During the regular season, the Edmonton Oilers lineup seemed to be in a constant flux. However 13 games into the playoffs, it has been almost the opposite, with 10 forwards having played every game and another two playing in all but one.

While there has been some movement in terms of the actual line combinations, the Oilers have settled on a lineup given their domination in the last four games.

It appears that each line has been clicking, which begs the question: Which line has been the most impressive? We asked Oil Country for their thoughts.

With how the #Oilers have been playing during the Stanley Cup playoffs, which line are you most impressed by?

— The Oil Rig (@oilrigEDM) May 24, 2025

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The Kane-Henrique-Brown line being the most impressive

The runaway leader with 55.7% of the vote was the Oilers third line. It may sound crazy to think that a line that doesn’t include Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl would be the majority’s choice for the most impressive, but “ACE” line (yes, I just came up with that) definitely deserves it.

Connor Brown is tied for second on the team in goals with five (also tied for seventh in the entire league), with Evander Kane right behind him at four and Adam Henrique at three.

While the fancy stats aren’t all that impressive, this is a line that impresses visually, as they are definitely one of the hardest lines to play against. Kane is third on the team in hits with 53 (and tied for 12th in the league) while Henrique is fifth at 34. Over these last four games, Kane has a whopping 23 hits too.

Momentum appears to swing when this line gets on, and has been a big reason why the Oilers have been able to essentially run four lines all game.

Podkolzin-Draisaitl-Kapanen line meshing well together

In second place with 27.1% of the votes is the Oilers second line.

This is a recently formed line, with Kasperi Kapanen finally getting into the lineup four games ago and not looking back. He started with five hits in Game 4 against Vegas followed up by potting the series winning OT goal in Game 5.

In their four games together, this line has a chances for percentage of 64%, an expected goals for percentage of 73.07% and a high danger chances for percentage of 90%.

Vasily Podkolzin has been stapled to Draisaitl’s wing for most of the season, although at points during this playoffs he was moved down to the fourth line. However, he has earned his way back up. He has six points in 13 playoff games (although none have come in these past four games).

It might seem crazy to think that players like Podkolzin and Kapanen would be on the second line of a Stanley Cup contender, but they certainly are playing like it. It’s also not that they are being carried by Draisaitl per se, either. While he is certainly the straw that stirs the drink, Podkolzin and Kapanen have complemented him with their hard work and relentlessness. Over the past four games, Podkolzin has 19 hits while Kapanen has 17, which certainly has helped open up room for Draisaitl to do his thing.

First line expected to be great

This has been the typical Oilers first line for the past couple of years, so maybe that is why it got the second least amount of votes, with 12.9%.

This line is in line with the Draisaitl line in fancies, with a CF% of 63.64, xGF% of 73.46% and a HDCF% of 73.33%.

McDavid has already hit 20 points in the playoffs for the fourth year in a row, making him the fourth player in NHL history to do so.

Both McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins have four points over the last four games, and while Zach Hyman has only one assist, he has 38 hits and leads the league for the entire playoffs with 99. That is already the 14th most in one postseason, just 27 behind the all-time record set by Blake Coleman in 2019–20. Again, this is only 13 games. At his current pace, it will take Hyman just four more games to hit that number, so safe to say there is a pretty good chance he does it.

Fourth line producing as they should

With 4.3% of the votes, the Trent Frederic-Mattias Janmark-Corey Perry line comes in fourth.

It’s not exactly surprising, given they haven’t seen the ice that much—they are the last three players in time on ice per game over the last four games, with Frederic seeing just 9:09 minutes, Perry with 11:45, and Janmark with 11:53. They also have no points over this time, too.

But like the ACE line, visually this line has been good and doing the job of a fourth line, even if the fancies don’t show it. They have not been a liability and are playing good, hard playoff hockey, which is extremely valuable to give the other three lines a break.

Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire

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