Monthly Archives: June 2016

Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Prospects, Rumors, Trades

The Day Before

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On this Free Agent’s Day Eve I’d like to talk about some rumblings going on in the Oilogosphere. Potential free agents we haven’t talked about, trade rumours making their way across the Twitter machine, buy outs, and fan reaction to the Taylor Hall trade including my own.

POSSIBLE FREE AGENT ADDITIONS

Stauffer started off the show today talking about the Oilers taking on a “reclamation project” in free agency. A player that was a former 1st rounder with ties to Peter Chiarelli that can play the right-wing and can kick in some offence. Who might that man be?

Brett Connolly – unqualifed free agent

Peter Chiarelli traded two 2nd round picks back in March of 2015 for Brett Connolly. At the time Chiarelli had this to say about the former Prince George Cougar:

“He’s a straight-line player but he makes plays and he can really shoot the puck,”

Connolly’s flashy junior/AHL game has never really translated to the NHL but he’s found a niche in the middle six role and if the Oilers are to move off of Jordan Eberle, not that Connolly would replace Eberle, or Nail Yakupov; I think that would make sense. The other thing is, he’s a natural righty.

Another player that has just landed on the free agent market due to being bought out and would definitely have a place on the Oilers is defenseman James Wisniewski.

After only playing just under 1 game for the ‘Canes, the Carolina Hurricanes are buying Wisniewski out of the final year of his deal worth $5.5M.

He’s not had the most health-consistent career to date with the most games played in a season was 75 in 2013-14 when he was with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Subsequently that was his best year statistically with 7 goals and 44 assists. According to the right-shooting 32 year old’s HERO chart from 2015, he makes his linemates much better and he generates shots. Something that the Oilers are looking for, no?

Could he go the Christian Ehrhoff route contract-wise? Accepting a one-year deal to rejuvenate his career? Of course Ehrhoff didn’t quite cut it after he was bought-out, who knows with Wisniewski?

WHAT IS GOING ON IN COLORADO?

The Avs are set to make a move here eh? Gabriel Landeskog, the Avs captain, is on the market now! He’s the last guy I would’ve thought the Avalanche would move and at this point it sounds like Roy and Sakic are alienating some major names in the Mile High City.

But for shits and giggles, lets say that Lucic decides on Dallas or Detroit instead of Edmonton. That would put the Oilers in a small bit of trouble right? Would you move on Landeskog at that point? Or would you prefer Duchene and/Barrie?

Gabriel Landeskog is a beast of epic proportions and if Lucic landed somewhere else, I’d like to see the Swede in an Oilers uniform. Question being, what would the Oilers deal to get him? Nuge and who else?

WHY YOU CAN’T DEAL NUGE AND EBS

I just want to go over this one more time.

  • Nuge is the most experienced centre on the Oilers at this time. McDavid and Draisaitl haven’t the experience to be given the no.1/2 centre spots alone.
    • The Oilers could very well take a flyer on a centre like Eric Staal or Frans Nielsen and that would soften the blow of losing a player like Nugent-Hopkins but you can’t deal him before you’ve got one of those veteran centres signed.
  • Eberle is a right-handed sniper who is a consistent goal scorer. A veteran to boot.
    • Lose him and the team is left with Yakupov (8 goals last year), Puljujarvi (not one NHL game yet), and Zach Kassian on the right side.
    • The Oilers would be forced to sign or trade to fill for Eberle which is fine too but the team shouldn’t be put behind the 8-ball.
  • The Oilers finally have depth at nearly every forward position. LW is still a problem until Lucic is signed and if not Lucic, then someone else.
  • Lastly, I believe there’s a plan to move one of Leon Draisaitl or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to the wing akin to how the San Jose Sharks use their forwards.

THE HALL TRADE

I knew it was coming and if you listened to Bob Stauffer he said countless times that he thought the fans should be prepared because they might not like the deal the Oilers make to improve the roster. For me, the deal was lopsided. I won’t say they lost the deal because it’s asinine to say that right now. We don’t know how Larsson is going to affect the roster going forward. We don’t know if Hall is going to put up more than 65 points a year in New Jersey either.

I love that Chiarelli went out and got Larsson. He’s just started to blossom as a defenceman and I reckon Chia got him at the perfect moment. My mind salivates at the idea of a healthy Klefbom being paired with a fellow countryman and becoming one of the league’s premiere shutdown tandems.

I asked my man in Sweden what his thoughts were on Larsson and he said this:

“When Adam Larsson started to play in SHL as a 17-year old he was one of the most talented swedes I’ve ever seen. He played like 22-23 minutes as a 17-year old.”

