McDavid's Edmonton Oilers showing Gretzky era level of dominance so far in 2021-22

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Connor McDavid’s Edmonton Oilers are showing a Gretzky era level of dominance so far in this young NHL season.

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Of course, the season is young. Of course, the sample size is small. Of course, things could fall apart as quick as it takes a key performer or two to get injured.

But the McDavid era Oilers have looked more and more like the real deal in the past few years and there are plenty of positive indicators that this team is ready to take things to the next level.

Here are the five reasons that stand out:

1. Goal differential. The best regular season team of the Gretzky era, the 1983-84 Stanley Cup champion team, had a goal differential of +1.7. Two other Gretzky area teams had goal differentials of +1.5. In seven games this year, the Oilers have a goal differential of +1.4 per game, tied for fourth highest in Edmonton Oilers history. Perhaps these Oilers can’t keep up that level of differential dominance but it’s worth noting that last season’s Oilers had a goal differential of +0.5, ninth highest in Oilers history. This year’s excellent goal differential does not come out of nowhere, it builds on what happened last year. One final point, the 1984-85 Oilers, voted the greatest NHL team of all time at NHL.com , had a goal differential +1.3 per game.

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2. Goal scoring . These Oilers are averaging 4.1 goals per game, 8th best in franchise history and a higher number than seen in Gretzky’s first two seasons with the team, as well as higher than the 4.1 goals per game of the 1989-90 Cup-winning team, not to mention the 3.1 goal per game of the 2005-06 Cup finalist team. That great 1983-84 Oilers team scored 5.6 goals per game, so the current squad is far off that, but it’s not so far off the 4.5 per game average in Gretzky’s final season with the team.

3. Depth of scoring. For the first time since 2005-06 this team has depth scoring, but unlike that solid two-way squad this team is led by two attacking superstars in McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. McDavid is first in the NHL for points per game, at 2.29 per game, with Draisaitl third at 1.86 per game, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins ninth at 1.43 per game, Jesse Puljujarvi 19th at 1.29, and Zach Hyman tied for 38th at 1.0 per game. On defence, Tyson Barrie, Darnell Nurse and Evan Bouchard all flash considerable offensive ability and the Oilers might also have a third line that will score some in Derek Ryan, Zack Kassian and Warren Foegele.

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4. Solid analytics. Edmonton’s scoring isn’t coming out of nowhere. It’s not the product of crazy good puck luck. This Oilers team drives 13 Grade A shots on net per game, an increase over the past two seasons when it had 11.3 and 11.6 per game respectively. It’s Grade A shots differential is up to +2.4 Grade A shots per game this year, compared to +1.8 per game last year, and just -0.2 in Tippett’s first season with the team. Before McDavid arrived, that differential was -1.6 per game in 2014-15.

5. Improved attacking. All kinds of Oilers attackers are driving that strong attack, increasing their major contributions to Grade A shots per game compared to last year. McDavid is averaging major contributions to 5.9 Grade A shots per game this year, up from 5.4 per game last year. Others with year to year improvement include: Draisaitl, 4.3 per game last year to 5.6 this year; RNH, 2.9 to 4.0; Puljujarvi, 2.0 to 2.6; Nurse, 1.4 to 1.9; Bouchard 0.9 to 1.9; and Kassian, 1.1 to 1.5. Adding in Hyman, with 3.4 major contributions to Grade A shots per game, is a huge bonus. With Bouchard stepping up while at the same time just scratching the surface of all he can bring on the attack, as well as Puljujarvi playing with more confidence, Edmonton appears to have add three new and vital pieces to its attacking arsenal. It’s that kind of depth of attacking excellence that helped define the 1980s Oilers, but we’re starting to see signals of it here again.

More than 30 years was a long time to wait.

But it’s starting to feel like it might just have been worth that wait.