You're still relying on the rebound or progression of a good chunk of the roster.
And this of course isn't taking inevitable injuries into account. It's not like the Oilers just missed last year. They weren't even close. Most of the playoff teams ran them over. Even some of the bottom feeders did.
This team needs an upgrade. Nobody's going to look past them.
So trade Klefbom, Larsson, Russell, Sekera, Lucic, Talbot, Benning, Caggiula, Kassian, Puljujarvi, Strome cause no way any of them have better seasons or get better.
Middle of the pack pp was 20.7%. Ours was 14.8%, 31 goals on 210 opportunities. Bump that up to middle of the pack, hell even 19% that takes his from 31 to 40 goals. A 9 increase.
Middle of the pack PK was 80%, ours was 76.7, 57 against in 245 attempts (11 short handed goals, second most in the league) if our pk was even 79 percent, that drops us down to 51 goals against, 6 goal increase.
So even slightly below middle of the pack special teams (completely doable with proper coaching, our PK got good near the end) that's a 15 goal differential swing. Oilers went 18-13-6 in one goal games. That could help. Say those 15 goals let us win...3 more goals that would of put us tied with the Flames and only 11 points out.
Now Talbot had a career worse season. Say he bounces back to slightly worse than his first season and puts up a 0.915 instead of a 0.908 that would of saved. That is a 15 goal difference based on the shots against last year. Let's say all those PK goal improvement was on Talbot so..9 more goals not scored against. Say that gets us...2 more wins. That's now 7 points out of a playoff spot. That also puts the teams ×/- at -5.
So with just Talbot bouncing back a little and a slightly below middle of the pack special teams, this team would of only been 7 points out of a playoff spot..Ish.
That's not half the team bouncing back. That's just Talbot and proper special teams coaching (which we have).
You dont think it's at all possible that going into the season with a completely healthy roster and maybe even...2 more players having better seasons could get us within a point or 2 from the playoffs?
If you dont think it's at all possible then go watch basketball or Toronto for the season and save us the whining after every single tiny misstep.
I'm as negative as the rest of ya'll but when you actually look at the numbers...not a lot has to improve.