The other thing about Larrson is in his draft year he took Skelleftea to the SHL finals for the first time in 35 years!

He didn’t have a good start in NJ. DeBoer and Lamoriello didn’t cut him any slack and he suffered there. I fully expect Larsson to be THAT piece on the back-end the Oilers have been looking for all these years. By the numbers he’s a top shut-down defender. He was an offensive defenseman in Sweden but that wasn’t going to fly in NJ unless your name was Neidermayer.

Give Larsson a chance to show his worth. That’s all I ask.

On a more serious note, I’m extremely disappointed in some of the fanbase and even some of the people covering the team online and in the media. We had years of watching Oilers GMs doing absolutely nothing! Now we’ve got a guy in Chiarelli who’s not afraid to make a move to improve the roster and it’s like Gretzky was traded again. It’s whiny baby bullshit the way that some of the fanbase and media are acting.

We cheer for the logo on the front NOT the name on the back. 

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Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Ryan Robinson, Trades

Transitional Giveaways: A Vlog About the Hall Trade

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Ryan Robinson is a friend of the blog and the Oilers premiere vlogger to date with Three Points Dave hot on his heels! He recently released a vlog with his opinion on the Taylor Hall trade and I want to share that with you. I agree with nearly everything he’s got to say in it and he’s found a way to describe something I’ve been challenged to describe myself for a really long time. Enjoy.

So what do you think about Ryan’s thoughts? I dig what he says about Hall’s giveaways and the whole thing is really level-headed and hitting all the right points. Do yo agree with him, disagree? Let us know in the comments below!

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Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Rumors

Gregor Says Hall’s Character Assassination Came From Within Oilers Organization

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Yesterday the Edmonton Oilers traded star left-winger Taylor Hall to the New Jersey Devils for up and coming stud defenseman Adam Larsson. This trade has shaken the foundations in Edmonton with fans of the team absolutely losing their shit. But the fans aren’t the only ones getting emotional about the deal. Jason Gregor, a radio personality whose show is part of TSN, had a few things to say about the fans in Edmonton and the Oilers Management. The link to the show will be below and I’ll include the quotes below that.

(3:00) “My concern is this in the organization, I have a hard time when you have an organization that has missed the playoffs for ten years; making trades? Sure. It’s part of the biz. But why do you have faith in an organization that still keeps the people that helped drive in the ditch?”

  • Gregor has a pretty good point but you can tell he’s got an axe to grind with someone and it took Taylor Hall’s trade to bring it out.

(3:44) “It’s so easy to want to assassinate a person’s character and it’s gutless to do it when you’ve never met the person. It’s gutless. And you want to know what’s even worse about it? Some of the stuff came from the organization itself.”

  • Uh oh… I have to wonder how long Gregor has had this cocked and loaded and was waiting for the opportunity to let it loose.

(3:54) “That’s where I question if the organization will ever win because if you’re rotten from within and you’re bad mouthing your own players around town, how the HELL do you expect to win?” 

“What message is that- Hey, we wanna a good team but you know what? You go around town and you’re people on the organization and you’re saying Taylor Hall’s a bad character? Think about what that means about yourself…”

“You’re telling- Well this guy’s the problem and you work for the organization? Guess who’s got the problem jabroni? You do!”

“And that’s what this organization’s problem has been for far too long. Far too long. The wanna blame- Let’s blame all the young kids! They’re the problem.”

  • Coming up it becomes more clear as to who he’s pointing all this hostility at.

 

(4:33) “Did the young kids sign Nikita Niktin for $4.5M? No. Did they never acquire a defenseman in the 5 years prior to Peter Chiarelli. No” 

“Did they say Justin Schultz has Norris trophy potential and Jeff Petry had to prove himself? YUP!”

  • Sooooo this is a bit awkward. Was it Craig MacTavish who said those things or Scott Howson?

(5:55) “And Peter Chiarelli, fine, he comes in and he’s the new GM and do I doubt that he’s the one making this decision. No. He’s the one making the decision. That’s fine. But when you have people in your own organization constantly saying negative things about people, I don’t care who you are, it’s hard to block out and when you have an organization that keeps these people employed, what does that say about your organization.”

  • I’d say he’s getting pretty close to crossing a line here because he’s certainly weighing in on everybody running the team now.

(6:41) “It’s not even about the trade, to me it’s about the closed-mindedness, the narrow-mindedness of Edmontonians to- Oh, it’s Taylor Hall’s character… He’s a cancer in the room. You’ve never been in the room! Shut up! Stop spreading rumours. You have no actual insight on.” 

