NHL Power Rankings: St. Louis Blues start 2019-20 season on top

27. Edmonton Oilers

It’s almost impressive how bad the Edmonton Oilers are despite having Connor McDavid, who is the best player on the planet, and Leon Draisaitl. Just think, the Oilers got one of the most productive seasons since the 2012-13 lockout from the former and 50 goals from the latter. Plus the Oilers got a beautiful season from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. And they were still comfortably out of the postseason.

The Oilers forward depth after McDavid, Nugent-Hopkins, and Draisaitl is flat-out embarrassing. Even if they get a bounce-back season from James Neal, who Edmonton got for Milan Lucic, they simply don’t have enough skilled forwards. Losing Jesse Puljujarvi further hurts their forward group.

Most of the improvements the Oilers make this season are going to have to come internally. Considering how terrific McDavid, Draisaitl, and Nugent-Hopkins were last season, it’s probably not coming from them, simply because it would be very hard for them to be much better.

Enter head coach Dave Tippett. He’s easily the best coach the Oilers have employed in the salary cap era. Tippett is a defensive coach who knows how to get the most out of his players. He kept the Arizona Coyotes competitive for years despite playing shorthanded as far as talent. Tippett and the Oilers have a long season ahead of them, but with McDavid and Draisaitl, anything is possible – just probably not making the postseason.