Edmonton Oilers Trade Talk: “Another interesting player that is gaining traction in trade talks is…”

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The Jason Gregor Show

Jay Woodcroft

On Holloway

He’s come and introduced himself in a really strong way. He was injured for quite a while and frustrated as he wasn’t able to play, wasn’t able to play for us down the stretch last season or participate in training camp. He’s excited about the opportunity to play. He’s got lots of natural characteristics of an NHL hockey player. He’s big. He’s strong. He skates very well. I feel like I can use him in any situation.
For Dylan, there was so much anticipation and he got through that initial adrenaline rush and now it’s for real. He’s learning about how good the AHL is, how you have to bring it every day, how you have to manage your rest and continue to rehearse moments you find yourself in games and do that in practice. He’s done very well. He’s a very coachable kid and an exciting player for our organization.

Is there a difference between a player communing out of college and the CHL.

I think so. Dylan is a little bit of a different case because he missed so much of the first half of the season. For many players that come out of the NCAA, there is an adjustment to a pro lifestyle and a pro schedule. Not conditioned to play a 70 game schedule. Conditioned to play a 38 game schedule. Can hit a wall mid-season.
Dylan is a bit different because he’s really just starting his year and his development as a pro hockey player. He’s starting to feel the “every day of the AHL”. The adjustment for CHL players is often a bit different. Also, European pros that come over often aren’t used to the North American schedule. Many of those leagues are actually winding down their season right now.

What impresses you most and what are you going to help him (Holloway) focus on.

The two big things that stand out are his size and strength and his physicality. He is not just a good skater, he’s an elite skater. He’s low to the ground. It’s powerful skating. It’s different than say a Ryan McLeod. He gets where he needs to quickly and powerfully, it’s a major strength. He’s a strong kid and if you look at him in the gym and the things he can do, you’ll be quite impressed. He’s got the prototypical body frame for a power forward.
What he needs to continue to work on down here, is there is a difference between being gym strong and NCAA strong vs. AHL man strong, just the little ways you can position yourself to protect the puck and win 50/50 puck battles. How you can pre-bump someone to establish inside position, those type of little things that come from experience. Just learning how to use that physicality and those gifts at this level. The little nuances to puck protection and establishing position.

On Broberg

Super impressed with him. Like Holloway, he’s got natural gifts that separate him from most young d-men. He’s half way through his first NA pro year. He’s learned a ton and played some games in the NHL, at the highest level that gave him a taste and that experience wetted his appetite. He’s hungry for more but realizes that he’s in a good spot to continue to grow his game. Missed the entire last week in protocol. He’s had a good week of practice and is rearing to go.

On Niemelainen, How do you help a player with his puck skills in season?

I think you can work on it in-season, it’s about making your reps count in practice. It’s about keeping things simple. It’s about understanding that our pace as a team comes through our puck movement. We do a lot of things to try and build our team game through our passing abilities in particular from D to F quickly.
Niemelainen got a little taste in the NHL and realizes he can play in that league. There are things he needs to improve on to establish himself as an every day player in the NHL but that dimension that he brings (physicality) is a throw-back dimension and teams take notice when he’s on the ice, I can tell you that, it’s a real factor. BUT there are things he can grow in his game and he’s aware of that. He’s a good character kid. He doesn’t say much but he brings it every day. I’m proud of how far he’s come in the least year and a half an believe he’s an exciting prospect for the organization as well.

BLH’s Thoughts: Some are likening Holloway to Taylor Hall in terms of how they appear on the ice and they’re skating style. Even though I was never much of a Hall fan, that’s still exciting!

If you’re bringing Markus Niemelainen up to the NHL club, it’s not because Edmonton needs a puck mover and considering how different the AHL and the NHL is, wouldn’t it make a modicum of sense to have him learning that skill vs. NHL players?

Speaking of another prospect who’s ready to make the jump to pro, Carter Savoie scored a hat-trick last night in Denver’s 8-5 win over St. Cloud. If I had to take a guess, he’ll be signing with Edmonton (or Bakersfield) when his season is over and actually, I wouldn’t be shocked if we started hearing as such soon.

Oilersnation

What should the Edmonton Oilers do with Tyson Barrie?

His 2021-22 campaign has been far from what anyone imagined and on Wednesday night, it was put on full display.
In a microcosm, it’s a small play over the course of an 82-game season, but for Barrie, these instances are happening now more than ever.
I get the reasoning behind resigning Barrie. It was done to help isolate and take the offensive pressure off Bouchard on the backend, but the young man has shown his ability to produce.
The Oilers’ defence needs some jam. They need some grit, and they need some bite.
All in all, it makes sense for the Oilers to explore moving on from Barrie. If I were the team, I would be looking at some kind of deal surrounding Barrie for a strong right-side third-pairing defenceman who can be a Larsson-like vacuum in the defensive zone, and a mid-round pick to be added, as well.

