Edmonton Oilers Talk: Who’s Making a Late Charge for a Spot on the Oilers?

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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Cult of Hockey

Out-manned Edmonton Oilers fall 5-1 in Winnipeg: Cult of Hockey Player Grades

WARREN FOEGELE. 7. Awarded an assist on the 4-1. He and Kassian were the Oilers best 2 forwards. Named the game’s 3^rd Star.
ZACK KASSIAN. 7. Probably the Oilers best player on what was otherwise a tough night. After Kassian’s challenging 2021, his performance in this one was among tonight’s better news.
COOPER MARODY. 4. Not near hard enough on his man in front on the 1-0… Just 17% on faceoffs. -2.
TYLER BENSON. 5. That alone won’t win him an NHL spot… not a lot clicked for him despite a decent effort. Benson ended up -2 on the night.
CODY CECI. 4. Ceci was walked badly by Harkins on the 4-0 goal… That one big gaff colored an otherwise o.k. effort.
MICHAEL KESSELRING. 3. Victimized on the 1-0 goal when he left his feet beneath a hard Jets forecheck and then was slow back to the net front to cover his man. Was over-matched much of the night.
XAVIER BOURGAULT. 5. He has skill… Bumped up a line as the night went on and just missed a wide-open net late. Not bad for the rawest rookie on the ice.
COLTON SCEVIOUR. 5. Couldn’t cash on a nice Kassian pace net-front late in the game. Pretty set-up for Bourgault in front, late. Making a game charge at that 4RW opening.
WILLIAM LAGESSON. 5. Quietly solid, including a couple decent turns on the PK. I didn’t mind him at all. The steadiest of the 6 Oilers D on this evening in 18:07 of work…including 1:54 shorthanded.

BLH’s Thoughts: I’ve only posted the more notable names and grades from the CoH’s game review and therefore I encourage you to click the link above to read the full post.

Oh how the tide turns in preseason, eh? The Oilers went from spanker to spankee. The Jets iced nearly a full regular season lineup mind you, so you can’t really blame the Oilers whose no.1 line will be their de-facto 3rd line once the season gets going.

Now, the first two goals were on Marody, by the way. He couldn’t clear the puck away from the crease and Svechnikov thieved goal no.1 right off his stick. For the second goal, Cooper lost a puck battle in the corner which allowed the Jets winger (Harkins) to move the puck back to the point and that resulted in a tip-in goal for WPG.

Foegele and Kassian looked fantastic and in the 3rd Benson and Bourgault gave Winnipeg’s dmen fits. As for Ceci’s and Bouchard’s brainfarts, it’s training camp and what better time to work out the kinks that when the games don’t count?

I will say this though, there was a massive gap between the first two goals and that speaks well to Edmonton’s youngsters I think. Also, if I’m not mistaken, the Scheifele/Wheeler/Connor line only contributed 1g to the match and even then, it came off of a weird bounce that nobody on the Oilers had a chance getting to let alone preventing.

So even in a tough loss, there are always positive things to find. Hopefully, tonight we’ll see more good things than negative as Connor’s boys face a substantially better Kraken team in Everett.

.@TSNBobMcKenzie’s final prospect rank list is out! Thoughts? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/Gl378YDpS2

— TSN (@TSN_Sports) September 30, 2021

Edmonton Sun

Kassian could be key to the Oilers third line this season

On a night when all the Oilers big guns were silent and at home, Kassian, who played his first pre-season game with Warren Foegele on left wing and Ryan McLeod the place-holder at centre with Derek Ryan not here, played 21 minutes, set up a goal by Brad Malone with a tidy pass late in the second in a predictable 5-1 loss.
He’s 30 now. He’s heading into his seventh Oiler season.
If Kassian, making $3.2 million a season for another three years, can be a nasty, productive, consistent winger who gets 12-15 goals, fights a half-dozen times and is a bit of a schoolyard bully around the net, the Oilers will be dancing.
Russian goalie Ilya Konovalov, who’ll be in Bakersfield this season, was the best Oiler by several miles (vs. WPG) in his 32 minutes even though he gave up three goals on 19 shots.

BLH’s Thoughts: Does it blow your mind that Kassian has been an Edmonton Oiler for seven years now?…

Have we talked this topic to death yet? Good Lord! You’ve got to hand it to these veteran scribes who can write the same article weekly but change it ever so slightly.

I don’t know if we’ll see Kass tonight. I think that Washington natives Kailer Yamamoto and Derek Ryan may get the call and to add to that, I reckon Coach Tippett will still want to see more of Turris and Sceviour on that right side.

Surely by the time you read this, the roster will have been posted, but for me it’s twenty to seven in the morning Edmonton time as I write this, so I’m simply pontificating on the topic.

The Hockey Writers

NHL Rumors: Red Wings, Oilers, Flames, Predators, Penguins, More

The Red Wings got awful news to start the season as head coach Jeff Blashill shared with the fans and media that Vrana will require shoulder surgery and be out a minimum of four months.

News out of the Oilers organization is that, while he’s continually tested negative for COVID, Josh Archibald has been under the weather, which leaves the team unsure about where he stands for the season. Word is that he’s potentially not cleared to get vaccinated, even if he’s decided to.

The last report regarding Gaudreau was that he didn’t want to talk about his contract situation with the media. He was going to focus on hockey, but there was still a lack of clarity as to where the two sides sat on a possible extension. Adam Gretz of NBC SPORTS has offered a bit of an update.

According to a report by The Tennessean’s Paul Skrbina, Mattias Ekholm still hopes to remain with the Nashville Predators after his contract expires at the end of this season. There was talk the 31-year-old defenseman could have been moved this past season before the trade deadline, but the Preds held onto him when they made a last-minute push for the postseason.

As per a report by Dan Kingerski, he doesn’t believe the Pittsburgh Penguins are in a hurry to give Letang or Malkin contract extensions. It’s not that the team doesn’t want either player, but the franchise might be more interested in seeing how things play out this season than they are committing to the idea either player finishes their careers in a Penguins uniform.