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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Cult of Hockey
Is Cal Petersen trade a blueprint for Oilers?
- “…when Tuesday’s dust settled the Kings had lowered their 2023-24 cap hit by a cool $5.6 million, with a further “cap savings” of nearly $3 million to be realized the following season. Speculation is that they might use the extra cap space to re-sign Gavrikov, an excellent defender who is a pending free agent.”
- “From this distance that’s a tidy bit of work by Rob Blake. Eat a bit of Provorov’s contract but clear out all of Petersen’s and Walker’s and also make roster space for a rising young player. The cost of two second-rounders — one past, one future — a pretty reasonable price to pay.”
- “Is it possible Holland might follow Blake’s lead and look for a buyer of his own $5 million non-starting goalie?
- “Is there a team out there on a similar timeline as Philly who are looking for a veteran stopper to weather the storm for a while?”
BLH’s Thoughts: Could the Oilers raid Arizona’s coffers? They don’t seem to have any motivation to improve and Vejmelka is a pretty decent goalie on a fantastic contract ($2.75M for two more years). Lawson Crouse or Clayton Keller would look good in Edmonton’s top six and Chicago is out there for anybody willing to give them a sweetener to retain money.
I know a surefire way to get rid of Jack Campbell’s contract. Add Evan Bouchard to any deal including the netminder and VOILA! $11M in cap room instantly created! Send those two to SJ for Karlsson (Friedman insists the Oilers continue to check in on him) at 50% salary retained on the Swede and filled out the rest of the roster with the remaining funds. Maybe trade for Demelo out of Winnipeg while you’re at it and sign a cheap veteran netminder to split the duties with Skinner.
Otherwise, let everybody else blow through the cash that’s burning a hole in their pocket and grab some gems at the deadline from those who missed out on the summer feeding frenzy.
Did anybody else hear Frank Seravalli say on Oilers Now yesterday that a potential $3M salary cap increase was discussed at league meetings recently?…
Just as an aside, I love that NHL teams are making deals and hiring coaches during the Stanley Cup Final. Bettman forbids it and so I love it.
Oilersnation
Flyers goaltender Carter Hart might be available. Should the Oilers be interested?
- “It makes sense why the Flyers would want to move on from Hart at this time. He’s entering the final season of the three-year, bridge contract that he signed with the Flyers back in the summer of 2021. He’ll be a restricted free agent upon the conclusion of that contract and has one more year left of team control before he’ll be eligible to hit the open market as an unrestricted free agent.”
- “If the Oilers want to make an upgrade on Campbell, reaching a deal with the Flyers for Hart could make sense for both sides. Philadelphia seems willing to take on bad contracts in order to maximize the quality of the return that they would receive in return for their core players.”
- “Since it cost the Kings a first- and a second-round pick along with a prospect to get rid of Petersen, dumping Campbell and adding Hart would certainly cost the Oilers more than that.”
BLH’s Thoughts: Quite the hometown story it would be if both Skinner and Hart were backstopping Edmonton to their first Stanley Cup since 1990.
That said, I don’t see Edmonton being a fit for trade with Philly’s young goalie. Maybe Travis Konecny or Joel Farabee would be more realistic targets for Edmonton because they’re young and the Oilers could swap out a Dylan Holloway, Ryan McLeod, or Kailer Yamamoto with picks/prospects in that sort of trade. Doing that for Hart creates more holes that it fills I reckon.
That being said, all bets are off come March when it comes to Campbell (if not earlier if he can’t get his game together).
What a year not to be shopping for a goalie eh? Hellebucyk’s on the block, Jarry, Hart, Gibson…
Trade Rumors
Spector’s Hockey
- Chuck Bausman reports more moves could be coming for the Flyers after they shipped Ivan Provorov to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday in a three-team deal involving the Los Angeles Kings.
- Aaron Portzline speculates Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen might not be done dealing after acquiring Provorov. He noted that Kekalainen said his club will keep evaluating with free agency coming up and he didn’t rule out making another trade.
BLH’s Thoughts: Kekalainen has to get this team back to the playoffs or his ass is going to fired. They’ve got some nice young pieces in Kent Johnson and David Jiricek coming, so that’s a plus but they need to really up the skill quotient. After Laine, Gaudreau, and Johnson, the BJs next best forwards are Jack Roslovic and Kiril Marchenko and I’ve got a feeling Mike Babcock is going to beat the offense right out of those two. Maybe Columbus deals for Taylor Hall, Elias Lindholm, or Mark Scheifele and then they’d be on the right track.
Speaking of star players getting traded, Kevin Hayes is the next one out in Philly and I wonder if they might ship out Tony Deangelo too so that they can give some of their younger dmen (Ginning, Zamula, Millman) some TOI.
You know who would be a good soldier for Torts or Babs? Kailer Yamamoto…
