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Oilersnation
Monday Mailbag – Reasonable points expectations for Evander Kane
What is a reasonable expectation for Kane for the remainder of the season points-wise?
- “He’s a .66 PPG player for his career. Has three points now and 40 games to play. No reason not to expect 30-35 points from him.” – Brownlee
BLH’s Thoughts: I’m going to go contrarian a bit here and say he doesn’t hit 30 points but that he goes on a tear when the Oilers make the post-season.
The Oilers schedule gets really heavy over the next couple of months and I’m wondering if you think it would be beneficial to rest players like McDavid and Draisaitl for certain games as they do in the NBA with load management?
- “I do not. Those two average 21-22 minutes a game. McDavid and Draisaitl would not be happy about it. I could see them sitting out the final game of the season if it is meaningless, but no reason to sit them out.” – Gregor
BLH’s Thoughts: You know, Leon’s one of the few remaining Oilers not to have contracted “The Vid”…
Aside from that terrifying thought, hockey players aren’t huge fans of taking games off to stay rested if they’re healthy. Maybe Tippett could reduce their TOI in games they’re winning handily though.
Has there been any update on two players and whether they might be available at all this season? Wondering about Oscar Klefbom and Josh Archibald?
- “Klefbom will not be playing this year. Still unknown on Archibald. The last report I heard was that he hasn’t had any issues in the first step of returning to training. But the next steps will be more high tempo. Another thing is that his vaccination status hasn’t changed so if he did return he’d likely only be available for home games, unless isolation rules change by April or May when he might return.” – Gregor
BLH’s Thoughts: So, what about Edmonton using Josh Archibald as a trade chip in the event he’s deemed healthy down the road? An American team (Minnesota?) heading into the playoffs might be willing to bring him in.
The Athletic
Hard-target search to address Oilers roster needs before trade deadline
Shutdown defence
- Edmonton has two AHL defenders (Markus Niemelainen and Dmitri Samorukov) who could fill the role, possibly as early as next season, so a rental is more likely if the price is right.
- Calvin de Haan, Ben Chiarot, Marc Staal and Manson are all free agents this summer and will come at different price points.
Scoring winger
- Daniel Sprong isn’t an obvious choice but he’s a productive goal scorer. He’s inconsistent but also inexpensive, and as The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir recently reported, the Washington Capitals might be open to dealing him.
- Tyler Toffoli’s skill would be welcome and his style would be a better fit than Sprong’s, but he has two years left after this one…
- A return of Jordan Eberle would be a popular move in Edmonton…
- Reilly Smith has a $5 million deal but this is the final season, so the cap hit will be less than half once the deadline arrives.
- Phil Kessel would be the easiest acquisition, and he’s a pure shooter, but most of his value would come on the power play…
Goaltending
- Chris Driedger of the Seattle Kraken is another possible answer, his overall save percentage (.895) is poor but he’s at .916 at five-on-five…
BLH’s Thoughts: Normally, I’d say to give Tyson Barrie some time to get his shit sorted out, but for the love of Pete, is he having a tough go right now or what? Maybe it’s simply time to flip him and I only say that because his skating speed looks like it’s fallen right off of a cliff.
If Edmonton is going to move on from Barrie, get him and another asset to Seattle and bring back Soucy and Driedger for the run. Ebs would be fun, but I bet that’d only last until he started getting into that old habit of dusting off his shots again…
The Oilers defense is too pacifist for me and last night’s game against Vegas is a perfect example. Late in the game Darnell Nurse takes out Mattias Janmark and he goes flying into the Oilers net, then Smith crosschecks him as he’s trying to leave the net which forces Darnell to get in Janmark’s face, and the Swede decides he’s going to give it right back. The game was 4-0 at that point and Nurse couldn’t be bothered to drop the mitts and feed Janmark a few knuckle sandwiches. He was happier to scrum it up and let the refs shut things down. Brutal.
I mean, it was pretty clear early on that the game plan was to crash Edmonton’s net and get in Smith’s face because they knew he wasn’t 100% and low and behold, what happened? Devin Shore (and a Golden Knight) fell on Smith, the veteran netminder came up limping, and nobody grabbed the Vegas forward who fell on him… Honestly. I know that it probably wasn’t all of the Vegas player’s fault ,but still. Show your goalie you’ve got his back for Christ’s sake instead of leaving him out to dry like you did for the rest of the game.
Tonight’s game is an excellent opportunity to show the world that there’s some bite in this team. A toothless loss tonight would be devastating.
Spector’s Hockey
- THE SCORE: John Matisz listed the Calgary Flames, Minnesota Wild, Boston Bruins and Colorado Avalanche as his suggested trade destinations for Claude Giroux.
- MONTREAL HOCKEY NOW: (Jimmy) Murphy wondered if the Canadiens might try to get into the bidding for Arizona Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun. They’re expected to part with two left-side blueliners in Ben Chiarot and Brett Kulak before the trade deadline and could also move right-shot Jeff Petry.
- TSN (via THE SCORE): Pierre LeBrun reports the Ottawa Senators were a popular target for trade phone calls in recent days. They’re expected to be sellers at the trade deadline. Possible trade chips include pending unrestricted free agents such as Chris Tierney, Zach Sanford, Nick Paul, Tyler Ennis, Josh Brown and Anton Forsberg.
BLH’s Thoughts: I’ve not been told as much, but if you have your ears to the ground in Edmonton, you could probably make an educated guess that the Oilers have their eyes on a few of the names LeBrun mentioned out of Ottawa. Nick Paul (Bob Stauffer favorite), Zach Sanford, Chris Tierney, and Josh Brown would all fill a hole in Edmonton’s lineup or be an upgrade on a current weakness.
