They were destined to be stars playing minor hockey together, so all these years later the magic has got to still be there right?
Of course, I’m talking about Connor McDavid and Josh Ho-Sang. Two players who spent time tearing up the GTHL back in 2012 for the Toronto Marlboros. In fact, some say that way back then there were folks saying that it would be Ho-Sang that would go on to become the real superstar…
Returning to 2019, the man that lead that Marlboros team in scoring back in 2011/12 has yet to make his mark in the NHL and is available for free if claimed off of waivers. While the other fella in this story is now the best player in the world.
But I digress, is Ho-Sang someone that you truly want the Edmonton Oilers to claim? What gives you the impression that he’d be any better than what the Oilers have in their organization already? Should Edmonton be interested in every skilled winger who scored 8 goals in the AHL the year prior to this and the year prior to that? This is how bad it is for this young fella, Lou Lamoriello would rather have Ross Johnston, a minor league tough guy, on his team than Ho-Sang. He’d rather have Matt Martin, Cal Clutterbuck, Leo Komarov, and Michael Dal Colle than him…
I will admit, the offensive attributes that the former Niagara Ice Dog brings to the table are intriguing, but for this Oilers team, I’d rather claim Thomas Hickey than Ho-Sang. I feel like the defense could use the upgrade more.
So that’s the elephant in the room. Is there really that much more to add with Nikolay Goldobin and Daniel Sprong? Neither of them are really familiar with their own zone. I’ve heard the closest they ever get to their goalie is in the locker room before the game starts. Sure Goldy can dangle and Sprong can spring a puck, but if Ken Holland wanted players like that, he could’ve kept Marody up or signed Burdasov. The thing is if Edmonton’s defense had a reputation for being good at moving the puck, these players would fit in, but when the team’s best puck mover is on their AHL team, that doesn’t help the fact.
Sven Baertshi is mildly tempting though. That’s a player who could be an upgrade to the Oilers middle six. He’s a player you could put with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins or Leon Draisaitl and feel confident that production would follow. Health problems aside, he can skate like the wind and he scores the odd goal from time to time (*wink emoji*).
I’ll reiterate, my feeling regarding the Oilers plan for the year is that this is a transition year. If the team makes it to the playoffs, great! If it doesn’t, no harm done because they weren’t expecting to anyhow. That would be unfortunate for McDavid, Draisaitl, and all of the young stars on Edmonton, but they’re setting themselves up very well for next summer. I mean, look at the way Holland is constructing the roster with all of these one-year contracts. Does that not scream “ridiculously active at the trade deadline” to you considering how good the 2020 and 2021 NHL entry drafts are looking… And at 48 contracts (out of 50 max), is a waiver claim really the way to go here?
Unless…
"There is going to be a little bit of wiggle room to potentially target an improved dimension maybe with a top-6 winger or theoretically a 3rd line center or something like that and they've got some young defense prospects coming." – Bob Stauffer#Oilers
— BLH (Edmonton Oilers Enthusiast} (@BeerLeagueHeroe) October 1, 2019
Bob said that on yesterday’s edition of Oilers Now. What would “an improved dimension” look like in the Oilers top-six? The thing that immediately came to mind when I read that was what if the Oilers were so impressed with Kassian in that final preseason game vs. Calgary where he drove his line (he played on two different lines that night, one with Nygard/Haas and another with Granlund/Cave) that they’re thinking they’d like him to stick there and are now looking for a similar but better player to replace him in their top-six? Someone like Jake Virtanen who had 40 or so more shots than Kassian did last year.
Fancy this scenario I just thought of for a second,
The Oilers claim Alex Biega, then send Matt Benning to Vancouver for Virtanen.
I mean, they could forego the claim fee by just including him in the trade but there’s a feeling that someone is going to snap him up. The money basically evens out in the end, right?
- Virtanen makes $1.25M and Biega makes 885k
- Benning makes $1.9M
In addition to the financial considerations, I’d argue Biega produces at a better rate than Benning. Lastly, Biega is a UFA at the end of the year…
Now, it should be asked, why would Vancouver want to do a deal like this? And to that, I would say,
- To get Virtanen out of their hair. The relationship between coach and player is toxic in my opinion and he’s blocked from playing any higher than the 3rd line thanks to Brock Boeser and JT Miller.
- Maybe Uncle Jim wouldn’t mind a hard-working defender like his nephew in the fold. He’s surely an upgrade on Oscar Fantenberg.
This is the part where folks probably say that there’s no deal happening unless Jesse Puljujarvi is involved and I can understand that, but I’m still not moving Pulju unless the deal knocks my socks off if I’m GM. I could be persuaded to include someone off of the Condors though depending on the prospect.
I realize that Virtanen hasn’t exactly lived up to his draft billing. That said, I do like that he had a bit of a breakout last year when he put up career numbers and he compared pretty well with Zack Kassian from an advanced analytics POV. According to Natural Stat Trick, he spent most of his 5×5 time playing with Bo Horvat (275 min) and funny enough, Markus Granlund was his 3rd most played with forward (206 min).
I just see Calgary with Sam Bennett and think that Virtanen would really get those Battle of Albertas really going. He’s a vindictive SOB sometimes and frankly, I like that. If he could find a way to be a bit smarter with when he takes his penalties, that would be a massive help to his overall game because this is a guy that can skate like a bat out of hell and his shot is… Whew! It’s bloody hard and bloody accurate. You want a player like this on your team even if he’s only going to put up thirty or forty points a year because the other team is going to have someone who can not only play a skill game but also a power forward one too.
Yes, the Oilers have Kassian, but for how much longer? I’m just thinking out loud here, don’t mind me…
How Would a Trade Like This Affect the Oilers Current Lineup?
I know it’s not pretty, but here’s the Oilers lineup as it stands at 4am on Oct. 1st.
Jurco-McDavid-Neal
Nygard-Draisaitl-Kassian
Granlund-RNH-Chiasson
Khaira-Haas-Archibald
Cave, Russell, Sheahan (IR)
Klefbom-Bear
Nurse-Larsson
Russell-Benning
Manning, Persson (IR)
Smith
Koskinen
This is how it would look after the proposed trade,
Jurco-McDavid-Neal
Nygard-Draisaitl-Virtanen
Granlund-RNH-Kassian
Khaira-Haas-Archibald
Cave, Chiasson, Russell, Sheahan (IR)
Here we have a possible dilemma. What does the team do with the guys on the taxi squad? They all have to go through waivers (sans Haas) if the Oilers want to send them down and aside from Chiasson and his $2.15M per year contract, I think they’d all be claimed.
Klefbom-Bear
Nurse-Larsson
Russell-Biega
Manning, Persson (IR)
The defense is a bit easier to work with. Manning simply goes to the AHL once Persson is healthy and off of the IR. Edmonton also gets around a million dollars in cap space too at that point.
Smith
Koskinen
So like I said earlier, would it make sense for the Oilers to claim someone off of waivers today? All that movement seems like a real pain in the ass for a transition season.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.
