impactful way. The best of the bunch is probably Vasily Podkolzin, solely for his positive impact in his strong underlying numbers.
On that note, we are now down to the final six games of the regular season. It looks like the Oilers will finish third in the Pacific Division, their worst finish since 2018–19, and currently have the worst points percentage they’ve had in a season since 2019–20. And most of the core of the roster is already injured despite the team being the least physical in the entire NHL.
Things do not quite feel right this season for another miraculous run deep into the playoffs. So, for this week’s Sunday Census, we took to Twitter to ask Oil Country how they were feeling about this year’s team compared to last.
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!
With how the #Oilers have been playing, how do you feel about this season’s team compared to last year’s heading into the playoffs?
— The Oil Rig (@oilrigEDM) April 4, 2025
Hit the panic button
If you’re feeling this way, you’re not alone. Most of Oil Country is in the same boat. The runaway winner of this week’s poll is that fans are more worried about this team, earning 60.1% of the vote. And let’s just say there are a lot of reasons to be feeling this way.
For starters, Draisaitl, Connor McDavid, Mattias Ekholm, and Stuart Skinner are all hurt. Evander Kane has missed all season to this day. Trade deadline acquisition Trent Frederic just made his Oilers debut against the Los Angeles Kings, but was been injured for a month. And Zach Hyman, earlier throughout March, had missed practice and the occasional game. This list encompasses almost the entire core group of the team. And the playoffs havent even started yet.
And even when these players are all healthy, almost all of them have regressed from last season, with only the aforementioned Draisaitl having improved from that group compared to 2023–24.
This all combines to a final product that rarely comes close to the sheer dominance of the 2023–24 Oilers that won 16 straight games and went 24–3–0 through the middle of the season. We’ve seen glimpses of it, like most of the game against the Dallas Stars or the game against the Utah Hockey Club more recently. But rarely sustained in a meaningful way.
One big contributor to this is inconsistency and below-average performance from the goaltending. It has held them back in a major way. It is suggested that Skinner has been average or better just over 50% of the time. And when the team gets average goaltending, they are a top-five team in the league. But they do not get that often enough to be a major contendor this season.
Stuart Skinner has been avg or better in 58% of his starts this year. I have two polar opposite takeaways.
— Mathew Panchyshyn (@mathewjdp) April 4, 2025
1. League avg is 50%. For avg starters, it's closer to 60–65%. As a starter, he simply needs to be better.
2. Conversely. The key word is "majority." Skinner wins the…
There are plenty of reasons to be worried, and it might be wise to keep our expectations in check for this postseason.
Hold on things might be okay
Some of the less pessimistic of us Oilers fans might take a look at the team, at the roster, and think “yeah they should be okay.” Finishing second in this week’s poll with 23.4% of the vote was feeling about the same as last season.
Taking a look at the body of work of this team, despite all the struggles and all of the slumps and all of the injuries, the record has been basically the same as last season. The Oilers are on pace to finish around five points shy of last season, which is not a drastic difference. Over the course of 82 games, the team has been reliably consistent in winning. They may not have been as dominant or had any major winning streaks, but they are consistently finding ways to win games despite everything going on.
And that is a good sign for the playoffs, when it is all about the team effort and the team finding ways to win through challenges.
With the experience gained in battling through adversity through the 2024 playoffs, and the team battle developed through some injury and slump difficulties this season, there might still be a reasonable path for the Oilers to make a playoff run.
The Oilers will be just fine
There is nothing wrong with some good optimism. And there do remain some positives to keep track of this upcoming postseason. Although it was the lowest performing option in this week’s poll, finishing third with 16% of the vote.
For starters, we can sit here and be impressed with the battle and resilience of this team knowing that, despite all of the troubles and turmoil the roster experienced, they still finished nearly the same as last season when the vibes were significantly higher.
This leads into the main question of what the true ceiling of this Oilers team is. With nearly everyone slumping and struggling compared to last season, injuries galore lately, we haven’t really gotten to see how good this team can be.
And if there’s any time for it all to come together in a magnificent showing of hockey brilliance, it’s going to be the playoffs. This is the time of the season when experienced players will turn it up a notch. Grizzled veterans and returning Oilers bitter from last season’s narrow defeat will find another gear to lock in and go all out.
The roster, on paper, is about as deep as it ever has been in the last few decades. Even at a generous 75% health through portions of the season. This means there are some small signs of life that it makes sense to attach to for optimism headed into the playoffs.
How are you feeling about the team headed into the playoffs? Drop a comment down below!
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
