Edmonton Oilers Talk: “…he may yet have a role to play on the Oilers in 2021-22.”

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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Oilersnation (Laing)

Just how well did the Edmonton Oilers fare in free agency?

Edmonton had a busy free agent period signing seven players, and they did a very good job of it. All but one of the club’s signings is provided to bring well above average goals above replacement.
- Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – 7.1 GAR: RNH signed an eight-year deal with the Oilers ahead of free agency with an AAV of $5.125-million. According to the Evolving Wild’s projections, his most likely contract to be signed would’ve been an eight-year deal worth $8.329-million.
- Zach Hyman – 6.2 GAR: Hyman was inked to a seven-year deal with a $5.5-million cap hit with his projected deal to pay him $6.62-million over the same term.
- Tyson Barrie – 4.1 GAR: He inked a three-year deal with a cap hit of $4.5-million — a fair amount lower than his predicted cap hit of $6.019-million. That’s a difference of $1.519-million.
- Warren Foegele – 3.6 GAR: Foegele needed a new deal and Edmonton nailed it on the head. They inked him to a three-year deal with an AAV of $2.75-million with his projected deal being $2.899-million…
- Derek Ryan – 2.8 GAR: Edmonton inked him to a two-year deal with an AAV of $1.25-million with his projected deal being $1.978-million, a difference of $728,690.
- Cody Ceci – 2.6 GAR: He signed a four-year deal with an AAV of $3.25-million with his projected deal being $4.144-million, a difference of $894,471.
- Devin Shore – -0.6 GAR: Shore was signed to a two-year deal worth $850,000 — down from his projection of $1.122-million which equates to $272,646 in savings.
Say what you will about these individual signings, but the team did a fine job in saving money this offseason.

BLH’s Thoughts: Ken Holland said he was going to weaponize term in order to keep AAV down and he did just that. As for Evolving Wild’s projections, does anybody else feel their numbers can be a tad volatile? I mean, I like RNH, but there wasn’t a team in the league that was going to give him close to $8.5M/yr.

I like what popular oilogosphere commenter Original Pouzar had to say about this article,

“In many places, the Oilers gave up extra term in order to get the AAV/cap hit down – which makes sense in the circumstances and where the team is.

As far as Evolving Wild’s contract projections go, to me, they seem wildly high most of the time and, in that regard, I don’t put too much (any) stock in the comparison.”

The Hockey Writers (Swane)

Oilers’ Stalock Could Have Bigger Than Expected Role

…be assured that Stalock has not retired, and he may yet have a role to play on the Oilers in 2021-22, especially if those highlights of him turning aside shots at Braemar Ice Arena in Edina, Minn., are to be believed.
Da Beauty League is hardly your local beer league: Stalock’s teammates include the likes of Vancouver Canucks scorer Brock Boeser, center Derek Stepan of the Carolina Hurricanes and Detroit Red Wings blueliner Nick Leddy.
Before the pandemic brought the 2019-20 NHL season to a premature conclusion, Stalock was playing the finest hockey of his decade-long pro career, going 9-3-1 with a 2.22 GAA and .934 SV% in February and March. He remained Minnesota’s No. 1 when the NHL resumed last August, starting all four games in the Wild’s Stanley Cup Playoffs qualifying round loss to the Canucks.

Koskinen vs. Stalock

Their career NHL regular season stats are markedly close in several categories:
Stalock is 61-49-18 (.547 points percentage) with nine shutouts in 151 games, posting a 2.61 GAA and .909 SV%.
Koskinen is 58-48-9 (.543) with five shutouts in 123 games, registering a 2.97 GAA and .907 SV%.
Stalock is 1-4 with a 2.54 GAA and .910 SV% in eight postseason appearances…
Koskinen is 1-2 with a 3.16 GAA and .889 SV% in four playoff games, all with the Oilers in 2020.

Options

The Oilers could conceivably start the season with Smith, Koskinen, and Stalock all on their 23-man roster, but that doesn’t seem like an option over the long term…
…adding another goalie to the mix in Bakersfield seems unideal. However, there is perhaps something to be said for having a veteran mentoring Edmonton’s up-and-coming netminders in the minors.
Koskinen in the minors would carry a hit of $3.425 million, which if added to Koskinen’s $785,000 contract is $4,210,000 — $290,000 less than Koskinen’s current $4.5 million hit in the NHL.

BLH’s Thoughts: Training camp is going to be fun, isn’t it?

Do not simply throw away the notion that Mike Smith could come to camp a shadow of his former self or an injury pops up like last season. This is a very real scenario.

That said, even though the DBL is chalked full of NHLers, it’s still a glorified shinny league. It’s good that Stalock is getting back into game shape over the summer, but don’t put a lot of weight into the highlights that are emerging on the socials.

Spector’s Hockey

THE ATHLETIC: In his latest mailbag segment, John Vogl was asked if the Buffalo Sabres would set a more realistic asking price to move Jack Eichel. He said there doesn’t appear to have been many negotiations during this saga. The Sabres have set their price but no one has met it over the past four months.

THE SCORE: cites The Athletic’s Michael Russo yesterday tweeting it doesn’t appear a new contract is imminent between the Minnesota Wild and Kirill Kaprizov. However, there’s been increased discussions between the two sides. He also indicated KHL club CSKA Moscow has publicly stated Kaprizov won’t be playing for them this season.