Top of the mornin’ to Y’all! Are you getting more excited as July 1st draws nearer? Or perhaps as an Oilers fan, you’re getting more and more nervous wondering what Chiarelli might do.
I think for me, I’m a bit anxious at the moment. I don’t truly feel that the Oilers are done altering the roster. I’d like them to be and the reason for that is their new plan of doing nothing or doing very little is working and I don’t want Chiarelli and his staff to deviate from that plan of action.
Kurt Leavins wrote a piece earlier that leans to the above a bit. I recommend you read it for sure.
My Latest, From The Cult of Hockey: The big-game hunting Edmonton #Oilers have turned in their rifles https://t.co/fcjUeTkwEN
— Kurt Leavins (@KurtLeavins) June 27, 2018
BARGAIN SHOPPING FOR FREE AGENTS
So whether you listen to Bob Stauffer or you read Lowetide, it looks like the Oilers are going to have between $3.5M and $5M in cap room. Not a lot mind you but not insufficient enough to prevent the team from adding a few quality vets.
My personal favorites as you’re reading this are:
- Austin Czarnik – RW – Little guy with skills up the wazoo.
- Tobias Rieder – LW/RW – Not the cheapest option but an excellent 2-way threat.
- Curtis McKenzie – LW – Sandpaper galore. A younger version of Matt Hendricks.
- Marek Hrivik – C/LW – 6’2″ and too good to play AHL. Skilled bottom-6 option?
Reckon any of those players will come in under a million per year? Rieder for sure won’t. I don’t even know why he’d even be an option given they unsavory conditions in which they separated before. I’ve seen Duclair’s name pop up too and I don’t know if he’d be an option either. The kid is going to be on his 4th team before he turns 23.
THE RUMOURS
So as I present these to you, I need to preface this by saying, believe what you believe. I’m only a guy who happens to know someone within a professional hockey organization. I’m not an insider per se but I hear things and I like to pass them on to you. All of this could come true or none of it could and it’s more likely the latter because things change all of the time, as you’re about to read. My advice, treat this like water cooler banter and don’t take it too seriously.
- The Oilers are looking into bringing Brandon Davidson back.
- There was a trade on the table for the 10th overall pick… 10th overall to the Hurricanes for Justin Faulk
Man, could you imagine if Evan Bouchard hadn’t dropped to the Oilers? The repercussions of acquiring Justin Faulk could’ve been staggering because they would’ve definitely had to have made more trades just to become cap compliant…
What was the subsequent trade they would’ve to have made to get the cap in order I wonder?
The hockey gods did us a solid last weekend.
