The Edmonton Oilers are rolling, and players who came out of the gates a bit lackluster are starting to find their way. There were more than a few Oilers who didn’t have the starts they wanted. Picking up steam as the club moves into a top spot in the Western Conference and Pacific Division, let’s look at some of the players on the Oilers who have improved and begun to turn things around.
Zach Hyman
After a rocky start that saw him score no goals in his first 10 games, Zach Hyman‘s start to the season was so unlike last season’s 54-goal campaign that it likely cost him a spot on Team Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament. Now, he’s proving how silly it was that Canada overlooked him.
After he was announced as not having made the team, Hyman scored three goals in four games. He suffered a short-term injury that took him out, but when he returned, he potted another 10 goals in nine games. He’s back on track, and while he might not reach the same goal totals as last season, he’s become a critical piece of the team’s offensive attack.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
Another slow start, Nugent-Hopkins has seen his production decline each year since his 104-point breakout in 2022-23. This season, he started out incredibly slowly, and it looked like it might be one of his least-productive campaigns. But he’s picked things up.
Nugent-Hopkins has six goals in his last 10 games. He’s starting to produce on a power play that has seen an uptick in production. He’s still not going to have a great year compared to where the Oilers would love him to be, but he’s on pace for 48 points, and if he continues to trend upward, he could easily exceed the 50-point marker.
Viktor Arvidsson
Outside of one three-point game on October 25, Viktor Arvidsson had difficulty finding his rhythm with Edmonton. He was playing well, but he wasn’t getting on the scoreboard. Then, an injury that wasn’t supposed to be more than a day or two of rest turned into something that kept him out for weeks. Now that he’s back, he’s starting to show signs of being the player the Oilers thought they signed his past summer.
He’s got four points in his last six games, but more than that, he’s starting to prove he belongs in the team’s top six. That was key when the team signed him. The Oilers needed a player who could push and play with their elite forwards.
Potential Oiler to Be Most Improved: Jeff Skinner
Jeff Skinner hasn’t worked out the way the Oilers might have hoped, but he’s not going down without a fight. The $3 million deal he signed in the off-season was supposed to be a value deal. That’s yet to materialize, but there’s still time.
He’s being included on this list not because of what he’s done but because of what he could do if given a great opportunity to produce. Skinner has the ability to be most improved from the start of the season.
