Monthly Archives: June 2016

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

Grand Larsson-y

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adam_larsson_njd_050112

The talk of the town is Milan Lucic and Jason Demers being in Edmonton and there’ll be a little bit of that today but we’re also going to chat about the mystery dman Bob Stauffer was talking about yesterday. I’d like to touch on Taylor Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins as well.

So if you haven’t heard the latest edition of Oilers Now, Bob Stauffer sent the Oilogoshere on a wild goose chase for about 20 minutes before being sussed out my Mark Spector.

Stauffer was teasing the listeners with talk of a right shot defenceman that nobody has been talking about. A rearguard that plays about 22 minutes, has an affordable contract, comes from a team that needs scoring and can handle the tough minutes. But there was one last caveat, there would be another piece that would have to be included that circles back to last year, about 15 months ago.

  • Adam Larsson, 23 years old
  • Shoots: right
  • 22:30 TOI
  • New Jersey had league worst 184 GF
  • $4.16M per year with a NTC that kicks in at the start of 2018 and runs until 2021

So we can see here that Larsson and Greene took on all the hard starts and opposition. They didn’t quite keep their heads above water to say the least but New Jersey was a terrible team nonetheless. This is an Eastern Conference team that could really use a player like Taylor Hall. More on that later.

Let’s take a gander at Larsson’s HERO chart and Passing chart.

I’m not completely certain as to when the last time Stimson’s passing project was updated, so don’t quote me on the results of that chart but there’s one piece of data there that is interesting. Larsson’s SC SAG/60 Rank is nearly breaking through the top. Ryan Stimson’s Passing Project glossary tells us this:

  • SC SAG – Pass sent into Scoring Chance (home plate) area and leading to a shot attempt

So I’m assuming that Larsson is very good at finding the open man in the offensive zone. Correct me in the comments below if I’m wrong.

As for his HERO chart, it’s actually nothing much to write home about. It places him in the shut down role as opposed to the offensive blueliner. But his playmaking is quite high. Could he be considered a playmaking shutdown defender? Great puck mover, not a shooter, very good at playing actual defense?

Well I went over to stats.hockeyanalysis.com and looked at the CA/60 for defenders over the last four years who’ve played at least 3000 minutes. The following resulted:

  1. Brendan Smith – 44.1
  2. Jake Muzzin – 44.23
  3. Drew Doughty – 44.85
  4. Andy Greene – 45.31
  5. Marek Zidlicky – 46.31
  6. Anton Stralman – 46.39
  7. Adam Larsson – 46.61
  8. Mattias Ekholm – 46.72
  9. Kevin Shattenkirk – 47.5
  10. Brian Campebell – 47.66

So there you have it. Apparently he’s good at defence.

I know that Stauffer had spoken about the Oilers possibly acquiring a top pairing defender AS WELL AS a PP specialist. Getting a guy like Larsson would definitely speak to that possibility which takes us to the Ryan Nugent-Hopkins for Matt Dumba proposal.

Mark Spector said that this was the offer Chuck Fletcher was proposing and nothing more. Take it or leave it. Personally, I’d leave it. Nuge is worth far more than Dumba himself. But it does open up the notion that IF Milan Lucic signs there’s a higher chance that a guy like Taylor Hall is moved. If he isn’t signed, then that means Ryan Nugent-Hopkins could be moved.

Or Both could be moved…

Are you warming up to this idea yet? Ha! It’s not as if Rishaug is lying here. This is a fact and the closer we get to July 1st, the more real it gets.

So what if the Oilers land Lucic AND Demers on a discount? Whether that discount be on term or salary, I could care less but for it to work plus deal Hall and/or Nugent-Hopkins, sacrifices would need to be made.

The deal Stauffer was talking about with regards to Hall/Larsson went something to the effect of Larsson, a prospect and a draft pick AT LEAST for Hall. He noted a few things:

  • Hall and Adam Henrique played very well together in Junior
  • Devils have a lot of prospects down the middle
  • At some point, Chiarelli is going to acquire a 2nd rounder.

