North Division: How the Canucks stack up against the Oilers

The Vancouver Canucks have been placed in an all Canadian division for the upcoming season, but how do they compare against the Edmonton Oilers?

With the Canadian division officially set, The Canuck Way will be taking a look at how Vancouver stacks up against every other team in the division over the next several days.

The Vancouver Canucks are set to play all their games against Canadian teams this season, which means that they’ll be getting even more familiar with the Edmonton Oilers over the next few months.

Both teams made the play-in tournament last year, with Edmonton having a slightly higher win percentage (0.585%) in the regular season than Vancouver (0.565%).

Significant changes were made to both rosters, so we’ll need to dive deeper into the two teams before deciding on who might have an upper hand, starting with their respective offences.

How their offence stacks up

The Canucks scored 3.25 goals per game last year, ranking eighth in the league. Edmonton wasn’t far behind with an average of 3.14, which was good for 14th overall.

However, Vancouver lost a significant piece of their top six during the offseason in Tyler Toffoli while the Oilers added more depth up front by signing Dominik Kahun and awaiting Jesse Puljujarvi’s return to the league.

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Edmonton also added offensive specialist Tyson Barrie to their blueline, which will provide extra firepower from the backend. Moreover, former MVP Connor Mcdavid missed a few games during the year and also wasn’t 100% to start the season, so he might average a higher point per game total than what he managed in 2019-20.

Putting all this together, the Oilers seem destined to explode offensively this year and should have a better offence than the Canucks. This has more to do with Edmonton’s improvement rather than a significant decline from Vancouver, as I expect both clubs to still rank in the league’s top 10 when it comes to goals per game.

How their defence stacks up

The Canucks should have an advantage on the blueline, especially since Edmonton will be without Oscar Klefbom for the entire 2020-21 campaign.

Barrie was a shrewd signing by the Oilers, but he’s a defensive liability whose value is strictly derived from his offensive prowess and won’t be relied upon to play tough matchup minutes like Klefbom was.

Vancouver also acquired Nate Schmidt in the offseason, which gives the team a legitimate top pair defenceman who will help Quinn Hughes provide scoring from the backend.

Even with the Canucks losing some depth on their blueline due to the departures of a few free agents, I still expect them to ice a stronger defence than Edmonton’s due to the strength of their top four.