Coming from an Edmonton Oilers point of view, BLH provides you with excerpts from the latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation from all of the internet’s best sites including Spector’s Hockey, The Fourth Period, NHL Trade Talk, The Hockey Writers, Sportsnet, The Athletic, TSN and more!
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The Athletic (Allan Mitchell)
Lowetide: What are Oilers’ ideal defence pairings for 2021-22?
Top Pair
- Nurse-Barrie had scoring success (much of their five-on-five time came with the Connor McDavid line) but bled more than they should have based on the quality of teammates on the ice.
- Nurse-Bear dominated the possession numbers but didn’t have the same outscoring impact.
- Edmonton had success running the top pairing with the top line as a five-man unit, and it may well be the plan to do it again next season. Adding Barrie gives the defence some consistency as the team enters a vital season.
Second Pair
- I think Keith is going to surprise with the puck on his stick, sending effective outlet passes and making smart pinches along the wall. Where he could get exposed is quick turnovers or stretch passes that expose his foot speed, and that’s going to be an area of concern.
- Ceci is a key player for the organization. His size and overall skill set should make him an effective shutdown defender but he has always struggled in that role (specifically with Ottawa).
- Is it a good bet, to run Keith-Ceci without the McDavid line and expect 50 percent of the goals at five-on-five against elites/mid-level opposition? No.
Third Pair
- As things currently stand, the third pair will be any of Russell, Evan Bouchard, William Lagesson and at least one free agent…
- Holland has been unwavering in his belief that the gifted puck-mover Bouchard has to play this coming season, and the ideal fit would be a player like (Ryan) Murray.
- From here it looks like Bouchard is going to have to grow up in a hurry.
BLH’s Thoughts: I’m willing to bet that Duncan Keith will be playing with Evan Bouchard by Christmas and thriving in the role. He’s mature enough and good enough that he’ll be the play driver in that pair and Keith will end up being the more defensive of the two. I don’t buy that his foot speed is going to be exposed as he’s still one of the best skaters in the league. The area of concern will be if his partner can’t cope with Keith’s aggressive style of defense.
Further to Bouchard moving up the line-up fast, Cody Ceci will be partnering with whoever the Oilers have in the bottom pair with him be that Kris Russell, William Lagesson, one of the kids (Samorukov, Broberg), or a free agent, but it will not be a pairing that is liability for the team.
Just a quick question on Ceci, he paired with Mike Matheson the most last year, are Matheson’s and Duncan Keith’s styles so very different?
Over the majority of his young career so far, if Connor McDavid has been on the ice, Darnell Nurse has been there with him. So I don’t expect that to change and given the amount of offensive success Nurse’s pair and McDavid’s line had last year, I don’t see the coaches changing anything there.
The Athletic (Daniel Nugent-Bowman)
Rating the Oilers’ offseason: From signing Zach Hyman to retaining Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Tyson Barrie
So, how did he (Ken Holland) do over the last few weeks culminating with the opening day of free agency last Wednesday?
Good offseason move — An impact winger like Landeskog comes aboard
Result: Yes
- Zach Hyman should be a wonderful fit for the Oilers. He’s expected to start on Connor McDavid’s left wing and fill a hole no one other than Leon Draisaitl’s been able to fill of late.
BLH’s Thoughts: The amount of roster flexibility Dave Tippett has right now is astounding. He now has the ability to really deploy his forward lines as he chooses depending on his opposition save for an injury crisis, of course.
Bad offseason move — Selling low on Bear
Result: Quite possibly
- By no means did the Oilers give away Ethan Bear. They got a very useful player back from Carolina in Foegele, someone with speed, who penalty kills and might play up the lineup.
BLH’s Thoughts: According to Elliotte Friedman, there was a bit of a bidding war for Foegele going on and the Oilers won it. Jeff Marek was very excited about the Hurricanes getting Bear in the latest 31 Thoughts podcast.
This sounds like both teams got a player they both wanted. A win-win for both clubs if you ask me.
Good offseason move — Nugent-Hopkins and Larsson re-sign at lower cap hits
Result: Yes and no
Bad offseason move — Bringing back Nugent-Hopkins at all costs
Result: Maybe
- Larsson’s departure resulted in Tyson Barrie being retained when that wasn’t previously in the cards, Bear being dealt when he was preparing to slide back with Darnell Nurse and Ceci being given a four-year contract.
