That being said… I don’t buy the hype personally. I don’t think that franchise is being run the right way and I think they will end up less than the sum of their parts. They could still be a playoff contender in that case but I think the fears of other Western Conference fans than the 1980s Oilers are returning (I’m not saying you think this) are totally overblown.

They’ve rushed a couple of players who were clearly not physically ready for the NHL into the lineup – Hall has already suffered multiple major injuries and RNH (a 160 lb kid they put up against men last year) is already feeling the effects of chronic shoulder injury. They’ll do the same with Justin Schultz who is offensively gifted but still listed at under 170 lbs and will be getting pulverized down low against 220 lb forecheckers. At least Nail Yakupov is a bulky kid but again ready or not he’ll be in the show.

These kids are going to put up good numbers win or lose and within a few years the Oilers will be spending well over half their cap on a group of kids with a lot of growing to do.. and will struggle for enough cap room to bring in an effective second line center, a starting goaltender, at least three defensemen who can play big minutes, and so on.

That team is going to be a lot better than they have been the last three seasons, but to be at the top end of the league you either need the exact right mix of a small handful of elite players or you need excellent NHL depth. I’m not sure the skinny high end offensive players the Oilers have built around will be enough, and I have zero faith their management group can make up the difference with shrewd trades and free agent signings.

The Avs and the Wild will be very interesting to watch, both have great young groups of players and the Wild obviously have implanted a couple of high end veterans at the top who come from organizations that win with what they’ve got. I wouldn’t count the Canucks out either, they may not have any media darlings on the farm team but Mike Gillis has a knack for finding the right pieces to fill out the NHL roster – although he would be very hard pressed to replace any of their top three forwards if he had to.

No other AHL team has that kind of talent on its top line or the powerplay. Now, Justin Schultz is a real good player. But I think sub par competition, and talented teammates have inflated all their numbers a bit.

They’re certainly getting closer to being a playoff team and should be in the mix for the 8th spot this year, they still are 1-2 defenseman (even after getting a healthy Klefbom) a number 1 goalie and some depth away from being a contender for the division and then ultimately the Stanley Cup. They also lack experience, HOWEVER, getting into the playoffs this year would provide that experience to the core, getting in the playoffs would also make the team more attractive to the pieces they need and if Dubnyk doesn’t mature they certainly have pieces to trade for the goalie and defensemen they need.

The positive thing for the Oilers is that their window is just starting to open while one could reasonably assume that the Canucks are due to start having their window close in the next season or two, so if everything comes together they’ll time it just perfectly.

Now with all that being said who knows what happens with Minnesota (2 vastly overpaid players and a bunch of rookies with 0 NHL experience being counted on here) Calgary (an aging team that hasn’t achieved much of anything and 3 key young players with limited NHL experience) and Colorado (I don’t even know what to say about them!)