The meal ticket

DENVER -- When Tom Renney announced to his Edmonton Oilers at Monday's game day meeting that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins would be staying with the team this season, the response was heartfelt, but understated.

"I would have given him a standing ovation, because he's probably my meal ticket," joked the coach afterwards.

Whether Renney was speaking only for himself, or for every player on this Oilers team over the next many years, is academic. The fact is, what allowed this 18-year-old, No. 1 overall draft pick to make the NHL in his first try is the same thing that will have wingers lining up to play with Nugent-Hopkins for years to come.

"Everybody he played with played well," observed Renney during the preseason and nine-game audition with Edmonton. "He was able to elevate the play of his linemates, and that's pretty impressive for an 18-year-old.

"That's something I hoped for. But to the degree that it's happened, it's been really impressive."

His 10th game on Friday night was, offensively at least, one of Nugent-Hopkins' least effective, as his line generated only a single shot in Edmonton's 3-1 win at Colorado. And in the initial battle between the No. 1 and 2 draft picks from the 2011 draft, Colorado winger Gabriel Landeskog was the clear cut winner, with six shots and a dominant performance.

But after the first 10 games of his NHL career, Nugent-Hopkins is just shy of a point per game player, with five goals and nine points, success that must come as a surprise even to him.

"I really didn't know what to expect. I'm really happy with the way things have gone," he said. "The game is definitely a lot faster, the foot speed … and the amount of time you have with the puck is a lot less. But when you play with good players, like I've been playing with, it makes things a lot easier."

His line, wingers Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle, have accounted for 10 of Edmonton's 20 goals scored (excluding shootouts). This unit, with an average age of 19.3 years, has helped to put the two-time 30th place Oilers on a four-game win streak and into first place in the Western Conference.

We're going to guess that won't last a long time -- this season, at least. But down the road, who knows?

For Oilers fans, and that includes general manager Steve Tambellini, the future began Friday afternoon in a meeting room at the JW Marriott, where the coach and GM welcomed the kid who will be a No. 1 centre in Edmonton for years to come.

"It was a wonderful few minutes with Ryan and Tom, just to see his reaction," Tambellini said. "I told him he should be extremely proud of the way he handled himself, not only in his play, but I love the fact he's so good with the Canadian media and that pressure. He knows the spotlight is on, and he still went out there and was able to show … intelligence and skill.

"He responded to public expectations, media expectations, and maybe most importantly, ours."

This Edmonton-Colorado rivalry, which for a few seasons now has been a moribund squabble between two teams at the bottom of the heap, has new legs. Both of these clubs are on the rebound, with exciting, young rosters full of speed and skill.

"Hopefully I'm going to be out there against him. It'll be the first time I play him," Landeskog said before Friday's game, after spending last summer traveling to the NHL combine, the Stanley Cup final and the draft with Nugent-Hopkins. "We became pretty good friends. Obviously, he's in Edmonton and I'm here now. There's not going to be any friendship out there on the ice."

Round 1 went to Nugent-Hopkins' Oilers, though Landeskog won the head-to-head matchup. In the end, the first star was Edmonton's 25-year-old goalie Devan Dubnyk, who stopped 40 shots in the win.

These teams better get used to each other. They could be fighting for the same bone for years to come.

Mark Spector is the senior columnist on sportsnet.ca