So if we take all of that into consideration, would Stauffer be happy with a return of:

  • Adam Larsson, local product John Quenneville, and a 2nd round pick?

I’m not sure I’d be happy with that. Larsson would fill an organizational need, he’s young, his contract has some “permeance”, and they’d be getting that 2nd round pick back which might give them the option of sending out an offer sheet… I don’t know much about John Quenneville right now. So I won’t touch on that.

For me, Pavel Zacha would have to come back in that deal.

Now before you roast me, there’s no team in the NHL that is going to trade their top defenceman for Taylor Hall, even the post I wrote yesterday is blue skying it in hindsight. But trading Hall for Hamonic or Barrie, Spurgeon or Larsson wouldn’t make any sense on the Oilers end. The other teams would have to add. Hence the above proposals. But to counter that, if you’re dealing 1 for three, you’re losing the trade. That being said, I’ve always believed that the Oilers might need to make a deal that is perceived to be one that has been lost on paper.

A team that employs Milan Lucic, Pat Maroon, Zach Kassian, Darnell Nurse, and possibly Eric Gryba is a vast difference to the cupcake teams iced in the past. In specific roles and gauged ice-times, these players can be very effective.

But everything is fluid as Stauffer stated on the show. A lot of balls are in the air right now and it’s going to depend on who decides to sign here on Friday.

Lastly, I’m not completely sure if everything has been “signed” yet since the teams aren’t allowed to talk shop before July 1 but rumours have Lucic and Demers already having “handshake” agreements with the Oilers and Jordan Eberle being sent to the Blues for Kevin Shattenkirk who’d then sign a 6-7 year deal.

Take it for what it’s worth, I was told Del Zotto, Alt, Raffl, and a draft pick for Hall and a 3rd before the draft, so the rumours are flying high and they’re flying hot. It’s silly season again folks so buckle up! Let me know how you feel about all of this in the comments below!

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

Have You Considered This Defenceman?

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Could Drew Doughty be an Edmonton Oiler soon?…
As I was listening to my daily Oilers radio yesterday I came across two Oilers pundits talking about virtually the same thing. Both Bob Stauffer, host of Oilers Now, TSN’s Ryan Rishaug were queried upon the Oilers search for a defenceman.

Near the end of the first segment of Oilers Now (I listen to it in podcast format) around the 17:30 mark, Bob was talking about how Mike Russo (Minnesota beat writer) and Jim Matheson (Oilers beat writer) were talking at the draft about the Oilers/Wild rumours. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins name came up and Stauffer said,

“Could be a player no one’s mentioned. Could be an organization looking for some scoring… We’ll see, my guess is he’s (Chiarelli) got a window here to make something happen and what we’ve seen so far, did anyone see the Maroon deal coming?”

Bobby kinda rambled a bit about the Maroon deal for a bit there but then said this:

“It makes me wonder if Chiarelli is looking for a specific price point, a range for a type of player.”

I don’t really know what this means, if you do, please let me know in the comments below.

Later on in the show Stauffer was presented with the question from a caller, “Do you think they’ll (Oilers) trade for a defenceman?” Bob’s reply was such:

“I think at this stage the more likely scenario is they will trade for a defenceman, and it will likely be a $6 million dollar forward that gets moved for a defenceman. I say that is more likely than signing a free agent like Jason Demers…Who knows maybe we’ll have more stuff to discuss as we close in on July 1st, which is free agency day. The Oilers are going to be a team to watch. If you’re an Oilers fan something is probably going to give here in the next week. It’s probably inevitable. Stay tuned on that front.”

