I can’t believe that this little nugget I’m about to share with you slipped through the ultra-fine teeth of the combs of the Edmonton Oilers’ rabid fanbase so easily. Well, that or the folks that have made comments about it on Oilers Twitter have me blocked…
Yesterday, prior to his weekly spot with Oilers legendary heavyweight enforcer Louie DeBrusk, host Bob Stauffer was talking about the recent signings that Edmonton has made to its AHL affiliate in Bakersfield and proceeded to let us all in on this tidbit,
“It wouldn’t surprise me if Edmonton signed two more forwards on NHL deals primarily targeted to play in the American Hockey League. Maybe one guy returning from Europe here shortly.”
When I heard this my heart jumped a little bit and can you guess which name I thought of first?
Not shocking at all. I thought of Jesse Puljujarvi, naturally. Now, the problem with that scenario is that I can’t see Pulju coming back to Edmonton if the plan is to stick him in the AHL. That’s what the whole problem was to begin with, right? He’s also made it pretty clear that he still would like to be moved to another club (*Cough* Carolina *Cough*). To add to the complications of that scenario, JP would need to clear waivers to go to the AHL…
I suppose it depends on the magical negotiating powers of Mr. Holland for this player. That said, I’ve been mentioning all along that if there’s one GM in the entire NHL (current or retired) that could convince Puljujarvi to come back, it’s Ken Holland.
One thing I’m not 100% sure of is if Bob was talking about players Edmonton only has the rights to or simply unrestricted free agents because they had massive interest in Brooks Macek not too long ago before he signed in the KHL. Also, there are players like Nikita Soshnikov who’ve played in North America before. I think I read that Linus Omark is a free agent now… Wouldn’t that be something? As if Omark is going to leave the riches of the KHL for the grind of the AHL though…
North American free agents at season’s end, Daniel Carr and Austin Czarnik have also been on Edmonton’s radar for some time and would be AHL stars for Bakersfield as well as serviceable bottom-six forwards for Edmonton if needed.
The #Oilers have signed defenceman & 2016 third-round pick Filip Berglund to a two-year, entry-level contract.
The 22-year-old just completed his fourth full season in the Swedish Hockey League with @skelleftea_aik, posting five goals & 15 assists. pic.twitter.com/a6PZAjt5RC
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) May 1, 2020
BREAKING NEWS: Oilers finally make public the Berglund signing. He won’t be coming to Edmonton next season as the Oilers will loan him back to Linkoping for a year. Great timing, because he’ll then come over at the same time as Philip Broberg and most likely be his d-partner in Bakersfield to boot.
Is it possible that Edmonton could be signing a prospect to their first pro deal? Sure, but I don’t think anybody in their cupboard is quite ready for AHL work or NHL for that matter. That could change once the draft is completed mind you.
The other thing might be that I’m interpreting Bob’s comment differently from what he actually means. Maybe he’s talking about a player who is in Europe at the moment, not one that has been playing there this past season.
Has anybody checked in on Tomas Jurco? He’s still recovering in Slovakia as far as I know. Bogdan Yakimov was just traded to SKA in the KHL… Would he come back? Was there not some talk of this earlier in the year?
Personally, I think a couple of players like Carr and Macek, for example, make sense. Character players that have no problems accepting their roles where ever they are playing and they won’t cost an arm and a leg.
What do you think? Who could Stauffer be talking about here? Let us know in the comments below!
