I was motivated to write this article after reading yet another doom and gloom article over at Oilersnation re: the Oiler’s record of drafting 20 goal scorers after the 1st round.
Now, it’s not that I didn’t believe the Oilers were poor in the category of drafting 20-goal scorers after the 1st round but I felt compelled to see how many other teams were JUST AS POOR or worse than the Oilers over the last two decades.
The post over at ON goes back as far as 20 years and I think it’s fair we do the same here.
So here is each team’s record of drafting a player who goes on to score 20 goals for their team since the 1997 draft.
Anaheim (1): Matt Beleskey Arizona (0): ZERO Boston (4): Milan Lucic, Brad Marchand, David Krejci, Patrice Bergergon Buffalo (4): Derek Roy, Jason Pominville, Ales Kotalik, Maxim Afinigenov Calgary (3): Johnny Gaudreau, Micheal Ferland, Matthew Lombardi Carolina (4): Sebastien Aho, Victor Rask, Erik Cole, Shane Willis Chicago (5): Brandon Saad, Andrew Shaw, Troy Brouwer, Tyler Arnason, Kyle Calder Colorado (4): Ryan O’Reilly, Paul Stastny, David Jones, Marek Svatos Columbus (1): Cam Atkinson Dallas (2): Jamie Benn, James Neal Detroit (7): Tomas Tatar, Gustav Nyquist, Justin Abdelkader, Johan Franzen, Valtteri Filppula, Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk Edmonton (3): Mike Comrie, Shawn Horcoff, Jarett Stoll Florida (3): Vincent: Trocheck, David Booth, Kristian Huselius Los Angeles (2): Tyler Toffoli, Mike Cammalleri Minnesota (1): Jason Zucker Montreal (4): Brendan Gallagher, Tomas Plekanec, Mike Ribeiro, Michael Ryder Nashville (5): Viktor Arvidsson, Craig Smith, Patric Hornqvist, Shea Weber, Denis Arkhipov New Jersey (3): Adam Henrique, Scott Gomez, Brian Gionta NY Isles (3): Anders Lee, Blake Comeau, Frans Nielsen NYRangers (5): Derek Stepan, Brandon Dubinsky, Ryan Callahan, Petr Prucha, Mike York Ottawa (6): Mark Stone, Mike Hoffman, Zack Smith, Antoine Vermette, Mike Fisher, Magnus Arvedson Philadelphia (0): ZERO Pittsburgh (2): Tyler Kennedy, Ryan Malone San Jose (3): Joe Pavelski, Ryan Clowe, Jonathan Cheechoo St.Louis (2): David Backes, Lee Stempniak Tampa Bay (4): Brayden Point, Ondrej Palat, Nikita Kucherov, Brad Richards Toronto (3): Connor Brown, Nikolay Kulemin, Alexei Ponikarovsky Vancouver (2): Mason Raymond, Jannik Hansen Washington (1): Matt Pettinger Winnipeg/Atlanta (0): ZERO
Shocking isn’t it? You’d think some teams would have more than they do but a lot of clubs develop goal scorers for other teams. ‘Tis the nature of the biz.
So I guess it’s safe to say that drafting and developing a 20-goal scorer after the 1st round of the draft isn’t as easy as Reid Wilkins and Baggedmilk have it cracked up to be. I’d say the Oilers are right in the thick of it if we’re being honest. But should this really be a surprise to anybody. The drop off in talent from the 1st round to the 2nd is pretty large is it not?
Is it a problem that the Oilers have only managed to draft and develop three 20-goal scorers for their own club coming out of the 2nd round or later?
I don’t think it is “a problem” per se. It’d be nice to have more, of course. But look at the teams above like Pittsburgh for example. Two Cups in the last two years and I don’t see one player from those rosters who scored 20 goals that was drafted after the 1st round. I have seen them trade their way to complimentary scoring over the years though.
If you can’t draft and develop players that are able to contribute at the NHL level then you’ll be stuck trying to build your roster through trades and free agency, something that never works in a cap world.
There is a whole lot of truth to this quote from the article at Oilersnation but it’s not 100% truth.
I’ll get folks on Twitter saying that the Oilers should get good players and keep them. I agree but did the Colorado Avalanche simply go out and get good players this summer? I recall them dealing one of their better players in Matt Duchene. Before that was Ryan O’Reilly. Was last season a complete aberration for the Avs? Could this season be just that for the Oilers?