Now Ryan Rishaug was doing his segment on the Jason Gregor Show and they got talking about the Oilers adding a blueliner. Gregor asked Rishaug. “Is there any name at the draft that got your attention as someone the Oilers should target? To which Rishaug retorted with:

“I still feel like, and I said it about a week before the draft, I feel like he’s (Chiarelli) going to come out of left field with someone we haven’t been talking about.”

Stauffer mentioned how he was on a flight with Wild GM Chuck Fletcher and Blackhawks assistant GM Norm McIver and how he got some time to talk with some hockey executives on that flight.

This got me thinking, there have been rumors about the Wild and Oilers, that’s nothing breaking but what about the Blackhawks? Are they still looking to shed some salary? I thought, could Duncan Keith be a player that nobody has been talking about? But then I checked General Fanager… No trade clause.

Other names that have been bandied about in the last few days are Brent Burns, Drew Doughty, Alex Pietrangelo, Kevin Shattenkirk but I just don’t see them as being viable options right now.

The 2nd name that came to mind, that’s the one that got the hamster wheel flying…

ERIK KARLSSON

I checked Karlsson’s contract details and he has a no-trade clause but it doesn’t kick in until the 2017/18 season. His cap hit is $6.5M per year for another three years, so that works for the Oilers. Now here’s the kicker…

New GM, new coach, new system… Welcome to a lot of 1-0 games Sens fans.

Guy Boucher is not an offensive coach. In fact, offensive defenders that have played on his NHL teams have put up some paltry numbers.

2010 – Brett Clark was the highest scoring defenceman with 32pts, Victor Hedman was 2nd.
2011 – MA Bergeron had the most points with 24, Hedman with 23pts and Brewer had 21pts
2012 – In the shortened season, Matt Carle lead the defense with 22pts and Hedman had 20pts

Karlsson is bound to be… Bound playing in Boucher’s system.

Karlsson said that he believes the way he approaches the game will have to be changed and that “It’s going to take a while to figure each other out”.

Do you think that Erik Karlsson is going to want to do that at this point in his career. Is he going to want to play in a system that stifles scoring and focuses on defense?

My opinion is that the Sens could go to a defence by committee and shore up the scoring up front to balance their team. They’ve got Dion Phaneuf there, not that he’s a good top pairing defender but he’d definitely be suited to it and he’s a yes man, so Boucher wouldn’t have any troubles with him.

The Sens could possibly use a LW depending on what happens with Mike Hoffman and Clarke MacArthur. I mean it doesn’t sound like they know what they have in Hoffman and MacArthur played what, four games last year? Hoffman is a perfect no.2 LW and MacArthur would be an even better 3rd line LW…

The Silver Seven blog wrote a post discussing left-wingers at the draft here but why look for one in the draft when you could have Taylor Hall?

So when we talk about trading Taylor Hall it is always for another elite hockey player, right? I mean in the past I’ve probably wanted to trade him for a plethora of different packages but I’ve seen the error of my ways now. Erik Karlsson is definitely the kind of player that you’d trade Taylor Hall for, especially if your team is looking to add Milan Lucic…

So here’s a proposal:

Taylor Hall, Oscar Klefbom for Erik Karlsson, Curtis Lazar and Mike Hoffman (RFA)

I think it’s an overpayment but it’s one I’m willing to make to get a 26-year-old Erik Karlsson on the Oilers. Lazar and Hoffman would be cherries on top and if pressed I’d add to it (Fack it! Toss in Yakupov) because I can only imagine what an Oilers team led by Connor McDavid and Erik Karlsson would look like. You want to see what the 80’s Oilers would look like in 2016? A team with those two would probably be the closest you’d get.

Hall is signed for $6M until 2019/20 and Klefbom has a contract until 2022/23 for $4.167M per year. These are highly valued contracts and the Sens would have to be more than pleased to get quality players under contract for such term as they’ve only got five players (Ryan, MacArthur, Phaneuf, Karlsson, Methot) signed past 2017/18.

Karlsson would benefit the Oilers in the most obvious of ways so there’s no need to get into his pros.