- At least Nugent-Hopkins came back — and at a reduced rate. The franchise’s longest-serving player signed a $5.125 million deal, which is $875,000 cheaper than his previous cap hit.
BLH’s Thoughts: Nuge did this team a massive favor by staying in Edmonton at a reduced AAV. Here’s to hoping Darnell Nurse will follow suit.
I don’t think that Cody Ceci will spend the entirety of that 4yr deal he signed in Edmonton. It wouldn’t shock me if he was part of a trade down the road…
Good offseason move — Koskinen is bought out, and Ullmark or Driedger signs as a 1B
Result: No
- Going with Smith and Koskinen for another year seems far from ideal.
Bad offseason move — Losing another game of goaltending musical chairs
Result: Sort of
- It doesn’t appear as if they were as determined when free agency opened last Wednesday, but they did try to trade for Darcy Kuemper. Colorado had the higher bid.
BLH’s Thoughts: The offseason is still young… Wait until all of these arbitration cases are sorted and we’re closer to the start of the year when teams are going to have to make some tough decisions on some players. Instead of losing someone on waivers, maybe a goalie like Anton Khudobin (DAL) as Jeff Marek recently suggested, could become available on the cheap.
On Khudobin, He makes $3.33M for this year and next. Mike Smith is also contracted for this year and next. Would the plan be to wait for Tristan Jarry and Alex Nedeljkovic to become UFAs and offer them a big deal? Would Ilya Konovalov or Stuart Skinner be NHL goalies by then? What would the plan be there?
Plus, how would that trade look between the Stars and the Oilers? The whole reason that Dallas would be moving Khudobin is because they’ve got too many netminders… So… Does that mean a third team would get involved in order to find a new home for Mikko Koskinen? Also, is Edmonton one of the teams on Khudobin’s 4-team no-trade list?…
I dunno, the more you think about it, Khudobin to Edmonton doesn’t sound all that realistic UNLESS! The Buffalo Sabres agree to take on Koskinen, which is something Jeff Marek also discussed on the very same podcast he said Khudobin to Edmonton makes sense to him.
https://twitter.com/HockeyHoundShow/status/1422195413432639489
Good offseason result — Klefbom returns fully healthy
Result: Almost certainly no
Bad offseason result — Leaving Klefbom unprotected in the expansion draft — and then watching him excel in Seattle
Result: No
- The chances of Klefbom’s career resuming next season are somewhere between slim and nil.
BLH’s Thoughts: So it seems that leaving Oscar unprotected wasn’t a bad move afterall… In fact, it’s going to pay massive dividends having him on LTIR because it will enable the club to be able to bring in another player and re-sign its RFAs.
Good offseason result — There’s a backup plan in case Klefbom’s health fails
Result: They’re hoping so
- An option fell right into their lap as it became clear Klefbom’s shoulder wasn’t going to be ready for game action. That option became a reality in the form of Duncan Keith.
BLH’s Thoughts: I would’ve liked the Blackhawks to eat some cash too, but having a player of Keith’s ilk on this team and with this group of skaters will prove to be a master stroke for Holland.
Bad offseason move — Re-signing Barrie to a long-term deal
Result: Yes
- Though Barrie led all NHL defencemen in points, it sure helped he was able to rack up secondary assists and quarterback the league’s best power play.
BLH’s Thoughts: Yeah, I hate having defenders on my team who produce at nearly a point per game rate too and are criminally underpaid. Terrible bit of business there for the Oilers.
Since when did point production become a bad thing?
Good offseason move — Nurse signs a long-term extension
Result: Not yet
- Leon Draisaitl’s $8.5 million cap hit seemed to be the ceiling before a couple comparable blueliners signed for $9.5 million a year last week. It would appear Nurse has some leverage now.
BLH’s Thoughts: Woof… If Nurse signs for more than Leon… He should be the teams highest paid defender and one of the higher paid dmen in the league but he shouldn’t be up with the Makars, Heiskanens, or Joneses… Not yet at least. I hope he’s willing to take a haircut and sign a team-friendly deal for the team we’re lead to believe he loves.
