Oilers Pundit Says Keep a Close Eye on Michael Stone and Sami Vatanen

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Oilersnation (Brownlee)

Off the Top of My Head

I don’t know if the one-year, two-way contract for $750,000 Tyler Benson signed with the Edmonton Oilers represents the Last Chance Motel for the former Southside Athletic Club star, but if it doesn’t, it’s a look-see bit of ink that has him unquestionably close to the same neighborhood.
…the Oilers haven’t put vaccination requirements in place as of today, expect them to poll their season ticket base as the Jets did before putting in place policies regarding COVID at Rogers Place.

BLH’s Thoughts: Tell me, what do these names mean to you,

Andrew Poturalski (San Diego)

Sam Anas (Iowa)

Carter Verhaeghe (Syracuse)

Chris Terry (Laval)

Kenny Agostino (Chicago)

Chris Bourque (Hershey)

Brian O’Neill (Manchester)

Travis Morin (Texas)

Brandon Pirri (Rockford)

Chris Bourque (Hershey)

Those are the last ten scoring champions in the AHL. Tyler Benson is not one of those and the conclusion I’m coming to after looking at these scoring charts is that being one of the league’s top-scoring players at the end of the season could be more of a bad thing than a good one because if you’re still in the league and producing at that rate, there must be something in your game that your bosses in the NHL don’t see kindly upon.

Hell, you can look at each one of the AHL scoring charts for the last decade and even the top-5 scorers in any given season will rarely present a top-six NHL player. If you got ten deep you might find one or two a year…

Point is, if you’re good, you don’t spend a lot of time in the American league let alone the entirety of your entry-level contract.

So, as much as it pains me to say, I don’t think Mr. Benson will make it as a top-nine NHL player and for every season that passes, his projection moves down a line. Now, pundits are hoping that he’ll make it as a 4th line LW whereas before some were thinking he could be the Chris Kunitz to Connor McDavid’s Sidney Crosby…

I really hope he proves to be the outlier though. It would be a shame if a person who works as hard has he does fails to make it to the NHL as a regular.

The Cult of Hockey (Leavins)

Skill forward Kailer Yamamoto caught in the Edmonton Oilers salary cap grind: 9 Things

6. I expect the Oilers to wait on any PTO’s until closer to TC. One need is a veteran #4 RHS D-man, at a league minimum. A guy who can play in the AHL but be capable of NHL TOI.
- Names to perhaps keep in mind: Michael Stone, 6’3 210 LBS and from Winnipeg. 30-year old Sami Vatanen might not come for $750k, but has come up in the past. As its been pointed out to me, what’s left in the UFA market for RHD is slim pickin’s.

BLH’s Thoughts: Last season Stone signed a 2-way deal worth 700k with Calgary and then proceeded to play 21 games for the Flames but also found himself playing four games with their AHL club too.

Out of the two, I see Stone being the more viable option for Edmonton and he’s got a history with the coach from their Arizona days too…

4. Tyler Benson has inked a $750K, 2-way contract extension. The salary is lower than his qualifying offer ($913,500). If he’s good enough to make the Oilers, it’s very team friendly. If not, it makes him an inexpensive pick-up off waivers.
- Benson sees the ice well, thinks well and has great head. It’s his average wheels that are the problem. I’m told Benson hit the gym particularly hard this summer. Good thing, his career may depend on it.
2. The post-season isn’t over. But has any team done less to make themselves better than Anaheim and Calgary?

BLH’s Thoughts: Calgary may not have made themselves better so far, but they’ve made themselves a helluva lot more difficult to play against by adding Blake Coleman, Trevor Lewis, and Nikita Zadorov.

1.The biggest task still toiling in the off-season job jar for Ken Holland is the RFA status of Kailer Yamamoto.
- But the jury remains out on whether Yamamoto can become a Top-6 finisher and whether his small frame withstand the heavy grind and offer more than 15:00 of TOI per night.
- Because of that and his 8-goal performance in 2020-21, I don’t see Yamamoto getting the contract some others have forecast, or that his agent may have hoped for as recently as a year ago.
- I expect the Oilers to get Yamamoto for under $2m/year, lets say 2-years at $1.75m per. That would not only work for the Oilers cap this year, it also would for next year as well. That’s when Ken Holland will need to re-sign Jesse Puljujarvi and get a new goalie…all with just about $10-11m in space. And Puljujarvi has a higher ceiling, he’ll be a priority.
- I hope for both club and player’s sake that Yamamoto’s contract gets done and soon. We saw just last year how Ethan Bear’s later start to the pre-season (relative to the rest of the club) due to a contract issue didn’t correspond with good results.

BLH’s Thoughts: I was just thinking about how Yamo’s deal may not get done until the season gets started or very close and how that mirrors the Ethan Bear negotiations from last season.

The big thing will be how much Killer will make on the 2nd year of the deal (if it’s a two-year bridge) as I believe that will dictate how much the Oilers will have to qualify him for at its expiration.

Puljujarvi… How long will he sign for on his next deal? 3-4 years @ $3.5M, 6-8 years @ $4.5M? 1-2 years @ $3M? Will the Oilers walk him to unrestricted free agency, pay for a few years of UFA status, or go the Darnell Nurse route and bridge him again? It’s going to be an interesting story to keep an eye on nevertheless.

The Daily Goal Horn

NHL Rumors: Rangers still shopping Georgiev; and will Jack Eichel and Vladimir Tarasenko be traded?

On Jack Eichel: Right now the Sabres seem to be playing hardball not only with any team asking about Eichel, but with him and his agents. There’s some growing rumblings that the Sabres may very well drag this out into training camp and beyond.

Eichel still needs surgery, and from all the latest reports and information that has come to light it will be an artificial disc replacement. That recovery time will take at least 8 weeks. That means if he were to have today, Eichel would miss all of training camp. If it’s a fusion, the recovery is a minimum of 12 weeks.

On Vladimir Tarasenko: Vladimir Tarasenko wants out of St. Louis and the Blues are still trying to accommodate his request.

Teams where he’d be willing to go are the Lightning, Capitals, Islanders, Rangers, Flyers, Golden Knights, Panthers, and Bruins. At this time, few of those teams could even afford to take his cap hit on. Maybe the Islanders and Rangers could do it, but he will need to expand his list to facilitate a trade before the new campaign begins.

On Alexander Georgiev: Frank Seravalli is pretty adamant that Alexandar Georgiev is interested in a change of scenery as a starter and that the Rangers are looking to move him. The 25 year-old goalie could be part of a package for a big trade or simply sent off for a high draft pick to a team looking for a new number 1.

BLH’s Thoughts: I’m hearing on Georgiev that there are some around the league that are questioning whether or not he’s an upgrade on Mikko Koskinen at this point in time.