The flow… That’s the obvious pro to having Karlsson right?
Mike Hoffman, to me at least, would be a better no.2 LW than Benoit Pouliot. He’s a trigger man as well, something the Oilers lack. And Curtis Lazar is well… LOVED in Edmonton but he’s having troubles putting up points in his first couple of seasons with the Sens. He’s a hard worker though, a great leader (former assistant captain of the Memorial Cup winning Edmonton Oil Kings and captain of Team Canada’s gold medal winning World Junior team in 2014/15), and he’d be a good addition to the Oilers bottom six.

THE LINEUP REVISED

Lucic-McDavid-Eberle
Hoffman-RNH-Puljujarvi
Maroon-Draisaitl-Yak(Lazar)
Hendricks-Letestu-Pakarinen

Sekera-Karlsson
Davidson-Fayne
Nurse-Reinhart

Am I missing anyone?

What do you think? Is Erik Karlsson the mystery man who all of these Oilers Pundits are talking about? Let me know in the comments below!

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

Dumb(a) Idea

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The latest rumour of the day has the Edmonton Oilers sending Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to the Minnesota Wild for Matt Dumba plus. I’m going to weigh both sides of the coin from a Tier 2 fan’s perspective on this rumour but there’s some required reading before I begin.

Both Woodguy (Darcy McLeod) and Jonathan Willis have chimed in previously and I highly suggest you read what they’ve written.

So basically, Woodguy sees a bit of value in Dumba and Willis sees the former Red Deer Rebel in a completely different light but both agree that having Dumba as the principle piece in the return for RNH would be inexcusable on Chiarelli’s part. I think it was Woodguy who said the team who is getting the three players in a 3 for 1 deal is the team losing the best player and thus losing the trade.

Now the two gentlemen above used numbers and fancy stats to argue their points. Let’s just use some common sense here. Straight one-for-one, Dumba for RNH is a facking horrible deal for Edmonton. No matter how much Dumba reminds me of Scott Stevens.

  • Edmonton has three soon-to-be elite centres but two of them can’t buy beer in the US yet. Leaving Nugent-Hopkins as the elder statesman of the trio. He’s the most experienced and has been forced to play against the NHL’s best centres since he was 18 years old.
  • One problem the Oilers have is that those three centres mentioned above are all left-handed shooters. Minnesota has a burgeoning centre by the name of Charlie Coyle. He’s a righty… If any deal is to be discussed involving RNH and Dumba, then Coyle has to be included.
  • Proposal: Nugent-Hopkins for Charlie Coyle, Matt Dumba, and Joel Eriksson-Ek
    • This is the only way I could accept trading Nugent-Hopkins right now. Just because he had tough season doesn’t mean he should be traded for less than true value.
    • Problem with this proposal is that it doesn’t really address the need for an older player at centre. Coyle has played similar minutes over the last three seasons as Nuge and his fancies seem to be a bit better than RNH’s but he’s yet to get over 50 points in a season whereas RNH has had three.
    • Dumba would hopefully be a 3rd pairing powerplay guy. Woodguy’s article above showed us that Dumba is a shot generator. Which would be very welcome on Edmonton’s powerplay but Willis showed us the Dumba is closer to Schultz than we care to admit.
    • Eriksson-Ek is a big two-way centre that the Oilers were interested in last year at the draft. The Swede was taken 20th overall and had Chiarelli not dealt the #16 in the Reinhart deal, Eriksson-Ek might be an Oiler right now. Well him, Barzal, or Kyle Connor… Geez…
  • Leon Draisaitl is not ready for prime time just yet. He needs a year at third line centre. A year where he can focus on developing and not have to worry about the responsibilities of being a top 6 centre in the league. The Oilers need to be treating Leon like they’re treating Reinhart or Nurse. Slowly bringing him along with massive o-zone starts and special teams. Give him Yak as a winger, Maroon as the other.

