Edmonton Oilers Power Rankings: It's McDavid by a whole country mile

Our Edmonton Oilers player power rankings are back. Throughout the schedule, we will be ordering players based on their contributions and value to the club, taking into account recent feats, statistics, failures and some of the more intangibles. Here is our inaugural list for 2026-27 now that they are 10 games into the season:

1. Connor McDavid (Last week’s rank: —)

The Edmonton Oilers captain picks up right where he left off last year, and in the only spot he’s ever been on since the inception of this list. And with the way he’s rocketed out of the gates this season, it’s a shame there isn’t an even higher place to put him.

With eight goals and 23 assists for a league-leading 31 points 10 games in, the 29-year-old veteran of 12 NHL seasons is averaging a point per regulation period, with an overtime assist thrown in for good measure.

While entirely unsustainable in the long run (at least, we think), it has him on pace to hit 260 points by the end of the 84-game schedule.

More importantly to him, his productivity is powering a top line that is the driving force of the team that has gone 8-1-1 out of the gates for its best start in five years (9-1-0 in the 2021-22 season).

2. Leon Draisaitl (Last week’s rank: —)

On perhaps 29 other teams, No. 29 would be No. 1 on this list.

Sitting second in league scoring, the guy is averaging a goal and 2.1 points per game, and still finds himself answering questions about McDavid’s torrid pace in the post-game media scrum. And is happy to do it.

With 10 goals in 10 games, he is obviously on pace for 84, which would smash his career-high of 55 and put him in the top five all-time alongside Wayne Gretzky (92, 87), Brett Hull (86) and Mario Lemieux (85).

Ridiculous, I know. Will it happen? Probably not. But what we do know is that when Mike Babcock came in saying he was going to play his two top guns together on the same line in order to spread more of the ice time around throughout the lineup, he may very well have stumbled onto the winning formula.

Sure, McDavid and Draisaitl have played together before (besides on the power play), but it was always sporadic, or an in-game decision to try and catch up on the scoreboard. This year, we have been getting a chance to see them out on the ice consistently, and the effect it’s having on both their games is measurable.

3. Vasily Podkolzin (Last week’s rank: —)

What, you thought the sidekick to those two superheroes deserved to be anywhere but right next to them?

With the way the Oilers top line is accounting for 25 of the team’s league-leading 47 goals on the season, and 64 of their 118 player points,

Podkolzin is the digger on this line, whose  job is to get the puck to his linemates. And it’s something he has excelled at over the previous two seasons as Draisaitl’s right-hand man on the left wing of the second line, helping his former centre lead the league with 52 goals in 2024-25.

Oh, he’s also been able to cash in offensively, tied for top 10 in the NHL with seven goals to go along with five assists that have him on a point-per-game pace for the first time in his career. He is expected to eclipse last year’s career high of 19 goals and 37 points before Christmas, if they manage to keep it all going.

4. Devon Levi (Last week’s rank: —)

Have the Oilers actually finally found the goaltender who can provide them with both the consistency and the ability to come up with the timely save they’ve been searching for so badly?

Time will tell on the consistency side of things, of course.

But if they have, then they’ve discovered it in an unlikely source who was brought in via trade the day free agency opened this past off-season, as a backup to Tristan Jarry (who underwhelmed in his first kick at the Oilers’ can last year) and free-agent acquisition Frederik Andersen (who is recovering from off-season surgery after winning the Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes).

All Levi’s done since Jarry was given the starting spot as the closest thing to an incumbent the Oilers had on opening day, was go 6-1-0, despite a 3.11 goals-against average and .887 save percentage you wouldn’t write home to mamma about.

The thing is, Jarry is no slouch, himself, with a 2-0-1 record and an equally unimpressive 2.97 goals-against average and .873 save percentage.

The thing to remember is Babs’ Oilers have tightened things up defensively and sit among the bottom 10 in the league when it comes to shots allowed (26.7 per game).

5. Evan Bouchard (Last week’s rank: —)

Love him or hate him, (We’re guessing it’s a bit of both each game) the Oilers defenseman is back in his familiar spot of following up the team’s two big dogs on the stats sheet, sitting third on the team with 19 points (seven goals, 12 assists) in 10 games.

As a defenceman.