Should the Oilers have done a better job drafting over the last 20 years? I think it’s safe to say the answer is, yes but what team is truly happy with their draft record in that time? Is it really hard to do? F’n rights it is. Should we take this opportunity to shit all over the Oilers some more? Probably not.
I’ll say this though, I haven’t been more optimistic about a group of prospects coming in for quite a while. Kailer Yamamoto, Stuart Skinner, Ostap Safin, Kirill Maksimov, Tyler Benson, Dylan Wells, Aapeli Rasanen, Ethan Bear, Caleb Jones, William Lagesson, and possibly Tyler Vesel are all going to be joining the Oilers’ AHL club in Bakersfield in the next couple of seasons. All of those players apart from Yamamoto are 2nd round picks and later plus they’re trending UP!
Under Peter Chiarelli, the Oilers’ prospect cupboard is being re-stocked at a rate much faster than previous regimes and I believe this is another reason that he should be given the opportunity to carry out his 5-yr plan. He’s mopping up the mess that was left for him all whilst re-building this franchise.
In all honesty, I think an exercise like this one is almost pointless because of the findings for one but also it really is just nitpicking. To add to that, since Chiarelli joined the club, he’s axed most of the amateur scouts. So this is a near-brand new team re-building the pipeline for the Oilers and is it fair to compare that to the previous scouting teams?
**Note: Since posting this article, I’ve finally found some evidence of the clauses in Russell’s first two years of his contract. So this isn’t “FAKE NEWS”, it’s just me being wrong. That said, a clause is only good until its waived and my stance still remains. Kris Russell can still be traded. If you want to read the article, I appreciate that. Maybe you’ll find something of value. – BLH**
Ever since Kris Russell signed his 4yr deal last summer he’s been a beacon of shit talk for a portion of the Oilers fanbase. Most have said that the contract is too long or he’s being paid too much or both because he’s no better than a 3rd pairing defenseman in the NHL.
I can understand why some folks feel that way because this season I’ve found myself getting frustrated with him but not for his contract or where’s playing in the lineup. For me, it’s more about his slow puck moving. I know why he gives up the zone easily and I know why he always banks it off the glass and out. But he usually redeems himself with a goal-saving shot block and I believe a player should be compensated for not only the plays he makes but also the plays he stops. I think we can add that a player who sacrifices himself as much as Russell does for his team, and that’s another reason I have no problems with his contract.
Getting back to the title of this post and why Kris Russell’s NMC means nothing. Well, this is because a lot of fans/bloggers are misinformed and forgetful of what clauses are actually in Russell’s contract.
Below is Russell’s contract details courtesy of Capfriendly.
What you’ll notice beside 2017/18 and 2018/19 in the clause column are no-movement clauses but when we go to Spotrac’s website we see something different.
The NMCs are gone…
So who are we to believe? Capfriendly or Spotrac?
And if cap friendly is saying Russell had a No movement clause they are incorrect. A fan asked about his NMC at the fan breakfast as was corrected by Chiarelli
If you go back and read the mainstream sports outlets like TSN or Sportsnet or the sponsored Oilers blogs like, The Cult of Hockey, Oilersnation, Copper and Blue, or Oil on Whyte, you’ll find that nobody reported Kris Russell’s contract including an NMC or a NTC in the first two years of the deal.
I’ll be honest, I was under the impression that he’d cuffed himself to the Oilers for all 4 years. I was wrong and I’m betting a lot of other people are too.
So here’s the thing. If he’s got no clauses in his contract for this year or next, why can’t he be traded to a team who needs a defender who can play both sides and has cap space. He’s mobile and fearless to boot!
Even with the modified-NTC in his final two years, his real money comes down from $4M to $1.5M in the last year.
And we haven’t even talk about how his contract is expansion friendly. Meaning he’s not protected by a clause and can be exposed for the Seattle expansion draft.
Personally, I think he’s quite equipped for playoff hockey more than others in the league and would be a perfect addition for a team looking for depth on the backend for their run to Lord Stanley’s cup.
Do you think a $4M cap hit is too much for a team with a shat-ton of cap space like Carolina who is right in the thick of the playoff race in the Eastern conference and without a dman who is over the age of 26! As if Klaus Dahlbeck is a better defender than Russell.
One team I wonder about would be Anaheim. At least to me, they seem like a club that wouldn’t mind adding another dman like Russell for the next few years. I don’t see any of their prospects being ready to come up quite yet and their older players like Kevin Bieksa (36 yrs old) and Francois Beauchemin (37 yrs old) are on expiring contracts ($4M for Bieksa and $1M for Beauchemin). We all know how much veteran coaches like veteran players too, right?
