I think the only team that comes close is the Blues, and even then, Edmontons is better, they have the best player in the world and another top 5 player as their 2nd line C, a reliable 3rd line C in nuge (when he plays C) A young #3 C who is great defensively and has offensive upside, and a proven, reliable #4C

if nylander was a center again they are a very close if not better . matthews,tavares,nylander,kampf

If Tampa ram stammer at c Tampa would definitely be there but he’s plays wing mostly nowadays

McDavid > Matthews

Draisaitl > Tavares

Nuge < Nylander

McLeod = Kampf

I think the oilers center core is still better, but toronto has the 3C advantage, only thing is their wing depth really suffers if nylander plays 3C whereas if nuge plays 2LW the oilers get better

No.. they have two of the top 4 or 5 C in the league. Beyond that there are plenty of teams with better C's. Putting all three of McDavid, Draisaitl, Nugent-Hopkins at C is also disingenuous and trying to win yourself an arguement. If that were the case Toronto is better with Matthews, Tavares, Nylander, anyone. Tampa would run Point, Stamkos, Ciarelli, anyone. Colorado, Mackinnon, Landeskog, Newhook. 1 of those guys in every scenario plays the wing.

In terms of how opening night line ups will look, Petersson, Miller, Horvat Dickenson is better down the middle. O'Reilly, Thomas, Schenn, Accari as a group are better. Zibanajed, Trochek, Chytil, Goodrow. Lindholm, Kadri, Backlund, Rooney could be comparable as a group of 4.

The Oilers will always have the two most talented C's on the ice, that's never an argument. As a core group of 4, they're top 10.

bunting-matthews-marner , jarnkrok- tavares-engvall , ZAR-nylander-gaudette , robertson-kampf-ABK we have depth

Is McDavid better than Matthews? Yes
Is Draisaitl better than Tavares? Yes way better.
Is Nuge better than Nylander? No

the Oilers have plenty of depth and more to come with Holloway (who as already done enough to make the opening line-up) Bourgault, Savoie, Schaefer and others

is mcdavid better than tavares, is matthews better than drai yes, is nylander better than nuge yes? we can also make marner a center if you want

Beniers
Gourde
Wennberg
Geekie
Wright
and McCann and play C

That's pretty freakin solid

mcdavid better than matthews is debatable, both franchise centers that do different things, matthews is a generational 2 way center that can score, mcdavid is a speedster center that creates plays and racks up points, the difference between both talent wise isnt that big

Is Nylander any good at center?

Nylander might be the better player but is he actually a better center then RNH is, not sure he is.

Way to really key in on 1 line of a comment and run with it. 1.26 ppg out of the Oilers squad vs. 1.12 out of the Leafs. Production wise the drop off isn't as big as you'd like it to be to be claiming things like "way better". It's so far from beside the point that the post is asking, if you'd like to finish the comment and get back to me on that go ahead!

nylander wins 50% of his draws compared to nuge who wins 40% sooo , also nylander as better TK vs GV so yea, nylander is the better center

First off, McDavid, Draisaitl, Nugent-Hopkins is miles better then both Matthews, Tavares, Nylander and Point, Stamkos, Ciarelli and even Mackinnon, Landeskog, Newhook. And Nuge moving down to 3C is the first thing that happens when the Oilers line up need a shake up. and Mcleod is getting better every game, and Ryan or even Janmark can be good 4th Cs

playing in the **** west vs the east

jarnmark is a horrible center lmao

The first thing that happens when the Oilers need a shake up is the coach automatically puts the two best players on the same line.. which then means the C depth is McDavid, Nugent-Hopkins, McLeod, Ryan, Janmark which is bottom 10 in the league if it wasn't for McDavid being as good as he is. We watch it every season and it's a talking point for every sports show in Western Canada "Oilers inconsistent, should they go back to McDavid and Draisaitl on the same line?"

What are you talking about. We are just talking center depth. We are not talking stats they get from winger who they play with. If that was the case, yes Toronto has better wingers.

Janmark is NOT a center. And that is to the Oiler fan too.

The question posed here is "Do the Oilers have the best C core". If you're looking at how the lineup looks when the season opens, no. Top 10 yes, best, not really close.