Edmonton Oilers Talk: Can Dave Tippett’s Squad Outscore their Mistakes in 2021-22?

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!

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Oilersnation (Laing)

Edmonton Oilers player review and 2021-22 preview: Gaetan Haas

Haas was just what the Oilers needed — a steady defensive forward. His underlying numbers were far from great, but I think you can point to the fact he started the majority of his shifts in the defensive zone and had a very low on-ice shooting percentage of just 4.95 percent…
With him on the ice at 5×5, the Oilers controlled 43.56 percent of the shot attempts, 33.33 percent of the goals and 43.09 percent of the expected goal while posting a low 97.2 PDO.
At 5×5, he provided offence at an 11 percent rate below league average and defence at a staggering nine percent above league average.
…he provided some good value on the penalty kill, where the Oilers expected goals against rate was 12 percent better than league average with him on the ice.

BLH’s Thoughts: I loved Haas. The Swiss forward was so entertaining to watch because he had real speed and a quickness about him, he has tenacious and often first to the puck in any race he was involved in. He was gritty and unpredictable and it’s unfortunate he was miscast in Edmonton and probably should’ve been a winger due to his size and lack of strength.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNRouig_Eeo

The Athletic

Lowetide: What are reasonable expectations for the 2021-22 Oilers?

Expect more goals at both ends of the ice. Many more goals.
Special teams have been a key to success for the current Oilers, but overall the club has been under 30 shots per 60 minutes for several years.
Teams get clocked by Edmonton when the team is on the power play, but at even strength and overall the shots per 60 totals are outside the elite teams.
Tippett’s Oilers are scoring more goals on about the same number of shots, meaning the quality of chances have increased and/or accuracy has improved.
Entering the 2020-21 season, the Oilers were clearly established as a team that would surrender over 31 shots per 60 minutes.
Edmonton is a better than average team overall in goals against, owing to suppressing shot quality for opponents.
The Oilers in 2020-21 had the best goals-against since 2016-17, the season most fans would pick as the best of the McDavid era.
The 2020-21 season delivered the best results since 2016-17, owing to strong outscoring numbers by the team’s best players, along with Mike Smith in goal and fine work by Larsson (1.90 goals-against per 60 at five-on-five) in a workhorse shutdown role.
Holland added several forwards (Zach Hyman, Warren Foegele, Derek Ryan) to the established group in hopes of finding two scoring lines and a No. 3 line that could get closer to outscoring opponents at five-on-five.
He also brought in several top-nine forwards who can penalty kill.
Edmonton’s forwards are going to give the team a more dynamic even-strength presence. Expect more than last season’s 2.82 goals per 60 at even strength…
Defending will be the issue and that will include all three pairings.
In goal, Smith had a strong season one year ago (.923 save percentage), and Mikko Koskinen had struggles early and late but ran well when he was on enough rest. An example: In his 10 games between Feb. 9 and April 28, Koskinen posted a 6-4-0 record with a 2.25 goals-against average and a .929 save percentage.
The Oilers will need at least that level of goaltending to keep competitive with the defence in front of Smith or Koskinen.
If the Oilers play all 82 games scheduled in 2021-22, the club could score as many as 285 goals.
How many points will McDavid deliver in 2021-22? A 150-point season seems probable. If the goal is a deep playoff run, a deadline tweak for a goaltender may be necessary. It’s tough to win in the playoffs with chaos defence, no matter how many goals the Oilers score.

BLH’s Thoughts: The Oilers only play seven games in the first month of the season, so we may not know what this team is until well into the second month when their workload doubles. If Edmonton is going to outscore their opponents handily and consistently, they’d best do it from the get go and build up an early points percentage advantage in the standings.

NHLRumors.com

Sara Civian of The Athletic: (mailbag) Believe that the Carolina Hurricanes will sign restricted free agent forward Andrei Svechnikov to a bridge contract with a salary cap hit between $7 and $8 million.

The Hurricanes have been linked to Vladimir Tarasenko.

Lyle Richardson of The Hockey News: 24-year old restricted free agent forward Kirill Kaprizov reportedly has a $10 million-ish contract offer from CSKA of the KHL. His name could come up in the rumor mill.

If the Wild were to consider trading Kaprizov, the number of teams that would be able to fit in a big contract would limited. 11 teams have over $10 million in cap space, but many of those teams have other issues that need to be addressed.

Three potential fits could be the Buffalo Sabres (previous links involving Jack Eichel), Anaheim Ducks and the Detroit Red Wings.

BLH’s Thoughts: The balls on this Russian are the size of the Kremlin, aren’t they? To turn down a $9M/yr contract after one season in the league blows my mind. He won’t be making any friends amongst the players, that’s for sure and if I were Bill Guerin, I’d let him play in Moscow for the year. Minnesota could use that $9M elsewhere to bolster their lineup, could they not? Better yet, make the deal for Eichel and use Kaprizov as the anchor to the trade.