Edmonton Oilers Offseason Talk: Van Riemsdyk, Kampf, Soucy, and a Local Lad.

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Oil on Whyte

Colton Parayko to the Oilers?

“… it’s worth noting that Parayko is still less of a risk defensively than Karlsson, who finished -26 on a lousy San Jose team – and yeah he had 101 points last year which is phenomenal for a defenceman, but he’s well known as an extremist puck mover who is terrible in his own end…”
“The Oilers don’t have the cap space to trade for Parayko without sending enough warm bodies out the door and Ceci and Kulak are really the only two guys you can send out as they’re the most expendable guys on the roster and those two players combined would equal $6,000,000 in cap space.”
“…just two seasons ago when St. Louis was a better team that Parayko finished with a +16, the third-best mark of his career. The Blues also made the playoffs that year and he finished 2-3-5 in 12 playoff games for St. Louis – pretty good and certainly beats Ceci’s mark from this season of 0-1-1 in 12 games…”
“…not only is Parayko a comparable defender when he’s on his game, but his offensive ceiling is higher too…”
“The Oilers should be able to easily replace Kulak with a cheaper option as an outside hire in free agency or simply give Philip Broberg more of a regular spot…”
“A first pairing of Nurse-Parayko would be a very good one from a puck-moving perspective and on paper at least would be a difficult one to stop.”
“Then there’s also the fact that Parayko is a Stanley Cup winner so he knows what it takes to win…”
“Parayko brings a lot of good things to the table but I don’t know if he’s worth the risk. On the other hand, the Oilers are in win-now mode and so right now the future is secondary to the present.

BLH’s Thoughts: My favorite part of this article is the beginning where Phil Gretzky starts it all off with this:

“Rumours persist that perhaps the Oilers might be trading for RD Colton Parayko.”

The link goes to a Hockey Writers article from back in February that states “Parayko COULD find himself on the trade block if the St. Louis Blues continue to sell and begin to rebuild.”

So not a rumor at all. Just a guy speculating on who he’d like to see Edmonton go after. Sigh…

That said, there’s nothing wrong with speculating, that’s about all I do here and every once in a while I throw in a tip I’ve been passed along.

As for Gretzky’s post here, he had a mock trade included that went something like this:

To STL: Ceci, Kulak, 2025 3rd rounder, 2025 conditional 2nd rounder (if Parayko finishes the year with a +10 and 35 points the pick turns into a 2025 1st rounder).

To EDM: Parayko, 500k salary retained for the remainder of the his contract’s term ($3M total), and a 2025 6th rounder.

Now, I don’t know about you but I don’t see the value in including Kulak here. Foegele makes nearly $3M and Yamamoto makes a shade over $3M, why not toss one or both those fellas in?

Actually, I don’t even see St. Louis entertaining this offer. Parayko is part of the team’s leadership group and I’ve got a hard time believing Doug Armstrong is ready to rebuild seeing as he gave Jordan Kyrou and Robert Thomas twin $8M deals recently. To add to that, the Blues have 5/7 NHL roster dmen from last year holding NTCs.

Bringing in any of the Oilers we’ve discussed here wouldn’t make St. Louis a better team in my opinion and if I had to guess they’re not looking to take on another team’s garbage in exchange for their no.1 dman (who happens to be 30 years old with six years left on his $6.5M/yr deal).

Now, conversely, for the sake of conversation, what if you moved Nurse/Foegele package in a deal for Parayko/Schenn package? Highly unlikely to happen but this is the sort of thinking one needs to adopt when thinking about mock trades. Balance.