“And the worst part is, like, I can understand a fan saying it. Cause no offense, it doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t mean anything if the media says it.”

  • Now he’s running wild on the locals? Hmmm didn’t Dan Tencer do this once? And I’d say it does mean something if the media says something about a player’s character. But hey, I’m just fan.

(7:10) “But when you’re an org- And trust me, I have it on record organizational people saying it and that’s the problem.”

  • BINGO! Now I could be taking this out of proportion but I kinda of feel like this is a big deal and I don’t have a problem with it except he doesn’t say who he’s talking about nor does he provide any quotes. Not that I’d expect him to do that but what do you think his motivation was in bringing all of this up?

(10:17) “There’s been a lot of scapegoats over the years and it seems like Hall’s the most recent one but none of the scapegoats ever come from the people who ultimately made the decisions.”

  • Hmmm. Is it too easy to point to Tambellini, MacTavish, Howson and the majority of the scouting staff here? They’re not making any decisions anymore because they’re either unemployed or have been moved to another position within the team, so I suppose in theory they’ve paid the price for their incompetence, no?

    And haven’t the player’s leashes been the longest off all the members of the organization?

(13:18) “It’s about winning, clearly. That’s why Taylor Hall got traded. It didn’t matter what he produced, evidently he wasn’t a good character guy in the eyes of some.”

“That’s what people who want to convince themselves of something say today. Because they don’t know it for a fact, so they like to make it up.”

  • I can’t figure out when he’s going between the fans and the management because he’s all fired up over the fact that some within the organization are bad mouthing players on the team (to which he’s got proof) and he believes that’s why the team is in the shape it’s in.

    So is it the fans making stuff up here or members of the management or Katz’s? Which is it because he’s said he’s got proof of someone employed by the Oilers saying some unsavoury things about Taylor Hall or other players on the team? Is it entirely possible that said employee of the team might have a better idea of Hall’s character than Gregor or that they had run-ins in the past?

    Lastly, do the players have to take some responsibility at any point for the team’s performance?

So that’s all I’m going to go with here. That’s only 13 minutes into the show but he sure said a lot in that time and I can’t be bothered going through the rest of his show.

How do you feel about his comments? Let me know in the comments below!

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Beer League Hero, Breaking News, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Trades

Taylor Hall Traded! A Good Thing?

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My mind is going a million miles an hour trying to process what happened today. Hall, Subban, Weber, and Stamkos all made waves today but none bigger that Taylor Hall. I’m going to take some time to collect my thoughts a bit better but I want to leave you with a couple of sentiments from some friends of the blog.

JARI LESSER

“June 29th, 2016

The day 60% of the Oilers fan base turned on Peter Chiarelli.

You can’t trade a forward for a defenseman and win that trade. You just can’t. Especially when right handed D are at such a premium this summer.

Adam Larsson can play big minutes and has already. And on a top 10 defensive team. You cannot trade a Taylor Hall and get Subban/Weber/Ekman-Larson in return, you just can’t because defenseman are valued higher than scoring wingers. If you trade a center, you can maybe get a Larsson in return, but Nugent-Hopkins doesn’t get you Larsson in return. Eberle doesn’t get you the same return either.

On paper as it stands right now, Oilers have lost this trade, but you were never going to win trading Hall. Ever. You trade from strength to address the blaring need on defense. Oilers still have Eberle, Nugent-Hopkins, Draisaitl, Yakupov (still remains to be seen if he’s actually good), Puljujarvi and Connor McDavid (who is pretty good if you haven’t noticed). Offense should be fine, especially with a bit of an upgrade on defense.

If the Oilers pull off Demers and Lucic on Friday, this trade is a piece of a bigger puzzle. You give up Hall, you get Lucic, Demers and Larsson in return.

If the Oilers do not land any of these guys, then we have to wait to see if Larsson actually helps the defense as much as we need. If not, Oilers 100% lost the trade, no question.

Chiarelli isn’t dumb. He’s gone through 2 drafts getting McDavid, Reinhart, Talbot, and Puljujarvi. So I have faith in him, and I’m not sure he’s even done yet. Still need a powerplay quarterback.”

MICAH KOWALCHUCK

“(1) We now know what it takes to land Subban or Weber.. It requires having as good of a right-hand defenseman to deal for one, we did not have one to deal.

