5 Oilers players are on pace to break career highs in points
It has not been the season anybody expected from the Edmonton Oilers.
Despite being on a two-game win streak, the team still has some way to go to dig out of the 7-12-1 hole that they’ve dug themselves into.
Though goaltending has been top of mind during this less-than-stellar start, it sure wasn’t helped by some slow starts from some of the team’s big guns. Connor McDavid has turned it on of late, notching an incredible nine points in his last two games, but his overall point pace is coming in well below the 153 points he was able to manage last season.
That isn’t to say every single Oilers player is expected to regress. In fact, there are five players on the team who are on pace to hit career highs.
Evander Kane
At the beginning of the season, Evander Kane did not look like his usual self. He seemed to be slower than years before, was consistently fumbling passes, and looked completely disengaged while on the ice. Despite playing alongside McDavid to start the year, he had just one assist through his first five games.
However, that all seemed to change after the Heritage Classic. Kane seemingly rediscovered the swagger that defined his game.
Since then, it has been back to business as usual for the 32-year-old. Kane has scored eight goals and 13 points in the 12 games since the Heritage Classic and has been among the team’s most consistent scorers.
His previous career high in points was 57 with the Winnipeg Jets way back in 2011/12. If he continues to score at his current pace, he will obliterate that with 78 points this season. He is also on pace to nab 41 goals, which would beat his previous high of 30.
Zach Hyman
There was a lot of skepticism thrown around when the Oilers decided to sign Zach Hyman to a seven-year contract with a $5.5 million cap hit back in the summer of 2021. Yet, three years into the deal, it’s looking like a steal.
He exploded last season for career highs in both goals and points with 36 and 83, respectively. Now 20 games into this season, it seems like the Toronto native has found a way to be even better.
He currently leads the Oilers in goals with 12 and is third on the team in points with 22. If he is able to stretch this level of production throughout the remainder of the year, he will end up with a staggering 49 goals and 90 points.
Evan Bouchard
Much has been said about Evan Bouchard’s defensive play to start the season. The 24-year-old does have a habit of looking pretty bad on some goals against this year, but the fact of the matter is that he can put up points ā a lot of them.
Bouchard first put the league on notice during last year’s playoffs. Despite playing in only 12 games and getting eliminated in the second round, the young defenceman put up 17 points to lead all NHL defencemen in playoff scoring.
It doesn’t appear Bouchard has missed a beat this year. Through the first 20 games of the season, he is humming along with 20 points, which puts him on a torrid 82-point pace over the course of the entire season. This would nearly double his previous career high of 43 points that he managed in 2021/22.
This would also be the best offensive season by an Oilers defenceman since Paul Coffey scored 67 points in 1986/87.
Warren Foegele
Throughout his career, Warren Foegele has always been a depth scorer who you could rely on to get anywhere between 20 to 30 points in any given season.
This year has been no different. The 27-year-old has been used all around the Oilers lineup, playing in the top six at times, and has continually been a fairly reliable depth scorer, albeit with a few more points than usual with eight through his first 20 games.
At the moment, he is on pace for 33 points this season, which would just edge out his previous career high of 30 that he scored while a member of the Carolina Hurricanes in 2019/20.
Vincent Desharnais
Vincent Desharnais isn’t just on pace to set a career high in points, he’s on pace to quadruple it.
Granted, this isn’t nearly as impressive when you take into account that his career high in points was four, which he managed to get through 36 games with the Oilers last season.
As it stands, the hulking bottom-pairing penalty-killer has already tied that career high with a goal and four points through 18 games played. This means he is on pace for 16 points, which is still not bad for a player who isn’t expected to show up on the scoresheet much.
He was recently able to record his second multi-point NHL game of his career, dishing out a pair of assists in Sunday night’s 8-2 thrashing of the Anaheim Ducks.