Well if you haven’t read it by now, Oilers Now host Bob Stauffer has sent out a tweet that has the oilogosphere more confused than Pat O’Neill Riley from SNL. Let’s check it out below and then do some analyzing afterward.
I don't see the Oilers moving the #10 overall pick for some immediate help.
And don't think EDM will be "chasing" pricier UFA's.
But.
Could see the Oilers moving out a contract with term and getting a player who provides a different "ingredient" to the lineup— Bob Stauffer (@Bob_Stauffer) June 6, 2018
So according to Stauffer, the Oilers are going to sit on their pick (a good idea) and see how things play out. If Adam Boqvist drops as a lot of people are prognosticating, then good for the Oilers! He’s really the kind of player they need but won’t be ready for a few years mind you. I talked to a scout in Sweden this morning and he said Brynas has one of the best d-corps in the SHL and that Boqvist would be given a chance to break into their lineup next year but would probably be a no.7 defender on their team and PP specialist. Makes you wonder if the team that selects him moves him to their AHL club immediately if that’s going to be the case for Boqvist in Sweden.
Bobby S. then says that the Oilers won’t be “chasing” the pricier UFAs and that says to me that perhaps there’s a UFA out there that is considered amongst the pricier ones who is willing to come to Edmonton. No chasing required hence the word being in quotation marks.
Lastly, the juicy part and the timing couldn’t be any better as we’re coming up to the annual Chiarelli special, a June 1-for-1 trade!
So a player with term for a player who brings a different dynamic to the team? What does that even mean?
Oh and if you don’t know, No movement clauses, no trade clauses, modified ones, they all mean nothing to me. They’re a request away from being waived. Just because a player has one doesn’t mean he’ll use it.
Who are the players with term?
- McDavid
- Draisaitl
- Nugent-Hopkins
- Lucic (NMC)
- Kassian
Well, I know which one a lot of fans want to be traded and he very well could be. Milan Lucic is never going to become Pavel Bure over the course of a summer. Hell, he probably couldn’t become as good-a-skater as Kassian over the offseason. So asking him to change his body composition is a tall ask and I know there are teams out there that would trade for him. Vancouver being one, Montreal being one, and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit of a team like Carolina wanted him.
but I’m going to say that if the player with term being moved out is a forward, it’ll be Zack Kassian. Chiarelli loves Lucic too much and I imagine he’s learned from his trade with Eberle but Kassian’s got one more year after this one at $1.95M and that’s a tad too much for what he brings in the regular season production-wise. I love the guy so much but I do believe the team could find a similar type of emotional player for cheaper.
- Klefbom
- Larsson
- Sekera (NMC)
- Russell (NMC)
Two players stand out right away for me here. Oscar Klefbom and Andrej Sekera. That’s because Larsson and Russell will be required come playoff time 🙂
The Klefbom for Krug rumors started a while back but kinda of kicked it into another gear this year. I wrote about it twice. Once when Jimmy Murphy tweeted something out and again when Fluto Shinzawa. So the trade fires are burning in Boston.
I think with Oscar there are a couple ways of looking at his situation.
- Great player WHEN HEALTHY. Do we know that he has the ability to stay healthy? As a fan, are you willing to give him that chance? He’s a 40pt dman and is the team’s PP threat from the point when he’s not on that IR.
- Given his contract and age, he could very well bring back an excellent return and now that he’s had surgery on that bum shoulder of his, he should be ready to tear it up. Great! More value.
If Krug IS the return, that’s not bad but you’d hope there’d be a bit more to that as Krug is older and makes more money. He also produces more points mind you but as a lefty. Could he be paired with Larsson leaving Nurse to play with who? Sekera? Russell? Benning?
As for Sekera, who knows with him. He seemingly had a good World Championships as we never heard a peep about a poor performance or struggling like he did when he returned to the team last season. I think he’d be the kind of guy who would waive his NMC because he just wants to play and probably sees the writing on the wall or maybe he’s received an invitation letter from Ference Island…
My personal preference is for the team to move on from Andrej Sekera. I’ve never been a huge fan of his and I’m more afraid for his playing future than Milan Lucic’s. But would a trade involving him bring back a player that moves the needle for the Oilers because I’m still trying to figure out what the bloody ingredient is that Stauffer is talking about?
Is it a PP producer from the point like Krug? Is it a faceoff specialist like Ryan O’Reilly? Is it a speedster like Chris Kreider?
Could it be a player that is so far off the radar? A guy like Phil Kessel?
Since Chiarelli is the worst poker player on the planet and has already telegraphed his moves this year, I assume it’ll be a PP quarterback like Krug or Faulk or maybe Ristolainen.
Surely Bob will clear the air a bit on his radio show today…
What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!
