Edmonton Oilers Offseason: Deangelo, Pesce, Tarasenko, and More NHL Rumors!

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?

“Working backwards from that $6,382,500 figure, if Holland wants to leave two league-minimum salary slots ($775,000) open on the roster for depth players, he would have $4,832,500 available to sign Bouchard and McLeod.”
“That seems doable if both restricted free agents are brought back on one-year pacts, but Frank Seravalli suggested on Saturday that the Oilers are looking at two-year bridge deals for both players. “I would ballpark Evan Bouchard in the two years, $3.75 million range and I would put McLeod in the two years, $2 million range,” Seravalli said.”
“…those aforementioned deals would leave the Oilers with just $632,500 in cap room and a roster size of 21.”
“It might be necessary to sign one or both of Bouchard and McLeod to cheaper one-year deals in order to leave more room open for reserves and shutting players up and down from AHL Bakersfield.”
“Bouchard isn’t going anywhere considering he’s one of the league’s best young defenders and the Oilers wouldn’t be able to replace what he brings for less than what he’s going to be paid. That isn’t necessarily the same case with McLeod. He’s an effective two-way forward who kills penalties but Holland might opt to flip him for a draft pick and use the savings to add a couple of cheaper players left on the open market.”

BLH’s Thoughts: Look, I’m not entirely ruling out a Bouchard trade or a McLeod one at this point… Being young and good doesn’t hold a lot of water in Holland’s guide and records book.

I am willing to bet that the Oilers could replace what Bouchard brings for less than what he’s going to be paid considering that Tony Deangelo could probably be had for under $3M/yr this season. I think Brandon Montour could do it for cheaper too. If the Oilers traded for Brett Pesce or Brady Skjei, I’m confident in their abilities to replace Bouchard AND bring more to the table to justify their salaries.

You can’t win on a bare bones roster. Sooner or later the coach is going to start overplaying his best players and by the time the playoffs are around when it makes sense to overplay them, they’ll be out of gas or hurt or both.

I’m telling you, the best thing would be to get rid of that Nurse contract before they have to pay to do it. Deal him to Philly for Sanheim and you’ve got Ekholm, Sanheim, Kulak, and Broberg plus the money to upgrade the depth.

Or at the very least ship out Campbell with Bourgault or a handful of other prospects like Savoie or Petrov and sign Jaro Halak or Aaron Dell for league minimum. Then bring in some stronger depth…

How long are we going to play this game?

The Athletic

Making sense of Oilers’ free-agent haul after initial flurry

“If healthy, Connor Brown brings a wide range of skills to the game. He can be trusted to play a responsible two-way style and deliver positive shot share relative to teammates. He forechecks well, turns over pucks and can contribute to his line offensively.”
“The downside of signing Brown is the bonus dollars ($3.225 million) and low threshold to reach that number (10 games played)… Those dollars, which could have been used on Evan Bouchard’s extension, are extremely likely to be an albatross to the 2024 offseason. The club could walk Warren Foegele next summer, or deal Cody Ceci, but it’s an enormous price to pay for 10 games.”
“The Oilers made a good bet, and (Lane) Pederson is a strong candidate to play NHL games for the big club this year.
” (Noel) Hoefenmayer signed an NHL deal with Edmonton and expecting an NHL appearance this season isn’t realistic.
- “Quoting Joshua Kloke at The Athletic, “He’s reading the play better than he has in the past. The Marlies staff have thrown him out against the kind of difficult competition they might not have planned on ahead of the season, but he’s responded with, generally, responsible play.””
“Ben Gleason is a puck-moving defenceman who has five years of AHL experience and has played in four NHL games.”
- “Gleason isn’t a big defender (6-foot-1, 190 pounds) and his raw defensive numbers suggest he is not as strong in that area of the game.”
- “Per 82 games in the AHL, Gleason has scored 8-32-40 boxcars during his career. He’s an excellent skater and passer, although just nine of his 33 points this season came with the man advantage.”
“It’s difficult to create a scenario where (Drake) Caggiula plays an extended period of time in Edmonton this winter, but if he gets hot and the team needs a veteran winger with speed, he would be an option for recall.”

BLH’s Thoughts: Maybe I’m just being pessimistic but none of these signings impress me and we’re settling back into “HOPE” mode again because of some unsavory contracts at the top of the Oilers roster.

That ending of that quote on Hoefenmayer was pretty not something that has me anticipating him as a future impact Oiler. “… He’s responded with generally, responsible play.”? What the hell is that? Not exactly a glowing report, is it? Sounds like he barely kept his head above water to me.

Lane Pederson hasn’t done anything of note yet and at 29 years old he’s on his 4th NHL club. To add to that, he’s not been able to spend an entire season without time in the AHL, but that’s not the worst part, the guy can’t stay healthy it seems. It appears that is something that has followed him throughout his entire career because going back to his rookie year in the WHL with Seattle he only played 63 games. His career high is 67 games back with Tuscon in 18/19…

Ben Gleason is a Steve Staios recommendation as the dman played for his OHL club when they one that league championship in 2018. I can get behind him a bit as he looks to be about a 40pt dman at the AHL level. Not sure if he’ll get that playing behind Niemelainen, Dineen, and possibly Broberg, but at least he’s shown he can migrate up the lineup and handle the responsibilities.

I’ve read that Caggiula was unlucky not to have made Pittsburgh’s team out of camp last year but if he was playing that well, why didn’t he get a recall later on in the year? Like I said yesterday, I think he could be an energy guy in a pinch for the Oilers but nothing more than that.

Getting back to Brown, if Edmonton had the money, he’d be nearly $4M against the cap right now. That’s how highly they value him and to prove that point even more, they’re sacrificing next year’s cap increase to play him this year. The only thing that will save them from that is if he can’t play 10 games in 23/24…

So, once again, next summer we’ll be bitching and moaning about money issues in the summer before Draisaitl goes UFA. Brutal.

Trade Rumors

Spector’s Hockey

On Saturday evening, Elliotte Friedman tweeted that the Ottawa Senators had had discussions with free-agent winger Vladimir Tarasenko. He indicated there were “some moving parts here”, referring to how things unfold with winger Alex DeBrincat.
(Jimmy) Murphy claimed numerous sources said Sweeney had had trade conversations regarding Grzelcyk, goaltenders Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman, blueliners Brandon Carlo and Derek Forbort and forwards Jake DeBrusk and Trent Frederic. It doesn’t mean the Bruins GM is shopping those players but rather that teams have inquired about them.

BLH’s Thoughts: Am I the only guy who’s kind of shocked to read that Tarasenko is being connected to the Senators? In my mind, there are other teams that make more sense for him than Ottawa and over the years Russian players have tended to sign on the east coast and play in places like New Jersey, Long Island, Florida, New York, Washington, or Tampa.

The Bruins have more moves to make. It’s still early days and I could see one of their goalies and a dman finding new addresses before the season starts. My question is, who are they targeting to bring in so that they can stay a Cup contender in 2023/24? I know as an Oilers fan I’d love to see DeBrusk, Frederic, or Ullmark on the team but can’t for the life of me figure out how they’d do that.