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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Oilersnation
Trade Deadline Preview: Goaltenders who might interest the Edmonton Oilers
- Alexandr Georgiev – …currently sports the worst save percentage of his career at .898. ($2.425M/RFA)
- Braden Holtby – In 23 games so far with the Stars, Holtby has a .912 save percentage, his best since his Stanley Cup-winning season with the Washington Capitals. ($2M/UFA)
- Joonas Korpisalo – Korpisalo is having the worst season of his career, as he owns a .887 save percentage in 18 games. ($2.8M/UFA)
- Anton Forsberg – This season, Forsberg has been excellent for Ottawa, as he has a .916 save percentage over 23 games. (900k/UFA)
- Semyon Varlamov – Varlamov has also been good for the Islanders, as he has a .916 save percentage in 15 games… ($5M/UFA 2023)
BLH’s Thoughts: There are two goalies above who’ll move the needle in Edmonton, Holtby and Varlamov and both come with a stupendous amount of NHL post-season experience. Holtby has a Stanley Cup on his resume, and Varlamov has backstopped the Islanders to the last pair of Eastern Conference final appearances here they lost to the eventual champs. The Russian netminder averaged a GAA of around 2.35 in that time and a SV% over. 920.
Acquiring either will come with its own set of challenges seeing how Dallas has three goalies on hand and they may feel like simply holding on to Holtby to see the year out and if you want anything out of the Islanders, you’ve got to go through the NHL’s version of The Kingpin in Lou Lamoriello… Yikes…
What I’m kind of hoping is that Ken Holland brings somebody we’ve not been hearing or talking about all year and throws some life into this deadline. Doubt that’ll go down considering every year he’s been GM of the Oilers, the cat’s been out of the bag weeks beforehand as to who he was bringing in. I mean, what do you think the odds are that he makes a trade for a former Red Wing or does a deal with a GM who worked for him in the past?
If Holland wants to kill this deadline, he’s got to find a way to trade Koskinen without retaining any money or dealing high-end futures. He’d gain a lot of clout with his haters out there if he could find a way to do that.
Oilersnation
Monday Mailbag – What is your ideal Oilers goaltending duo?
With the emergence of Stuart Skinner, the Oilers have three goalies capable of playing at the NHL level. Who would you like to see as the main tandem and why?
- “My main tandem this year would be Stuart Skinner and Mikko Koskinen. I think you can get near a 50/50 split with them and be comfortable doing so.” – Laing
BLH’s Thoughts: It should be Smith and Koskinen until Holland makes a trade and I’m not necessarily saying it’s a trade that’d bring a goalie TO the Oilers. Maybe it’d be one that sends a goalie OUT and then you could bring Skinner up for good.
Now, people forget that Mike Smith was sporting a .955 sv% before that mulligan against the Wild. That’s pretty f*cking fantastic, if you ask me. If he did that in the playoffs, the Oilers would sweep whoever they were playing…
Skinner’s time will come. There’s no doubt about that.
I know it’s still very early but what changes are you seeing under Jay Woodcroft that are leading to the Oilers’ success?
- “Limiting rush chances is the most obvious one, but I’m curious to see how they handle the next three games. Limiting, NYI, SJ, LA and ANA off the rush is much different that slowing down CAR, FLA and TB.” – Gregor
BLH’s Thoughts: The centers are actually playing a two-way game? How about that for a starter? McDavid and Draisaitl are finally getting it or had been getting it prior to the game against Minny.
By “getting it” I’m talking about the fact that they’re now positioning themselves to be the third man high and playing a proper defensive game. They’re the first back checkers to put pressure on the other team’s forwards so that Edmonton’s dmen can actually step up at the blueline and stifle the zone entries.
Who is a player that played for the organization that you swore would break out and be a big star, but ended up never making it in the NHL?
- “I thought Rob Schremp had a chance based on offensive creativity alone.” – Brownlee
BLH’s Thoughts: Why nobody brought up Jason Bonsignore, who was being compared to Mario Lemieux in his draft year, is beyond me…
FWIW, Bonsignore’s 16yr old son, Parker, is lighting up the USPHL Premier League with the Buffalo Stampede. Oh, how the time flies.
The Daily Goal Horn
- Andrew Copp is a name to start keeping an eye on over the next few weeks. The 27 year-old is due to become a UFA, and would certainly fetch the Jets some nice pieces going forward.
- The Dallas Stars have two veterans but will likely only trade one. Braden Holtby is who teams want, but it’s Anton Khudobin that gets dealt.
- Elliotte Friedman also mentioned movement on Chiarot during Saturday’s HNIC broadcast. He named just the St. Louis Blues as the landing spot.
- One interesting note is that the Islanders could use this lost season to try and make a big deal for Coyotes’ Jakob Chychrun.
BLH’s Thoughts: I wonder who would shake out of St. Louis if they brought in Chiarot? They’ve got some good young players in Scott Perunovich, Niko Mikkola, and Jake Walman competing for time with Torey Krug and Marco Scandella.
As an Oilers fan, how would you feel if Ken Holland was able to move Mikko Koskinen to Dallas for Anton Khudobin? Would you see that as a positive, negative, or lateral move? I think there’s some merit to that trade if Holland could effectively use that extra $2M in cap room somewhere else, don’t you?
