Morning Coffee: Revisiting notable Edmonton Oilers futures amid impressive turnaround

The Edmonton Oilers opened as the second choice to win the Stanley Cup in 2024 at FanDuel.

Only the Colorado Avalanche had shorter odds.

Fast-forward six months later, the Oilers were sitting near the bottom of the NHL standings with a 2-9-1 record and coming off a stunning 3-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks as a -350 money line favourite at FanDuel.

A couple of days later, they made a coaching change. Kris Knoblauch replaced Jay Woodcroft behind the bench. Regardless of your perspective of the move, it’s difficult to argue with the results.

Edmonton was 3-9-1 following Woodcroft’s final game. The Oilers have gone 10-3-0 since then, including eight wins in a row.

Despite their slow start to the season, Edmonton has always been considered more likely to make than miss the playoffs at FanDuel.

As it stands this morning, the Oilers are once again a heavy favourite to make the postseason and a top-10 choice to win the Stanley Cup at FanDuel.

It appears as though the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same in Edmonton.

This is the Morning Coffee for Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023.

Revisiting notable Oilers futures after impressive turnaround

The first head-to-head meeting between Connor McDavid and Connor Bedard went exactly the way most people expected last night.

Bedard scored Chicago’s lone goal just 3:21 into regulation.

The first-overall pick from the 2023 draft leads all rookies with 12 goals, 12 assists and 24 points.

He’s on pace to become the fifth player to lead rookies in all three of those statistical categories and the first since Elias Pettersson did it in 2018-19.

Bedard remains the obvious favourite to win the Calder Trophy at -300 odds at FanDuel. No other rookie is shorter than 10-to-1 to win that award.

It was all Oilers after Bedard opened the scoring in the first five minutes.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Sam Gagner, Leon Draisaitl, and Zach Hyman were the goal scorers for Edmonton.

Connor McDavid registered two assists in the victory.

McDavid is on a 10-game point streak dating back to Nov. 20. His 18 assists and 24 points are the most in the NHL since that streak began.

Despite a relatively slow start by the standard we have come to expect from him, McDavid is now just nine points back of Nikita Kucherov for the league lead with five fewer games played.

For perspective, Kucherov has averaged 1.62 points per game this season. McDavid has averaged 1.58 points per game this season.

McDavid remains the favourite to win the Hart Trophy at +280 odds at FanDuel. Kucherov is the second choice to win that award at +400.

David Pastrnak (+440) and Jack Hughes (+450) are the only other players with shorter than 10-to-1 odds to win that award at FanDuel this morning.

Meanwhile, Edmonton’s odds to win the Stanley Cup are nearly identical to where they opened at FanDuel back in June.

The Oilers opened at +1100 to win the Stanley Cup. Edmonton is currently +1300 to win it all at FanDuel.

The Oilers are also back up to -330 to make the playoffs. That number represents a 76.7 per cent implied probability.

For as terrible as things looked for Edmonton early on this season, they aren’t that far off from where many expected they would be through their first 26 games.

While their start to the season was certainly unexpected, McDavid remains the favourite to win the Hart, the Oilers are a heavy favourite to make the playoffs, and their odds to win the Stanley Cup are nearly identical to where they opened back in June.

The first couple of months of the season have been a roller-coaster ride for the team and its fans.

I am very interested to see what happens next in Edmonton.

Sharks climb out of the basement in NHL standings

It wasn’t that long ago that the Sharks were considered a heavy favourite to finish with the worst record in the NHL.

After climbing out of the basement in the NHL standings, San Jose is only a marginal favourite to finish with the league’s worst record.

The Sharks went 0-10-1 to open the regular season. Since then, San Jose has gone 9-7-3 to climb ahead of the Blackhawks and Anaheim Ducks in the standings.

The Sharks remain the favourite to finish with the worst record in the NHL at +120. Chicago is the second choice in that market at +165. The Columbus Blue Jackets are the third choice to finish with the league’s worst record at +600. The Ducks are the fourth choice at +1100.

The Montreal Canadiens round out the top-five choices to finish with the league’s worst record at +1300.

There is still a long way to go to determine the final NHL standings.

With only two teams listed at shorter than 6-to-1 odds to finish in the NHL basement at FanDuel, I’m left wondering this morning if there is value betting on another team in that market at longer odds.