Yesterday Ryan Rishaug had quite the impact on Oilers Twitter be it from his announcing of right-handed cannon-wielding Swedish defenseman Joel Persson being “locked up” by the Oilers or his radio hit on The Dustin Neilson Show where he was spitballing like a boss!
Interesting listening to Rishaug speculating that the Oilers will go hard for a big name D; suggested Klefbom + 10 for Risto as an example.
— dellowhockey (@dellowhockey) May 16, 2018
This is the tweet we’re going to focus on and it comes from former Oilers employee Tyler Dellow.
Well here is the transcript of the “proposal” section of the Rishaug interview on Dustin Neilson’s show that the tweet is talking about so that some context can be applied.
I will say that after the transcript part things get a bit… Emotional on my part. So you can stick around for that or you can take off after you read the Rishaug section. I may or may not say something I might or might not regret…
We pick up the conversation just as the Joel Persson talk ends…
DN – But in no way this means the end of a search for another right-shot dman do you think?
RR – No, it better not.
DN – I’m wondering if it does though? I’m wondering if they want to bring this guy in and give him an opportunity and then save their assets and not have to give up anything significant for a proven right-shot dman, you know?
RR – I don’t think so buddy. I think the Oilers are going to be big game hunting for their blueline. I think they’re going to be looking at big names and weighing out those options.
I think Peter Chiarelli being so vocal about having his first round pick in play, where that pick is, is a good pick in a good draft, and I think they’re going to be big game hunting. I don’t know exactly what it looks like, I don’t know how they do it but I don’t think they’re going to be complacent in trying fill this very obvious void.
Now I’ve been saying for a long time, it’s their no.1 need by a mile. I still maintain that and I think they’re going to try and be very aggressive until that need gets filled up. I don’t know if they’re going to be able to get it done but I do believe they feel that it’s a massive need and just figuring out what level to get it done at.
So whattya do? Do yoy get yourself somehow into the Ekman-Larsson play? Do you go in the Erik Karlsson direction? Well probably not necessarily in that direction. Do the Minnesota Wild make a move on Matt Dumba? With the draft that the Buffalo Sabres are about to have, is Rasmus Ristolainen all of a sudden potentially up for grabs?
Could you see the Buffalo Sabres saying, considering the pick they’re going to make at no.1, can they maybe move Ristolainen out and do they maybe look to bring a veteran Swede in to help work the blueline with their new young Swede? Is there potential for a Klefbom swap out to Buffalo maybe along with that pick?
I’m spitballing a lot of stuff here but my over-riding sense in it is that the Oilers will be aggressive in hunting some of the big game to see if they can fill that need on the back-end and if there’s something that makes sense, I think they’ll be aggressive in getting it done.
Now, if they can’t find something that makes sense, then they probably fall back to their plan B or C options and I’m not really sure what all of those are but I do believe that the Oilers have identified this as a massive need because I’ve sort of been saying for a while that I continue to do this but I’m not sure if they agree but I get the sense that they’re going to be aggressive here.
The Chia-haters hopped on that Dellow tweet like nobody’s business and imagine 99.9% of the folks that read the tweet didn’t listen to the spot and just jumped right to conclusions…
If you pay attention, Rishaug says over and over that the Oilers are going to be aggressive and at the end he adds, “IF it makes sense”.
Now as a fan, that’s where a lot of people divide. What makes sense to Chiarelli and what makes sense to the armchair GMs are very different things.
If all the Oilers get for Klefbom and the 10th overall pick is Risto, woof.https://t.co/yPGIn0MUCd
— Scott Cullen (@tsnscottcullen) May 16, 2018
You had guys like TSN’s Scott Cullen just lapping that shit up. This guy isn’t even an Oilers supporter but he loves to lay into them…
Now it sounds like Peter is going to spend whatever it takes (*shudder*) to fill the hole that existed since they traded Gilbert in 11/12, came close to filling in 14/15 until MacT thought "I have too many good players"
This fucking team that I cheer for.
