While the Oilers did manage to add some serviceable players at this year’s trade deadline, I don’t think it was quite enough to give them any new competitive edges among other championship contenders.

The Oilers already have the top end talent at the top of their roster of forwards, along with some good complementary players with unique skillsets spread across the group. But they’ve been lacking enough finishing talent among their depth forwards at even-strength. Without McDavid  or Draisaitl on the ice, the Oilers have done a good job controlling the flow of play (53.54 percent Corsi For percentage) and out-chancing opponents (53.29 percent expected goals for percentage). But it’s all been a waste as they’re only converting on 6.03% of their shots this season, and have been outscored 40-48 – a goal-share of only 45.45 percent.

Adding Henrique does give the Oilers an offensive boost up front, as he’s been a productive player in Anaheim the last few years at even-strength, and fairly consistent. His 1.84 points per hour rate this season is at a top-six level, and is almost identical to his points per hour rate over the previous five seasons (1.83). What’s especially encouraging about Henrique is that his finishing ability has been very good this season, as he’s posted a 12.68 percent individual shooting percentage in Anaheim, which is only slightly lower than the 13.82 percent shooing percentage he’s posted over the previous five seasons. His individual rate of shots this season (5.94) is down slightly from his career norms (6.79), but that might be because of the team he’s been playing on and the lack of talent he’s had to play with.

Speaking of which, the table below lists the Anaheim forwards this season, sorted by their total ice-time, including each player’s on-ice shot differential, expected goal differential and actual goal-differential. I’ve also included each player’s on-ice shooting and save percentage along with PDO to see what could be impacting their actual results (i.e., goal differential). A basic heat map has been applied to show how each player compares to their peers.

Henrique looks okay here, as he hasn’t been any sort of play driver for the Ducks this season, but hasn’t been a major drag either. His relative-to-team numbers are slightly down from the previous two seasons, making me think he’ll need someone on his line who can play with defensive responsibility. I’m not totally sold on him being a third line, play-making centerman either. So he might need to be with good play drivers like McLeod and Foegele for the Oilers to get some productivity out of him.

Really not sure what the Oilers are expecting from Carrick whose on-ice numbers had been awful this season relative to his teammates. I think this acquisition speaks volumes to how the Oilers feel about their AHL options, as there are very comparable players in Bakersfield including Gagner, Malone and Caggiula.

On the blueline, the Oilers did add a good seventh defencemen in Troy Stecher, who should be able to fill in as needed, and provide a little bit of offence. His relative to team numbers among Arizona defenceman were fine this season, as he was typically in a bottom-pairing role on a pretty shallow defence core. But I do find it funny that the other depth defenceman on their roster who posted better numbers than Stecher was Kesselring – a late round pick of the Oilers who was traded to Arizona last trade deadline to acquire Bjugstad. Bjugstad, as you may recall, posted some of the worst 5v5 numbers on the Oilers in the 2023 post-season, and was part of the reason why Vegas was able to exploit the Oilers weaknesses. But I digress.

Defence is an area where the Oilers really needed to make a bigger move as the pairing of Nurse and Ceci have not been good this season. And it’s especially concerning heading into the post-season with this tandem as their numbers together over the last three playoff runs have also been rough. In 26 playoff games, 345 minutes together at even-strength, the duo have posted a Corsi For percentage of 46.95 percent and an expected goals for percentage of 47.76 percent. Expecting better numbers from them this coming post-season would be foolish, and it’ll be on the coach now to closely monitor their deployment and forward pairings to get the most out of them.

The area that I felt the Oilers needed to better address was the goaltending. Skinner is having a great season, but I do wonder if he’ll be burnt out by the time the playoffs start. He’s played the seventh highest minutes among all NHL goalies at this point, which makes me think we might see the same performance from him that we saw in the 2023 playoffs. Among 28 goalies, Skinner was 21st with a 0.883 all-situations save percentage. Pickard has been fine as a backup this year, but more should have been done by management to shore up this critical position earlier on in the season.

So while the Oilers did a good job by adding Henrique and Stecher to fill specific roles, I don’t think it did enough to gain any sort of competitive edge over the other cup contenders. And by not addressing the defence and goaltending properly, they might have jeopardized their chances of a longer playoff run. Considering this is McDavid’s ninth season, and Draisaitl is in the last year of his contract next season, a lot more needed to be done.

Data: Natural Stat Trick