December 13, 2022 /

Just Getting Puljujarvi’s $3M Off the Books Would be an “Internal Win” for Oilers Says Nugent-Bowman

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The Athletic 

If the Oilers can trade Jesse Puljujarvi, where is he likely to end up?
  • “I’m told the Oilers are now at a point where trading Puljujarvi to open all or most of his $3 million cap hit would be considered an internal win.”
  • “The plan was to trade Puljujarvi in the summer, but a second-round pick or futures wasn’t the preferred return. Holland told The Athletic before the draft that he wasn’t going to give Puljujarvi away. Instead, the ask from the Oilers was a player who could help the club immediately.”
  • “The Oilers are also hoping they’ll have a readymade, in-house replacement for Puljujarvi next season in 2021 first-rounder Xavier Bourgault.”
  • “…as lousy as it would be to sell low on Puljujarvi, it would behoove Holland to get the best deal he can — and probably as soon as he can even though the winger could still be a useful piece this season. Clearing Puljujarvi’s money off the books is the ticket here.”
  • “Blue Jackets blueliner Vladislav Gavrikov, a pending UFA and perhaps their top trade target ahead of the deadline, carries a $2.8 million cap hit.”
  • “Only two NHL teams have more cap space than the Ducks, so they could easily take on Puljujarvi’s cap hit if they wanted. They apparently had interest in Puljujarvi over the summer.”
  • “The Hurricanes have long been linked to Puljujarvi in part because of their large contingent of Finnish players, including star centre Sebastian Aho… The Oilers would almost certainly need to take something back from the contending Hurricanes, which makes a match hard to fathom.”
  • “The Jets could use a big forward with solid possession metrics and forechecking acumen, especially considering they’re without Nikolaj Ehlers and Mason Appleton at right wing.”
  • “It would be a low-risk move for any of Arizona, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit or Ottawa with some chance of a decent reward.”

BLH’s Thoughts: It was only a matter of time and I hate to be the type to say I told you so, but here we are with DNB reporting that the Oilers would consider trading Puljujarvi for the $3M in cap space a win. 

So either Jesse will get traded for futures that will open up cap space for Holland to work with or he’ll be the financial considerations part of a larger trade like one involving Klingberg, Kane, Karlsson, and the like. Maybe they could get lucky and MTL would swap Edmundson for him. 

As for Gavrikov, I have a hard time seeing the GM of the guy who could’ve had Jesse in 2016 trading for him and on top of that the BJs are apparently asking a King’s ransom for the Russian defender. One would assume that if a team is paying a big price to get Gavrikov that they have eyes on re-signing him as well and he’ll be asking around $6M/yr (max term) and I don’t know how the Oilers make that happen. 

As soon as McLeod is back the team will move him. I can’t wait… 

GM 30: Oilers @ Predators

Who’s Hot for Nashville in their Last Five Games
  • #59 Roman Josi – 1g 3a
  • #92 Ryan Johansen – 2g 2a
  • #9 Filip Forsberg – 1g 3a
Who’s Hot for Edmonton in their Last Five Games
  • #97 Connor McDavid – 6g 6a
  • #29 Leon Draisaitl – 3g 5a
  • #93 Ryan Nugent Hopkins – 4g 4a

BLH’s Thoughts: The Preds are on a 3-game skid at the moment and 5-3-2 in their last ten but they’ve got an all-time record of 44-30-3-4 record against Edmonton and are usually very good at home. This season they’re 7-4-2 at Bridgestone arena but all-time they’ve got a .619 winning percentage there and for my money, it’s the best in-game experience the NHL has to offer. The crowd is infinitely better than that up in Edmonton and that works in favor of Nashville in my opinion. 

What might work in the Oilers’ favor though is the fact that the Predators are without some very physical dmen in Mark Borowiecki, Jeremy Lauzon, and Ryan McDonagh. In place of those blueliners former Oiler farmhand Kevin Gravel has been playing and a dman who’s had a tough time breaking it into the NHL since he was drafted back in 2014, Roland McKeown. 

What I will advise you to do is watch Nashville’s third line. According to Daily Faceoff they’ve got some real hammers on that line in Yakov Trenin and Tanner Jeannot. Centering them is 6’2″ 203lb Juuso Parssinen. It’s a very heavy line and if John Hynes was watching the game last night, he’d best used these battering rams in abundance. 

Now, what I’m hoping to see is some common sense on Jay Woodcroft’s part tonight and what I mean by that is I would like him to be smart with his TOI deployment. If he keeps using the big boys as much as he is, they’re going to run out of gas or worse, get hurt.

The Holloway-Hamblin-Puljujarvi line could use some extra time on the ice because they’re keeping their heads above water and let’s be honest, they’re not playing bad enough to warrant 4th line ice. 

In seven games, this trio has the following:

  • 67% CF%
  • 62% FF%
  • 56% SF%
  • 70% xGF%
  • 66% HDCF%

And they’ve not allowed a goal against with all three on the ice at the same time… 

Now, to offer some context, all of that comes from 22 minutes together. So it’s a small sample size but the numbers are high enough that it warrants further exploration. 

Twitter

BLH’s Thoughts: As Bob Stauffer famously likes to say… The players are usually the first to know… 

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CategoriesArmchair GM Beer League Hero Edmonton Oilers NHL Rumors

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Beer League Hero Written by:

I'm the Beer League Hero! I am from Camrose, Alberta but I make my home in Taipei City, Taiwan. I've been through the ups and downs and the highs and the Lowes, the Bonsignores and the McDavids, the Sathers and the Eakins but I'll never leave my Oilers, no matter what! They're with me until the end and then some. GO OILERS GO!