Best? No. Probably just the best you could fill with Oilers. D is weak on the right... take the money you're using on Drai + Bouchard + on Makar + Carrier up front,... also Hagel makes 1.5 this year, cheap option opposed to Hyman

Plus you have 4 ELCs...

Edit: Some other bargain players: Alex Tuch, Ryan Hartman, Montour, Valamaaki...

Oilers had the best powerplay the nhl has ever seen am I wrong and Bouchard elevated that in the playoffs that’s why so many oilers are on this team

Why would I take draisaitl off this team lol he has the best contract in the league

To fit Makar in so you could have a legit 1D... instead of Bouchard as well, who I've seen Oilers fans describe as having "concrete skates"... also no reason to bury a 50 pt playmaker wing who threw 24 hits last season on the 4th line... you're trying to build the best team under the cap, not the Edmonton Oilers (who obviously have not been the best team in the league) with friends. And again, people when they do this challenge limit themselves on the number of ELCs they use, and you've got 4.

Huh what are u talking about lol do you have no clue who Slavin or Toews is they are easily 1D on most teams in the nhl today Carolina being one of the best defensive teams in the league and he’s the 1D also once again oilers had the best powerplay the NHL has ever seen that’s why draisaitl Bouchard McDavid Hyman are on this team also the oilers have the best 2 players in the world if u didn’t know

Are u trying to say there is no legit 1D on this team cause if that’s the case you have very poor hockey knowledge

Replacing draisaitl with Makar would not make this team better try doing a little bit of research before commenting something so outrageously dumb again

Makar gives you the best dman in the world. It does not get more legit than that lmao. Toews is great in his role supporting him. And Slavin is terrific, I've definitely watched more of him than you have, lol. Carolina plays in a defensive system, are you expecting this team featuring a stacked forward core to play the same way the Hurricanes do? No? Ok, so you need better defense or Bouchard looks like a pylon every shift at ES. And, no, Draisaitl isn't the 2nd best player in the world, he's the best at playing with McDavid. Great player boosted by the best in the world. But not #2. If your Oilers are so great, why do they fail year after year?

Edmonton plays in a defensive system since woodcroft has been head coach and I don’t think u have watched more than me lol tans u realize draisaitl is the 2nd best player in the world

Draisaitl had 128pts last year one of the only players to put up 55G and 55A since 1995 only Mario Lemieux and McDavid have done it

Yeah man it's such an awesome structure, they were only 17th in goals against and 15th in shots against last year! What system is that called, have McDavid bail us out on the PP and just bleed shots on our subpar goaltending! I bet you think Draisaitl is an elite two way center too and scratch your head at why he doesn't get Selke votes! And between your rants, you probably missed where I said I've watched more SLAVIN, who plays in the METROPOLITAN, and even played college and minors in the US...

I would change Maccelli and Soucy for cheaper players, you'd have plenty of money to trade Larsson for Makar and probably some left over.

Draisaitl had selke votes in 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 but ok also check the numbers after ekholm arrived and u will be surprised

Thank you for bringing that up! Yes he's received a grand total of 4 total Selke votes in his 9 seasons in the league. The highest he ever placed was 13th, when he got 2 2nd place votes and a 4th place vote, in 2021. Of course worth noting is the 2 2nd place votes were both from members of Edmonton media who cover the Oilers. He also received 1 5th place Selke vote in 2020, the year he was statistically one of (if not the) worst forwards in the entire league. So yeah, he's not really raking 'em in.

The basic numbers tell that yes, they allowed fewer goals per game post Ekholm trade... but going deeper into that, in the 21 games following, they played mostly interdivisional and interconference games, which led to them playing cupcakes, like the Ducks twice, the Coyotes twice, and the Sharks three times. That's 1/3rd of the games right there against teams who knew going into the year they had no shot. They did have some good wins in that span though, to their credit.

However, the playoffs...woof. 12 games, and only 3 of them did they allow fewer than 3 goals. In 7 games, they allowed 4 or more! A part of that goes to shaky goaltending, I'm sure, but then how do you not structure your defensive system around limiting shots at that point? Can't blame the goalie every year...

Vincent desharneis and nurse being suspended really screwed us in the playoffs but I can definitely agree with a lot of what u said here but also draisaitl is the 2nd best player he converts his regular season play into the playoffs like Mackinnon and Makar McDavid. He really did set playoff records while being on one leg