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Tank Battle, 2016 Edition: The Oilers Can Now Finish No Better Than 28th

The Oilers got one step closer to another last place finish last night.

Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

With the Canucks 3-2 win over Los Angeles last night, Vancouver now finds themselves with 73 points on the season and the Oilers are one step closer to finishing last and securing a fifth first overall pick in last seven years. The Cancuks’ win now means that the Oilers can finish no better than 28th and can draft no worse that sixth overall. If we assume that the ISS rankings are accurate that means the Oilers will be selecting from this group.

ISS Rank Player Position Birth Shot Height Weight Team League
1 Auston Matthews C 9/17/1997 L 6.01.5 210 Zurich ZSC SuiA
2 Jesse Puljujarvi RW 5/7/1998 R 6.03 203 Karpat FinE
3 Patrik Laine LW 4/19/1998 R 6.04 209 Tappara FinE
4 Alexander Nylander RW 3/2/1998 R 6.00.5 179 Mississauga OHL
5 Matthew Tkachuk LW 12/11/1997 L 6.01.25 195 London OHL
6 Jakob Chychrun LD 3/31/1998 L 6.02 215 Sarnia OHL

In the battle for last place the Oilers are facing off against the Maple Leafs and the Blue Jackets. Of the three, the Oilers likely have the easiest remaining schedule, a home and home with the Canucks, but with only two games remaining instead of three the Oilers are still very much in this race.

The Leafs will be at home this Wednesday to take on the Blue Jackets, a game every Oilers fan will hope goes into overtime, and then finish with two road games against Philadelphia and New Jersey. After visiting Toronto, the Blue Jackets will play in Buffalo before heading home to finish the season against the Blackhawks. As of this morning, this is what the bottom of the NHL standings look like.

Rank Team GP W L OT PTS ROW % Chance
30 Edmonton 80 30 43 7 67 26 20.0%
29 Toronto 79 28 40 11 67 22 13.5%
28 Columbus 79 31 40 8 70 25 11.5%
27 Winnipeg 79 32 39 8 72 30 9.5%
26 Calgary 79 33 40 6 72 31 8.5%
25 Vancouver 79 30 36 13 73 26 7.5%
24 Buffalo 79 33 35 11 77 31 6.5%
23 Arizona 79 35 37 7 77 34 6.0%
22 Montréal 79 36 37 6 78 31 5.0%
21 Ottawa 79 36 34 9 81 30 3.5%
20 New Jersey 79 37 34 8 82 35 3.0%
19 Colorado 79 39 36 4 82 35 2.5%
18 Carolina 79 34 29 16 84 33 2.0%
17 Boston 79 40 28 11 90 37 1.0%

Factoring in schedule, Micah Blake McCurdy places the Oilers' chances of picking first overall at 17% right now. Get excited, Oilers fans, it's going to be a fun* last week.

*The Copper & Blue in no way guarantees that this will be fun. If it ever was fun, it certainly stopped being fun a while ago.