See, here’s the rub with trading each one of the $6M men:

  • Taylor Hall – Elite playmaking left winger. Top three in the NHL. Drives the bus every time he’s on the ice.
  • Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Team’s best two-way centre and oldest of the top three. The team finally has centre depth and it would be a travesty to dig into that depth before one could see it in action for 20 games.
  • Jordan Eberle – Right-handed sniper who has found chemistry with McDavid. Trading him would leave the team with one right-handed winger in the top 6 and he’d never played a game in the NHL.

So you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. The team could address each hole left by one of the $6M men via free agency but there’s no guarantees. Best thing might just be to sit tight and let the deals come to Chia instead of forcing them through.

Minnesota is a team I could see the Oilers dealing with but as I said earlier, not for what is being rumoured now. Maybe Jared Spurgeon jumps into the conversation and then we’re cooking with fire! Until then though, we wait…

Let me know what you think about the Nuge/Dumba rumours in the comments below!

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Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, NHL Entry Draft, Prospects

This is How I’d Have Done It

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I’ve had a day to recover from covering the draft for the Oilers and I figure it’s time to go though what the Oilers did, review the players and add my two cents as to who I would’ve picked instead.

I’m happy with the players that the Oilers got to an extent. I reckon Chiarelli and Green went reaching at times when they didn’t necessarily have to but took great advantage of some players that had fallen. Like Puljujarvi for example.

  • 4th overall: Jesse Puljujarvi, RW, Karpat (Finland), 6’3″, 208lbs
    • “Puljujarvi is an offensive fixture who skates like the wind and provides size on the wing. He has an explosive first step for a big body and no noticeable flaws in his stride. He’s very balanced and exceptionally agile. Despite being noted as a scorer, I think he’s just as prone to be a set up guy. Vision is near the top of his class. Loves to drive the net from the perimeter and boasts a powerful shot and goal scoring knack that allows him to play the point on the powerplay and be a threat from anywhere under the sun. I loved what he offered defensively, showing hustle and tenacity to be a sound component when playing a team game. He follows puck movements well and has quick reactions that enable him to steal pucks and subsequently make a play to transition the puck up ice.” Justin Froese, (@FroeseFC), Future Considerations
  • 32nd overall: Tyler Benson – LW, Vancouver (WHL), 5’11”, 197lbs
    • “He’s a strong pro-style player who has a sound two-way package to rely on. He has a strong lower half that allows him to generate a lot of speed. He’s very sound in the fundamental areas of the game that require agility. A confident puck carrier, distributor and focal player that has some definite flair in his game. He favours a no-nonsense north/south game that keeps the stove element cranked up on his opponents” – Justin Froese (@FroeseFC), Future Considerations
  • 63rd overall: Markus Niemelainen – D, Saginaw (OHL), 6’6″, 205lbs
    • Was Saginaw’s best defenceman. He’s huge, smart, has the technical tools to be a solid defender going forward. More of a puck distributor than a shooter. I wonder how he’d have done on London instead of Saginaw? Are we looking at Martin Marincin 2.0 here?
  • 84th overall: Matthew Cairns – D, Georgetown (OJHL), 6’2″, 200lbs
    • “Cairns is a very textbook defender who plays both sides of the ice very well. His awareness of the play allows him to get the jump on plays and adjust his positioning so he is set up to make a solid play. He skates well for his size and has the agility that is important to escape the zone and also carry pucks through the neutral zone. Has a good set of hands and reads plays well up ice. He’s great at delivering the longer or quicker pass to kick off a breakout. Cairns establishes a presence defensively and traps opponents with his mind. Show poise when defending and knows when he can make a move to disrupt the puck carrier. He’s not intimidated and keeps his gaps tight.” Justin Froese,(@FroeseFC), Future Considerations
  • 91st overall: Filip Berglund – D, Skelleftea (Sweden), 6’3″, 209lbs
    • Here’s big bodied right-handed shooter that put up major points in the Swedish junior leagues last season. Mans Karlsson (@manskarlssonyao) told me Berglund has great offense and that Skelleftea is a player producing factory; he also said that they (Skelleftea) lost a lot of defenders for next year, so Berglund should get a chance to compete for a spot on the Senior team. Good enough for me!
  • 123rd overall: Dylan Wells – G, Peterborough (OHL), 6’1″, 182lbs
    • I don’t have a lot on Wells right now that you haven’t already been informed on by other sites.
  • 149th overall: Graham McPhee – LW, NTDP U18 (USA), 6’0″, 183lbs
    • I think the Oilers loved his Gritistics. Meaning he’s very “competitive” and has potential to put up some offense.
  • 153rd overall: Aapeli Rasanen – C, Tappara Jr (Finland), 6’0″, 196lbs
    • Rasanen was a nice pick here. He reminds me a bit of Anton Lander. Now if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, that remains to be seen. He’s played with Puljujarvi and Niemelainen on the Finnish national team this past year. He’s been captain and assistant captain when playing internationally as well. I guess he’s coming to the USHL to play next season because there won’t be much opportunity in Finland on Tappara’s senior team.
  • 183rd overall: Vincent Desharnais – D, Providence (NCAA), 6’5″, 207lbs
    • “Desharnais is an absolute behemoth of a player on the back-end. Has decent skating ability for his size and does well to handle opponents speed with surprisingly quick feet laterally as well as in reverse. He hands the puck half decent and moves the play along simplistically but smart. He has a booming shot if he is given the time to tee it up, but struggles to get much behind it if he can’t time it right. He plays a defensive game primarily and is a monster that has a mean streak if his side of the ice is invaded. Deharnais made the jump from high school hockey to junior hockey and an NHL watch list in the course of a year (2015)” – Justin Froese, (@FroeseFC), Future Considerations.

