Edmonton Oilers Talk: “…the Oilers have incentive to get a deal done with Kane.” Says THW Writer

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The Hockey Writers

Signing Evander Kane is Worth a Shot for the Oilers

He and everybody else knows how talented he is on the ice, and if he can clean up his act, it would be a better league with him in it. At this point, getting the shock of possibly not playing in the NHL again should make Kane think differently.
On the other side of things, the Oilers have incentive to get a deal done with Kane. They would be adding a much-needed piece well before the trade deadline, getting an early advantage on other teams that are still waiting to see where they’ll be in a couple of months.
Kane is a top-six talent but most likely won’t be paid like one, at least on his first deal to get him back in the NHL.
He would come a lot cheaper than trading for someone as the team saves on assets going the other way to acquire him and cap space to fit in the Oilers lineup.
The new team can leave the past in the past and give the new player a chance. We’ve seen it as recently as this season with the Carolina Hurricanes signing Tony DeAngelo to a one-year, $1 million deal to replace the loss of Dougie Hamilton.
It would cover the need for a forward who can score goals, save on money and assets, add team toughness, and get a much-needed player before the rest of the competition.

BLH’s Thoughts: At some point this team has to address players like Kane with the attitude of being the ones who can help, not be an organization who is afraid to get within ten feet of the guy because they might look bad.

When Kane is on his game, he’s a menace and a bulldog. He can score and he brings swagger to the ice too.

If the team could get him on the cheap for the rest of the year, the risk level is quite low. Should things go to hell, surely there’ll be some sort of clause in the contract that favors and protects the Oilers. But if things go well, who knows what kind of impact it could have?

It’s a “hope” trade though. As in, you “hope” the drama doesn’t follow him into the locker room and infect the team as the season has already been trying enough.

Oilersnation

The biggest differences between Edmonton and the NHL’s top teams aren’t just goaltending

While players like Sam Reinhart, Pavel Buchnevich, Viktor Arvidsson, and Jared McCann were all available throughout the off-season, Holland was too preoccupied with trading assets for Duncan Keith while not retaining a single dollar of his $5.5M cap-hit.
Even if you do feel that goaltending has held them back to a greater extent as opposed to any of their other roster issues, the blame should be entirely on Holland. He had plentiful time and cap-space to acquire an upgrade.
Holland is the highest-paid GM in the league; he shouldn’t get praise for merely trying. It‘s quite simply his job to improve the team and deliver results.

BLH’s Thoughts: There’s lots of statistical talk in this post that you should read if that’s your thing, but I wanted to get into the part at the end where the writer takes a shot at Ken Holland for not acquiring the likes of Sam Reinhart, Pavel Buchnevich, Viktor Arvidsson, or Jared McCann.

So let’s look at those deals.

July 24th, 2021, Sam Reinhart is traded from Buffalo to Florida for goaltending prospect Devon Levi and a 2022 first rounder.

Edmonton hasn’t had the greatest of histories with the Reinharts…

Sam was coming off of a $5.2M/yr deal and an RFA if I’m not mistaken. He eventually signed a 3yr deal worth $6.5M/yr.

Would you have rather had Nuge at his current deal or the one with Reinhart, because I think that’s what we’re ultimately talking about here.

Also, would you have dealt Stu Skinner and this year’s first to get Reinhart’s rights?

July 23rd, 2021, Pavel Buchnevich is sent to St. Louis from New York for Sammy Blais and a 2022 2nd round pick.

Who is Edmonton’s Sammy Blais?

The Rangers were obviously looking to add some grit and sandpaper to their lineup to help insulate their young stars.

The Oilers didn’t have anybody like that with the same upside as Blais… So, they would’ve had to have moved Puljujarvi, Bouchard, Broberg, or Yamamoto with a draft pick. Not happening.

I imagine Buchnevich’s $5.8M/yr contract and the M-NTC for the final three years of the contract would’ve been problematic too…

July 17th, 2021, Jared McCann gets traded from Pittsburgh to Toronto for Filip Hallander and a 2023 7th round pick. He’s subsequently picked by Seattle in the expansion draft.

If I had to guess, I think the club just chose Ryan McLeod over McCann and from a salary cap POV, it was probably the right move.

There’s also the possibility that Edmonton was looking at him and Toronto caught wind of it.

Would you have traded McLeod and a 7th rounder for McCann? I think this is a very fair question because I’d be willing to bet that there are a lot of folks who would’ve. Then the team might’ve been able to walk away from Derek Ryan and go a different direction.

July 1st, 2021, the Nashville Predators trade Viktor Arvidsson to the LA Kings for a 2nd round pick in 2021 and 3rd round pick in 2022.

Non-starter because Edmonton didn’t have a 2nd rounder in 2021 care of the Andreas Athanasiou trade. I wonder if the Swede’s statistical decline was part of that decision considering he’d gone from 34 goals a year to 15 to 10.

Is it possible that with Puljujarvi and Yamamoto in tow that the team simply decided they didn’t need to bring in another top-six RWer?

It takes two to tango and if Ken Holland can’t find a trade partner who’ll make a deal that he deems acceptable, you can’t force him to do it anyhow. He has his way of doing things and in today’s society where everybody wants things done right now, that’s going to rub a lot of fans and pundits the wrong way.

If it’s true that he almost had Georgiev in early-December, that goes to show you that he’s working those phones and going against his M.O. to an extent by looking for an early season deal. Barring an actual trade, that’s exactly what you want to see, is it not?

The writer of the post is pro-analytics and takes the time to throw shade at Holland on numerous occasions whilst at the same time showing everyone his boner for Bill Zito. Funny he didn’t mention how good New Jersey is doing with their massive analytics department. I wonder why that is?

At some point here, people following this team might have to come to grips that this might be a Washington Capitals build, not a Pittsburgh Penguins one…

The Daily Goal Horn

There has been some recent speculation the the Habs will offer Carey Price the same courtesy that was extended by Jeff Gorton in 2018 to New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist.
- “Would the Canadiens and Price say well maybe another team might want you, but the only way that could work is if you get healthy and play some games this year so other teams can see that you’re alright,” Elliotte Friedman recently pondered. “I think at some point that conversation is going to have to happen.”
The Pittsburgh Penguins have a trio of key UFA’s coming up this summer that has many wondering what GM Ron Hextall will do. Evgeni Malkin, Bryan Rust, and Kris Letang will all hit the open market in July… Regardless of those three, the Penguins also have Jeff Carter, Evan Rodrigues, and Casey DeSmith as important UFA’s. There’s simply no way for the Pens to keep them all.
The New York Rangers have surprised many with their great start to this season and many experts are asking if they’re a legit Stanley Cup contender. If so, the team will be buyers at the deadline with a huge need up front for a scoring winger.
- “One could make this case that they could try to get another top-six winger,” Weekes pondered to the NY Post. “Could they want somebody like a Tyler Toffoli maybe, from Montreal?”

BLH’s Thoughts: The Oilers would have some interest in Tyler Toffoli as well I would imagine considering that trading within Canada might be a lot easier/cheaper than doing so with an American-based team thanks to the COVID restrictions.