New in Town: Edmonton Oilers

A year after Edmonton found itself heading into the season as a legitimate Stanley Cup contender in the eyes of most, we’re back to not really knowing what, if anything, the Oilers are.

It’s a confusing bunch, to say the least.

The Oilers found their way back to the postseason in 2016-17 after a decade-long playoff absence and saw the best player on Planet Earth really begin to reach his potential as Connor McDavid hit the 100-point plateau and cleaned up at the annual awards banquet in just his second NHL campaign. Fast forward a calendar year and their captain is even better than he was, but the team wasn’t even close. So what gives?

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Judging by the moves — or lack thereof — the team made this offseason, management must have faith that the team it had two seasons ago is closer to the real Oilers than the product it put on the ice in a miserable 2017-18 campaign.

Though none were earth-shattering acquisitions or really set Edmonton up for a major improvement immediately, the team did add a couple highly-touted rookies to the fold while adding depth to its bottom-six and (hopefully) took a step to resolve the backup goaltending conundrum.

Here’s a look at Edmonton’s new guys:

The returnee: Tobias Rieder

Originally drafted by the Oilers in 2011, Rieder cut his teeth in the NHL with the Arizona Coyotes, mostly, over the past four seasons before joining the Kings late last year. Now at the age of 25 and with just 55 goals and 117 points in 312 career games, we know that Rieder certainly isn’t a game-breaker offensively.

He will, however, play a big part in helping to turn around the Oilers dismal penalty kill and can play very responsible and efficient minutes on the team’s third line. He may even have a chance to play his way onto the second line if Milan Lucic continues to be, well, Milan Lucic.

The familiar face: Kyle Brodziak

Another original Oiler, this time drafted way back in 2003, Brodziak spent the first few seasons of his NHL career in Edmonton before being shipped to Minnesota where he played six campaigns followed by a three-year run with the Blues.

The prototypical fourth-line centre won’t make a huge impact production-wise but provides depth down the middle and more PK options for a team that finished 25th in penalty-kill rate last season.

The other goaltending question mark: Mikko Koskinen

It’s still up in the air whether or not Cam Talbot can be a bonafide, 65-game-per-season starter or if that workload has worn him down the past couple of seasons. Enter Mikko Koskinen, who was originally drafted by the Islanders in 2009 but hasn’t played an NHL contest since 2010-11.

He put up sparkling numbers in the KHL last year and for most of his time in Europe, but struggled mightily in the preseason during his transition phase back to North America. Is he a platoon option in the Oilers crease, or barely a replacement-level backup? Time will tell.

The speedster: Kailer Yamamoto:

The team’s No. 22 overall selection last year almost cracked the roster his first go at it, playing nine games with the Oilers before being returned to Spokane of the WHL to play out the rest of 2017-18.

Expectations were mixed heading into this season’s training camp, but the crafty winger earned a spot on the third line with an exceptional camp. He’ll likely start alongside Rieder and Ryan Strome while competing for minutes on the Oilers second PP unit.

The budding blueliner: Evan Bouchard

Though it’s not yet for certain whether Bouchard will stick past the nine-game mark in his first go-around since being drafted tenth overall last June, it’s pretty obvious that Bouchard is truly too good to be sent back to junior, which is the team’s only other option at this point. Bouchard is a potential future top-pair defenceman whose offensive ceiling is as high as can be.

The right-handed blue-liner played his way into the top six during camp and it will be intriguing to see just how Todd McLellan and the coaching staff deploy their young asset while trying to tread the line of utilizing yet sheltering the 18-year-old rearguard.

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