Tonight the Oilers will face off against the Vancouver Canucks in pre-season game action. They will do so again a couple days later... and again for the home opener. Tonight the Oilers should be facing off against a far more complete Canucks roster; most notably one with both Pettersson and Quinn Hughes back in the fold. The Oilers will be icing the lineup below.
Draisaitl - McDavid - Puljujarvi Hyman - RNH - Turris Foegele - Ryan - Kassian Benson - McLeod - Sceviour
Nurse - Barrie Keith - Ceci Russell - Bouchard
Smith
Tonight Tippett will start his two best offensive options in Draisaitl and McDavid together while Hyman will be playing with Nuge and Kyle Turris. Turris is in Yamamoto's position due to the young winger recovering from a taking a hit to the head in the Calgary pre season game. Yamamoto being out is being reported more as cautionary and we shouldn't expect him to miss any regular season games.
There is no denying that McDavid and Draisaitl together are electric. All the numbers point out the fact that there is no more dominant duo in the NHL than Draisaitl and McDavid together. When they are on the ice together, they outscore and out chance the opposition at ever step. The issue has been the moment they step off the ice the Oilers typically get caved. In the past that's been because the next players up haven't been able to step up. Last season that was a trio of Ryan Nugent Hopkins, Dominik Kahun, and Kailer Yamamoto.
Assuming Yamamoto is in his position and not Turris, will this second line be able to produce? Hyman is a far superior option to Domink Kahun and while Hyman gets credit for playing with top end players he has also shown he doesn't simply rely on them to generate chances. Ryan Nugent Hopkins is a strong two way winger or centre when the need arises. Last season was a down year for the former first overall selection but the numbers suggest a bounce back is likely.
The wild card here is Kailer Yamamoto. So far in training camp, Yamamoto hasn't been overly noticeable and still is not showing up on the score sheet. These last couple games should have been crucial to get the young forward playing right but now it's likely he won't be out again until the regular season.
I'm not going to do points predictions this year for the full team but I do think RNH gets back into the 50-60 point range and depending on how much powerplay time he receives I expect Hyman somewhere in the same category. For Yamamoto, right now I would say a spread of 16-30-46 should be considered a successful season, especially for a player that isn't going to see top PP time.
If these types of numbers can come to pass, with this trio playing a fair amount of minutes together than the Oilers will have easily the best top six group in the NHL. If RNH struggles though, or Hyman struggles, or Yamamoto struggles than Tippett will likely need to split things up to avoid being a one line team.
Having the ability to put two of the best forwards in the game together on a line (plus Puljujarvi) is an excellent card to play but Tippett will need to keep close tabs on his other lines and players. Holland did a good job in respect to the forward group this off season but ultimately it will be the coach's job to utilize them.