Edmonton Oilers Trade Talk: “There is zero reason for the Oilers to consider bringing in…”

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

Changes

• Warren Foegele is going to get a look in the top six and even though he hasn’t produced a lot of offense this season, I don’t mind this move. Foegele knows how to get pucks to the net and his physical play might compliment Ryan Nugent-Hopkins rather nicely. 
• I don’t understand the choice to put Zack Kassian in the top six. Granted, this may be a move that’s only happening because of the injury to Zach Hyman but still, Kassian has just one goal in his last 18 games and on top of that, his effort level has been wildly inconsistent.
• I still have a bit of hope that Yamamoto can one day be a consistent top-six winger in the NHL, he is only 23-years-old at the end of the day, but the Oilers need to keep him in the bottom six for the time being.
• There is zero reason for the Oilers to consider bringing in Khudobin.

BLH’s Thoughts: Kassian may have one goal in his last 18 games but it came while he was on a line with Connor McDavid and didn’t he also add an assist or two in that same game?

Watch, Zack will be fired up for this opportunity and he’ll have a real sense of accountability weighing heavily on his back. He’s going to smoke one of Toronto’s stars in the first period, book it. Maybe he’ll have to fight Kyle Clifford or Nick Ritchie too… Who knows?

But we’re past the whole “meritocracy” thing when it comes to lineup construction, so don’t get all enraged when Kassian and Foegele get moved up when Yamamoto has been sitting in the top-six all year despite only producing at a 4th line replacement level player. 

Foegs, Nuge, and Pulju on the same line? That will be an intriguing trio to watch because it’s a very physical group of players who excel in the muck and in front of the net. I’m very interested to see who they get matched up against. The Leafs don’t have a lot of beef in their top-six and if Toronto sends out Rielly and Brodie to defend them, I like Edmonton’s chances. 

Lowetide.ca

• The 50-man list is the quickest way to get an idea about what the future may hold for an NHL team.
• This year’s 50-man is unique because it’s not 50 men. Not close as a matter of fact. That’s going to change. Right?
• UFA’s on this list are Mikko Koskinen, Alex Stalock, Kris Russell, Kyle Turris, Colton Sceviour, Josh Archibald, Seth Griffith.
• RFA’s are Jesse Puljujarvi, Kailer Yamamoto, Ryan McLeod, Tyler Benson, Markus Niemelainen, William Lagesson, Tim Soderlund, Ostap Safin, Brendan Perlini, Cooper Marody, Dmitri Samorukov and Filip Berglund.
• That’s seven UFA, 12 RFA. There are 26 names who are slated to return, 19 who may or may not return. It’s already Ken Holland’s team but the summer will put a stamp on it.

BLH’s Thoughts: Edmonton’s at 45 contracts but it might as well be 43 since Stalock and Klefbom aren’t coming back and you could stretch it to 42 if you include Archibald.

I’m just saying that Holland could add up to 8 contracts if he wanted and he might want to considering there’s nothing really going on in Bakersfield right now. It sounds like Rafa Lavoie’s discovered that at the professional level you can’t just show up with one tool in the toolbelt. 

I’m thinking that Holland may want to add some bodies with the ability to jump up onto the Oilers roster in certain scenarios. Basically, avoiding what is happening at this current moment where there’s a ton of stagnation in the lineup and it needs a fresh set of skates. 

The good news is that Xavier Bourgault is coming, Carter Savoie and Dylan Holloway are on their way in 2022, and I think Tyler Tullio will be able to join Bakersfield at the end of the OHL season too. They need to have that kind of depth in the AHL going forward so as to avoid their current conundrum and it also creates a bit of urgency amongst the guys on the parent club seeing as if they fail to hit the mark, there’s somebody in the AHL who could get called up and steal their spot. 

The Hockey Writers Rumors

• At a minimum, the next three games for the Calgary Flames are being postponed after six players and one staff member entered the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol in the last 24 hours. Among the names affected are Elias Lindholm, Andrew Mangiapane, Adam Ruzicka, Chris Tanev, and Nikita Zadorov.
• The Montreal Canadiens have put together a committee that will be given the task of hiring the team’s next general manager. That committee includes owner and president Geoff Molson, new executive vice president Jeff Gorton, Canadiens’ minority owner Michael Andlauer, and Montreal great and former GM Bob Gainey.
• David Schoen of the Las Vegas-Review Journal notes that Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo is one of the players who are now uncertain about participation.

“I’ve got four kids that are under the age of 3½. For me to be potentially locked up there for five weeks plus the Olympics, that’s a long time being away from my family. I’m not going to make a decision until we get all the answers, because those are kind of hard to come by right now. So, we’re all kind of sitting and waiting.” – Pietrangelo

• According to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic, it turns out Francesco Aquilini had been talking to Jim Rutherford for a bit about the situation in Vancouver to pick his brain. What started out as simple conversations developed into something much bigger.

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