What NHL experts are saying this time in Oilers-Kings playoff predictions
The 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs begin tonight for the Edmonton Oilers.
It’s the fourth straight season we’ve seen the Oilers take on the Kings, and Edmonton is looking to stay perfect in that matchup. For the past three seasons, the Oilers have been seen as the favourite heading into the series, which has been justified every time.
The Oilers have found ways to get past the Kings quicker each year, eliminating them in seven, six, and five games. Things seemingly have gotten easier for Edmonton each time, but they shouldn’t expect that to stay the same.
For the first time in this streak of matchups, L.A. has found a way to finish ahead of Edmonton in the standings and hold home-ice advantage. This has caused a bit of a shift in thinking from experts around the league.
Edmonton is no longer the de facto favourite to win this series against the Kings. In fact, in some circles, they are a decisive underdog with many picking L.A. to finally get past the Oilers this year.
Let’s take a closer look at what the experts are predicting for this series.
Sportsnet still showing Oilers love
The Canadian national rights holder is sticking with the Oilers to continue the trend of series past this year, though it was far from a unanimous vote.
Sportsnet polled 18 of their top broadcasters and writers to see who they would take in this series, and there was a healthy amount of disagreement. The margin ended up being 10-8 in favour of Edmonton, coming out on top.
Sportsnet.ca
However, nobody thought that this would be a short series either way. None of the 18 experts polled had the Kings or Oilers winning in four or five games. Every prediction had the series going to at least six games, with more than a few predicting a Game 7.
Oilers fans will like to see their local Sportsnet reporter Mark Spector picking Edmonton to win in seven games. On the flipside, Calgary Sportsnet reporter Eric Francis chose the Kings in six games.
NHL.com overwhelmingly picks Kings
The brass of NHL.com writers were not as favourable toward the Oilers as Sportsnet was, and it wasn’t particularly close.
While Sportsnet had a good mixture of people choosing either team, the 16 NHL.com writers who were polled overwhelmingly chose L.A. to exorcise their playoff demons against the Oilers.
Just three writers chose McDavid’s Oilers to make it out of the first round. Those three included Edmonton staff writer David van Diest, editor-in-chief Bill Price, and columnist Dave Stubbs. Nobody picked the Oilers to make it to the Stanley Cup Final.
NHL.com’s senior draft writer, Mike G. Morreale, chose the Kings to make it to the final only to lose to the Florida Panthers.
The Athletic skews toward L.A.
It wasn’t as decisive as the NHL.com poll, but the team at The Athletic is also liking the Kings’ chances to get past the Oilers.
This poll did not include names or the number of people that were asked to predict the series, with the only disclaimer saying that they posed the question to it’s NHL staff. They then rounded up the numbers of who picked whom and how long each person thought the series would go.
NYTimes.com
For the Oilers-Kings series, 64.6 per cent of The Athletic’s NHL staff chose L.A. while 35.3 per cent went with Edmonton. Of those who chose the Kings, 35.3 per cent said they’d get it done in seven games.
On the other side, 20.6 per cent of those who chose the Oilers said it would take McDavid six games to eliminate the Kings.