Good offseason move — Kassian gets offloaded
Result: No
- Things can change, but right now the Oilers have a $3.2 million AAV player for three more years who was 14th in ice time among forwards this past season and doesn’t play special teams.
BLH’s Thoughts: I love that instead of Kassian getting moved, he’s now getting projected as a top-six winger next year. I had to chortle over that one.
Good offseason move — Young players show they’re ready to make an impact
Result: TBD
- In addition to getting more from established players like Yamamoto and Jesse Puljujarvi, the Oilers are counting on Bouchard and Ryan McLeod to take a step next season.
BLH’s Thoughts: I don’t get this one. How the hell are the young players going to show that they’re ready to make an impact in the offseason? Why wasn’t that question omitted and saved for the season preview?
Good offseason move — A reliable third-line centre signs, ideally a righty
Result: Probably
- (Derek) Ryan shoots right, which makes him unique for an Oilers centre. He won 52 percent of his faceoffs last season and played 27 percent of his ice time against elite competition. (He managed a 58.7 Corsi for percentage in that situation, too, per PuckIQ.)
BLH’s Thoughts: Again. Ryan played under 12 minutes a night for the Flames last year. It’s hard to take that and say he’s going to be the answer for the Oilers, but I do believe that Dave Tippett will do his damnedest to up that TOI. Whether that’ll turn out positive results or not, we’ll have to wait and see.
Good offseason move — Goodrow or Armia signs to round out the forward group
Result: No, but they found an alternative
- Instead, the Oilers went the trade route and got Foegele, who’s three years younger and comes in at $2.75 million per season.
BLH’s Thoughts: WF is younger than those other fellas and will be able to grow with the group. Given he’s already training partners with some of them, it’s important to have players on the team that others want there and who want to be there as well.
Oilersnation
Report: New contract for Edmonton Oilers Darnell Nurse could make him one of the league’s highest paid defenceman
- Last week it was suggested that Nurse and the Oilers could be facing the possibility of a four-year contract extension, but a new report from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman suggests a longer-term deal could be in the works.
- According to Friedman, the two parties are talking about an eight-year extension that would pay Nurse in the $9-million range — a contract, which according to PuckPedia, would make Nurse one of the highest-paid defensemen in the league.
- Is Darnell Nurse a $9-million defenceman today? I’d argue no. As I wrote about last week, I’m not entirely sure that he’s an elite top-pairing defenceman at this point in his career. He’s undoubtedly gotten better every year and taken big strides in his game, but I’d like to see more of this high-end consistency for more than one season before locking in a massive contract like that.
BLH’s Thoughts: Man, how the time flies… Maybe two months ago we were all hearing how Darnell Nurse’s next deal was going to start with a seven Maybe two weeks ago, without playing another game, we heard that his next deal was going to start with an eight. Now, the deal will be starting with a nine because Seth Jones and the Chicago Blackhawks decided to absolutely blow up pay structure for top-pairing defenders.
Now, I’m not against the Oilers paying Darnell top dollar, but nine million dollars for a guy who’s never scored 60pts in a season? Seems steep. His shooting percentage jumped from 2.9% two years ago to 10.4% last year as he tripled his even strength goal totals from five to fifteen. We won’t mention the even strength PDO being 103.1 either.
Don’t misconstrue why I’ve posted those metrics, I really want the Oilers to keep Darnell Nurse, but I also want them to keep Jesse Puljujarvi and some of the other young players who have contracts expiring soon and I believe if the Oilers give Nurse more money than Leon Draisaitl makes, that would be a mistake. $9M is too much, $8M long-term is probably on par, but $7M is what would be best for the team’s future salary structure.
NHLTradeRumors.me
According to Elliotte Friedman, the Columbus Blue Jackets are shopping forward Max Domi. It would not necessarily be all that surprising, as they did leave him unprotected for the Expansion Draft. They traded for him just last off-season in exchange for Josh Anderson.
Talks have been ongoing since the start of the 2021 season, but according to a new report the NHL and the IOC have failed to reach an agreement over media and streaming rights for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. This marks just the newest speedbump in the NHL’s road back to the global stage.
