Pre-rumor warning:
As usual, anything that you read here today you should take with a grain of salt. Anything can change at any time and therefore what I’m about to tell you should be taken as about as seriously as your Grandma telling you she’s trying out for next round of the X-Games (they’re still around right?).
WHO ARE THE OILERS POTENTIALLY ADDING?
This isn’t really NEW news per se, something that everyone has been hinting towards since the last game vs. Arizona but here goes nothing!
As you know, Chiarelli invited three players to camp on PTOs, Scotty Upshall, Jason Garrison, and Alex Chiasson. Upshall’s knee has taken him out of consideration so far but Garrison and Chiasson have had good camps and with that, they will probably be getting signed to 1-yr deals very soon and I’d imagine with Edmonton having a shade over $1.4M in available cap space that they’re both going to come in between 650k to 750k and with NMCs…
I’m joking!!! About the NMCs… Maybe.
How Will Those Two Players Impact the Current Roster?
Well, from my vantage point, signing Jason Garrison would enable the Oilers to put Ethan Bear in the minors until Evan Bouchard is sent back to London after his 9 games are up, it would give the team a steady veteran presence on their blueline and in the locker room, and he’d another left-handed option for their “All-Lefty” powerplay…
As for Chiasson, he’d definitely make Zack Kassian that much more expendable and I’m hearing there’s a solid market for the rugged winger. Personally, I’d try to keep him because come playoff time he could prove to be quite valuable in the right circumstance but if he is interested in moving on, then that’s that.
The Oilers are stacked with left-handed shooters including two other players in the bottom-6 that Chiasson could push out of a job in Drake Caggiula and Pontus Aberg but then someone would be playing their off wing if both Kassian and Chiasson were in the lineup at the same time.
The Drake is fighting an illness this camp and I hope he gets over it soon because when Caggiula is on his game, he can be an irritating little water bug but Aberg is on another planet. He’s got a bit of the Omark in him in that he knows how skilled he is (not as much as Linus mind you) but he picks and chooses when to give 100%.
I reckon Aberg will be put on waivers nevertheless and that move alone should make it possible to fit Alex Chiasson onto the roster without sacrificing Kassian or Caggiula.
MY THOUGHTS
I’m definitely all for adding two veteran players like Garrison and Chiasson. They’ve shown to me that they are worthy of roster spots on this year’s Oilers. It’d be really different though if other players on the team weren’t playing their way off of it but as things are, it is what it is.
I don’t think a big deal should really be made of adding a no.7 defender and a no.12/13 forward (THOSE “fans” will though, they always find a way) but signing Jason Garrison and Alex Chiasson may just open things up for Chiarelli to make other moves down the road.
The next 6 weeks or so you should keep your eyes peeled to the roster moves of other teams. In the next week, watch the waiver wire very closely… You may see a player or two hit the wire that Edmonton makes a trade for.