And, yes, the flip side of that offensive production of nearly two points per game is the defensive part of the enigma-like equation, which continues to be a work in progress.

At times, the 27-year-old is scoring overtime goals and looking every bit like the Norris candidate his teammates think he should be. And at others, he’s coughing up the puck with a patented boneheaded error and displaying no immediate urgency to rectify the situation he’s just put his team in.

Thankfully, those appear to be coming fewer and farther in between.

Hey, he might not have worn the Maple Leaf at the last Olympics, but he’s a champion in his teammates’ minds, and they’re counting on the added offence he brings.

6. Zach Hyman (Last week’s rank: —)

Hyman doesn’t have the same point production, especially after getting injured on opening day and missing six games. But it’s difficult to even think of him outside the top five on this list, considering what a crucial role he’s played on this team’s playoff runs, not to mention his 50-goal season three years ago.

He’s got one goal in the four games he’s played, but has yet to familiarize himself on a second line that was always supposed to have been centered by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

If the duo can get on the same page and get more than one game on a line together here, then perhaps they can help shoulder some of the load being carried by Edmonton’s top line.

7. Mathieu Joseph (Last week’s rank: —)

The newcomer sits fifth in team scoring with five points (two goals, three assists), despite averaging just 14 minutes a game — at least five minutes less than his teammates above him.

Playing on a third line alongside Owen Michaels and Alex Formenton, their main job is to keep the puck out of their net and survive until the top six forwards can take a shift again.

The fact Joseph has managed to put up more points than anyone on the second line is pure value added.

8. Mattias Ekholm (Last week’s rank: —)

Last we saw him, the Oilers defensive anchor took a nasty spill complements of Hurricanes forward William Carrier, which resulted in Ekholm smacking the back of his helmet on the ice and having  to be helped off the ice.

But he leaves sitting third on the team with a goal differential of plus-15, behind McDavid (plus-18) and his defensive partner, Bouchard (plus-16), both of whom play significantly more time on the power play.

If the Oilers are looking to make tightening up their game a thing this year, they will do well to follow the lead of Ekhom, whenever he is able to return to active duty, that is.

9. Trent Frederic (Last week’s rank: —)

Your eyes don’t deceive you, Frederic has made the list for the first time since coming over at the trade deadline in 2024-25.

It’s also the first time he’s been fully healthy since coming over at the trade deadline too. Funny how that works.

All of a sudden, he can move his legs, one of which had been hampered by an ankle injury for a good long while. And he can move his arms, as he’s shown in a pair of spirited battles while dropping the gloves a couple of times already.

First, he dummied the Seattle Kraken’s Ryan Lindgren as payback for the concussion Bouchard suffered from an illegal check to the head at the world championships. Then it was a back-and-forth row with the Utah Mammoth’s Jack McBain in an exchange that left both battlers standing, along with the crowd in the stands.

Has Frederic overcome his struggles that saw him average a point per month after signing a big contract heading into the season? For now, he is answering the call by adding some much needed physicality to this roster.

10. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (Last week’s rank: —)

Before anyone starts complaining about why the ultra-beloved elder statesman of the Oilers dressing room appears at No. 10 on the list, let’s remember he’s only played one game so far.

But that didn’t stop him from making an impact, earning a goal and an assist on the way to scoring the shootout winner with the defending champs in town.

Boy, talk about making up for lost time after suffering a lower-body injury in the final practice of the pre-season, before having to watch the team get off to an incredible start without him.

And the Oilers are counting on him this year, more than ever, to centre a second line alongside Zach Hyman and, eventually, Matt Savoie, who also started the season on injured reserve, suffering his own lower-body ailment during off-season training.

It will be old meets new, as McDavid’s former wingmen are teamed up with the up-and-comer … assuming that’s the way it all turns out, of course.

Runner-up:

Mike Babcock: The Edmonton Oilers are who they’ve shown they are. Babs is here to help get them to where they can be, and the difference he makes has been immediate. Sure, this early pace won’t hold up forever, but if he can get these guys even half believing in themselves again after a pair of disappointing Cup Finals, then he will have done something none of his 10 predecessors were able to achieve.

Disagree? Have your say over who belongs where by sending your submissions to:

On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge

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