Looking at the West after free agency

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Oil Stain

I don't think too many fans would have predicted 50ish points for Tkachuk before the season started. He exceeded expectations.

The point is, if you say that the Oilers are due for regression from their players that had great years, you also have to apply it to Calgary players who had great years.

That's fair isn't it?

I'd also argue that in the grand scheme of things, there wasn't a lot of players having off years in Edmonton, Eberle, but he still put up his points, Nuge you could argue, but he's been sliding downhill for a while.

Meanwhile the Flames had their big two Monahan, and Gaudreau have off years, I would argue that Brodie was off a bit last year especially at the start. Brouwer was way off.

So I would think if your looking at the laws of averaging out, Calgary might be in a better position.

Also I would be freaked out as an Oiler fan if I had a guy like Maroon who had 27 goals and his previous career high was at 11 and that was three years ago. Also his normal shooting percentage was probably averaging about 10% and he shot at 15% last year.

Or Letestu who scored a career high 16 at the age of 31 with a career high shooting percentage.

Among others.

I think the Oilers are like the Flames from a few years back, where all the Oiler fans were bleating "unsustainable". I believe that the Oilers are unsustainable,

I mean doesn't PDO define team luck? The Oilers were what about 7th, and its the primary indicator of a teams unsustainability?

Even the possession numbers for the Oilers were pretty underwhelming, and that might get worse with eberle and Sekera gone.

I mean I get it, when McDavid is on the ice that line goes high on possession, when he's off the ice the rest of the team isn't very good. But coaches and teams are smart, while they're fairly generic during the season in terms of their system, they're going to look at how hard life was on McDavid and try to replicate it.

I think the Oilers are going to fall down.

then their window will slam shut and Chia's hands will be jammed in it.

then at the end of 2018, the Oilers will realize that the difference between them and Chicago and Pittsburgh is that the Oilers organizational depth isn't good.

then we'll see rebuild number, maybe help me out here, but 8 or 9 or 50?

Then maybe Oiler fans will find some humbleness.

[djsFlames]

Originally Posted by Oil Stain

I don't think too many fans would have predicted 50ish points for Tkachuk before the season started. He exceeded expectations.

The point is, if you say that the Oilers are due for regression from their players that had great years, you also have to apply it to Calgary players who had great years.

That's fair isn't it?

Just because Calgary youngsters don't get hyped up the way Edmonton ones do these days doesn't mean they wildly exceed expectations when they have a good season. Tkachuk was coming off 20 goals and 20 assists in 18 playoff games where he scored the OT memorial cup winner, and was acknowledged by many as having a playing style and attributes that would more easily translate to the NHL than others in his class. The fact that he indeed translated to the next level isn't some shocker to people that followed him closely enough.

I personally think both Tkachuk and Draisaitl are legit. But I don't think Drai and McDavid will be able to carry the rest of the dead corpse that is Edmonton's depth as well as they managed to do last season in this coming one. A lot of things went right for them last year. Their one saving grace in regards to a likely step back is that Talbot also seems legit, so I think it'll be just a small regression if any.

[GullFoss]

1) Anaheim
2) Calgary
3) San Jose
4) Edmonton
5) LA
6) Arizona
7) Vancouver
8) Vegas


1) STL
2) NAS
3) CHI
4) DAL
5) MIN
6) WPG
7) Colorado

Conference
1) ANA
2) STL
3) CGY
4) SJS
5) NAS
6) CHI
7) DAL
8) MIN
9) EDM