It’s Christmas, which means everyone is eagerly running down to unwrap Amazon’s Santa’s overnight delivery of their presents. However, as we all know, not everyone gets presents from Santa. Only those who make his nice list will get their wishlist fulfilled, while those on the naughty list get a lump of coal (or a visit from Krampus).
One has to expect that every Edmonton Oiler has one thing on their list to Santa this year: a Stanley Cup victory. But do the Oilers have enough players on the nice list to tilt the scale? Luckily, as someone who lives in the NHL’s most northernmost city (“True North” my butt, Winnipeg), I was able to make the trek to the North Pole and sneak a peek at Santa’s final determinations.
The Nice List
Once again, the Oilers’ season started with basically nobody having a shot at being on the nice list, but as is tradition, the team has started to turn it around.
Leon Draisaitl
When you score your 1000th career point in a season, you automatically make the nice list (although, scoring it against your former goalie in his first game with his new team and then having a bench-clearing celebration literally feet away from him could arguably put you in naughty list territory).
As expected, Draisaitl is once again one of the top point scorers in the league. Although he is currently seventh in goals, which, if it keeps up, would be only the second time he hasn’t been top five in goals since 2018–19.
However, Draisaitl deserves to be on the nice list for helping elevate the game of youngsters Matt Savoie and Vasily Podkolzin, allowing the Oilers to have a dangerous second line to complement a lethal first line. Podkolzin has already beaten his goal total from last year in 47 fewer games and is a team-best +12, while Savoie put up five points in the eight games the line has been together.
Vasily Podkolzin
As mentioned above, Podkolzin has beaten his goal total from last year, and he also leads the team in hits with 118, which is also 10th in the entire league. He is a fan favourite and starting to show that potential that led to him being a 10th overall pick in 2019.
He is certainly making the loss of Dylan Holloway sting less, especially given that he is scoring at the same pace as him. He also scored a Draisaitl like sharp angle shot, which gives big “just like his papa” vibes.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
When Nugent-Hopkins got hurt on November 8, the Oilers proceeded to go 4–4–1 without him. With Nugent-Hopkins in the lineup, the team is 15–9–5, so he certainly is a needed piece.
But it is on special teams that you really see the worth of Nuge. In that stretch without him, the Oilers ‘ power play was a dismal 12.5%, good for 29th in the league over that stretch. That is way below the Oilers 34.3% over the total season, the best in the league this year. Overall, the Oilers are at a 38.2% when Nuge is in the lineup, showing just how much he helps stir the drink on the man advantage.
The penalty kill also suffered without him, at a 28th best 72.7%. Granted, the Oilers’ penalty kill is only at 78.4% over the whole season, good for just 20th in the league. But with Nugent-Hopkins in the lineup, they are at 79.8%, a pretty considerable difference.
Connor McDavid
It’s hard to imagine McDavid ever being on the naughty list, and he certainly put any doubt about his status to rest in December. McDavid has 12 goals and 31 points in 12 games. That’s seven more points than Draisaitl, who is second in the league over the same time frame, and 13 more points than Macklin Celebrini in third.
McDavid is now the league leader in points with 67, six more than Nathan Mackinnon, who was the league leader just six days ago. Those 67 points before Christmas is the most in 25 years, with the next highest being McDavid again in 2019–20 when he had 62 points.
If there were a list above the nice list, that would be the one McJesus belongs on.
Connor Ingram
Oilers fans were pretty happy when the team acquired Ingram before the season, hoping he would regain his form and be able to be a serviceable partner (or replacement?) for Stuart Skinner.
Ingram started in the AHL, but his stats were not great. He went 4–5–2 with just a 0.856 save percentage, and his potential return to the NHL wasn’t looking too promising.
With the injury to newly acquired goalie Tristan Jarry, the Oilers called Ingram up. He has now played in two straight games, winning both and posting a 0.920 save percentage. He has looked good doing it too, and suddenly that feel-good comeback story has potential again.
Jack Roslovic
The Oilers signed Jack Roslovic literally during the first game of the season, after reportedly pursuing him earlier in the offseason.
Roslovic has fit like a glove for the Oilers, scoring 10 goals and 18 points in 25 games, good for sixth in team scoring.
Roslovic suffered an unfortunate injury at the end of November that kept him out of the lineup for almost a month, but he is back now and again looking good, despite not having recorded a point in his first two games back.
Plus, putting him on the naughty list seems like a low blow in light of…circumstances.
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Naughty list
Trent Frederic
After signing an eight-year extension worth $3.85M a year, it’s safe to say there were some higher expectations for Trent Frederic. There was wariness based on his play in the playoffs last year, but his high ankle sprain injury was pointed to as the reason, and the thought process is that with that being healed, he would get back to form.
That hasn’t been the case this year. Frederic has just three points in 37 games and his play got him a healthy scratch against Vegas this past Sunday. And while he is second on the team in hits with 94, it is tough to say that any of those are all that memorable.
The return to Boston saw Frederic being given a tribute video, which frankly seemed to be a way to rub salt in Oilers’ fans’ wounds, as it basically showed the player the Oilers thought they would be getting:
If there is one thing the fan base in Oil Country can get behind, it is effort and physicality. A lot of sins and shortcomings can be forgiven when a player demonstrates those attributes. So, for Frederic, a player who was brought in for those express purposes, doesn’t demonstrate them, it is safe to say that he deserves to be on the naughty list.
Andrew Mangiapane
Andrew Mangiapane was looked at as a good, cheap veteran signing of a top-six forward. Essentially, the same things espoused about both Viktor Arvidsson and Jeff Skinner were said about him.
It turns out that it has in fact been a bit of a redux of last summer, with Mangiapane starting off pretty decently (three points in the first three games) and then subsequently dropping off, with a total of 11 points in 37 games and becoming a mainstay in the bottom-six.
He is showing some emotion and grit, which was part of the reason he was brought in, so at least there are those contributions. But it isn’t quite enough to avoid being on the naughty list.
Calvin Pickard
By all accounts, Pickard is a great guy, but, when you have the fifth-worst save percentage among all goalies who have played even just one game this year, it is difficult to avoid being on the naughty list, even if your team goes to bat to not have the team move you.
This is Pickard’s first season with the Oilers where he doesn’t have a save percentage of at least 0.900, and also the first year he has a losing record, only going 3–5.
With the acquisition of Tristan Jarry, one would hope that the pressure on Pickard would lessen in that he would (hopefully) not be expected to have to potentially be in a tandem situation like he was with Skinner. But now, with Connor Ingram having come up (and getting himself on the nice list), it is looking like Pickard may potentially be on the outside looking in once Jarry returns from injury.
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