So, in sum, the newcomers, Benning, Larsson and Russell, were about as good as the players they replaced when it came to contributing to goals and scoring chances, while three holdovers, Nurse, Sekera and Klefbom, all amped up their attacking play considerably. On the bottom pairing this year, Nurse greatly improved on his 2015-16 performance moving the puck, while Matt Benning did about as well as Brandon Davidson had done in 2015-16. In his final awful season in Edmonton, Justin Schultz moved the puck about as well as Larsson and better than Russell. Newcomers Kris Russell and Adam Larsson also outperformed what Mark Fayne and Darnell Nurse accomplished in 2o15-16, though that’s not saying much as Nurse and Fayne were two of the worst puck-movers in the NHL that year.
In the Top 4 against tough competition, both Andrej Sekera and Oscar Klefbom made significantly more contributions to goals, total scoring chances and Grade A scoring chances at even strength than they had in 2015-16.
This season the Oilers mainly counted on their returning players improving - and every single one of them did so.
