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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Sportsnet
How Oilers should address their goaltending ahead of trade deadline
- Skinner can be part of any solution. He’s a nice young goalie. But the Oilers have nurtured this player along too well to throw him to the wolves now.
- Taking a prospect and pinning your team’s playoff hopes on him is bad business.
- Now, if Smith isn’t considerably better in his next start, it’s his last one for a while. I’m farming him out and calling up Skinner.
- …the word on the proverbial street is that Edmonton is not Marc-Andre Fleury’s first choice as a trade destination.
- The only other significant upgrade we can identify is New York Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov…There is a deal to be made that could easily include Mikko Koskinen’s $4.5 million cap hit, though with Isles GM Lou Lamoriello is under no pressure to trade, the price at the NHL Trade Deadline will be higher than it would be at the June Draft.
- In the past four years, Holtby has a .905 saves percentage, and the Stars are battling Edmonton in the wild-card race. But, he’s a pending UFA. If Dallas falls off I would consider.
- Would you trade Carter Hart, if you were the Flyers?
- Rangers backup Alexander Georgiev? He has an .898 behind a good Rangers team.
- Detroit’s Tomas Greiss? You could get him, but his numbers are no better than Koskinen’s.
- James Reimer? Great guy, awesome backup, but has Reimer ever been a goalie worth giving up a first-round pick for? A legit ‘A’ goalie? Not for me.
BLH’s Thoughts: I’ve been saying it for months. I think there’s a strong chance that Holland doesn’t upgrade his goaltending during the season and that sucks when the guy who’s supposed to be your #1 is having a tough time getting up to speed when the team needs him at the top of his game.
I do not mind the idea of acquiring Varlamov. He’s got playoff pedigree, behind a fantastic Barry Trotz Islanders team albeit, and he’s simply the odd man out on a New York team who simply prefers Ilya Sorokin at this point.
Spec says he’d give up a first rounder and a prospect like Dmitri Samorukov for the Russian keeper in addition to sending Mikko Koskinen.
Now, I don’t mind that deal per se, but it does handcuff the team in the offseason should somebody better be available, like Darcy Kuemper, Marc-Andre Fleury, or the guy I’d like, Ville Husso, plus they’d have three NHL goalies on their roster who’d have be waivers eligible. Some might argue that if Varlamov or Smith got claimed, that might not be a bad thing necessarily though… Your mileage may vary.
Oilersnation
Weekly Rumours – Will the Oilers have a busy deadline?
- Eric Duhatschek of The Athletic says that there have been reports coming out of the Czech Republic linking the Oilers to Chicago Blackhawks forward Dominik Kubalik…
- …let’s say the Seattle Kraken are open to trading Carson Soucy but they want Kailer Yamamoto to be a part of the deal. Could the Oilers do that and then give up a draft pick to get Kubalik from Chicago?
- The more I look at what the Oilers could do ahead of the deadline, the more it becomes evident that finding a taker for Tyson Barrie is going to be very important.
- Frank Seravalli has five goalies on his most recent trade targets list: Marc-Andre Fleury, Alexandar Georgiev, Braden Holtby, Joonas Korpisalo, and Anton Forsberg.
- I have a lot of time for Alexandar Georgiev but, I wonder if the Oilers are maybe more interested in a short-term solution?
- 27-year-old Andrew Copp is the type of player that every contender would love to add into their lineup. He’s on pace for close to 20-goals and brings an element of physicality. The Jets could potentially get a first-round pick for him.
BLH’s Thoughts: Would you swap Yamamoto and a draft pick for Soucy and Kubalik? I don’t know if I would right now.
Yesterday, on Oilers Now, Elliotte Friedman and Bob Stauffer were mentioning that the Islanders are in the market for an offensive defenseman. The Oilers have one they’re willing to move in Tyson Barrie. Could they work out a deal that would somehow net them Semyon Varlamov and Scott Mayfield whilst sending a package to New York that includes Mikko Koskinen and Tyson Barrie?
My own wishes aside, I still do not believe the Oilers will make a trade for a goalie in-season and it appears that they will go with three netminders on the roster starting next week if you’ve been listening to the rhetoric out of the club’s “state media” and that falls in line with what Ken Holland has been saying about the answers needing to come internally. I think it also speaks to the fact that Holland isn’t going to be held ransom for a goaltender that might not be better than what he’s got already.
Also, I’d be shocked if the club sent Koskinen or Smith to Bakersfield. He could waive them in hopes that it would facilitate a trade, but Holland isn’t heartless and he knows these guys have families and pride being the vets they are. You’d have to be completely void of emotion and empathy if you thought those two things should be non-factors.
The feeling I get is that Holland is going to wait as long as he can to see if two of his goalies can carry this team, but be cautioned, this stretch of games where they play(ed) MIN, TB, FLA, and CAR probably won’t have the club judging the goaltending so much as the overall team play. Meaning, if the team plays well but loses due to it’s lack of talent between the pipes, MAYBE that ups the urgency to find another option there. But if the losses are due to other factors, I reckon Holland is going to stand pat.
Despite the likes of Frank Seravalli saying the Oilers “Have to do something!” as it pertains to a trade, they, in fact, do not.
For me, I think the Oilers need to address the fact that they’re running four defensemen who are basically rookies and it should be no surprise to anybody why ELITE teams like Minnesota and Tampa Bay are having their ways with Edmonton. In addition to that, Woodcroft has been using Mike Smith in the same manner Dave Tippett did and I suspect that’s because the players feel more comfortable with him in net (not sure if that’s still the case), but I’m not against the club giving Mikko and Skinner a few more starts at this point.
Spector’s Hockey
- BALLY SPORTS MIDWEST’s Andy Strickland tweeted yesterday the Nashville Predators “are actively shopping superstar Filip Forsberg.”
- CALGARY HOCKEY NOW: Steve Macfarlane cites Flames assistant general manager Craig Conroy yesterday telling Sportsnet 960 saying a contract extension for Johnny Gaudreau is “a done deal”.
- WASHINGTON HOCKEY NOW: Sammi Silber wondered if the Capitals could have Montreal Canadiens forward Artturi Lehkonen on their radar.
- PITTSBURGH HOCKEY NOW: Dan Kingerski believes the Penguins could use some help among their middle-six forwards. His suggested trade targets include Columbus’ Max Domi, Philadelphia’s James van Riemsdyk, Vancouver’s Brock Boeser, Montreal’s Artturi Lehkonen and Seattle’s Jared McCann.
