Edmonton Oilers Talk: Holland Chose Team Over Individual in Bear Trade

Coming from an Edmonton Oilers point of view, BLH provides you with excerpts from the latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation from all of the internet’s best sites including Spector’s Hockey, The Fourth Period, NHL Trade Talk, The Hockey Writers, Sportsnet, The Athletic, TSN and more!

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Edmonton Sun (Terry Jones)

JONES: Oilers definitely got better in free agency, but is it enough?

Are the Oilers now better? Yes. Absolutely. Definitely. Good enough to go for it? Maybe. Possibly. Maybe even probably. But not absolutely. And definitely not definitely.
It’ll take 82 games and at least a month into the playoffs to prove it. But you have to give Holland credit. While he managed to make many Edmonton fans furious with the decision to trade an exceptionally popular player and First Nations role model, Ethan Bear, he had a pretty good day.
And despite the loss of Adam Larsson to expansion Seattle and the trade of Bear, with the addition of Keith, the semi-surprising return of Tyson Barrie and acquisition of Codi Ceci gives them a chance to be better than they projected to be.
On defence, Darnell Nurse, Duncan Keith, Barrie and Ceci are your top four and Evan Bouchard is obviously ticketed to become a regular. There are question marks in there.
And in there was the reason he traded Bear. Bouchard is projected to be better than Bear.
- “We had one too many right-shot defencemen and I turned one into a forward,” said Holland. “It’s hard to trade people because you know them as people. Ethan is a great young man. But I also have an obligation and a responsibility to make moves to make the team better.”

BLH’s Thoughts: I think that it’s fair to say that there are concerns regarding Edmonton’s defense.

My feeling is that Duncan Keith will be better with the Oilers than he was with the Blackhawks these past few seasons. Scaling down his minutes overall should allow him to maintain a high level of play and I predict that in close games, it will be him and Darnell Nurse getting the TOI at the end of those matches.

With Ceci, It’s unfair to expect him to be a clone of Adam Larsson. He’s not that guy, but he’s very solid, he moves the puck well, is smart, and I believe he’ll be a reliable 2nd pair defender. Will he have better metrics than Ethan Bear? No. Bear’s going to be playing on the 3rd pair in Carolina and almost all of the players on that team do well analytically. Their system really rewards the players in this regard, but conversely, the Ottawa and Toronto days are behind him.

Tyson Barrie, I’m not worried one iota about him. He’ll do what he does best, produce points alongside Darnell Nurse.

Personally, I think it will be fine but at the same time I’m expecting some hiccups. The second pair is brand new and reckon the 3rd pair will be new as well with Evan Bouchard starting his FT NHL career as well as another acquisition by Ken Holland to address the lack of ill will on Edmonton’s back-end.

My preference would be for Holland to grab another RHD in case of emergency should one of Barrie, Ceci, or Bouchard go down. I know Kris Russell can play the right side, but I would just feel a lot better having one righty and one lefty defenseman available at a moment’s notice. Maybe somebody like, Dylan McIlrath who you could send to the AHL if need be, but would be a serviceable extra man in the NHL from time to time.

It should be said that we, as fans, need to be prepared for one or two of these moves to fall flat on their faces though. Every season, as much as we don’t want it to, somebody fails to live up to expectations. That being said, we need to continue to be beacons of positivity and supportive supporters to the team so that we can help the players overcome any bouts of adversity.

Edmonton Sun (Derek Van Diest)

Oilers trade Ethan Bear to bring in depth forward Warren Foegele

Holland traded Bear to the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for left-winger Warren Foegele, adding size, speed and scoring depth to his bottom two lines.
- “I got a call (Tuesday) on Cody Ceci and that he wanted to come play here in Edmonton.”
- “I did a lot of checking, he played very well in Pittsburgh last year; he’s 27 years of age. I did the deal and then once I made the decision to sign Cody and re-sign Tyson, having Evan Bouchard and Ethan Bear, I didn’t want to go with four right-shot defencemen; last year we weren’t able to get enough ice time for Evan Bouchard. So, I made the deal with Carolina to trade Ethan for a top-nine forward in Warren Foegele.”
A Markham, Ont., product, Foegele was skating with other NHL players in Toronto when the trade came down shortly after the free-agency period began Wednesday. Players such as Connor McDavid, Darnell Nurse, Zach Hyman and Devin Shore, who are all from the Greater Toronto Area, suddenly became teammates.
- “Once I made the decision to sign Ceci, and re-sign Barrie, we had a defenceman to trade and I wanted to get a forward that could play left-wing and get in on the forecheck,” Holland said. “Has good speed, he’s big and strong, and I was just trying to get a little bit deeper up front.”

