Gretzky believes Oilers will rebound this season

Wayne Gretzky is confident that his Edmonton Oilers will bounce back from a dreadful campaign.

After winning their first playoff round since 2006 the season before, the Oilers managed just 78 points en route to a 23rd-place finish in 2017-18. Gretzky, the vice-chairman of Oilers Entertainment Group, expects things to change this time around.

"Our defense will be better, of that you can be assured," Gretzky said, according to Robert MacLeod of The Globe and Mail. "I expect that Cam (Talbot, last year's No. 1 goaltender) will bounce back from the struggles that he had. I think last year was just an outlier for him.

"Add that to the addition of the Finnish goalie (Mikko Koskinen), I think we have a solid two-goaltender system ready to roll."

While Gretzky is confident in Edmonton's defense, the Oilers will head into the season having made no roster moves to bolster their blue line, with defenseman Andrej Sekera potentially lost for the campaign due to an Achilles injury, and with restricted free-agent defender Darnell Nurse still in need of a contract.

Meanwhile, Edmonton's goaltending will need to play a key role for the team to make the playoffs. Talbot posted a career-low .908 save percentage in 2017-18, and the Oilers since added Koskinen, who posted a .937 clip across 29 KHL starts last season.

The Oilers will look to start delivering on Gretzky's expectations when they kick off their season against the New Jersey Devils on Oct. 6 in Sweden.