Reflecting on the Edmonton Oilers 2024–25 season

It’s been a long, turbulent, and somewhat uncomfortable journey, but it’s finally time for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Before the real action begins, it’s a good time to look back on the year and review how the Edmonton Oilers performed as a team.

Here’s a quick summary of some of the major storylines from this season.

The positives of the season

At first glance, it may be hard to reflect on what truly went well for the Oilers this year. Amidst a plague of injuries, an offseason that left much to be desired, and an itch to get back to the dance, it’s been a slog to get through the 82-game schedule. That being said, there are a few positive stories that deserve some attention and discussion.

Leon Draisaitl’s Hart-worthy season and Rocket Richard win

With 52 goals and 54 assists in 71 games, Leon Draisaitl was undoubtedly the Oilers MVP this season. After Connor McDavid’s injury against the Columbus Blue Jackets early in the year, it was Draisaitl who became the de facto captain of the team, rallying Edmonton to a 7–2–0 record and scoring 8–8–16 in McDavid’s absence.

Beyond ranking first in goals, second in even-strength points, and third in points, Draisaitl also placed first in EvolvingHockey’s Wins-Above-Replacement model and Expected Wins-Above-Replacement model. It remains to be seen whether that will be enough for him to capture the second Hart Trophy of his career, but from a numbers perspective, there’s no skater that deserves it more.

Corey Perry scoring 19 goals as a 39-year-old

Among the most admirable feats of the year was Corey Perry scoring 19 goals as the oldest regular in the Oilers lineup. Even more impressive was that he scored many of these goals from the bottom-six, a place where, in Edmonton, offensive production has historically gone to die.

Perry was able to defy that trend, turning his limited minutes into meaningful offence with the kind of greasy goals and net-front presence that has defined his career. For a re-signing that was heavily criticized at the time, Perry’s versatility and veteran savvy was a bright spot and gave the Oilers some much needed production beyond the usual suspects.

Jeff Skinner’s first playoffs

After playing over 1000 games in the National Hockey League, Jeff Skinner is finally getting an opportunity to play on hockey’s biggest stage. Any other statement would have likely meant disaster, but for a team that has largely gone through the motions, it will be exciting to see some fresh blood and enthusiasm injected into the postseason lineup.

The bad parts of the season

Finding things to criticize about this year’s iteration of the Oilers is not a hard exercise; condensing them into a few key points is a different matter altogether. For a team that many picked as the 2025 President’s Trophy winners, Edmonton severely underperformed expectations this season. Here are a few reasons why.

Stuart Skinner’s disappointing year

Fewer topics have been as much of a lightning rod for discussion this year as goaltending. After 51 games, Stuart Skinner ended the regular season with a .896 save percentage, the lowest of his career as a starter. Per EvolvingHockey, Skinner also ranked 41st in Goals Saved Above Expected (min. 20GP), putting him firmly in 1B or backup territory.

Skinner has always been a streaky player, and after allowing only one goal in his final two games of the season, one can hope that he builds on that performance heading into the playoffs.

Regression from Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Evan Bouchard

Expecting another 50-goal or 100-point performance from Zach Hyman or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was always going to result in a letdown, but it was certainly unexpected to see both players regress as much as they did.

Including Evan Bouchard, the Oilers lost 66 points of production from their core this year: Hyman from 54–23–77 in 2023–24 to 27–17–44, Nugent-Hopkins from 18–49–67 to 20–29–49, and Bouchard from 18–64–82 to 14–53–67.

It’s hard to say how much of this dip can be attributed to age or pending contract negotiations, but the Oilers will need all three players to step up if they want to make a deep run in the coming months.

Poor play after breaks

Substandard performance after long stretches off seems to be an ongoing issue for this team. After an admittedly short summer, the Oilers kicked off the 2024–25 regular season with a 2–5–0 record, allowing 27 goals while only scoring 14.

It would be easy to discount this as a one-off, merely the effects of losing a tightly fought Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Finals the year prior, if it wasn’t for an even more disappointing 1–5–0 record coming out of the 4 Nations break.

Despite all the things that went wrong this season, the Oilers may have very well won their first division title since 1987 if they had been able to get to their A-game more quickly.

The injury plague

It’s hard to say how many of the Oilers’ recent lineup decisions have been made due to legitimate injuries and how many due to exercising an abundance of caution, but with Mattias Ekholm confirmed to be out for the first round at the least, things are looking bleak heading into the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

This unfortunate news comes after seeing multiple players rotate through the injured reserve list down the stretch, including the likes of Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid, Zach Hyman, Jake Walman, John Klingberg, Troy Stecher, and Trent Frederic (as well as Evander Kane). Between lineup inconsistency and player availability (or lack thereof), it’s anyone’s guess what version of the Oilers we’ll see in the first round.

The ugly parts of their season

If you’re an ardent fan of the team, you already know where this is headed. The 2024 offseason, also known as the “Summer of Jeff,” was initially met with tremendous praise and enthusiasm from fans and critics alike.

However, in the weeks that passed, it became clear that many of the changes made by interim General Manager Jeff Jackson were short-sighted. The biggest and most obvious error was allowing offer sheets to be submitted on pending-RFAs Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg by the St. Louis Blues. Holloway, who would go on to score 26–37–63 in 72 GP, has emerged as the breakout candidate of the year, while Broberg has become a mainstay in the Blues’ top-four. Both players would have injected much needed speed, energy and youth to an aging and battle-worn Oilers team that may now be teetering on its final legs.

This oversight is in addition to the poor bets that were made on Viktor Arvidsson (15–12–27 in 67GP) over Warren Foegele (24–22–46 in 82GP), and Adam Henrique (12–15–27 in 81GP) over Ryan McLeod (20–33–53 in 79GP).

The year still isn’t over, but unless there is a concerted effort to get younger, faster and more skilled this summer, the 2024 offseason may have been a death knell for the Edmonton Oilers long-term championship window.

Final thoughts before the 2025 postseason

Overall, it’s hard to give the Edmonton Oilers a passing grade this season. The team ended the year with fewer overall points (101 to 104), finished lower in the overall standings, and will be starting the Stanley Cup Playoffs on the road for the first time in the Connor McDavid era.

There are still reasons to be optimistic—the club’s underlying numbers have been strong for most of the year and their best players are still a cut above the rest when healthy, but everything hinges on how the team comes together in the next few weeks.

Ultimately, the 2024–25 Edmonton Oilers were built for one reason: to win in the playoffs, and that is where they will be judged, regular season be damned.