(2) Wingers do not fetch elite defensemen in deals, no matter how good they are. Centers can fetch more for their versatility. If we look at the elite wingers dealt over the last decade (Rick Nash, Bobby Ryan, Marian Gaborik, James Neal, Phil Kessel) we can see that none of those players brought back an elite defender. They get you back prospects, equal forwards, draft picks, but they never land you an elite defender. A center can, but the wingers just never do, as much as we may value them as fans. If you look at the few RHD dealt, they were for other defenders or for 1Cs.

(3) Ok, so what about Hall’s performance itself. There’s a lot of emphasis on his points per game over the last few seasons, but let’s look a little more. In his career, last season was the most games Hall has played. Hall has also never broken 30 goals, his best year was 3 seasons ago when he had 80 in 75. So, although he may put up great points per game, he misses a fair number of games. Also, if you look at last year, Hall had 26 goals in 82 games, Eberle had 25 in 69 games. To get those 25 goals, Eberle took 173 shots. Hall required 286 shots to get his 26 goals. So, Hall is not an elite goal scorer. And there’s been talk he’s not great in the locker room for awhile now, and the team Canada snub may relate. And it was in 2014-2015 where, when he was injured and the new top line was Pouliot-RNH-Eberle where Eberle said how he preferred the line because, although he phrased it nicely, Hall was a puck hog. So all of these combine to affect his value around the league. I’m not saying he was a bad player at all, but I’m saying this all combines to affect value. (Injury history + Reputation + Bad Locker Room rumors + Only plays Winger = less value than we’d hope)

Also, if you look at points generated per season, Hall put up 328 points while 458 games were played (he missed quite a few). If you consider instead how much we get out of him over an 82 game season, it’s .72ppg, much lower than the 328 in 381. He misses on average 13 games a season. Eberle actually had 331 points in the same 458 games by comparison..

(4) Our roster right now is likely Lucic-McDavid-Yakupov, Pouliot-RNH-Eberle, Maroon-Draisaitl-Puljujarvi, Hendricks-Letestu-Kassian, and then Klefbom-Larsson, Sekera-Demers, Davidson-(whoever wins this spot). This is a much deeper, more balanced and better club with a much stronger defense. We may not be happy with the deals today, but that roster is a club with depth, physical play, defensive skill and the ability to compete next year for a playoff spot.

(5) Ok, now for Larsson.. First off, Larsson is only 23 years old, was the #4 overall in 2011, and he’s signed long term for $4.16mil, basically we have him and Klefbom as a defensive pair until 2021. He’s a true right shot, he’s 6’3 and 205lbs. Last year he averaged 22:31 playing for New Jersey, and he played 5 on 5, PK, PP, everything. For this reason, his CORSI was a bit lower, but his partner on the left side was Andy Green, who has lost a step. If you look at Sekera’s offensive performance with and without Fayne, it’s similar for Larsson, he had to lug a guy around who’s losing a step in his game. Also, New Jersey is not a very good scoring club, so Larsson’s scoring numbers will naturally be lower because, well, New Jersey can’t score a goal, which is why they did this trade. Also, Larsson had 30.8% offensive zone starts to 70% defensive zone starts last year, he only had 18 points last season because he was playing some very hard minutes. The season before, with 40% offensive and 60% defensive he managed 24 in 64, so he’s more accurately a 40 point defender with a better partner and more balanced zone starts, which he’ll get here.

In summary, yes, we all hate this deal. Yes, it probably was about right value-wise due to the winger (and other) factors, even if a lot of commentators will rant about it. Yes, the roster the Oilers will have on July 1 is a far better roster than they had on June 28, and is probably a playoff club. And Yes, Larsson is a better defender for point generation than he seems, and he’s a better overall defender than we think.”

Look, I know that a lot of fans, writers, journalists, media members, etc are ready to burn Chiarelli at the stake but what did you expect? The Entire NHL knew the predicament the Oilers were in and they took advantage of them. It’s not Chiarelli’s fault that this was the team he was laden with. Sure he had a year to do what he wanted but by his own admission, he needed that year to evaluate said team and how could he have with all the injuries?

I’ll say this before signing off here though. I told you to be prepared for a deal like this and if you lost your shit on Twitter because of it, you weren’t reading the tea leaves well enough.

What do you think? Do you agree with Jari and Micah? Let me know in the comments below.

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Eric Friesen, NHL

Ranking the Oilers Top 10 Picks of the Past 10 Drafts

Everything considered it was a great draft weekend for the Edmonton Oilers. They didn’t get a top pairing defenceman and they weren’t able to trade Nail Yakupov (I expect both will get done in the week), but GM Peter Chiarelli got his man with the 4th overall pick. Even after losing all three lottery draws in April, the Oilers left Buffalo with Jesse Puljujarvi in their prospect pool. Hopefully Puljujarvi will be Edmonton’s last high pick for a long time as they continue to push toward becoming a playoff team.

