Good season start in Edmonton 2016-12-30 The Edmonton Oilers have a record of 17-12-2 after 31 games fightning for the head of the Pacific division. After acquiring Krejci, Kunitz, Perry and Polak during the offseason, GM Dubois added Vermette, Gorges and Marleau through the free agency. In adding new offensive talent on top of Nugent-Hopkins and Toffoli, Oilers were expected to score way more goals than last season. However, this is not how things turned out so far. In fact, Oilers are now scoring less goals 2,67 per game vs 2,78 last season. It's the improvment in the defensive side of the game that explains Oilers recent success 2,55 goals allowed per game vs 2,74 last season. Aside from the good results defensively, 3 players are having their best EHE season so far and those are not the ones you would expect : C - Antoine Vermette 9G - 5A - 14 PTS , 31 games Vermette was signed to a 3 years contract in order to lead the 3rd line defensively. HIs 9 goals clearly weren't expected and are a great bonus while defending against the best players every night. With 14 pts in 31 games, Vermette will most likely beat his numbers from last year. (13-16-39 in 80GP) D - Josh Gorges 4G - 11A - 15 PTS , 31 games Gorges is another player added via free agency in order to upgrade the defensive aspect of Oilers game. He is used with Jacob Trouba on the 1st defensive pairing, as well as the PK and PP and is averaging 22,56 minutes of play per game (4,40 minutes more than last year). He already beat his last season record of 3-9-12 in 82 games and will beat his EHE career high of 5-12-17 in 48 games. G- Robin Lehner 16W - 8L - 2OTL , 2,33GAA, 92,0 SV% Robin Lehner comes as the biggest surprise and the MVP so far for the Edmonton Oilers. Expected to be Pavelec backup at the start of the season, he quickly stole the starter position with his stellar play. With his 26 games this season, he already played more games than his previous 21 in two seasons, averaging 2,92 GAA and 90,1 SV%. Aside from those three pleasant surprises, Dubois acquisitions are playing as expected with Corey Perry being the leading scorer with 12 goals (Toffoli 11, Nugent-Hopkins 10) while David Krejci is the best playmaker with 17 assists (15 Nugent-Hopkins, 13 Perry). Perry, Nugent-Hopkins and David Krejci all have 25 pts in 31 games.