So there’s what I’ve gathered. Big thanks for Justin Froese for providing me with some reports on a few of the players drafted by the Oilers. You should give him a follow on Twitter and if you are in need of an area scout, I believe he’s in the Brandon, Manitoba region.

Onwards to who I’d have picked at each spot and why.

No.4 – Jesse Puljujarvi (RW): I might’ve ran up a little faster to annouce his name. For me this could be a Selanne/Kariya pairing with McDavid.

No.32 – Pascal Laberge (C): I like that he’s got an offensive flair to him, that he’s a chippy player, and that he’s right-handed.

No.63 – Frederic Allard (D): A right-handed defender who produced at a similar level to more notable defencemen. The Oilers need righties who can put up points and Allard can do that. He’s got a sizeable frame on him as well standing at 6’1″ 185lbs.

No.84 – Zach Sawchenko (G): How did a goalie rated #6 in North America by Central Scouting not get picked? Easy selection here for the goalie who had a really nice Ivan Hlinka tournament.

No.91 – Filip Berglund (D): I like taking the right-handed Swede here. I’d change nothing about this pick.

No.123 – Jordan Sambrook (D): I’d have taken this right-handed dman to add to the stable and create more balance within the organization. He’s a sound two-way defender and I believe Lowetide had him in his mock draft for the Oilers.

No.149 – Graham McPhee (LW): After reading what Lowetide had to say about him. I’m more convinced that this was a good pick here.

No.153 – Aapeli Rasanen (C): Wouldn’t change anything with this guy. Rightie (Again) that plays a very honest game. He can play in all situations and spent some time playing alongside Puljujarvi on the Finnish Powerplay at the u18s.

No.183 – Rodrigo Abols (C/W): Was picked by the Canucks one selection later oddly enough. But his size and skating ability is sometime I value. He’s tenacious as well. I wouldn’t’ve gambled on a large defenceman with Abols, David Quenneville, or Dmitri Sokolov still sitting there. In fact, I might’ve dealt into the 7th round to pick up another one of those three being as they were all still available.

