What a game last night! What have I been saying for nearly two weeks now? The Oilers aren’t getting scoring from the secondary because they aren’t going to the net and they aren’t shooting. What happens vs. Anaheim? They get shots on net and there are players there to clean up the garbage and against a potential Hart Trophy candidate in John Gibson no less.
The boys saved Chia’s ass last night 🙂
Would like to see them limit the other team’s shots on goal mind you. They’re not going to get goaltending like this every night and Anaheim is the 2nd worst scoring team in the league right now. With all of that depth and talent, it’s a shock their GM is even employed.
Looking at the net is overrated. pic.twitter.com/vzKjJNMYlW
— NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) January 7, 2019
I’m still upset with Lucic even though he made a great play on Draisaitl’s goal by wallpapering Montour in order to get to the puck first so that he could make the play out front.
Speaking of that goal. The whole thing where he walks past Montour to give him a piece of his mind for the high stick, get’s punched in the head, headlocked, and receives 4 minutes in penalties for it… That was BS but it isn’t what caught my eye.
What I noticed was Montour not even thinking twice about throwing a punch at Lucic. That tells me he’s not feared anymore. Even little Leipsic in LA was giving it back to him.
Montour gives Lucic a right jab. Then puts him in a headlock. Lucic 4 minutes. Montour 2 minutes. 🤷♂️ pic.twitter.com/C8T9KHmQwU
— Tough Call Podcast 🎙️ 🇨🇦 (@ToughCallPod) January 7, 2019
It might just be time for Milan to hang them up OR he could go on one last tour of destruction. Either way, he’s not fooling anybody on the ice anymore.
Ref looking right at it. pic.twitter.com/qEkg3tJ6RT
— Phil Landry (@elksherd) January 7, 2019
I’m not even going to talk about the garbage with the reffing.
That’s a lie, I will for a second here.
Has anybody considered that maybe the league WANTS hitting taken out of the game? So they allow this BS to go on because they’re playing the long game? Take hitting out, no more headshots, no more concussions from hits, no more lawsuits. Plus faster play, more goals, more excitement… Bla bla bla… It’s all dumb because it’s all a lie.
I know for a fact there are some markets in the US that go to hockey games to see if a fight breaks out. I watched minor league hockey in Huntsville, AL (where Talbot played and Woodcroft coached) and the fans there couldn’t have cared less what was going on on the ice until there was a fight. THEN everyone stood up and cheered.
The NHL is looking after itself here. No doubt. I for one hope a new league forms one day that is a call-back to the great days of hockey.
Anyways, on to the rumors…
I’ve got a hunch that the Oilers have a plan to ice a more veteran-laden lineup for 2019-20. Letting the kids run the show has not worked one bit and that goes back to the days of H.O.P.E (Hall, Omark, Paajarvi, Eberle)… I’ll tie this together at the end to show you.
Bob Stauffer has been talking a lot about the weak draft coming up and how fans would feel if the Oilers used their first rounder in this year’s draft (lottery protected of course) to upgrade the roster.
So on Twitter the other day I threw out a hypothetical trade with the Flyers,
How would you feel about this trade?
Talbot + 2019 1st rounder (protected) + Puljujarvi
For
Wayne Simmonds and Nolan Patrick?
— BLH (Edmonton Oilers Enthusiast} (@BeerLeagueHeroe) January 6, 2019
That proposal was only slightly hypothetical and after that performance against Anaheim, I’d be hard-pressed to trade Talbot but I believe the Oilers are interested in bringing Wayne Simmonds to play alongside Connor McDavid. Hitchcock likes having big bodies who are good along the boards and can play net-front, right? Yes, Simmonds is a UFA at season’s end and he’ll be 31 next season but he can still skate, score (on pace for 24 goals this year), and get dirty (53 PIMs).
I’m guessing the Flyers are having a tough time re-signing him and their desperation for a starting goalie is growing stronger by the loss. I am not sure how much money the Oilers would offer him to stay, perhaps just a bit more than he’s making now which is $3.975 million.
What would you offer him? $5.5 million for four years? Three years? How could the Oilers learn from the Milan Lucic debacle but still get their kind of man without developing him from within.
You probably noticed a former 2nd overall pick and 4th overall pick in that trade too. I’m not exactly sure what’s going on with Patrick in Philly. He’s not progressing as quickly as they’d like I suppose and he’s been injured quite a bit, but he’s a name I tossed out there to my source and I was told he’d very likely be the ask if Jesse Puljujarvi was included in the deal.
NOOOOOOO!!! DO. NOT. TRADE. PULJUJARVI!
I will not be a very happy Oilers fan if Pulju gets dealt, that much can be said.
