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 Athletic
7 Oilers players poised to benefit most from Jay Woodcroft becoming head coach
- Kailer Yamamoto flourished during his time in Bakersfield with Woodcroft as head coach.
- Yamamoto was a regular member of the Condors power play in both seasons spent with Woodcroft, scoring 10 of his 18 goals with the man advantage.
- Evan Bouchard will likely receive third-pairing minutes in Edmonton through the rest of the season; he flourishes there and the club is still developing this player.
- Manson and Woodcroft didn’t place young defencemen in difficult positions, rather increasing the load over time.
- Tyler Benson is almost guaranteed to play a more prominent role under Woodcroft, if only because he was the ultimate fringe player under Tippett.
- If the Oilers cover off the Zack Kassian injury (out 4-8 weeks) by moving Zach Hyman to right wing, Benson might get a look on the third or fourth line over the final stretch of games.
- Stuart Skinner has been a key player for the Condors over the last two seasons and is also the owner of the best numbers among the Oilers’ three goaltenders this season.
- It isn’t a massive stretch to suggest Skinner gets a start or two over the next week and if he performs well, we could see a roster adjustment that allows Skinner to stick around.
- William Lagesson is playing regular minutes now in the NHL, but only due to injuries that impacted the left side of the depth chart on defence.
- The injury to Duncan Keith will force several players to take on more minutes and Lagesson is a candidate at five-on-five (currently 11 minutes a night) and on the penalty kill (28 seconds a game).
- Markus Niemelainen received the recall the same day as the coaching change, and Manson will no doubt be eager to add a rugged edge to the current group in Edmonton.
- Brad Malone has already benefitted from the coaching change, picking up an NHL contract and likely a spot in the lineup if he clears waivers on Friday at noon MT.
BLH’s Thoughts: My feeling is that there are going to be some roster decisions made by Woodcroft and Manson that absolutely baffle Oilers fans because they’ll appear to be the same ones Tippett or McLellan would’ve made. The reason for that is, just because he was a head coach in the AHL doesn’t mean he doesn’t know what works at the NHL level. In fact, he knows quite well who will be able to play where and in what role.
So don’t be shocked if Tyler Benson stays on the fringe or Yamamoto continues to get next to zero time on the PP.
On the other hand, perhaps a fella like Jesse Puljujarvi will feel like a weight’s been lifted off of him with Woodcroft behind the bench as he’s offered some more freedom. Not sure if we’ll see him on the left half-wall though… I hope so, but that goes back to what I said above about Woodcroft making moves similar to previous veteran NHL coaches.
Oilersnation
What’s next? Insiders weigh in on the Edmonton Oilers’ search for upgrades in net and on defence
- “I think one of the guys they like is the kid from St. Louis, Ville Husso. But the Blues are trying to win the Stanley Cup this year and I don’t know if that makes any sense for them.” – Jeff Marek
BLH’s Thoughts: I gotta stop spamming Bob Stauffer’s DMs on Twitter or the bloody team has to start compensating me.
Now, if I start hearing Oilers rumors about Scott Mayfield and Andrew Copp, I’m going to really lose it.
Can you see St. Louis moving Husso in-season? I can’t. If Edmonton wanted to get their hands on him, either the Blues would need to add a better goalie (unlikely) for the playoff run and deem him surplus to requirement or the Oilers will have to wait until the summer and make the best offer.
Tellin’ ya, I can really see Holland standing pat on Skinner, Koskinen, and Smith if they’re all healthy and fixing this organizational challenge in the summer.
Oh, another name to add to the possible trade targets, Brandon Hagel out of Chicago. He just re-upped with the Blackhawks this summer but his agent (Allain Roy) is familiar with the Oilers seeing as he reps/rep’d Kris Russell/Gaetan Haas and Ken Holland has had dealings with him in the past with the Red Wings (Dennis Cholowski and Taro Hirose).
Normally, you wouldn’t think that a guy who just re-signed with a team would be a candidate to move on so early in the contract, but I wonder, and I’ve not heard anyhing; this is just me spitballing based on what’s been hinted at publicly, if there’s an appetite for some guys to get out of the Chicago organization.
Sportsnet
- Not saying it happens by this trade deadline, but somewhere down the road, maybe as early as this off-season, I’d look for the Oilers to move Barrie to a team in need of a QB for their power play. Montreal and Seattle make some sense here.
- Are there some areas of Bouchard’s game that need massaging? Sure, but his emergence has opened up a couple of options for the Oilers and it will probably make Barrie expendable.
BLH’s Thoughts: Are there any other Oilers blogs out there who’ve been beating the “Barrie to Seattle” drum more than this one? I hope Marek is wrong though and Ken Holland can do Barrie a favor whilst getting one in return by moving the dman earlier than the summer.
