The Edmonton Oilers have never been short on star power. When you’ve got Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl lighting up the league like they have year after year, it’s easy to lean on your top guns. But if there's been one consistent critique of this team in recent seasons, it's been the lack of reliable secondary scoring - and for much of this season, that concern has loomed large.
McDavid, doing McDavid things, is once again leading the league in points with 92, and he’s already buried 33 goals. If he keeps this pace, he’s looking at a 50-goal, 139-point campaign - which, incredibly, would be just the second-best statistical season of his career.
Draisaitl, meanwhile, is tracking for his second-best 82-game pace as well. The stars are doing their part.
No surprise there.
But what happens when those two aren’t on the ice? That’s where things have been shaky.
According to Natural Stat Trick, the Oilers have controlled just 34.52% of the goal share and 43.42% of the expected goal share during five-on-five play without McDavid or Draisaitl. That’s not just a dip - that’s a crater.
Fewer shot attempts, fewer shots on goal, and a noticeable drop in high-danger chances. It’s been a glaring issue.
There have been flashes of balance in the past. During the 2022-23 season, the Oilers actually posted positive metrics in five-on-five play without their two superstars - 55.22% of the goal share and 52.62% of expected goals.
And during the 2025 postseason, depth scoring played a pivotal role. But those moments have been the exception, not the standard.
It’s no coincidence that players like Ryan McLeod and Dylan Holloway have found more success after leaving Edmonton - they weren’t getting the same opportunities or production in this system.
That said, something’s shifted in the last two weeks. After getting shut out by the Islanders on January 15th, the Oilers bounced back in emphatic fashion.
They routed the Canucks 6-0, and here’s the kicker: not a single even-strength point from McDavid or Draisaitl. Instead, it was Jack Roslovic and Kasperi Kapanen each potting two goals, and Vasily Podkolzin adding one against his former team.
That’s the kind of depth performance this team has been starving for.
The very next night, they blanked the Blues 5-0. The fourth line - Trent Frederic, Curtis Lazar, and Andrew Mangiapane - chipped in with a goal, and Hyman’s 18th of the season came without help from the big two. Draisaitl missed that game, as well as the following one against the Devils, where rookie Matthew Savoie scored the lone five-on-five goal, assisted by Jake Walman and Isaac Howard.
Draisaitl returned for the game against Pittsburgh, but the Oilers were overwhelmed in a 6-2 loss. Still, their only five-on-five goal came from - you guessed it - Savoie, with helpers from Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm.
Across those four games, the Oilers got meaningful contributions from all over the lineup. Kapanen, Savoie, Podkolzin, Roslovic - even the fourth line got on the board. And in their next two outings, it was the defense that stepped into the spotlight.
Against the Capitals, Edmonton pulled off a wild 6-5 overtime win, capped by a game-tying goal in the final 32 seconds. But the real headline?
Evan Bouchard became the first Oilers defenseman to record a hat trick since Marc-André Bergeron did it over 20 years ago. Bouchard wasn’t done there - he added three assists, finishing with a six-point night.
McDavid was productive too, with two goals and three assists, but none of his points came at even strength. This one belonged to Bouchard.
And just when you thought that was a once-in-a-generation performance, Ekholm followed it up with a hat trick of his own two nights later. Two of those goals came during five-on-five play, and the Oilers got four goals from defensemen in a span of just 3:49 - the fastest stretch of four defenseman goals in NHL history. Ekholm’s third came via the empty net, sealing a historic moment: for the first time in NHL history, a team had defensemen record hat tricks in back-to-back games.
In that game, all four of the Oilers’ five-on-five goals came from the blue line.
To put this recent stretch in perspective: that 34.52% five-on-five goal share without McDavid or Draisaitl? Nine of the 29 goals scored in those situations this season have come in just the last six games. Since January 17th, the Oilers have actually outscored their opponents 9-5 at five-on-five when neither McDavid nor Draisaitl are on the ice.
That’s not just encouraging - that’s the kind of production that changes the ceiling of this team.
We’ve seen what McDavid can do when he flips the switch - his 2024 playoff run was a masterclass, even in a losing effort, as he became just the sixth player to win the Conn Smythe on the losing side. But it was depth scoring that carried the Oilers to the Stanley Cup Final in 2025. They had eight different players score five or more goals in that postseason - just two shy of the 1990 team’s record.
Now, with the fourth line of Frederic, Lazar, and Janmark clicking, and the possibility of a third-line upgrade ahead of the March 6 trade deadline, there’s real reason to believe this team’s depth is turning a corner. Add in the fact that McDavid and Draisaitl are still doing what they do, and suddenly, the Oilers don’t just look like a team with two superstars - they look like a team with layers.
And if that balance holds, the rest of the league should take notice. The Oilers aren’t just top-heavy anymore. They’re starting to look dangerous from top to bottom.