As for the type of return the Oilers would get for the Caroline Cowboy, I think anything that opens up cap space at this point. I’d target a guy like Ondrej Kase on Anaheim and if Carolina were the other team, they’ve got a few nice prospects like Aleksi Saarela, Warren Foegele, or Lucas Wallmark in their system performing well.
I really like Russell but my feeling is that it’s either him, Klefbom (no thanks), or Sekera, that’ll have to be moved to make room for a right-handed defenseman next season. I’m hoping that guy is Mike Green.
Bottom line, Kris Russell is definitely a player who can be moved without issue IF that’s an option for Peter Chiarelli at this moment in time.
In this audio clip above Bob McKenzie wonders aloud what Peter Chiarelli might do at the deadline and this summer so that this year doesn’t repeat itself next year and I think that’s a really valid question.
My opinion on that is, he should stick with the majority of the players he has and simply add better veterans. Maybe a PK specialist. I’d hope he avoids the big trade, not because his history tells us he might overpay, but because the players rumoured to be heading out are players this team has developed and need right now. Unless of course, my proposed RNH+Klefbom for OEL goes through.
Just before I get into this, I want to put out there that I can’t get on board with what a majority of the Oilers blogs and influencers are doing this season. The negativity and the constant need or lust to slag the team that some of the writers who cover the team is a tragedy to me. A real shame that these people use their enormous platforms to spew negativity out there instead of using it to bring positivity and encouragement to the Oilers. I suppose it’s much easier to beat a guy when he’s down than to pick up him though.
They’ll call it “being real” or “being realistic” but to me, doing that is just a quicker way to mediocrity and honestly a real insight into who a person really is.
You can call me a homer or someone who “drinks the kool-aid” and that’s fine by me. My self-worth is not tied to the success of the team, a reader’s opinion of my blog, nor the desire to be right. My opinion is just that. I don’t pretend to think that I’m smarter than the people running the team because I don’t know what I don’t know and that’s something I urge lots of fans to realize when you’re out there “fanning”. The numbers might tell you one thing, but you don’t know what you don’t know.
One more time: You don’t know what you don’t know.
Be humble and enjoy having the best 2 centres under the age of 24 in the entire NHL for the next 8 years.
I’ve never loved an Oiler as a kid growing up. Never really had a hero from the Oilers. But I loved the team and I still do love the team. For better or worse and through the good times and the bad. It’s about the crest on the front because players will come and go but that logo will always be there for me.
WHY I SUPPORT CHIARELLI AND HIS STAFF!
I’m pretty sure I’m on an island by myself and a few select others in my support for the current GM and this is something I’m fine with. I’ve never been one to go along with what the cool kids are doing and I’ve always liked the underdogs. Luckily for me, the Oilers have been just that for some time now.
You see, I can’t justify firing Chiarelli when all of the bets he made last summer blew up in his face this season. The way I feel about him is he’s had a tough year, just like the rest of the Oilers are having and that includes the coaching staff as well. The analytics guys will tell you not to give up on a player after a bad year and most likely that player will go back to his normal production rate the following season. Who’s to say that bounce back won’t happen in 2018/19 with the Oilers?
I had a guy on Twitter say that one bad year could set a team back a decade! Get out of here with that bullshit!
If you’re grading Chiarelli on his moves, let’s look at the NHL ones and make a judgement after that!
