Coming from an Edmonton Oilers point of view, BLH provides you with excerpts from the latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation from all of the internet’s best sites including Spector’s Hockey, The Fourth Period, NHL Trade Talk, The Hockey Writers, Sportsnet, The Athletic, TSN and more!
From Oilersnation
From Jason Gregor’s latest at Oilers Nation,
- Right now, based on conversations I’ve had recently, I’d say it is very unlikely Klefbom would be ready to start the season. One source said, “I think it is 95% that he won’t play again.” And I would agree with that.
BLH’s Thoughts: Tough break for Sexbom. F*cking guy was a beauty for Edmonton for a long time. So in the event that he’s donzo, thank you Oscar for everything you did for the club, the fanbase, and the city during your career with the Oilers.
- There will not be any sort of “verbal agreement” between the Oilers and Adam Larsson and/or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins prior to the expansion draft and then sign them after.
BLH’s Thoughts: Not with Nuge at least and it sounds like Larsson is going to get his deal done and be part of Edmonton’s protected list though.
- I don’t expect Edmonton to qualify Dominik Kahun. Edmonton has to qualify Jujhar Khaira at $1.3m. I think they’d like to re-sign him at a lower AAV than that. But they don’t have a lot of centre depth either.
BLH’s Thoughts: Personally, I don’t think either player should be brought back and that’s nothing against Kahun or Khaira, I just think the Oilers need different looks where those two played last year. Plus JJ deserves to pick his own spot, if nothing materializes, then I’d have no problem with him coming back as an extra forward. Vancouver, close to his hometown, might be looking for a bottom-six center on the cheap… Maybe Seattle as well.
- Look for James Neal to be bought out or traded. Holland would prefer to trade him and retain salary, rather than have two years of $1.91m in dead cap space in 2022/2023 and 2023/2024. But a trade will be difficult. I believe a buyout is the most likely scenario.
BLH’s Thoughts: Could they trade him to another team with cap space and no intentions of winning any time soon and then have them buy him out? Would the Oilers and the other team not be sharing that buyout then for the remainder of its term? I read somewhere that was something being contemplated for Koskinen. I could have that all wrong though. Mind you, I’ve made a pretty good habit of being wrong about things here.
- I’d be surprised if the Oilers buy out Mikko Koskinen. He only has one year remaining and you can’t keep pushing your problems down the road. Edmonton can trade him and retain some salary, send him to the minors and he’d be a $3.4m cap hit, or he is the backup at $4.5m.
BLH’s Thoughts: My feeling is that the club would be comfortable going into next season with Koski and Mike Smith again and work on a trade as the season progresses. Holland could then use Koskinen, whose cap hit would be dramatically lower, to facilitate a move for an upgrade in net around the trade deadline. Maybe that’s when they’d pounce on a Darcy Kuemper trade?…
- I can’t pinpoint any specific player or team, but I believe Holland will be involved in the trade market in the coming weeks.
BLH’s Thoughts: Ha! Thanks Tips! “I don’t know any names or teams but I think GM X is going to make a trade right around the time of the expansion draft… Where a bunch of other teams are rumored to be making deals…” Some fine work by Gregs here… Way to go out on a limb with that one.
I kid. If anybody has more broken taeks than Gregor, it’s me. At least he has a radio show.
Now, will Holland make a trade? That’s the question that we should be contemplating because he’s not one to close a deal for the sake of it.
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