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 Hockey Writers
3 Free Agents the Oilers Should Re-Sign
- Colton Sceviour has played over two-thirds of the games this season and he is settling in nicely for the team. He is a great option on the fourth line and provides high-energy shifts at both ends of the ice and has been a pleasant surprise.
- Ryan McLeod is an obvious choice but is worth talking about. He looks to be part of the Oilers’ future, whether it’s centering the third or fourth line or elevated to play the wing in the top-nine if the team ever elects to run with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins down the middle.
- I asked a large number of fans who they would give a little longer look at next year between Brendan Perlini and Tyler Benson. It highly favoured Perlini, and I agree. Though his start has not been anything like how he played in preseason, he looks like a different player after a short stint in the AHL.
BLH’s Thoughts: I would probably bail on Perlini unless he finds a way to pot 15 or 20 goals in the last half of the year because Dylan Holloway is coming and it would take a horrible return from injury for the former AJHL MVP not to have a spot on the Oilers roster more or less guaranteed at this point.
Sceviour has earned another deal, like I’ve said many times, akin to that of Devin Shore’s. A 2yr term with a slight raise from the 750k he’s making now.
McLeod is going to be an interesting one. He might take a few years but if the Oilers stick with him, I reckon there’s a really good chance they’ll be rewarded. But it should be stated that the team is not in “wait and see” mode anymore. The time is now and difficult sacrifices will be made during this window…
Oilersnation
Random Thoughts: Depth Scoring, COVID problems, Mike Smith’s return, and more
How Much Can Mike Smith Help?
- After more than two months on the shelf with a lower-body injury, I’m curious to see how much he’ll be able to help in net after missing the last 26 games. That’s not to suggest that I doubt his ability to stop pucks — Smith can be a real difference-maker when he’s at his best — but rather that I don’t know how sharp he’ll be after so much time off or if it’s even fair for us to expect him to be.
- Out of game action for the last two months, Smith will need to play some serious catchup to get himself up to speed with a league that’s played plenty of games without him and that will be a challenge he won’t really have much time to tackle.
- Not to mention, having Mike Smith back will force the Oilers to make a decision on what happens with Stuart Skinner and Mikko Koskinen as both guys have played pretty well, but there’s absolutely no way the team will want to carry three goalies unless we’re heading back to some kind of taxi squad situation.
BLH’s Thoughts: I don’t doubt that Smith will help but the caveat to that is his health. He’s fallen into the Peter Forsberg/Wendel Clark category of a player that is outstanding when he’s not on the IR and that ankle injury is a son of a bitch to deal with for a netminder.
The Oilers won’t have to carry three tenders as Skinner is still eligible to go to Bakersfield without requiring waivers. The one wrench in the cog there is if Canada or the US reimplements border controls due to spiking COVID rates. Otherwise, this isn’t a concern.
NHLTradeRumor.com
- It is most likely (Marc-Andre) Fleury is traded as some point this season. He does have a 10 team no-trade list and if the Oilers are not on that list, that will be Fleury’s most likely destination.
- Adam Herman of The Bleacher Report suggests, it is time for the Flyers to rebuild and they should look a trading Provorov… Provorov, 24, does not own a no-trade clause so there would be no restrictions on what team he could be traded to.
- Nick Kypreos was on Toronto’s local radio station, the Fan 590 and stated, that the Toronto Maple Leafs are one of the teams with serious interest in Chychrun… Kypreos finished with saying it would likely take four pieces to make the Chychrun trade which would be a roster player, top prospect, a first round pick and second round pick.
