This is your TL/DR (too long, didn’t read) summary post where excerpts are taken from the best of the best when it comes to Edmonton Oilers blogs. BLH gives you his two cents on the latest posts being published in the Oilogosphere! Including those from Lowetide.ca, The Athletic, Oilersnation, The Cult of Hockey, Copper N Blue, Oil on Whyte, and more!
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The Hockey Writers
3 Reasons the Oilers Stanley Cup Window Is Starting To Open
- Core Players Signed Long Term
The team will have a total of $40.875 million invested into their core (consisting of McDavid, Draisaitl, Nurse, Nugent-Hopkins, and Hyman) once the Nurse extension kicks in next season, which will account for approximately 50 percent of the teams’ cap hit (assuming an increase of $1 million to the current salary cap ceiling for next season). The Oilers will have both of their superstar centermen, two top-six wingers, and their number one defenseman all under contract together until the end of the 2024-25 season before Draisaitl becomes UFA.
- Key Oilers Entering Their Prime
Despite McDavid being only 24 years old, he is in his seventh NHL season and is an experienced NHL superstar entering his prime years. Nurse is also an all-situations, minute-eating defenseman who will be relied upon as the team’s number one, and he’s only 26 years of age with over 400 games of NHL experience.
The team will also have young players like Jesse Puljujarvi, Kailer Yamamoto, and Evan Bouchard transitioning from the early stages of their careers into their primes.
- Oilers’ Cap Space Available To Make Improvements
… the Oilers appear well equipped with their current roster to make some noise in the playoffs and have the potential to make a deep playoff run. The real salary cap flexibility comes into play during the 2022-23 season when some of their expiring contracts that likely won’t return come off the books.
With a total of eight players becoming restricted or unrestricted free agents at the end of the 2021-22 season, the Oilers will have a total of $12 million in cap space available to work with in the offseason. The only player of real significance that will command a good chunk of the available cap space would be Puljujarvi…
BLH’s Thoughts: $12M to re-sign Pulju, Killer, McLeod, Samorukov, Niemelainen, Berglund? It’s feasible I suppose, but how much is that new goalie going to cost? How much are JP and Yamamoto going to get? I’d argue that three players could eat that $12M up in no time and I do wonder how many of the RFAs in Bakersfield will be re-signed.
That said, Klefbom will go on LTIR again unless his contract is moved, but then Edmonton might have a guy like Dylan Holloway up on the big team and what that’d mean is bonuses that would eat into the cap.
The Oilers capologist is going to have his work cut out for him…
But to touch on this team entering its Stanley Cup window, by next season 90% of the roster that will compete for the NHL championship will be locked into place and all that will be left is the tinkering. Will Holland get his big name goalie between now and the start of the 2022 season? That might be all that’s remaining to take this club into the stratosphere.
The Athletic
Did Oilers general manager Ken Holland win the offseason?
- There has been progress in some important areas… In Hyman, Foegele and Ryan, Holland added three pieces to the team’s top nine, and all look capable in spite of early-season issues.
- The defence has a new look and is more stable in important areas.
- The goaltending has been a strength.
- …the team has more useful pieces and enough depth to survive injuries this season. McLeod, Samorukov and goalie Stuart Skinner might be part of the depth required for a successful season.
- Holland’s bets have paid off overall through seven games. The team is 6-1-0 after stumbling out of the blocks (3-4-0) last year. That’s progress.
BLH’s Thoughts: Hi! BLH here. Thanks for taking my call. First time, long time.
The moves Holland made, the ones he didn’t, and the ones he missed out on have all combined like the real life Dinobots to create the monster we are watching today. To add to that, there are eggs incubating in the heat of Bakersfield waiting to hatch and when they do, the Oilers will have even more weapons for the armory.
Is there another GM who had as good of an offseason as Edmonton’s did? I don’t think so, but your mileage may vary.
I’ll hang up and listen to your comments.
(Don’t ask me where that came from. I’m a child of the 80s… Just be happy I didn’t throw in a Racoons reference or something from M.A.S.K…)
NHLTradeRumor.com
- Darren Dreger was on Toronto’s local sports station TSN 1050 and he stated that he was almost certain Eichel would have been traded over the weekend to Vegas.
- Dreger went on to say that the Calgary Flames have significant interest in Eichel as they are not just kicking tires and inquiring. Dreger did not mention any names from Calgary that would be involved in a trade.
- Eric Stephens of The Athletic reports the Ducks have the salary cap space to take on Eichel’s contract, they also have young blue chip prospects the Buffalo Sabres want in an Eichel trade.
- Stephens went on to say, the Sabres would want one of Trevor Zegras or defenseman Jamie Drysdale for Eichel. It is believed the Ducks do not want to give up Zegras or Drysdale in a trade. The Ducks would rather give up Mason McTavish, Maxime Comtois or Troy Terry as part of a package along with draft picks.
- Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic reports Edmonton Oilers’ GM Ken Holland says he believes in his goaltending, “but there’s no question an upgrade is something he’d strongly consider — and something that’s more likely than not to occur.”
- Nugent-Bowman went on to say, that both Marc-Andre Fleury and John Gibson could be on the Oilers’ radar.