The Oilers have done very well in the first round over the past 10 years. I mean, it’s hard to mess up when you are picking near the top of the order year after year, but it’s still not a sure thing as we’ve seen with Yakupov (1st overall, 2012) and Magnus Paajarvi (10th overall, 2009).

In today’s blog, I will rank the Oilers top 10 picks of the past 10 drafts.

10. Brandon Davidson (162nd overall, 2010) – Some might say I’m going out limb here, by putting a player who has only played 63 NHL games on this list, but he’s earned it. For a team that has had few hits beyond the first round over the past decade, Davidson was a pleasant surprise for the Oilers in 2015-16, emerging as a steady top four defenceman.

9. Darnell Nurse (7th overall, 2013) – After selecting a forward with their first pick in six consecutive drafts, the Oilers finally ended that streak by taking Nurse in the first round three years ago. Nurse was asked to handle way too much responsibility in his rookie year, and to no one’s surprise he struggled. I don’t think he’s ever going to be a big point producer in the NHL, but he’s still young, and has the size, tenacity and skating ability to develop into a top pairing defender.

8. Sam Gagner (6th overall, 2007) – Gagner got off to a great start to his NHL career, tallying 49 points as a rookie in 2007-08. He never bested that total in his next six years in Edmonton and would have been better served moving from centre to the wing. Gagner was still one of the Oilers offensive leaders for several years and the highlight of his career was when he tied Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey‘s team record for points in a single game (8 points) back in 2012.

7. Oscar Klefbom (19th overall, 2011) – Klefbom was most likely the Oilers best defenceman over the past two seasons and at only 22-years-old, his best years are ahead of him. I had no issue with GM Peter Chiarelli signing Klefbom to a seven-year extension last September, despite having played under 100 games in the NHL at that point.

6. Jesse Puljujarvi (4th overall, 2016) – I’m making a bold pick here considering Puljujarvi hasn’t even played a game in the NHL yet. But I feel confident ranking him this high on the list and think he would even higher if I were to re-do it in five years. Puljujarvi is perhaps the most complete player in this year’s draft and will likely be in the Oilers’ lineup on October 12th when they open Rogers Place.

5. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (1st overall, 2011) – When Nugent-Hopkins was first drafted, some fans and media members speculated that he might be the best of the Oilers young guns by the time he reached his prime. That won’t happen now, but RNH has developed into a reliable two-way centre. He came into the league as a No. 1 centre, but in the past year has dropped to third on the Oilers’ depth chart down the middle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uz6XGbGjWk

4. Leon Draisaitl (3rd overall, 2014) – After 15 years of chasing a big, skilled centre, Edmonton finally got one in the draft two years ago. Draisiatl took a big step forward in his development last season, and even though he faded down the stretch, I believe he’s going to be a big part of this team for the next 10 years.

3. Jordan Eberle (22nd overall, 2008) – Eberle was a steal for the Oilers late in the first round eight years ago. A natural goal scorer, Eberle is one of the best right-wingers in the NHL as well as the best pure finisher on the Oilers. He’s led the team in scoring in three of his six years with the team and deserves to be one of Edmonton’s top three picks of the past decade based on that alone.

2. Taylor Hall (1st overall, 2010) – An elite scoring winger, Hall is a two-time top 10 scorer in the NHL and recorded a career-high 80 points in 2013-14. Hall became the first Oiler to score at least 80 points in over a decade. Like Eberle, Hall has led the team in scoring in three of his six years with the Oilers and has learned to take his foot off the gas a bit, which resulted in him staying healthy from start to finish for the first time last season. I will never understand why 30% of the Oilers fan base wants to trade him. Because he turns over the puck too much? Because he has perceived attitude problems? Unless Chiarelli gets a No. 1 defenceman for him in a deal, they are a worse team without him.

1. Connor McDavid (1st overall, 2015) – Was there even any question about this one? McDavid was dominant in his 45 games with the Oilers last season, registering the third-highest points per game average in the league (1.07) and only missed out on winning the Calder Trophy because of his broken clavicle. That’s alright, I have a feeling his NHL trophy case will be full 20 years from now he hangs up his skates. McDavid is the face of the franchise and will likely be named the youngest captain in NHL history this fall.

I hope you enjoyed my list. Let me know if you agree or disagree with my choices. It’s always good to talk to fellow Oilers fans. Thanks for reading!

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