Edmonton Oilers Talk: Bouchard Destorys Flames, Prospects Being Blocked, 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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Cult of Hockey

Player Grades: Evan Bouchard leads pre-season slaughter of big, belligerent & bewildered Calgary Flames

Edmonton came out with a bunch of swift and smart puck-moving d-men and forwards and proceeded to stomp the hell out of Calgary, beating them 4-0, and giving up next to nothing in their own end.
Evan Bouchard, Filip Berglund and company shredded the Flames with swift decisions and laser passes.
Calgary outhit the Oilers 29 to nine. The Oilers outshot the Flames 49 to 15.
Brendan Perlini, 8. All kinds of chances. Had a power forward kind of game.
Derek Ryan, 8. He centred the Oil’s best line. Looked fast and pesky. Scored on a hard-working power play shift early in the second… He led the Oilers on the dot with 10 wins and five losses, 67 per cent.
Cooper Marody, 6. Pretty quiet, though he combined well with his teammates, especially setting up Benson in the third.
Evan Bouchard, 9. Wow! He utterly dominated the game… He got nine shots on net, six of them hitting the mark, a number of them ripper slap shots.
Filip Berglund, 7. He was good, really good. Smart and solid with the puck, good decisions all over the ice.He led the team with 23:30 time-on-ice.
Ilya Konovalov, 6. Had little to do in the second when he came in, but did fire off a nice pass up the middle of the ice. He made best Edmonton save of the night on pass that sliced across the net-front to Matthew Phillips, but Konovalov stoned him.

BLH’s Thoughts: I only included the higher scored players and a few others I wanted to comment on. Head over to The Cult of Hockey’s site and check out the full review!

I tuned into the game a tad late but just in time to see Philip Broberg get rocked behind his own net by Milan Lucic. I wondered when that would happen given the construction of Calgary’s lineup last night.

Look, it’s all fine and dandy that the 6’3″ Swede can take a hit and bounce right back but all of those checks will take a toll on him and I’d like to see the guy have a right proper 15 year career, wouldn’t you?

On the plus side, Broberg displayed some fantastic escapability on a couple of occasions, leaving his chasers sucking ass as he threw it into the next gear.

Evan Bouchard was far and away the best player on the ice last night. We’re going to hear about his performance all day today, so I would like to throw some praise Filip Berglund’s way instead.

Berglund was sound as sound can be. He didn’t flinch, his passes were off of his tape ASAP and right on his teammate’s nearly every time. He was an efficient checker and all in all, I was really impressed with his composure and responsible play. He looked like an NHL player.

Cooper Marody looked disinterested. He’s very frustrating to watch, it’s as if he’s got the kind of mindset that has him thinking there’ll always be tomorrow or he’s just waiting for his big break instead of making it like his linemate, Tyler Benson, is.

Speaking of the local lad. Benson’s quickness is much better but his skating is still kind of choppy and inefficient in my eyes. That’s just me though. I mean, you can clearly see between him and Perlini who is the better skater, right?

Now, with that out of the way, I did not mind Tyler’s game. He was involved and that newfound quickness paid off in the Flames zone when it came to jumping on loose pucks and evading defenders. Too bad he didn’t bury that chance in the third.

I did not see Perlini’s game the same way everybody else did. To me, he was largely invisible until he wasn’t. However, he’s a big boy and the man can flat out fly.

The LW battle between Shore, Perlini, and Benson wasn’t made any clearer in my eyes after this game.

Lowetide.ca

THE PIPELINE 2021-22

Evan Bouchard will turn 22 in October and he’s been NHL-ready for some time. There’s no one blocking him from a roster spot…
Tyler Benson is in a fight with Brendan Perlini, and both men are looking good early. I don’t look at this as a block, however, because Benson should be able to weather this kind of competition.
Ryan McLeod has a clear shot at an NHL job and with the team’s focus on speed…
Cooper Marody is going to get a look, but he brings pure skill and I do think he’s blocked by the depth chart.
William Lagesson is getting a full look, and his status as a bubble waiver player is based on his play a year ago.
Stuart Skinner gets a push due to the Alex Stalock news, and the club consistently talks about Skinner as an option… I think his trajectory is similar to Laurent Brossoit.
Filip Berglund is earning time based on early play, there’s no pressure and no job but an injury could put him in the conversation if he can play well as the competition increases in preseason.
Philip Broberg is going to get a look in preseason, but the Holland plan would involve time in Bakersfield and I don’t think that’s blocking him.

BLH’s Thoughts: LT wrote this post about which of the Oilers prospects are being blocked by a veteran and on the whole, I agree with him and his assessments. When Dylan Holloway and Dmitri Samorukov return, I think the conversation can be re-visited if they are playing well and the players above them in Edmonton aren’t.

The Hockey Writers (Rumors)

As per Matthew DeFranks’ of The Dallas Morning News, there is a lot of speculation over John Klingberg’s future with the organization… DeFranks suggested other players on expiring contracts could be departing the team as well. That includes Joe Pavelski, Braden Holtby, and Alexander Radulov, who could become trade bait at the NHL Trade Deadline.

As per Kurt Leavins of the Edmonton Journal, he believes there may be some patience for Archibald to make a decision about getting the vaccination, but not an unlimited amount… Leavins believes there are some cap benefits to the Oilers if they leave Archibald on the team…

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