For several years, choosing any player from the Edmonton Oilers has been hockey pool suicide. That era is officially over. The team still has many question marks and will lose more games before the rebuild is over, but the team now boasts several legitimate B-level fantasy hockey players.
In the forward corps, there are several players who should end up with decent (though not yet dominant) point totals: Hall, Eberle, Nugent-Hopkins, Smyth, Horcoff, and Hemsky. This is a massive change from last year.
With defensemen and goalies, the Oilers still haven’t graduated into acceptable fantasy hockey standards. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t bright lights or up-and-comers, it just means that they currently don’t have anyone on the roster who is guaranteed to put up points. Tom Gilbert is currently the most reliable of the bunch, though his point range is modest.
It is worth noting this sea change. It’ll be awhile before the new Oiler wave crests, but
it is clearly heading in an excellent poolie direction.