Edmonton Oilers Talk: Benson to Arizona? Tippett’s Coaching Future Cloudy and the Latest NHL Rumors

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: McLeod hasn’t solidified regular spot on fourth line

At this time, it appears Ryan McLeod is the No. 5 Edmonton Oilers centre.
He’ll make the 23-man roster, but will he be in the top 12 forwards? It’s very much up in the air with McLeod sitting Monday against Calgary along with wingers Tyler Benson and Colton Sceviour.
He can skate, he’s big, he can kill penalties, he can win enough face-offs. He’s an NHLer in that way. What he needs to show is more aggressiveness for his size and the ability to produce offence at this level.
Benson has to clear waivers if he doesn’t make the club on the fourth line or as a 13th or 14th forward. Almost everybody clears but Arizona may think about it with a shallow forward and Benson at $750,000…
Wingers Cooper Marody and Seth Griffith cleared waivers and are on their way to Bakersfield, Calif.

BLH’s Thoughts: After listening to Bob Stauffer (Oilers Now, 630CHED) yesterday morning, there might be some legs to this notion that the club could send McLeod down. John Shannon noted that it might be better to have him in Bakersfield playing 20 minutes a night working on whatever needs improving instead of up in Edmonton getting 9 minutes per game or less and I agree with that sentiment.

The fact of the matter is, whatever your feelings are for Devin Shore, he’s outplayed McLeod so far and I don’t think the club wants to lose Benson on waivers. So a tough decision will have to be made.

Cult of Hockey

Is Dave Tippett putting the heat on his Edmonton Oilers players? Or is the heat on him?

Tippett is in the final year of a deal that pays him about $3.0 million per. He’s also seen his Oilers flame out twice big time in the Stanley Cup playoffs, losing in four games to the Chicago Blackhawks in 2020 and in four games to the Winnipeg Jets in 2021.
Tippett’s playoff record with the Oilers is one win and seven losses.
If Edmonton does not do better in the playoffs this year, it’s easy to imagine the Oilers going in a new direction at head coach.
What got me thinking about Tippett’s future with the team was some uncustomary public snippiness in his post-game press conference after Saturday’s 4-3 win over Winnipeg.
Overall, he said of his team’s performance: “We were red rotten.”
At one point he gave it to rookie d-man Evan Bouchard’s game:

“I didn’t think he was very good tonight. He’s had a pretty good camp but he’s still got to get stronger. He’s got to get harder with the puck. There’s some puck play that has to improve on him. He makes real good plays when he gets it but there’s some there’s some critical area stuff that still can improve on him.”

I didn’t like this critique of Draisaitl’s backhand passes… Why would the coach try to limit the creativity of one of the game’s most brilliant passers?

BLH’s Thoughts: Dave Tippett doesn’t seem to me like the guy whose world would fall apart if he wasn’t coaching hockey. He loves the game and obviously wants to win, but also realizes there are other things out there aside from the game. So no, I don’t believe he’s cracking under the pressure, but I bet you he’s taking some of the lessons he learned while playing under Scotty Bowman in Pittsburgh and applying them to this Edmonton Oilers team.

You have to understand that Bowman used some questionable tactics in his time and a lot of his players did not like him AT ALL, but he’s the NHL’s all-time winningest coach for a reason, so they respected him.

If Coach Tippett borrows a play from Scotty Bowman’s playbook from time to time and it works, you won’t see me complaining about it.

Spector’s Hockey

THE ATHLETIC: In a recent mailbag segment Fluto Shinzawa was asked about the odds of the Boston Bruins trading for a second-line center and the cost of acquiring someone like the San Jose Sharks Tomas Hertl. He believes the Bruins will turn to outside help if they can’t suitably address that issue internally. Someone like Hertl could cost at least a first-round pick and a prospect.

One reader asked if the Bruins might attempt to trade Ullmark for a second-line center if Swayman plays well and Rask is healthy.
It’s doubtful the Bruins pursue Jack Eichel.