Another name that is making the rounds is that of former Edmonton Oilers, Jordan Eberle!
Bob Stauffer brought him up on Friday during his show and I was asked how I felt about the Oilers potentially bringing him in by my source. To me, that says this is a serious consideration from the organization. To add to that, Jordan isn’t having a great time in Long Island since joining the club and I guess his significant other feels the same. They’re looking to go to a smaller market after this year and what better small market than Edmonton, right?
What would you pay Eberle now? He’s on pace for 14 goals right now and those are not numbers worthy of a $6 million player. Would you give him three years at $4 million per? I think I might.
Two other names that have popped up are Charles Hudon of the Montreal Canadiens and Daniel Carr of the Vegas Golden Knights.
Hudon has three goals and one assist in 23 games this year. That’s a stark contrast to what he produced last season (ten goals and 20 assists). He’s on an expiring contract worth 650k and he’ll be an RFA at the end of the year.
Whereas Carr is dominating the AHL right now (15g 20a in 24 gp). He makes 750k this season and is a UFA this summer.
The interesting thing about Carr and Hudon is that they have a history together ripping it up for Montreal’s farm teams in Hamilton and St. John’s from 2014-15 to 2016-17. They’re both high energy players, they’re quick and they play an honest game.
Bonus: Carr is a local lad. Born in Sherwood Park, he played midget in Leduc and junior for the St. Albert Steel.
I imagine Edmonton might try to peddle Matt Benning to Montreal for Hudon and wait to sign Carr in the off-season. \
I’ve also heard Colton Sceviour is a target the Oilers have been watching this year. He makes $1.2 million for two more years after this.
Tying It All Together
Here’s a potential snapshot of what the Oilers roster COULD look like next year if everything were to go to plan.
Draisaitl-McDavid-Simmonds
XXX (Lee)-RNH-Eberle
Hudon–Patrick-Yamamoto
Sceviour-Khaira-Kassian
Brodziak-Carr/Tanev
I have the Oilers buying out Spooner. It would cost them $1.3 million for two seasons to do that. The alternative is playing him beside RNH and Ebs… Can’t see it though.
Rattie, Gambardella, Rieder are all let go or signed to two-way deals.
There are some tasty UFAs that could hit the market this summer for that LW spot that include Jeff Skinner, Anders Lee, Ryan Dzingel, and Michael Ferland but at what cost? Lee would be awfully nice to have there for $6.5 million or so…
As for that extra forward spot, I think a player like Brandon Tanev would fit in there perfectly. His tenaciousness and work ethic would be very welcome on this team. Similar to Carr in my mind.
There’s also the question of Alex Chiasson. Would the Oilers walk away from his career-high in goals or re-sign him and for how much? I have him gone in my scenario though.
Klefbom-Larsson
Nurse-Russell
Jones-Gravel
Bouchard
Brandon Manning is either bought out as well (916k in year one, 666k in year two) or sent to the minors and I think his cap hit would only be a shade over a million dollars then. I’ve also got Petrovic walking but I feel like they’d prefer to retain him over Manning.
I’m of the belief that the Oilers won’t trade Russell. We’re seeing just how valuable he is to the players on this team. The emergence of Caleb Jones is making me wonder if the team might reconsider trading for a PP QB like Justin Faulk or Tyson Barrie now…
Kevin Gravel has played his way to a new contract in my opinion. He’s been very good when deployed in the correct slot and I hope they keep him.
As for Evan Bouchard, he’ll be too old for the OHL next season. My prediction is that he makes the team out of camp due to him having the best shot and the best passing ability. What concerns me is that his defensive reads and skating aren’t up to par and maybe two months in Bakersfield would do him a lot of good learning under the tutelage of Dave Manson.
Koskinen
XXX (Francouz)
I would see if Pavel Francouz would sign on the cheap here and form the KHL duo. Do you think Mikko Koskinen would sign for $4M?
Now when I said “if everything goes to plan”, that means the following,
- Lucic is moved with 50% retained and no players come back to Edmonton. (Better case scenario is he retires and forfeits the pay.)
- Andrej Sekera never plays another game for the Oilers again and it’s off to Ference island for him. That’d be a headache come day 1 of the season each remaining year on his deal though as the Oilers would only be able to dig into his IR cushion after that date.
- New signings and re-signings take haircuts on their deals.
I’m not getting too in-depth here. I think there are some problems cap-wise with my roster above but I just wanted to give a brief overview of what the Oilers roster COULD look like if the hockey gords shined the good light on Edmonton for an off-season.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments section!
PS: Hi Darcy! How’s the wood? Need any shirts done up?