BLH’s Thoughts: I love that Holland is transforming his team from a rush team to a work and grind one. He’s bringing in players with extremely high work rates on and off the ice and honestly, he’s going to make his young prospects truly earn their spots on the team.

With Warren Foegele, I don’t think a lot of people know this but his middle name is Beatty. I’m just kidding, I have no idea what his middle name is, but I do know that from 2018-19 to today, he’s drawn the 39th most penalties in the league and from a per 60 rate over that time, he’s 19th overall drawing 1.32 penalties per game. Connor McDavid is 45th in penalties drawn per 60 (1.18).

So, if he can keep baiting the opposition into penalties, the Oilers can continue punishing them on the PP.

The other thing I like about him is how dangerous he is from the slot and the blue paint. This is where he scores all of his goals because he’s willing to put his head down and get in the muck to do what it takes and that’s what I’ve been saying that this team lacks.

Briefly on Cody Ceci. How great is it that there are players who are reaching out to the Oilers to tell them they WANT to play in Edmonton? For decades this organization has suffered in this aspect due to location, quality of team, arena, you name it and if I’m being completely honest, I think they’ll continue to be backup choices because of some of those things, but in the now, better players are CHOOSING to sign with the Oilers and that bodes well for future offseasons.

Sportsnet (Mike Kelly)

Analyzing what Zach Hyman brings to the Edmonton Oilers

Regardless of where Hyman plays in the Oilers’ top-six, he will fit like a glove and make his linemates better — just like he did alongside Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews the past two years in Toronto.
At a per 60-minute rate, Hyman averaged 2:05 of offensive zone puck possession time at even-strength. That’s time spent with the puck on his stick in the attacking end. Hyman ranked 19th among 396 qualified forwards in this stat and his comparables were Brad Marchand and Mark Scheifele.
Hyman is more than a ‘grinder’ whose purpose on a scoring line is to do grunt work for more talented players. He’s a bonafide top-six forward capable of pulling his weight offensively. Hyman is also an effective puck mover, ranking top-50 among all forwards in controlled zone exits and entries at even-strength.
Hyman is still one of the best in the league at generating shots from the most high-danger scoring area on the ice, the inner slot. Hyman ranked second league-wide to Auston Matthews last season, averaging four inner slot shots per 60 minutes at even strength.
Defensively, Hyman doesn’t impact the game at a high rate at even strength.
Last season, the Maple Leafs had an expected goal rate of 62.9 per cent with Hyman on the ice. Only five forwards were better: Mikko Rantanen, Nathan MacKinnon, William Nylander, Auston Matthews, and Patrice Bergeron.
Hyman’s expected goals against per 60 minutes was 2.16, which ranked 88th among all forwards.
When Hyman is on the ice, his team controls the play. They dominate offensively and are above average defensively. There just isn’t any available data to suggest Hyman is a driver of defensive success.
While he may not come out of a battle with the puck as often as other forwards, being as involved as Hyman is in this area of the game provides several benefits to his team. It allows for teammates to engage in the battle and recover the puck. It disrupts breakouts and forces the opposition to spend more time and effort attempting to exit the defensive zone. It also forces opposing teams into mistakes.
He has top-six skill and a grinder’s work ethic. Hyman’s current career-highs in goals and points sit at 21 and 41, respectively. Expect him to beat both of those totals next season.

BLH’s Thoughts: Don’t you wish you had access to some of these private metrics so that you could judge players more fairly?

I’m sorry, I can’t remember who said it, but last week on Oilers Now, one of Bob Stauffer’s guests (maybe John Shannon) was saying how good Hyman is defensively because he’s got a motor that never stops and his tenaciousness on the backcheck is unrivaled. Was it Craig Button that compared him to Jere Lehtinen?…

I’m going to say that Hyman hits 50pts next season and splits his goals and assists pretty evenly. What kind of production do you think he’ll put up?

NHLRumors.com

Bob McKenzie: Justin Abdelkader is looking to return to the NHL next season after spending last season in the Swiss League. He’ll be getting $1 million a year for the next five years from the Detroit Red Wings.

Adrian Dater: Have heard the New York Rangers really want to find a way to trade for Jack Eichel.

Larry Brooks: “In one corner: Zibanejad at $10M (plus?) for seven years starting at age 29. In the other: Eichel at $10M for five years starting at age 25, immediate health concerns, plus the cost of acquisition.”

NHL Watcher: Pierre LeBrun said on TSN that the Montreal Canadiens had tried to trade for Rasmus Ristolainen but their first-round pick wasn’t high enough.