Alrighty, let’s make this Edmonton Oilers rumor update a quicky so you can get back to your lunch! But first, the preface!
- Oilers offered Alex Chiasson a 3-yr deal worth $1.5M per year, Chiasson’s camp countered with $2M per year and Edmonton hung up the phone…
I wouldn’t give this guy $1.5M per year… What in the world makes anybody think that he’s going to replicate this again? As much as I like Chiasson’s performances, he’s cooled off severely since his hot start, just as he said he would when he was getting interviewed at the beginning of the year. He starts off hot with new teams and then goes cold. IMO, if he doesn’t want to sign for $1M on a one-year deal, thank him for his services and move on.
- Andrej Sekera is most likely making his return to the Oilers roster by the weekend and Edmonton is going to have to make a couple of roster moves to do that. Word is that they’ll waive Brandon Manning and Alex Petrovic in hopes that at least one of them gets claimed.
JE-SUS… What a mess these boys have to clean up here. Now, you might be wondering to yourself, “Didn’t you support those moves?”
I tried to find the positive in the moves. To my eye, Manning has been way superior to Petrovic so far and that’s not a great thing for Josh Marshall’s good buddy. But it might not matter if they both hit the waiver wire.
They said before that the Oilers were working as a committee to get things done. For example, Bob Stauffer talked about Hall and Eberle being traded and referred to those trades as “organizational trades”. We remember when Hitchcock came in, he said he was the one that had Puljujarvi recalled. Then, later on, he thanked “Keith especially” after the Petrovic/Manning trades. Oh and don’t forget Bob Nicholson saying that Chia wasn’t the only person working on the Koskinen contract… Now we’re being told that it was all Chiarelli…
I think people don’t realize just how much autonomy and power Peter actually had. He was the architect of everything, Nicholson let him do his job. Remember when he was hired, people felt he needed to be left alone to make decisions as part of a new guard. He was.
— Ryan Rishaug (@TSNRyanRishaug) February 10, 2019
https://twitter.com/TheOilKnight/status/1095060072793665536
Well, I can pretty much tell you with a high degree of certainty that Chiarelli wasn’t working alone but that he made a lot of the final decisions on player acquisitions/contracts that a lot of the other members of the management team didn’t agree with.
A lot of folks get pissy at the pro scouting department but from what I’ve gathered, Chiarelli didn’t have time for those that opposed him. Going as far as removing them from meetings. Word has it that Peter preferred the word of his brother Mike when it came to scouting.
- The Oilers are still taking calls on Cam Talbot.
Oh boy… I hope they get something good for this guy but I’m not hopeful on it. He’ll play great one game and shite the next. He does have a clause in his deal that gives him the choice as to where he’s traded but since that Chicago game (and subsequent trade demand), I don’t think he’s going to make a fuss about it.
I wonder if Columbus might make sense should they find a way to move Sergei Bobrovsky. Personally, Philadelphia makes the most sense to me. Their need for a mentor for Carter Hart and a goalie that could be a short-term stop gap for a couple of seasons while Hart gets broken in just tells me there’s a fit there.
- Rieder and Kassian are bring shopped HARD.
Kassian has been playing quite well as of recent. Well enough to get back on the 1st line with McDavid and Draisaitl at least. Whereas Rieder STILL hasn’t scored a goal. If there’s a team out there that’ll take either of these boys off the Oilers’ hands without Edmonton retaining salary, GET. IT. DONE!
- Oilers like Zuccarello
This would be a fine acquisition if there weren’t rumors of him wanted to sign back in NY this summer… If those rumors are indeed true, his price won’t be high, so Edmonton might pick him up after all. I wouldn’t bet your house on it though.
- Brodziak could be moved out for a younger 4C
Yeah… Not so sure on this one. I don’t know any teams that would want to pick Brodziak up really. If he does move, it’ll be right on deadline day and that trade will be a fallback deal for some team that missed out on another one.
I think they should go with Jujhar Khaira as 4C. I watched the Leafs do it with Frederik Gauthier and he’s a worse player than JJ in my opinion.
So there you have it. The latest up to date info on the Oilers! Have a great day!
