Edmonton Oilers Talk: Smith’s Impending Return, RNH’s Stone Hands, 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

OILER NOTES: Mike Smith looks ready to play after being out two months

He’s (Mike Smith) speaking to the media Tuesday before boarding a flight to St. Louis, which makes it sound like he’s coming off long-term injury status. He certainly was making plenty of saves in practice Monday morning at the University of Alberta. He wasn’t the third wheel with Mikko Koskinen and Stuart Skinner. Maybe he plays in St. Louis Wednesday.
If he returns, Skinner, who has played 10 games, (.916 save percentage) most likely would be returning to the farm in Bakersfield, Calif., but the squeezed-cap team will be adding more money with Skinner’s $750,000 salary replaced by Smith’s $2.2 million.
With just six healthy defencemen, Tippett will give farmhand Samorukov his first NHL game in St. Louis but that depends on Keith’s status. If he’s ready, Samorukov could sit.
(Kris) Russell, who hurt his shoulder Dec. 10 against Boston, skated before practice at the U of A, and might be ready to return after the road trip into the midwest and east…
Prospect forward Dylan Holloway, who had a second wrist surgery in September, is stick-handling but isn’t shooting yet. He will likely report to Bakersfield in January to practise and has not played in 10 months.
It’s the same short-staffed defence in Bakersfield as here. Just Filip Berglund, Phil Kemp, Michael Kesselring, Vincent Desharnais, Yanni Kaldis and semi-pro call-up Alex Peters.

BLH’s Thoughts: I’m thinking that Mike Smith might not play until the team gets a bit more flexibility cap-wise and that might not happen until most of the roster is out of COVID protocols.

The silver lining in all of this is that some of Edmonton’s prospects who are in depth roles for Bakersfield are getting much more TOI for the Condors and surely that will benefit their development going forward.

The Cult of Hockey

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins still a power play ace but under-whelming at even strength. What’s up with that?

RNH has 25 points in 28 games this year. That sounds pretty good, right? But he’s got just nine points at even strength.
On the power play is superlative passing skill helps create all kinds of Grade A shots, mainly off combination cross-ice slices and darks to and from McDavid and Draisaitl. He’s an integral part of the best power play the NHL has seen in decades.
But those same passing lanes that open up on the power play are clogged with defenders and sticks at even strength. More of a power game is needed. More going hard to the net, battling in the corners, and puck protecting, skills where RNH isn’t an ace, he’s not even average.
If he’s going to start scoring more, he’s got to get more of a game in and around the crease. He and winger Yamamoto, who is also struggling to put up points at even strength, have to play with more bite, winning more puck battles, creating more turnovers, fanatically checking until the points come their way again.

BLH’s Thoughts: Nuge is a tough hockey player and he’ll get into the muck no questions asked, but he’s not a grinder per se and he doesn’t really have a power element to his game, so asking him to pivot his game to be more like Hyman or Foegele is unfair I feel.

Would he score more if he went to the blue paint more? I imagine so, but it really isn’t his bread and butter. He simply needs to shoot more when given the opportunity and for a pass-first player, that can be quite the internal conundrum.

RNH isn’t a lost cause and I’m confident that his scoring touch will return.

The Hockey Writers Rumors

“If the Flyers fall out of playoff contention, general manager Chuck Fletcher needs to make some hard decisions, such as: Is it time to ask captain Claude Giroux to waive his no-movement clause and deal him for, say, a high draft pick and a quality prospect? Giroux, who turns 34 on Jan. 12 and can become an unrestricted free agent in July, is having a good season (7 goals, team-high 17 points in 20 games) and still has plenty left in the tank.” – Sam Carchidi
One of the burning questions in Pittsburgh is whether or not the team will move a forward this season. Specifically, can the team move the contract of Jason Zucker now that Evan Rodrigues has shown well and proven himself a capable winger to consistently stay in the top six. Dan Kingerski of Pittsburgh Hockey Now recently reported both Zucker and Kasperi Kapanen could be trade candidates.
With both Bowen Byram and Ryan Murray injured, there are questions about what the Avalanche will do to ensure they have the proper blue line in place to stay a top contender for the playoffs. Could they go out and add someone to the grouping of Cale Makar, Devon Toews, and Samuel Girard?