Oilersnation

Identifying Free Agent Targets for the Oilers

“Scott Mayfield’s projected contract is three years at a cap hit of $3.75 million and Carson Soucy’s is three years at $2.5 million per season. Both would be great fits on this blueline and generally fit the mould of defenseman that Ken Holland likes to target (tall, defence-first players). If they could find a taker for Ceci and then sign Soucy for that amount, they’d both open up cap space and improve their blueline.”
“If they move on from Kailer Yamamoto, then they’ll be looking for a player who can slide into their top six and produce offence. The best fit on this list is Connor Brown. He’s a player who’s scored 20 goals multiple times and has a history with Connor McDavid as the two were teammates in junior.”
“There are other names on the list like Garnet Hathaway, David Kampf, Jesper Fast, and Sean Monahan who all sound interesting, but none are legit top-six options and that’s where the Oilers need to be focused first.”
“One player whose projected contract is very low is James Van Riemsdyk. The 34-year-old didn’t have a great year in Philadelphia, only scoring 12 goals in 61 games but prior to that he had scored at a 20+ goal pace for ten straight seasons… Now, you don’t want to pay a player based on his past seasons but JVR’s projected contract is just $1.8 million on a one-year deal.”
“Speaking of bargain signings, the Oilers should be looking at Jonathan Toews. If Nick Bjugstad prices himself out of the Oiler’s range, then they will be looking for another bottom-six centreman and Toews would be a decent choice if he’s healthy.”

BLH’s Thoughts: What’s that? Another Connor Brown name dropping?…

Geez, can anybody remember the last time to teammates from junior who had some success teaming up in the NHL to keep that train rolling? I think it’s about the dumbest reason to bring a guy in, isn’t it? Didn’t Kassian and Hall play together in Windsor? And besides, Brown blew out his achilles! Nobody’s concerned about that? Maybe somebody in Edmonton should give Max Pacioretty a call and see how he’s doing after going through his SECOND ruptured achilles… Better yet, why not sign the guy? He’ll be cheap like borscht. Then Woodcroft can rotate the two instead of playing Dylan Holloway, a player with two seemingly healthy achilles tendons (knock on wood).

I don’t know if the team needs to be targeting top-six forwards as much as they should be bringing in higher quality depth players. Nothing wrong with David Kampf. Jesper Fast, or Garnet Hathaway. All would shore this hell out of that third line and keep those who belong on the 4th line on that 4th line.

Get Holloway on the 2nd line. Simple as that. If he struggles, swap him out with Kostin or McLeod for a game, and then pop him right back up there. Don’t muck around with this Todd McLellan school of coaching where only the players that Leon and Connor want in the top-six get to play there.

JVR is a very interesting name to throw out. I didn’t spend a lot of time watching him last year and Philly ate shit in 2022/23, so I’ll take his numbers with a grain of salt. A bounce back season is not out of the realm of possibility one bit.

I don’t mind Toews either if his health can hold up. A very Holland-like FA target though.

Trade Rumors

Spector’s Hockey

Proteau believes the Hurricanes need to get bigger and better on their forward lines. He suggested perhaps Boston’s Tyler Bertuzzi and/or Philadelphia’s James van Riemsdyk, who are both slated to become unrestricted free agents on July 1.
Matt Larkin believes the Hurricanes should trade for a superstar “no matter the cost”…
- Larkin noted the Hurricanes attempted to acquire Matthew Tkachuk from the Calgary Flames prior to his getting traded last summer to the Panthers. They also pushed hard to get Timo Meier from the San Jose Sharks before he was shipped to the New Jersey Devils before the March trade deadline.
- Larkin wondered if he’d part with players like Andrei Svechnikov or Brett Pesce or Seth Jarvis if someone like Toronto’s Mitch Marner became available in the trade market.

BLH’s Thoughts: I hadn’t realized that Carolina had been swept in every Eastern Conference final appearance since 2006. That’s brutal.

Now, if the Canes are going to cash in on one of their top-4 dmen, it might be Brett Pesce who doesn’t have any trade protection and will be a UFA next summer. Brady Skjei will also be a UFA then but he’s a M-NTC.

Are the Maple Leafs going to trade William Nylander for Pesce or Skjei? Could Tyler Toffoli get 40 in Carolina? Scheifele? Kyle Connor?

They’ve got to keep Svechnikov, he’s on the brink of becoming one of the league’s elite goal scorers. If it’s a cap thing, move on from Teravainen.