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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The Athletic (Mitchell)
Lowetide: Why Oilers can expect an offensive rebound from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
- One of the most predictable scorers on the team dating back to his rookie campaign, Nugent-Hopkins’ five-on-five points per 60 total fell to 1.15 from 2.23 season over season.
- Based on each players’ 2019-20 numbers, the Nuge should have been one of the division’s top performers at the position (Nik Ehlers, Elias Pettersson and Tomas Tatar finished ahead of him at five-on-five points per 60 in 2019-20). Nugent-Hopkins was last, and by a country mile, in 2020-21…
- He played with McDavid for more than half of his five-on-five minutes. What happened?
- Nuge has been known to exit the offensive zone early, and even all-time great centres (Dave Keon, for one) have admitted eschewing offensive opportunities over playing button-down defence.
- Whatever the chemistry between McDavid and Nugent-Hopkins, it didn’t work in 2020-21 and general manager Ken Holland changed personnel (sans Nuge) during the offseason for a reason.
- Over the last three seasons, including 2020-21, Draisaitl and Nugent-Hopkins have been successful as an outscoring tandem.
- It should be mentioned that in 2020-21, Nuge-Draisaitl played just 137 minutes without McDavid and were also challenged (45 percent shot and goal share)
- It turns out, a 10-year NHL veteran whose offence drops from 2.23 points per 60 at five-on-five to 1.15 year over year is highly unusual.
- It might have been the contract, the pressure of not scoring on the top line or any number of issues that had an impact on Edmonton’s top two-way forward.
- Expect 55-60 points over an 82-game season in 2021-22…
BLH’s Thoughts: Last year was a weird year and if I recall correctly, even Bob Stauffer was nodding at the idea of RNH bring in a contract year that was affecting his production.
So, I’m with LT on this one, I do think we’ll see a return to form from Nuge. He’s simply too young and too good of a hockey player to be entering into his downtrend as a productive hockey player. I’m going to say he puts up closer to 70 points though, that’s how much I believe in his bounce back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tIzO05swwk
The Hockey Writers (Parsons)
No Pressure on Puljujarvi to Explode for Oilers in 2021-22
- While some players turn on the jets in a contract year, other players can buckle under the need to play at their highest level.
- Whatever the outcome of the 2021-22 campaign for Puljujarvi, it won’t change an awful lot and all signs point to this not being an issue for the young winger.
- Puljujarvi is one of the few players on this Oilers roster that will have an expiring deal but also the freedom to simply ‘play a little hockey.’ He’s not going to feel the weight of the world on his shoulders, he won’t have to hit a certain level to maintain his spot on the roster…
BLH’s Thoughts: Seeing as he was removed from the first line in the playoffs, I don’t think we should be jumping the gun here and saying he’s guaranteed a spot in the top-six.
I think the club likes him in the top-six as long as things are working, but in the event that they are not, there’s a chance he could find himself down the lineup. All it takes is one nod from the captain and that’s that.
- Puljujarvi is doing exactly what the coaching staff could have hoped for. He’s working hard, starting to use his frame, being versatile and doing the dirty work that comes with being a player of his size and speed. Players like Connor McDavid appreciate it too. McDavid has said he’s loves Puljujarvi’s energy and said back in January,
“He’s a huge part of our team. If he can make strides like he looks like he has, it’s big for our team.”
- Puljujarvi is doing exactly what the coaching staff could have hoped for. He’s working hard, starting to use his frame, being versatile and doing the dirty work that comes with being a player of his size and speed. Players like Connor McDavid appreciate it too. McDavid has said he’s loves Puljujarvi’s energy and said back in January,
“He’s a huge part of our team. If he can make strides like he looks like he has, it’s big for our team.”
- Because Puljujarvi is an RFA, he doesn’t hold much leverage in negotiations with the Oilers at the end of this season. He is arbitration eligible, but he’d have to have an insanely good run of 82 games to be able to ask for the moon and get it.
- What a breakout season for Puljujarvi does is give the Oilers a bit more confidence to talk about a long-term deal, should they want to.
- Even a 25-goal season isn’t going to make Puljujarvi rich coming off this upcoming campaign. The Oilers simply aren’t in a position to have to pay a lot and the player isn’t in a position to demand it. That comes down the road when he’s looking at UFA years
BLH’s Thoughts: I disagree, the next contract that Jesse signs will either walk him to unrestricted free agency or the team is going to have to “buy” some of those UFA years and they aren’t cheap, especially if he’s a 25 goal scorer.
The Daily Goal Horn
Casey Cizikas signed; Kirill Kaprizov deal close; and is the Jack Eichel trade off for now?
- Two reputable sources are confirming that Cizikas has a possible 6-year deal in place with the Islanders at around $2.5 million. If it this is true, that would be substantially less that his deal with an AAV of $3.35 million.
- Michael Russo who covers the Wild for The Atlethic wrote;
“it does sound like there have been compromises from both sides of late.”
- According to Russo Kaprizov became willing to go beyond his initial two year deal which would have made him a UFA when done. He also believes that the money will still be significant, in the $9 million dollar range.
- Yesterday, TSN’s Shawn Simpson reported that Eichel may have surgery “very soon” and his timetable to return would be December.
- Additionally, Simpson states that the Sabres are still asking for somewhere between 4-6 pieces. They continue to demand mostly futures, including any interested team’s top two prospects which no one has remotely been willing to do.
- One thing appears to be likely is that a trade for Eichel is off the table until he recovers.
