Edmonton Oilers Talk: The Pipeline, Gretzky’s Inspiring Words, 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

Edmonton Oilers pipeline flowing like never before

Stuart Skinner stepped in and is playing very well in the wake of Mike Smith’s injury and Mikko Koskinen’s inconsistency.
Philip Broberg, still in the first week of his NHL career, is earning strong reviews from his coach and teammates.
Centre Ryan McLeod is making the best of this latest look, scoring three times in five games and, more importantly, getting a sense that he’s good enough to be a full time Oiler.
Half of Edmonton’s blue line and six of their top nine forwards in Wednesday’s game against Arizona are from the draft. And before Skinner, Broberg and McLeod, the previous wave of Kailer Yamamoto, Evan Bouchard, Ethan Bear and Caleb Jones began making its mark.
The coaching staff down in Bakersfield, where head coach Jay Woodcroft has been churning out NHL-ready players since he arrived, deserves much of the credit. Dave Manson is bringing the young defencemen along nicely and Skinner can’t say enough about how he’s been developed.
It’s also an easier making the jump to this Oilers team Edmonton used to be a very shaky landing place, even for first overall picks like Nugent-Hopkins, Taylor Hall and Nail Yakupov, so it’s no wonder most of the call ups during the decade of darkness were back in the minors before they even finished their first cup of coffee.

BLH’s Thoughts: I’ll be honest, all of the guys who’ve graduated from Bakersfield this year have impressed me. I suppose I’m so used to seeing prospects come up from the AHL and get the asses handed to them because the club has thrown them to the wolves from the get-go.

We’ve got young players, aside from Broberg, that are coming up after one, two, or three years in the minors. They’re marinated. They’re clued in to how the Oilers want their young players playing and they’re not getting tossed into the deep end from the onset, aside from Broberg.

Broberg is a special case though and he’s coming through with flying colors. He looks like he’s been playing NHL hockey for a half-decade. He’s very poised with the puck and has the confidence to take it on his own if he feels that’s the right play. He’s been physical too, and I love that!

I do wonder if Jay Woodcroft and Dave Manson will be behind Edmonton’s bench next year as Dave Tippett’s contract is about to expire.

The Score

Gretzky: Leafs, Oilers much closer to winning Stanley Cup than people think

Wayne Gretzky knows a thing or two about winning the Stanley Cup, and he likes what he’s seeing from the Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs.
“I went for lunch with Leon Draisaitl, Connor (McDavid), and Darnell Nurse and it reminded me so much of me, Kevin Lowe, Mark Messier, and Paul Coffey having lunch together,” Gretzky said Wednesday on Sportsnet 590 The Fan’s “Real Kyper and Bourne show.” “That they were teasing each other; Leon was disappointed that Connor’s passes weren’t as good as he thought they should be. And you know what? That’s what makes teams successful. That they can tease each other and be on the same page and that ultimately they want to win a championship.”
“I remember I left lunch and I said to my wife, ‘You know what? This team is so much closer to winning than people understand because these guys are so close and they want to win so badly for each other and I love that,'” Gretzky said. “To me, that’s even better when in the locker room these guys are all on the same page. And I feel watching the Leafs play that they have that same camaraderie. It’s us, and we’re together, and we don’t care who scores.”

BLH’s Thoughts: Well, you know what they say, “It takes one to know one.”

That said, after this week’s performances against Dallas and Arizona, I might be willing to question Edmonton’s championship pedigree. This team still plays to its opponents and Cup challengers do not do that. There are still some issues that this team needs to work on, injuries or not.

The Hockey Writers Rumors

When asked what the latest in Vancouver is with the Canucks and possible moves, TSN’s Darren Dreger responded, “Well, more from an angry fan base that there’s a strong appetite for change, be it change in management, change in coaching, just some form of change, that’s what we continue to hear.”
Thomas Drance of The Athletic listed a number of names that could be on the move if things don’t get fixed. J.T. Miller, Brock Boeser, Jaroslav Halak and Tyler Motte (both pending UFAs), plus Travis Hamonic, Jason Dickinson and Tanner Pearson.
There’s been some speculation in recent weeks that Tarasenko might have had a change of heart and that the Blues are aware of that. But that has not been confirmed, and the last word I received from a source with knowledge of the situation was that Tarasenko was standing by the trade request he made last offseason.” – Jeremy Rutherford, The Athletic
According to Pierre LeBrun of TSN, there is growing concern that the NHL All-Star Weekend and the Olympics being so close together will create issues for both experiences. Because players are chartering from Las Vegas to Beijing no one wants any sort of outbreak coming from Vegas, and that means stricter protocols during All-Star weekend. Of course, that sort of makes it pointless to hold the All-Star Game in Vegas.