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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Heavy Hockey Network
Edmonton Oilers Headlines, NHL Buyouts, and VGK Cup Winners
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- “One million plus incentives. I’ve heard it’s already done and at 12am on July 1st it’ll be announced. Literally on paper, the ink’s dry. Connor Brown can’t wait to be here. He wanted to be here last time but he got traded to Washington instead. Now he’s a free agent, he shares an agent with Connor McDavid, he used to be on McDavid’s line in Erie, they’re buddies from way back, he can live in Connor McDavid’s basement and take his girlfriend’s dog for a walk and whatever the hell needs to happen.”
BLH’s Thoughts: Well, there’s our boy Dash breaking the news a whole nine days in advance of the opening of free agency! Take that Seravalli, Friedman, Dreger, Rishaug, and Tracy Lane.
I don’t really buy the whole sharing the agent with 97 and playing together in junior thing as reasons that he’d sign in Edmonton. To me, they just sound like storyline narratives that can be regurgitated over and over by media members. I mean, if that’s the case, we should be hearing tons about how Puljujarvi is going to sign in Dallas because he shares an agent with Roope Hintz and Esa Lindell and he played with Hintz on the 15/16 Finnish u20 team that won the gold medal.
Now, if you take all of that garbage and toss it aside, then we can look at the real reason Brown would sign in Edmonton and why the Oilers would want him to, apart from the fact that he’s willing to come in cheap, that is.
Dash said he’s an ELITE penalty killer and he’s kinda right in one sense.
From 19/20 to 21/22, no other right winger averaged more time on the PK than Brown at 2:41. No other forward played more than him on the PK during those seasons either and he’s still in the top-20 if you throw in the dmen.
Clearly his coaches in Ottawa valued his toolbox with a man down, but if we look at his relative stats in the categories of GA/60 and xGA/60 amongst forwards with at least 200 minutes of TOI on the kill, he ranks 86th out of 138 in GA/60 rel and 105th out of 138th in xGA/60. That’s his impact on his own away from his teammates and if I’m looking for somebody to come in an impact my PK in a positive manner, those numbers might have me looking at Garnet Hathaway, Jesper Fast or Mattias Janmark (Again)…
Admittedly, I could be wrong in how I’m reading those stats because of how much DJ Smith, Jack Capuano, and Davis Payne rode him when the Sens were down a man. I mean if he ate ass while he was out there, they wouldn’t’ve used him as much as they did, right?
But that’s strictly looking at the signing from a PK point of view. If he does sign in Edmonton, we’ll take a gander at the rest of his game.
The other thing is, and I’m going to harp on this all offseason and into the next campaign if Dash is right, the Oilers cannot rely on him like he’s Mark Stone and the expectations have to come in low but they won’t because of those dreamy narratives and the cheap deal w/incentives.
The remedy? Stauffer calls him Hyman-lite, so they’ve got to play him like Hyman-lite and that guy is a middle-six not a top-six forward. Meaning his centers should be Draisaitl and McLeod unless the plan is to lean on Leon and drop 97’s TOI but even then, Connor Brown vs Elite competition… Sounds like a dodgy proposition BUT we’ll have to wait and see.
The Athletic
Five burning Edmonton Oilers questions ahead of the NHL Draft and free agency
- How things will (likely) end up with Yamamoto.
- “The Oilers are going to exhaust every option to ensure they’re not only avoiding paying a sweetener but also getting a little something in return for Yamamoto in a trade. Really, the biggest reward for them at this point is having that $3.1 million — Yamamoto’s cap hit — in available space.”
- WIll Bouchard be signed before free agency starts?
- “Holland sure made it sound like a one-year contract was the most likely outcome given the team’s cap challenges. He also acknowledged that talks between him and Bouchard’s camp could have gone better.
- What happens with Broberg?
- “Broberg has another season left on his entry-level contract. He can go to and from the minors without being subjected to waivers. I’m not sure how much more there is to learn in the AHL… It’s also hard to see how that kind of ice time is possible with the Oilers. Has it come time to trade him?”
- Will the Oilers deal anybody else?
- “The Oilers will have to trade at least one other veteran with a notable cap hit to change the complexion of the roster. The choices there are Cody Ceci, Brett Kulak and Warren Foegele.”
- WIll the Oilers use the 2nd round pick?
- “Holland said that he expects to select a player with the second-round pick. Other options: packaging it as part of a trade for immediate help or moving it to trade down and, say, acquire two third-round picks.”
BLH’s Thoughts: Yamo’s gone.
I don’t think Broberg starts the year in Edmonton.
Bouchard might give Holland the gears and find himself practicing with the London Knights when training camp starts.
I don’t think they trade anybody unless it’s a clear roster upgrade coming in.
The 2nd rounder will be traded.
Trade Rumors
Spector’s Hockey
- Pierre LeBrun reports Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck, Anaheim’s John Gibson, Philadelphia’s Carter Hart and New Jersey’s Mackenzie Blackwood could potentially be traded.
- Mark Larkin lists six potential trade destinations for Alex DeBrincat… Larkin listed the Carolina Hurricanes, Detroit Red Wings, Florida Panthers, New York Rangers, Pittsburgh Penguins and St. Louis Blues as landing spots for DeBrincat.
BLH’s Thoughts: Buffalo is going to get themselves one helluva goalie this year, aren’t they? LA and Carolina might hop into that conversation as well. Would Vegas take a stab or are they finally going to settle down with Adin Hill? What’s Robin Lehner’s status these days?
I think Jeremy Swayman or Linus Ullmark might join that list too.
I wonder if the Rangers would swap Kakko or Lafrenniere for Debrincat or would they contemplate moving Panarin? I could’ve sworn I heard somebody on Marek’s podcast saying that the Breadman isn’t getting a lot of love from the Rangers these days. NMC probably puts an end to that idea though.
That said, I’m very curious as to what Kyle Dubas is going to do in PIttsburgh. His boss owns the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool FC and they went to great lengths in the early days of those ownerships to right the ship. Basically I’m saying the pockets are deep and they are very supportive of their managements for the most part. I think Hextall and Burke kinda of fooked it themselves in that case but the Red Sox and LFC have been very successful since John Henry bought them… The Pens should follow in that trend.
