Oilers Looking at Left-Shot Dmen to Take Pressure off of $9M Nurse

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GM32: Ducks @ Oilers

Who to Watch for Anaheim

#3 John Klingberg – A player of interest for the Oilers since the summer time and the rumor mill has been burning the midnight oil this week for no other reason that Ducks GM Pat Verbeek was in attendance for two of Edmonton’s road games to supposedly watch Jesse Puljujarvi and possibly others.
#11 Trevor Zegras – With how the Oilers’ defense has been playing this year, a player as skilled as Zegras could take over a game if his team’s goalie were the better netminder on the night. This guy reminds me of Steve Yzerman when Stevie Y had two functioning knees. So dynamic and electrifying.
#44 Maxime Comtois – This is the gentleman that’s been most recently connected (by fans for the most part I reckon) to the Jesse Puljujarvi rumors. He’s another winger who’s been finding it hard to get any traction in Anaheim, but he’s a rugged LWer that has a scoring touch. He has a much better release the Jesse and if he were to be acquired by Edmonton, I could see a scenario where he’d do quite well alongside a center who could get him the puck.

Who to Watch for Edmonton

#18 Zach Hyman – Hy-man, nice shot! Zach’s been on fire since he came back from that one-game absence courtesy of Joel Edmundson’s Sherwood sandwich. As much as I love his offense and hard work, a couple of things are really starting to bug me about his game. One being that he hangs onto the puck too much on occasion as he rounds the net. It’s very predictable and also, he cheats for offense and that top line already has enough of that with Draisaitl and McDavid. It needs a defensive conscience.
#25 Darnell Nurse – Today’s game will be very interesting. He bounced back from Jordan Greenway’s chirp with an absolute shocker against St. Louis. I wonder how he does tonight now that the league knows his psyche is a tad fragile. I mean, he’s done Jesse Puljujarvi a massive favor by directing all of the negative attention on him.Its funny because Bob Stauffer was trying to stick up for Nurse on his show by bringing up his +56 over the last few years and how Darnell doesn’t play on the 1st unit PP to get those cherry assists and Elliotte Friedman wasn’t having it.

“I don’t know if I’m buying that as much… I think the Oilers hockey fans are pretty smart out there. I think they understand. They watch hockey for a long time. Darnell Nurse doesn’t have to be a 20 goal 60 point guy. He’s just got to be your best defenseman.

I think the thing about Nurse is he got the big contract, I’ve got no problem with that, you’re worth what someone’s willing to pay you, but it does change the way you’re perceived in the eyes of people. I don’t think the fans would care or not if he scored 20 goals but he’s got to be your best D.

So I don’t think it’s about production… When you become a player that gets that kind of salary people have lower tolerance for mistakes and that’s the mindfield you have to wade through.”

#13 Jesse Puljujarvi – Time on ice be damned, he’s on showcase for sure now and there’s a chance he’ll be a duck after the NHL’s trade freeze on Monday. I want to say that the Oilers will not be a better team after trading him but there’s a part of me that thinks that because I am such a big fan of JP. Personally, I wonder if the recall of Markus Niemelainen has something to do with a potential trade of one of Edmonton’s LHD seeing as they have five of them up on the NHL roster now. Whatever happens, all I want is the best for Pulju and for him to land on a team that values what he does best.

BLH’s Thoughts: Normally I do a “who’s hot for team X” here but Anaheim is so bad that it’s a futile effort. So we’ll go with the tried and true “who to watch for…” post today.

Edmonton’s got to bounce back here and really trounce Anaheim. They can’t allow another AHL goalie to run their show. The two points is vital I feel.

Oh, just going back to Stauffer for a moment. Did anybody else catch him throwing out the idea of a goalie swap with super agent Gerry Johansson on Friday’s show? How interesting would that be if Holland could dump Jack Campbell on Columbus’ laps and get Merzlikins back? Or should we be worried that he’s just moving the chairs on the deck of the Titanic seeing as most of his netminding targets over the last few seasons aren’t exactly having good seasons.

The Athletic

Why the Oilers need to make a trade to give Darnell Nurse more help on defence

“Woodcroft would prefer the No. 3 left-side blueliner play 13 or 14 minutes. That’s a not something he’s been able to get with much frequency.”
“Highlighted by a game like Thursday’s, the requirement should be to enhance the left side to alleviate some pressure off Nurse’s shoulders.”
“That means ruling out the Ducks’ John Klingberg, someone the Oilers are considering — according to colleague Pierre LeBrun.”
“Acquiring Klingberg would have to come at the expense of Barrie because of cap reasons and roster redundancy. It would also force the Oilers to move out more than Barrie…”
“That also limits management’s ability to make much-needed improvements elsewhere to the lineup. I’m told the Oilers also have concerns about the way Klingberg defends…”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da-K2c-Fc9U

“LeBrun also mentioned the Canadiens’ Joel Edmundson as a potential target for the Oilers. In a perfect world, they would find someone who could at least push Kulak for second-pairing minutes if not supplant him entirely.”
“The smarter play would be to acquire Vladislav Gavrikov, a 27-year-old pending UFA who’s filling in on the Blue Jackets’ top pair with Werenski sidelined. I’m told the Oilers have considerable interest in this player in a lesser role…”

“And then there’s Jakob Chychrun who, when healthy, has the potential to be a wonderful addition to the Oilers. Chychrun could easily slot behind Nurse and even has the chops to push him for ice time.”
“Barring a sudden change of heart, the Oilers have no willingness to part with Broberg and likely not Dylan Holloway either. It’s hard to figure out how they can pull off a trade then.”

BLH’s Thoughts: Before I get into DNB’s post here, I just want to throw out an idea.

Darnell Nurse is never going to live up to that contract. At this point, he’s Shawn Horcoff 2.0. So Ken Holland has to own up to that and if one of McDavid or Draisaitl leave, that’s going to make the deal look even worse.

Now, one of Darnell’s biggest problems is that he’s shite at passing unless it’s a 90mph rocket up the middle to a streaking McDavid. What if the Oilers could trade for somebody who would allow Nurse to play more to his skillset and not force him to be the kind of defender he’s not. What I mean is, when he’s paired with Cody Ceci, he’s the puck mover, right? I believe if his partner’s best attribute was passing and playmaking, that would benefit Nurse and the Oilers a shit ton.

So, what am I suggesting? Erik Karlsson.

Karlsson’s bread and butter is playmaking and scoring. He’s also the closest thing to an available elite blueliner since Chris Pronger and look how that turned out for the Oilers.

To a lesser degree I feel like Jakob Chychrun could take the heat off of Darnell too by allowing Dave Manson to restructure the pairings and their TOI deployment.

Lots of talk about bringing in an Edmundson, Schenn, or Gavrikov, but if Edmonton’s not in their own zone, why would they need cycle-breakers and also, were the Oilers to grab a Karlsson or Chyrchrun, wouldn’t that job fall to Nurse, Ceci, and whoever was on the third pair anyhow thus playing the dmen to their strengths?