We have reached the end of the 2021-22 season, an teams are getting ready for the offseason, while many fans are already projecting what their teams' actions during the summer may be. Most of those fans are not brimming with optimism.
This is year is the exception to the recent rule, in which two of the best teams in the league actually battled through the postseason and ended up in the Stanley Cup Final. In most recent years, getting a spot at the table is enough. Teams and especially goalies can get hot over a 4-7 game stretch and knock out teams with home ice. It happens often.
Part of this, perhaps, is the truncated nature of the previous two seasons. Better players remained on the ice throughout the season, and throughout the playoffs. That might explain why Tampa Bay was healthy enough to win the Cup the last two seasons, and then get play the Avalanche in an attempt to win it a third time. Next year will be a return to the meat grinder that is life in the NHL. Having enough talent to win in the regular season should be the goal of every franchise, because the postseason is a land of mystery.
One team in particular that never seems to embrace optimism, but should probably have a bit of it is the Edmonton Oilers. Yes, the first real post on this site is about the one team that is not actually south of Edmonton, because it is Edmonton. The Oilers made a good run this year before being upended by the Avalanche in the Western Conference Finals, but they, like 30 of their rivals, were left wanting more.
The two best teams in the West this season were the two that they met in the last two rounds the Oilers competed in, and will be significantly impacted by this summer. The Flames stand to lose Johnny Gaudreau to someone else via free agency if they aren't careful. The Avalanche are going to have a Cup hangover. Elsewhere, the Wild are in cap hell and the Blues are simply a different team than won the Cup before the pandemic.
The Oilers can run it back with the best scorers in the game on offense. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisatl are staying in Edmonton for at least three more seasons, and they are under no threat of losing many of their other options in their scoring lines. Jesse Puljujarvi, Kailer Yamamoto and Ryan McLeod are restricted free agents, but it doesn't seem like they are going anywhere. Evander Kane is the biggest unrestricted free agent this summer, and while he was good in Edmonton, he might not be worth the ongoing headache.
The blue line will likely be beefed up this offseason, if anywhere stands to see changes. The Oilers are poised to lose Brett Kilak and Kris Russell, while Duncan Keith is still getting almost 20 minutes a night. That can't keep up. Yet still, there is only one player in the prognosticated lineup that started fewer than 60 games at D for the Oilers last year. There is stability for a team that made it to the conference finals.
What happens in the offseason is an open question, of course, and there will surely be a team on the rise. Vegas will be back, the Ducks have one of the more exciting rookies coming back as a veteran, but none of those machinations will likely keep the Oilers out of the 2023 playoffs.
After that, anything can happen.
