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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Oilersnation
What’s next for the Edmonton Oilers?
- “In his press conference on Saturday, Ken Holland mentioned that he would like for the Oilers to add another center.”
- “Personally, I don’t see any necessity for this depth forward to be a center. They have five players with plentiful experience at center at the NHL level (McDavid, Draisaitl, RNH, McLeod, and Ryan).”
- “Still, if Edmonton is adamant about signing a depth center, there are some UFA options available.”
- Danton Heinen
- Denis Malgin
- Derek Stepan
- Paul Stastny
- Pius Suter
- Rasmus Asplund
- Tomas Nosek
- “When a team allocates $12.5M to a defensive pairing that is consistently out-scored at 5v5 in both the regular season and playoffs, they’ll have a difficult time winning a Stanley Cup.”
- “What Nurse needs to excel is a defensive partner that can effectively pass the puck out and defend the rush. Unfortunately, even in 2021-22, Ceci was an average rush defender at best, and an unexceptional breakout passer throughout his NHL career.”
- “EvolvingHockey projects (Ryan) McLeod at $1.3M for 1 year. Anything around the ~$1.5M range would be ideal for Edmonton, and it seems like fair value considering his production in a high-scoring league.”
- “They have roughly $7.16M in cap space to sign Bouchard, McLeod, Lavoie, and a 4C. Personally, I’m not opposed to the idea of running a 21-man roster to ensure Bouchard gets signed for multiple years, but realistically, it seems likely that Edmonton will move ahead with 22 players.”
BLH’s Thoughts: The few times I watched Detroit last year I thought Pius Suter was a good little foot soldier for the Red Wings. I took in quite a few Canes games and I say pass on Stepan and Stastny because the speed of the game has passed them by. I need some more time to look at Malgin, Heinen, Asplund, and Nosek before commenting on them.
I wonder if Vinnie Desharnais gets the Nurse assignment next season in the event that Woodcroft goes with Ekholm and Bouchard vs. the other teams’ heavies.
McLeod shouldn’t be getting more than his brother in my opinion. $1.5M this year would be just fine but I think he’s going to get a shade under/over $2M on a maybe a 2yr deal. That’s my prediction anyhow.
I feel like they’re going to get caught in an injury crisis should they decide to go with a 21-man roster. Another season of 11-7s coming up eh?
If the Oilers:
– buyout Campbell and sign a Stalock-type at league-minimum
– trade Kulak without retaining $
– go 12/7 with league-minimum types in the end-of-roster slots
they'd then have ~$10.3MM in cap space for next season, enough to go long on both Bouchard & McLeod.— Jonathan Willis (@JonathanWillis) July 3, 2023
The Superfan
Managing declining assets
- “One concern I have heading into next season is the top six, which no doubt has some excellent pieces. The issue is that it’s getting older, with Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Evander Kane all over 30 years old now and struggling to produce in the recent playoffs.”
- “Looking at how Evander Kane has performed relative to his team’s overall performance at even-strength, we see a declining trend with his team’s gradually doing better without him than with him.”
- “Last regular season, the Edmonton Oilers posted a Corsi For percentage of 50.93% at even-strength with Kane on the ice, a drop from the 52.55% Corsi For percentage without him on the ice.
- The team’s shared of expected goals, which factors in shot quality, was an even bigger drop off, as indicated by the lines in blue. Without Kane on the ice, the Oilers posted a 54.70% share of the expected goals (Source: Natural Stat Trick). With him on the ice, that share dropped to 48.08%, with the Oilers getting out-chanced more often.”
- “Just over 25% of his total ice time at even-strength last season was against elite-level competition, which is the second lowest proportion of ice time against this group in his career.”
- “This issue also has to be on the general manager’s radar. Kane’s value remains high across the league because of his experience and past results. This might be a good time for Ken Holland to find some much-needed creativity and courage and start creating a trade market for the player, maximizing a potential return.”
BLH’s Thoughts: Yeah… I don’t know if Kane’s contract is the real stick in the mud for Edmonton. Maybe, just maybe, Nurse’s and Campbell’s come first? And I’m going to make the argument that injuries played a huge factor last season for any statistical decline. Aside from having one’s arm completely detached from their body, severed tendons and broken fingers tend to come a close second to the most goal-debilitating injuries that an NHL winger can go through.
However, I do agree with Sunil in that the Oilers should start creating a trade market for him. With that in mind though, the Oilers aren’t going to promote from within there. If they can move Evander Kane they’ll just go out and sign/trade for the best LW they can and if he’s $5M and scores 20-25 goals a year, that’s a steal in my books.
But, I supposed that all changes if Holloway transforms into Taylor Hall-lite. I mean, even if Kane can’t be moved, I think one could argue that he’d be better off on the third line anyhow.
We’ll see. His health going forward concerns me, but I feel like Kane will bounce back this year after a full recovery from his injuries.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFFJCkRZG_c
Trade Rumors
Spector’s Hockey
- Bruce Garrioch reports Senators management continues working the phones trying to trade Alex DeBrincat.
- TSN’s Darren Dreger claiming the DeBrincat camp seeks an eight-year, $70.2 million contract.
- Dreger also indicated that the Michigan-born DeBrincat prefers to play in the United States for family reasons.
- Bally Sports Midwest’s Andy Strickland reporting free-agent winger Vladimir Tarasenko is mulling up to six offers from NHL clubs. Some are for one year while others are multi-year.
BLH’s Thoughts: I thought Tarasenko was signing with Carolina?
The Islanders need scoring bad. They should be all over Debrincat but who would they give up? Plus they’ve only got $1M in cap space at the moment.
Seattle could be another team possibly but every good roster player they have own a NTC or NMC. The Red Wings have long been in on Debrincat but can’t come to an agreement contract-wise. Nashville?
What about Washington? A Tom Wilson package would perk the Sens ears.
Of course Chicago and Anaheim because they’ve got copious amounts of cap space and young emerging teams in addition to lots of high-end prospects.