BLH’s Thoughts: I don’t know if Barrie’s getting hung up on the blue line and coughing up the puck now more than ever. I think Laing likes to say things like this to support the fact that he was never a fan of the Barrie re-signing and in fact, the Oilers dman’s giveaways per 60 5v5 relative according to Natural Stat Trick is 1.58, his second lowest average since becomeing a full-time NHLer in 2013/14.

Evan Bouchard (2.9), Duncan Keith (2.96), Darnell Nurse (2.51), and Kris Russell (2.05) are giving the puck away at a much higher rate so far this year.

The stat that is a little bit alarming is how many hits he’s taking on average right now per sixty minutes, 4.97. The year he spent in Toronto, he was absorbing 5.3 hits per sixty and on his own team Darnell Nurse takes the fewest hits on average at 2.84.

What this says to me is that Mr. Barrie isn’t moving the puck fast enough when he gets it and that could be down to a number of reasons that have nothing to do with him.

I think what I’m seeing with this player is that he’s not moving his feet as much as he was last year. He’s too young to be falling off of a cliff production-wise, so is he hurt or dealing with something that is preventing him from avoiding checks? Is it possible that the club has made some adjustments that don’t prevent the oncoming opposition from taking the body when he’s on the ice?

That’s me disagreeing with Laing’s initial comments, the following ones I can get on board with. Edmonton has some less physical options on the left side for their 3rd pairing if Markus Niemelainen isn’t getting the call and logically, it just makes sense to balance out the pairing with some size and physicality on the other flank.

One guy that’s been on Edmonton’s radar forever is Justin Braun. He’s 34 now though and having a hellish season in Philly. He’s averaging 16 minutes a game with the Flyers this year and really brings nothing offensively to the game for that club, but defensively, all of his relative “against” metrics from NST are in the minus.

Corsi: -2.63

Fenwich: -4.76

Shots: -3.76

Goals: -0.63

Expected Goals: -0.47

Scoring Chances: -1.98

High Danger Chances: -3.12

High Danger Goals: -0.43

Even if you head to PuckIQ.com and check out who Braun’s been playing against, their dangerous fenwick relative “against” (DFA60RC) numbers will tell you that shit’s not going in when Braun’s on the ice no matter the quality of opposition.

Elite: -18.01

Middle: -7.64

Gritensity: -5.82

The eye-test is out the window for me, but those defensive numbers are intriguing, almost too good or maybe I’m misreading something. I’ll say it again though, he brings nothing to the game point production-wise though. If you want offense from Justin Braun, don’t get your hopes up. You’ve got a better chance at getting the skeleton of Howie Morenz to score a goal for you.

He makes $1.8M this year, maybe Edmonton could swap Turris and Koekkoek for him or perhaps Benson or Perlini would be more tempting? I just see a veteran dman who might be the kind of guy who could feature on the 3rd pairing for the majority of a game and then sub in alongside Keith or Nurse in special circumstances…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB25sPKe5iY

The Daily Goal Horn

Another interesting player that is gaining traction in trade talks is pending RFA, Artturi Lehkonen.
- “A lot of teams view him as this year’s version of Blake Coleman or Barclay Goodrow,” Frank Seravalli said. “A guy that could fetch a first-round pick, that does just about everything right for your team.”
There’s been some chatter that goalie 33 year-old goalie Semyon Varlamov is in play. He has one year remaining at $5 million on the books and is expendable thanks to Ilya Sorokin.
Cal Clutterbuck, 34, is a pending UFA and could be moved as a rental to a contender.
“Has Tarasenko had a change of heart? Has his performance caused Armstrong’s phone to ring? Both are possible. But if something is going to happen, it’s almost certain that it will be after the season.” – Jeremy Rutherford, The Athletic
“Sources indicate that Peter Chiarelli, who is working with Doug Armstrong and the St. Louis Blues, has been contacted by the Chicago Blackhawks and will interview for their hockey operations vacancy, among others,” Darren Dreger said on TSN’s Insider Trading. “So, this could move very quickly. The interviewing process is expected to begin this weekend and drift into early next week.”

BLH’s Thoughts: I remember Lehkonen was often found in the Puljujarvi trade rumors when Jesse left the Oilers to play in Finland. I’d love to have him on the Oilers, but not at that price. That said, I would trade Kailer Yamamoto for him.

Cal Clutterbuck would be a fantastic add to Edmonton’s bottom-six but how do you make that money work aside from sending Kassian to Long Island and would Clutterbuck be able to play that same style without Matt Martin and/or Ross Johnston around?

I was talking to a friend about Chiarelli recently, and we wondered, if the powers that be hadn’t stepped in and forced Chia Pete to alter his vision for the team, how would it look today? I thought it might look more akin to how the Flames look right now but with McDavid, Draisaitl, and Nuge. Unfortunately, Pulju would be elsewhere, but the team would’ve been much harder to play against, that’s for sure.