Coming from an Edmonton Oilers point of view, BLH provides you with excerpts from the latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation from all of the internet’s best sites including Spector’s Hockey, The Fourth Period, NHL Trade Talk, The Hockey Writers, Sportsnet, The Athletic, TSN and more!
Always possibility Holland trades for forward before expansion draft and protects him as sixth or seventh F. LW DeBrusk comes to mind if Bruins sign UFA Hall by July 17 when expansion team lists are finalized
— Jim Matheson (@jimmathesonnhl) June 29, 2021
From Oilers Now
Yesterday on Oilers Now, host Bob Stauffer laid out a potential offseason plan for the Edmonton Oilers now that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has been re-signed to an 8yr deal.
- “I wonder if the play for Edmonton is maybe to find a guy in the $4.5M range on a team that needs to shed some salary, has a LW and then a couple of $3M players for the third line. That maybe the route to go and then also look at re-signing Adam Larsson and signing a guy at $3M-$4M as second pairing left D. Time will tell in that regard.”
BLH’s Thoughts: So, there are four LWs who make between $4M and $5M per year in the NHL right now according to capfriendly.com and they are Jonathan Marchessault ($5M, VGK), Andre Burakovsky ($4.9M, COL), Alex Killorn ($4.45M, TB), and Alex Iafallo ($4M, LA). You could probably mess about with the filters on that page and come up with some more players who’ve played LW but aren’t listed as such though. As it stands, these are the four I found though and if I was a betting man, I’d say Killorn is the fella Bob’s referring to (and has been referring to for weeks now).
As for the $3M players for the third line, your guess is as good as mine I suppose. Are those free agent adds or trade acquisitions or a combination of both?
Here’s a list from puckpedia.com of all the centers/left wings who’ll be making between $2.55M and $3.6M next season. Maybe our guys are in there.
The $3M-$4M LHD could be anybody from Ian Cole to Alex Edler, Brendan Smith (Holland connection), Jake McCabe (Stauffer’s mentioned him before), or Mike Reilly. I’ve not the foggiest with this one, folks. What I will bet on is it’ll be somebody with size and adept at moving the puck. Maybe that’s Kulikov for another year, who knows?
From TSN
What does Nugent-Hopkins signing mean for Oilers?
Darren Dreger: It was a big signing, lots of negotiating. There were stretches where there wasn’t a lot of talking but it was [a] priority for both Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and the Edmonton Oilers to get something done. Nugent-Hopkins probably left money on the table but he got the term. RNH was a priority for Edmonton general manager Ken Holland, as is Adam Larsson. I believe the Larsson negotiations are into the final stretch and will get done soon. Once Larsson’s deal gets done, then Holland will dive deeper into the off-season, looking for help up front through free agency and obviously bolstering his goaltending as well.
BLH’s Thoughts: So, do you think now that Ken Holland has found a way to get Nuge to take a discount on his deal that he can do the same thing with Adam Larsson? And what are the odds that Holland follows up this fanbase-friendly signing (Nuge) with one that will have that very same set of supporters absolutely irate like he did last year when he got Tyson Barrie under contract and then re-signed goaltender Mike Smith?
From the New York Post
Rangers look into Jack Eichel’s condition in preliminary Sabres talks
The Rangers have displayed increased interest in scoping out Jack Eichel’s medical condition and have had preliminary talks with the Sabres regarding his availability, The Post has been told by several sources — but it is unclear whether general manager Chris Drury is simply performing due diligence or is seriously interested in dealing for the Sabres’ disenchanted center.
If the Rangers were to formally enter the Eichel Derby, one would presume that Ryan Strome, with one year left on his deal at a $4.5 million cap hit prior to unrestricted free agency, would be part of the mix going the other way.
Then figure a mix of prospects that would likely come from a pool featuring, but not necessarily limited to, Vitali Kravtsov, Zac Jones and Nils Lundkvist, plus at least one upcoming first-rounder. The Sabres might demand/ask for Kaapo Kakko and/or K’Andre Miller, but that would seem to represent a non-starter.
Kevyn Adams really needs some quality veterans for that team though… 4th liner Kyle Okposo is the oldest player at 33 years old…
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