Today I'm going to focus on the Oilers powerplay, an aspect of the game that through the McDavid and Draisaitl era has always been an area of strength. For the most part, the personnel have remained the same; McDavid, Draisaitl, RNH, Hyman, and Bouchard. Over the years there have been a few changes; Barrie prior to Bouchard, Puljujarvi and Kane got some reps as the net front presence, but overall the group has remained the same.
Jeff Jackson added two additional top six forwards to the Oilers already potent top six in Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson, both players are proven scorers at 5 on 5 and volume shooters. We know that these players will play regular top six minutes at 5 on 5, either with McDavid or Draisaitl. But could either player fit into the top unit powerplay?
First let's look at Jeff Skinner.
Skinner has long been a staple on the Sabres top unit powerplay. Over the
past three seasons, no Sabres forward has played more minutes on the powerplay than Jeff Skinner and
Skinner has scored the
second most goals on the powerplay in that time (21) on 158 shots. Tage Thompson who has played just
10 fewer minutes than Skinner has
39 goals over those three years on 201 shots.
Last season was a down year for Skinner, compared to his previous two seasons of 30+ goals but he still put up
24 goals, 8 of which were on the powerplay. Thompson once again led the team with
9 powerplay goals. Skinner has a wicked release, silky smooth hands and the offensive instincts to fit in easily on almost any powerplay unit in the league.
The issue is the spot that Skinner typically slots in on the powerplay, looks a whole lot like the spot that Leon Draisaitl currently occupies. Take a look at one example of a Skinner powerplay goal against the Canadiens.
Skinner is a solid offensive player and this might be a hot take but Leon Draisaitl is in fact a better player than Jeff Skinner. Skinner also isn't the type of player to be a net front option over Hyman so that's out too.
That leaves Viktor Arvidsson.
The trouble with Arvidsson is his injury history. Last season,
Arvidsson played only
18 games, not giving us much of a sample size to work with. He played just over
58 minutes on the powerplay in that time, which ranked
11th among all Sabres skaters. He scored
one goal and had 5 assists in that time. What is interesting is that Arvidsson averaged the most time on the powerplay when he was playing. Arvidsson averaged
3:13 on the powerplay last season which was the
most among Kings forwards.
It's easy to understand why the Kings tried to get Arvidsson out as much as possible. In
22/23, Arvidsson scored
10 goals on the powerplay in 173 minutes, just one fewer than
Adrian Kempe who scored
11 goals but played 239 minutes on the powerplay. Below is an example of one of the powerplay goals that Arvidsson scored on the powerplay. Seem a little familiar?
Arvidsson powerplay goal against the Flames
The Oilers have shown they have a number of ways they can score on the powerplay but obviously the most known is the cross ice pass to Draisaitl at the bottom of the circle for the one-timer. We have seen teams really start to defend the middle of the ice on the Oilers powerplay to limit that opportunity.
Having a secondary option on the opposite side of the ice could cause chaos for a defending penalty kill. If they tried to setup and move towards Draisaitl to defend from the left side, McDavid or Bouchard could pass to the right to Arvidsson or vice versa. Even if they contend with the initial shot, they would need to worry about a big rebound right to Zach Hyman.
You'll notice the one name I have left out here; Ryan Nugent Hopkins. RNH has been a staple on the Oilers top unit powerplay since he was drafted in 2011. RNH is an excellent playmaker and there is an argument he is only second to McDavid on the team in terms of his ability to pass and set up plays for his teammates. Over the past three seasons,
RNH is 7th in the NHL in PP assists with 82, ahead of names like MacKinnon, Marner, Tkachuk, Stamkos, Barkov and others.
Draisaitl ranks 14th with 65.
Make no mistake, RNH is a key part of this top unit powerplay and he brings a ton to the table but his contributions are in more of a secondary role to set up the likes of McDavid, Draisaitl, and Bouchard for the big goals. RNH has
32 primary assists on the PP in the last three years which puts him 24th in the NHL and
50 secondary assists, which lead the league alongside Quinn Hughes.
If the Oilers swap RNH off the top PP in favor of Arvidsson, they would lose an aspect of their playmaking while gaining another scoring threat. There is certainly risk to the move but it is certainly one I would like to see the team at the very least explore early in the season. Doing that would leave RNH to quarterback a second unit powerplay which has never been much of a threat for the Oilers alongside Jeff Skinner, Dylan Holloway, and potentially the likes of Evander Kane or Adam Henrique. That is a secondary unit that could actually be utilized far more than past iterations and help to limit McDavid and Draisaitl's minutes throughout the season.
Who do you think the Oilers should go with on their top unit powerplay? Put your own thoughts in the comments.
Thanks for reading!
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • 
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