Edmonton Oilers Rumors: “I’d guess it happens closer to the trade deadline…”

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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Edmonton Sun

OILERS NOTES

McDavid’s game misconduct for the hit on Adrian Kempe in the third was his second misconduct in the NHL. He also got 10 minutes on Jan. 25, 2018, against Calgary for abuse of an official after a shoot-out goal …
Neither goalie Mike Smith nor defenceman Duncan Keith skated with the Oilers at their full practice Saturday, so they aren’t close to playing. Smith, out since Oct. 20, hasn’t taken shots with the main group …
Oilers first-round pick Xavier Bourgault has 22 goals and 42 points in 24 games in Shawinigan. “He can make the world junior team, maybe, if he’s willing to take on the same sort of role that Dawson Mercer (now in New Jersey) did last Christmas tournament,” said TSN’s scouting guru Craig Button …
Rare penalty call in the second period with Nurse and the Kings’ Brown both getting holding infractions on the same rush down the boards by Brown …
Carter Savoie now has 13 goals in 15 games and 23 points in his sophomore year at Denver University, but still didn’t get an invite to Canada’s world junior selection camp …
The Kings signed Russian winger Vladimir Tkachev, the one-time Oilers training camp whiz, to a one-year, two-way deal over the summer but after making the team to start the season, he’s spent the last 10 games in the AHL. They tried him on the power play all through camp but they felt he was always looking for the pass and wouldn’t shoot enough …

BLH’s Thoughts: Vladdy Hockey scored a massive softie against Edmonton’s farm team the other night. I’m actually surprised he’s agreed to spend any time in the AHL considering Russian players who’ve had some KHL success tend to simply return to the motherland instead of dominating the American league.

Bob Stauffer brought up an interesting point during the radio cast and also on his radio show yesterday morning. If Kempe was hurt and that contributed to McDavid’s game misconduct, why wasn’t he forced into concussion protocol and made to miss the rest of the game?

Oilersnation

Monday Mailbag

Despite their winning record, the Oilers still seem to have a hard time getting a good start. What do you think is going on here?

“It’s up to the coaching staff to prepare line-ups and game plans, not get their players revved up.” – Brownlee
“They feel their way into games too often… To me it is on the players. They play the game.” – Gregor

BLH’s Thoughts: The coaches are the ones who come up with the game plan and deploy the players during the games. Let’s not sit here and pretend they don’t play a role in how a hockey game goes.

If Tippett started five goons and a line brawl ensued from the drop of the puck, there’d be a million people pointing the finger at the coach. But, it’d up the game’s intensity, the adrenaline would be pumping, and the crowd would be right into it…

So, if the Oilers coaching staff truly wants to start the games with a bit more emotion, put somebody on the ice who can create that emotion! Ask the players to get some shots on net and drive the blue paint hard. Create some emotion!!!

And if they’re not willing to do that, you’ve either got a head coach who has lost the room or you’ve got a group of hockey players who are way too comfortable and some changes will need to be made.

Would you rather the Oil jump on trade bait soon to help build chemistry OR hold off until post-Olympic break to further determine deficiencies?

“I’d guess it happens closer to the trade deadline. Cost is likely higher in December than in late Feb, early March.” – Gregor

BLH’s Thoughts: Holland could always set the market by getting jump on things too… Why wait for somebody to go out and grab the guy you wanted? If the GM believes in this team, he has to go get the guy(s) he thinks will take the Oilers to the next level and not worry about the timing of the trade.

This past week, Pierre Lebrun speculated about Carey Price being available. Assuming all deals begin with the Canadiens retaining half of Price’s salary and that Koskinen will go back the other way, can you construct a reasonable trade that both sides might go for?

“I can’t imagine why the Oilers would want to bring in a goaltender who turns 35 in August for four more years at $5.25 million a season. Among other things, what does that say to Stuart Skinner? I also can’t see why Price would waive his NMC and uproot his family, his wife and three children, to move to Edmonton.” – Brownlee

BLH’s Thoughts: You can’t see why CP would waive his NMC and uproot his family? What about being closer to his wife’s family or his family in BC? He certainly knew there was a chance the Kraken would’ve taken him in the expansion draft considering he waived his NMC prior to it… Plus, at 35yrs old and coming off a trip to the Cup final, don’t you think that he might want a better chance at winning a championship seeing as his team is going to go into a rebuild soon?

The Hockey Writers Rumors

On Sunday, the (Canucks) organization fired head coach Travis Green and replaced him with Bruce Boudreau and fired general manager Jim Benning. Top assistant coach Nolan Baumgartner was also let go.
Boudreau was given a two-year deal to be the team’s new coach, while longtime senior adviser Stan Smyl was named the interim general manager and minor-league GM/player-development director Ryan Johnson is the interim assistant GM.
Less than 24 hours after the Canucks cleaned house, the Flyers let go their two main coaches. Both Alain Vigneault and Michel Therrien were released and Mike Yeo will take over as an interim coach for the time being.
Frank Seravalli notes that while Yeo will serve as the coach for now, “We’ll see where this goes, but my sense is Rick Tocchet will be high on Philadelphia’s candidate list.” Reports are that David Quinn is also high on the list of potential coaching candidates.
Maple Leafs’ defenseman Justin Holl is fourth on Frank Seravalli’s list of potential trade candidates as the Leafs will need to shed some salary when sidelined goalie Petr Mrazek is ready to return to the lineup.
…according to Shawn Simpson of TSN, the team (Ottawa) isn’t looking to acquire more draft picks and won’t be looking to trade their pending UFA’s for picks. That puts the Senators in a tricky place and it must mean they want to add players with term who can grow with this new young core.