Let's start this bold predictions piece with a bold prediction: the 2023-24 Edmonton Oilers are the best team in the Western Conference without a recent Stanley Cup. To put it more simply: the Oilers are one of the premier squads in the West, along with the Colorado Avalanche (2022 SC champions) and Vegas Golden Knights (2023 champs).

Along with the Dallas Stars, the Oilers, Avalanche and Golden Knights make up the best four teams in the Conference. Excluding the COVID-altered 2020-21 season, one of the Stars, Avs and Knights have advanced to the Finals in each of the last three NHL campaigns, and Edmonton is desperate to be the last team standing in the West this season.

With Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl leading the way, as well as the emergence of Evan Bouchard on the back end and Stuart Skinner in net, it's Stanley Cup or bust for this team in 2023-24. They were close last year, losing to the Knights in a hard-fought second round series. They were close in 2022, being swept by the eventual champion Avalanche in the Western Conference Final. But if the Oilers hope to bring a Stanley Cup to Alberta for the first time since 1990, they need to find a way to win when it counts. Here are three bold predictions for a powerhouse Oilers team.

3) McDavid, Draisaitl combine for 300 points

Everyone knew how good Connor McDavid was coming into last season, but he blew everyone away by somehow elevating his game even higher. He scored 64 goals and 153 points in 82 games, an absolutely incredible clip that hasn't been seen since the days of Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux over three decades ago.

The way he continues to improve, there's belief that the best player in the game of hockey can score at a two-point-per-game clip in 2023-24. Say the 26-year-old is able to pot 165 points, a realistic number for a player who seems to get better every time he steps on the ice.

That means that fellow superstar Leon Drasaitl would need 135 points of his own to make this bold prediction true. The German stud is coming off the best season of his career, a 52-goal, 128-point showing that was followed by an insane 13 goals and 18 points in just 12 playoff contests in 2023. It's definitely possible that Draisaitl can achieve over 130 points if he stays healthy and the Oilers powerplay continues to be one of the most lethal units in recent history.

Last year, a career-defining campaign for both McDavid and Draisaitl led to the two combining for an incredulous 281 points. Topping 300 together is certainly far-fetched, but if there are any teammates who can do it, it's these two.

2) Ryan Nugent-Hopkins comes back down to earth

Absolutely no one had Ryan Nugent-Hopkins getting 100 points on their 2022-23 NHL season bingo card. But, along with McDavid and Draisaitl, the 30-year-old enjoyed a career campaign, feasting with the squad's potent powerplay en route to 37 goals and 104 points in 82 games.

Since the 2007-08 season, no 100-point player scored a higher percentage of their points on the man advantage than Nugent Hopkins; an insane 62.5 percent of his points last season were on the PP, according to TheScore's Kyle Cushman. For that reason, it is fair to assume that hitting the century club is not something the Canadian will do again in his career.

Before last season, the Nuge's career-high was 69 points, and that was five years ago. Now on the wrong end of 30, it's fair to assume that the Oilers lifer will be able to score at a point-per-game pace. But 100 points again is lofty, and expect one of the surprises of the 2022-23 campaign to come back down to earth next year. Fantasy hockey managers who see Nugent-Hopkins around the mid-second-to-third-round should probably look elsewhere.

1) Oilers finally come out of the West

The Oilers have been knocking on the door of Western Conference supremacy for years now, and it has always been the one-two punch of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl leading the way. But the supporting cast seems to have finally become good enough to compete for a Stanley Cup. Edmonton has a goalie of the future in Stuart Skinner, who had an excellent year and earned a finalist nod for the Calder Trophy as the league's Rookie of the Year.

Evan Bouchard is the powerplay quarterback of the future, and his breakout campaign helped to shore up a back end that has notoriously been unable to lock it down in the postseason. Besides that, a fully healthy season of Zach Hyman and Evander Kane gives the team solid depth up front to go along with the superstar top-three.

In their last two playoff runs, the Oilers lost to a better team in the Avalanche and Golden Knights, respectively. But when April, 2024 comes around, Edmonton could be the team to beat in the Western Conference. I think this is the year McDavid and Draisaitl finally play for their first Stanley Cup.