This is a bubble team that likely makes it just because they have McDavid + Draisaitl

Couldn't agree more. I liked their offseason for the most part, I think Turris and Barrie were great value pick ups, but they needed to address their bad goaltending, and they simply didn't.

They didn't have "bad" goaltending last season except for the month of December though. Everyone seems to forget how good the Oilers were last year because of the disastrous play-in series, which was only partly due to goaltending. Koskinen was a top-10 starter by sv% and Smith battled to a terrible 19-12-6 record. Goaltending wasn't what held them back.

BTW you have several glaring flaws in your lineup - I don't think it plays out this way. The pairings probably will be Jones-Larsson and Russell-Barrie unless Broberg makes the team (he's FAR more likely to make the team than Bouchard), then the third pairing would likely be Broberg-Barrie with Russell as the spare.

Draisaitl is the center on his line. Alex Chiasson won't be sitting, he was the Oilers best bottom-6 forward last year.

That's fair, but I still don't think their goaltending is enough to get them deep into the playoffs, and with the potential of a Canadian division this season, they have in my opinion, the worst goalie tandem out of all 7 Canadian teams.

You rarely see tandems in the playoffs though, goaltending generally rests on the better of the two goalies unless injury occurs. If we look at last year's regular season 5v5 sv% we can get a picture of what each team has:

Hellybyuck: .929
Markstrom: .925
Koskinen: .924
Price: .919
Anderson: .915
Demko: .908
Holtby: .905
Murray: .904

I really don't think Edmonton is in trouble with their goaltending. I would have liked to see an upgrade on Smith (.900) and perhaps we still will: AZ has 3 goalies currently and are looking to move one, probably Raanta (.924). Smith can be sent to the minors and his cap charge is reduced to $425k if / when that happens.

Holland didn't sign Smith for 1.5 million just to send him down though, and I get what you're saying, but I don't know if I have faith in Koskinen to take them past the 2nd round (unless he's on fire like Khudobin was), I think Koskinen is a good goaltender don't get me wrong, but typically Cup winning teams have an elite, top 10 goalie, and I don't think Koskinen is that at this point.

Nope, but if he starts out playing terribly, I don't think Holland will hesitate too long before bringing in a replacement. He'll probably try Forsberg first (if he's doing well in AHL), but I think we could see another NHL goalie acquired if Smith isn't doing well. Of course, if Arizona puts Hill on waivers before the season, he'd be crazy not to pick him up for nothing.


I'm not sure I'd say he's top-10 and he certainly doesn't have NHL playoff cred, but he has won the Gagarin Cup twice in the 2nd best league in the world, so there is some experience there. We'll see.