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The Oilers’ bottom-six goal differential is at the worst it’s ever been. How can they fix it?

11 1
monday
After an underwhelming start to the season (again), the Edmonton Oilers have generally been trending up as of late.

In their past eleven games, they hold a very strong record of 7-3-1. This has primarily been driven by excellent play from their superstars, as Connor McDavid has a whopping 27 points in his past 14 games, while Leon Draisaitl has 24. The Oilers have also received excellent production from their top-six wingers, with Zach Hyman, Vasily Podkolzin and Matt Savoie combining for 19 goals in that span.

However, there remains a crucial area of their game that has remained well below par all season long, and that is the team’s bottom-six.

Just to put into perspective how poorly Edmonton’s depth forwards have played, here is a look at their year-by-year 5-on-5 goal differential without McDavid and Draisaitl on-ice:

The Oilers have been out-scored 17 to 41 without McDavid and Draisaitl, equating to an absolutely appalling 29 percent goal share. To put that into perspective, the lowest the team’s goal share without McDavid and Draisaitl has ever been was 36 percent. Not even the teams iced during the Peter Chiarelli era had results as poorly as this.

Of course, we aren’t even halfway into the season, and one may argue that early-season results can often be wonky and that this could eventually stabilize by the end of the season. That is a very fair point, and I will say that I don’t expect the bottom-six to finish the year at just 29 percent. Nevertheless, 36 games remains a solid sample size, and a 17-to-41 goal differential can simply not be ignored.

So, what could (and should) the Oilers do to fix this? Here is a list of potential steps they could take that may have a meaningful impact.

*All........

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