Man.
(6/6)
— Woodguy (@Woodguy55) May 16, 2018
“Oh woe is me… Please feel sorry for me because of the team I CHOOSE to cheer for.” How hard it must be tough to tweet for these guys when you’re jacking off that massive pity dick (Hat tip to Ryan Reynolds on that one). Clean up must be fun…
Presumably when Rishaug talks about Chiarelli going big-game hunting for a defenceman, he really means Chiarelli shooting himself in the foot. Again. https://t.co/yyMaEdRxDh
— Ryan Batty (@ryan_batty) May 16, 2018
The story is so tiresome, isn’t it?
Has anybody even looked into why Ristolainen might be a better fit for the Oilers than Klefbom? Is it possible that a player could get traded for reasons apart from those that lie within the margins of a stats sheet?
But here’s the thing, it’s all for naught because it was Rishaug playing NHL 18 GM mode!!! But everyone just loved it, couldn’t get enough of it.
Not one of these SMRT Twitter characters thought why it would be a bad deal for Buffalo… Nobody said that Buffalo already is fully stocked on the left side BEFORE drafting Dahlin. None of these brainiacs mentioned that Buffalo would be insane to trade their best RH’d defender. A defender that has put up over 120 points in his last three seasons despite being on the worst team in the NHL during that time span.
Noooo. Why would they do that?
Would they mention that Rasmus Ristolainen has 9 FEWER POINTS than Oliver Ekman-Larsson or 21 MORE POINTS than Justin Faulk since the start of the 2015/16 season?
Of course not…
I’m 100% sure that these media guys, as well as the bloggers, are well aware of what the market value is on a player and that’s why they get paid the big bucks to cover the game from the seat of their pants.
Now, let’s be clear, I’m not fully in support of the SPECULATED trade proposal from Rishaug because that 10th overall pick is the stumbling point for me. I see the Oilers getting a good player there but I can see the logic behind Rishaug’s idea and we know that when Peter Chiarelli has zeroed in on his target, he’s willing to overpay to get it.
Now, that’s not to say that the Sabres couldn’t add to that to make me feel comfortable about moving that first rounder. I know that Sam Reinhart has been rumored to be on the move and that Sabres GM Jason Botteril is not happy at all with the current roster make-up.
I think another thing to add is that we all know that right-shot defenders and centres (especially righties) cost more than left-shot dmen. Hence the price tag Rishaug brought up.
Nurse/Larsson
Sekera/Ristolainen
Russell/Benning
Persson
I’ll tell you what, I do not mind the look of that because I value this team having a deep and talented back end full of NHL defensemen. And it just so happens the Oilers have an excess of LH’d defenders. That group of dmen (healthy) would rival that of any other team in the Pacific division and it wouldn’t cost the Oilers one of their good young forwards either.
So just as the Chia-haters have formed their judgement of Peter on his tenure as Oilers GM, that being 3 seasons so far, I have done the same with Oscar Klefbom and I’m led to believe that the sexy Swede has troubles staying healthy. This is a problem for me. If you can’t stay healthy, you can perform to your absolute best abilities. Why would I want a player who has this problem? This isn’t Peter Forsberg we’re talking about where we’ve got a player who simply dominates games when he’s healthy but simply has trouble doing so.
Can you remember the last time Oscar Klefbom scored a hat-trick in a game? What about the last time he had a fight or a penalty for that matter…
I would be happy if the Oilers acquired Rasmus Ristolainen but leave the pick out of it. Rishaug above mentioned how often Chiarelli has been saying the #10 is available, I just hope that it’s not burning a hole in his pocket and he does the right thing and keeps it.
Lastly, this PALES in comparison to what my source told me today about the other deals that have been brought up by other GMs to Chiarelli… Good Christ, if I post those, Oilers Twitter really will burn down… All I can say is the Oilers better have Ottawa and Arizona on their “blocked” list if Chiarelli wants to keep his job this summer.
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