That’s my revisionist draft folks! What do you think? Let me know in the comments below! Thanks for reading!

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Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL

You Can’t Do That

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Everyday I go to the Oilers groups on Facebook and see what the masses are chatting about and today I thought I’d address some of the things that are being said within said groups. Sometimes fans have some really great ideas that are well thought out and well within the realms of reality but sometimes you have to wonder if they getting hockey mixed up with competitive knitting. I’m not going to include the names or where I found these comments because it might be not be taken in the context intended.

1. “So here is my take on what I think the oil should do. Trade the soft 1 way #14. For a solid d man on the right side. Wow lucic in here. As much as I hate to say it trade nuge and some pics for a stud d man. Free up some cap space in case of injury. Just my thoughts.”

Alright, this is a pretty common thought online but there are some issues.

  • If you think that Eberle is soft and can only play 1 way, don’t you reckon the GMs in the NHL are aware of that as well and that it might hurt his value?
  • Who would be considered a solid dman?
    • It’s this kind of comment where you have to wonder if some fans actually know what a good NHL defenseman looks like.
  • If the Oilers acquire Milan Lucic, you have to consider the affect that will have on the salary cap, the ability to upgrade on defense, and what do the Oilers do with Benoit Pouliot, Pat Maroon, or Taylor Hall?
  • Ryan Nugent-Hopkins value couldn’t be lower at this point. Therefore the Oilers would be remiss to move him at this point because they aren’t going to get an even return for what boils down to a 1st line centre in the NHL. Forget that he was a 1st overall pick, he’s gone up against the NHL’s best centres his entire career so far.
    • To add to the point above, the Oilers FINALLY have depth at centre and now we should deal one of them away?
  • Who is considered a stud dman?

2. “Damned glad PC didn’t make a trade for the sake of making fans shut up. Love that he and Todd are building THEIR team. Take your time boys, I’d rather wait a bit longer and be spoiled for a long time then have you load the gun early just for a few years.”

  • I do agree with this sentiment. The other GMs are overvaluing their dman in a disgusting way right now. Taylor Hall for Kevin Shattenkirk? What?!
  • If we can just hold on, develop our players correctly, and not overpay on the free agent market; the Oiler should be in a fine place when those GMs are in a bad place come expansion draft time.

3. “Let’s not expect Puliarvi to play here right away. We need the Detroit Model. We need to play our NHL Players over 18 Year olds who need more time in Jr.”

  • I am 50/50 on this statement. I think that Puljujarvi could be a special case because he’d been playing against men all year in the Finnish league.
  • To put it in a little perspective, Colorado Avalanche prospect Mikko Rantanen put up similar numbers in his draft year playing for TPS in the SM-Liiga (56gp 9g 19a 28pts) as Puljujarvi did playing for Karpat (50gp 13g 15a 18pts).
    • Rantanen then came over to the NHL and played 9 games for Colorado but failed to put up any points. He was sent to San Antonio of the AHL and proceeded to put up 60pts in 52 games. It’s obvious that he’s too good for the AHL and that perhaps he should’ve been recalled at some point.
    • Puljujarvi could go to Bakersfield but there’s a good chance he’d be too good for that league but with that being said, if Edmonton can’t deal Eberle or Yakupov, then perhaps it would be a good short term solution until a trade can be made. But even then if he were to play 3rd line minutes in his first season, that wouldn’t be too bad either…

So folks I think the bottom line is thus:

Be patient, let the market correct and Chiarelli will get us the pieces we need to be a competitive hockey team. Also, keep this in mind, how much better would the Oilers have been if Klefbom and McDavid had played 82 games? Toss in Ryan Nugent-Hopkins not getting injured and having a healthy Jordan Eberle to start the year… It’s a very different story and one that doesn’t end with the Oilers possibly getting the best winger in the 2016 NHL draft…

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