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In his look at goal differential, Ryan concluded:
I'd say the team will probably be about 30 goals better in their end of the rink. Strong seasons from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Nail Yakupov will improve things in the other end of the rink too. The problem is, they're so far behind they have a ton of improving to do just to be bad.
30 goals equals about 5 wins, giving the Oilers 10 more points than 2013-14, or 77 points. Based on last season's year-end standings, that moves the Oilers into 13th place. That would also be the team's third-largest points gain since the 2006 run.
If the Oilers were to match their largest points gain since rebuild v3.6 began...
Year | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | PTS% | PTS/G | ▲ |
2005-06 | 82 | 41 | 28 | 13 | 95 | 0.579 | 1.159 | |
2006-07 | 82 | 32 | 43 | 7 | 71 | 0.433 | 0.866 | -0.293 |
2007-08 | 82 | 41 | 35 | 6 | 88 | 0.537 | 1.073 | 0.207 |
2008-09 | 82 | 38 | 35 | 9 | 85 | 0.518 | 1.037 | -0.037 |
2009-10 | 82 | 27 | 47 | 8 | 62 | 0.378 | 0.756 | -0.280 |
2010-11 | 82 | 25 | 45 | 12 | 62 | 0.378 | 0.756 | 0.000 |
2011-12 | 82 | 32 | 40 | 10 | 74 | 0.451 | 0.902 | 0.146 |
2012-13 | 48 | 19 | 22 | 7 | 45 | 0.469 | 0.938 | 0.035 |
2013-14 | 82 | 29 | 44 | 9 | 67 | 0.409 | 0.817 | -0.120 |
2014-15* | 82 | 34* | 37* | 11* | 79* | 0.482 | 0.963* | 0.146* |
*projected based on matching the team's best points-gained improvement since 2008-09
...the team would still find itself with just 79 points, and based on last year's standings, still in 13th place. If they are able to steal a couple of wins from the 12th place team, perhaps they could move into 12th and the team wouldn't be as good as the 2008-09 edition.
That they can match their best improvement of the rebuild era and only move up to (hopefully) 12th shows the depth to which this franchise has fallen.