For the second year in a row, the Edmonton Oilers are facing off against the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference Final. Both teams will be looking to advance to the Stanley Cup Final for the second time in this decade.
Even with just a 12-month gap between playoff meetings between these two teams, a lot can change with how a team looks. Sure enough, as we enter the eighth playoff matchup between Edmonton and Dallas, the rosters have a few differences to them, some minor and others more noticeable. Yet, a lot of things about the Oilers and Stars remain the same.
What’s the same, and what’s different, from 2024? Let’s take a look.
The key players are (mostly) still the same
Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Tyler Seguin, and Jamie Benn. Those marquee names for their respective teams are still around, and still chasing the Stanley Cup. Without a doubt, this series will be impacted to some degree by their performances, and how big of an impact they have.
However, Dallas has a key name added and a key name subtracted from their roster in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Last year, the Stars defence featured Chris Tanev running alongside Miro Heiskanen on the top pair. Tanev has moved on to Toronto since, while Dallas acquired one of the best available forwards via trade in Mikko Rantanen inseason. All Rantanen has done this postseason is put up 19 points in 13 games played, including scoring a third-period hat trick in Game 7 against the Colorado Avalanche during that first-round series (chart via MoneyPuck.com).
The Oilers haven’t made any seismic changes to their roster like Dallas has, although they may be down a key defenceman themselves. Mattias Ekholm has missed the first 11 games of the Oilers’ playoff run due to injury, though he has been skating recently and is looking like a strong possibility to return at a later point in the Conference Final.
What else remains similar from last year
The biggest similarity beyond the big names is in-between the pipes. The Western Conference Final is set to be a starting-goaltender rematch of Stuart Skinner versus. Jake Oettinger. Last year, both goalies had pretty solid moments, along with not-so-solid moments throughout that series. Ultimately, Skinner stood the tallest with his play from Games 4 to 6, including a 34-save Game 6 masterpiece to send the Oilers to the Stanley Cup Final.
Tanev trade and Ekholm injury notwithstanding, both teams have similar top-fours in their defence corps. The Stars are still led on the back-end by Miro Heiskanen, with strong supporting members in Thomas Harley, Esa Lindell, and Nils Lundkvist. With the Oilers, you have the constants of Evan Bouchard, Darnell Nurse, Brett Kulak, and the freshly-returned Troy Stecher.
Especially of note are some of the other forwards on both sides not yet mentioned. With the Oilers, the talents of Evander Kane, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman, Connor Brown and Mattias Janmark are still going strong, as is the centre depth with Adam Henrique, and the peskiness of the suddenly-unstoppable Corey Perry. As for Dallas, elite talents such as Matt Duchene, Jason Robertson, Wyatt Johnston, Roope Hintz, and Mason Marchment are all looking to propel their team to being the best in the West.
The subtle yet significant differences to the rosters
When you’re a contender that falls just short of your Cup dreams, you usually load up with strong depth to help power your roster up an extra little bit. Such is true for both the Oilers and the Stars.
The Oilers did most of their loading-up in the offseason, coinciding with losing Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg to offer-sheets. Vasily Podkolzin, Viktor Arvidsson, Jeff Skinner, and Ty Emberson were brought in, with the first three helping solidify the forward corps, and Emberson proving capable as a bottom-pair defenceman. Inseason, Edmonton tacked on additions in multiple forms, trading for Trent Frederic and Jake Walman, signing John Klingberg following his recovery from hip surgery, and claiming Kasperi Kapanen off waivers from the St. Louis Blues in a move that now has a tangible measure of revenge to it in retrospect.
The Stars are no slouches when it comes to loading up, as their General Manager Jim Nill has proven multiple times. In the offseason, their focus was to add depth on defence, and that came in the form of Ilya Lyubushkin and Matt Dumba. Inseason, asides from the Rantanen trade, Dallas also acquired Mikael Granlund to round out their forward group. Oh, and they also picked up this Cody Ceci guy who might be familiar to Oilers fans. Might be noteworthy if the series goes seven games.
The overall context
For the Stars, this is a season of déjà vu. They won a hard-fought seven-game series in the opening round, then took their second-round matchup in six games on an overtime series-winning goal. They started the playoffs with a Game 1 loss, but Head Coach Peter DeBoer guided them into the Conference Final in the end.
It is sort of similar and sort of not for Edmonton. Head Coach Kris Knoblauch has helped lead the team past the Los Angeles Kings the first round, and the Pacific Division Champions the next round. One of those series only needed five games, with the Oilers lone loss coming in next-goal-wins time. The Oilers have only played 11 games, however, as opposed to 12 last year, and will enter this series as the more rested team.
This is sure to be an exciting rematch of a recent Conference Final, maybe the more exciting depending on how you view the one out East.
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