Martin Marincin traded to Toronto Maple Leafs for 107th pick in 2015 and minor league Brad Ross (WIN)
Eric Gryba acquired for minor leaguer Travis Ewanyk and 107th pick in the 2015 entry draft (WIN)
Cam Talbot and the 209th pick in the 2015 draft acquired for the 57, 79th and 184th picks (WIN)
Griffin Reinhart for the 16th and 33rd picks in the 2015 draft (FAIL)
Lauri Korpikoski for Boyd Gordon(FAIL)
Mark Letestu signed as an unrestricted free agent, three years, $1.8 million per (WIN)
Andrej Sekera signed as an unrestricted free agent for six years, $5.5 million per (WIN)
Anders Nilsson acquired for former fifth round pick Liam Coughlin, then traded for a fifth round pick and Niklas Lundstrom (WIN)
Oscar Klefbom signed to a seven year, $4.17 million per deal (WIN)
Zack Kassian acquired for Ben Scrivens (WIN)
Justin Schultz traded for a 2016 third round pick (FAIL)
Teddy Purcell traded for a 2016 third round pick (WIN)
Patrick Maroon acquired for Martin Gernat and a 2016th fourth round pick (WIN)
Adam Larsson acquired for Taylor Hall (UNDECIDED)
Jonas Gustavsson signed for one year (FAIL)
Milan Lucic signed for seven years, $6 million per with a No-Movement Clause (WIN)
Matt Benning signed as college free agent to entry level deal (WIN)
Drake Caggiula signed as college free agent to entry level deal (WIN)
Kris Russell signed to a one year, $3.1 million deal (WIN)
Nail Yakupov traded for Zach Pochiro, 2017 third round pick (UNDECIDED)
Brandon Davidson traded for David Desharnais (WIN)
Extended the following players:
Connor McDavid – 8yrs, $100M (WIN)
Leon Draisaitl – 8yrs, $68M (WIN)
Kris Russell – 4yrs, $16M (FAIL)
Zack Kassian – 3yrs, $5.85M (WIN)
Jujhar Khaira – 2yrs, $1.35M (WIN)
Eric Gryba – 2yrs, $1.8M (FAIL)
Jordan Eberle traded for Ryan Strome (FAIL)
Signed Jussi Jokinen to a one year, $1.1M deal (FAIL)
Signed Yohann Auvitu to a one year, $700k deal (WIN)
Traded Jussi Jokinen for Mike Cammalleri (WIN)
Claimed Brandon Davidson off of waivers (WIN)
Acquired Al Montoya for a 5th round draft pick (conditional) (WIN)
I think that puts us up to date. If I’ve missed one of his NHL moves please let me know.
If you took all of those moves (I think there are just over 30 of them) into consideration, how many are wins/losses/undecided? I’ve got the wins with a much greater number than the fails and undecided.
When a GM takes a team over he wants to build it in a way that he’s had success with in the past. It’s my belief that Chiarelli has no time for egos and it’s possible that some of those players that he has shipped out in the past might’ve rubbed him the wrong way. You can’t blame a guy for having the courage of his convictions. You might also say that he wants to have the biggest ego in the room too…
When Mike Keenan got hired on with a new NHL team as GM, he’d often trade one of its most popular players away. Denis Savard was his first trade when hired in Chicago. He dealt Luongo to Vancouver during his time in Florida. While he was GM in St.Louis he traded Phil Housley and Brendan Shanahan…
Chiarelli signing all of those AHL vets puzzled me though. Was it because he thought they’d bring more success to the team? That they’d help insulate the young defensemen that were coming into the team? It didn’t work anyhow.
You’ll notice that I’ve got the Larsson/Hall trade as undecided but the way I feel about that deal is that Adam Larsson brings the team something they haven’t had for quite a while in a sturdy stay-at-home dman who is actually quite smart and skilled. To add to that, there was no way Peter Chiarelli was getting the dman he wanted without trading Hall. The Oilers were over a barrel at the time and every GM in the league knew it.
I’ve also got the Yakupov trade as undecided because I don’t really know if he would’ve improved his on-ice play and off-ice attitude towards the team had he stayed. He’s on his 3rd team now and if one of the best coaches of all-time in Ken Hitchcock couldn’t find a way to mould him into a regular top-6 forward, then it’s probably not going to happen and he was better off playing elsewhere anyhow.
I did say Jultz was a fail though and that’s an interesting one to me because had he stayed another season in Edmonton, the fans might’ve tried to lynch the guy. I just wonder if he’d have been okay with just one more year.
So some deals I absolutely feel that Chiarelli missed the boat on which is fine but I can’t subscribe to the theory that because he “downgraded”, as they put it, on the wings by dealing Hall and Eberle, that’s the reason the Oilers are underperforming. Because 5×5 scoring ISN’T a problem for this team. Keeping the puck out of the net is and last I checked, Hall and Eberle are doing a fantastic job of doing just that in New Jersey and Brooklyn this month.
You can look down on Lucic’s deal and Russell’s deal for sure. I concur, both are too long but I’m on board with their price point. And there are the NTCs that everyone points to but everyone forgets that these are simply bypassed with a request from the GM. Rick Nash was traded with one. Roberto Luongo was traded with one. Dion Phaneuf as well. Players like Tobias Enstrom and MA Fleury waived their NTCs for the expansion draft…
So let’s not pretend that these clauses are iron clad and those players are impossible to move. It’s ridiculous. Lucic is more than likely going to be an Edmonton Oiler for most of his deal but I can see Russell and/or Sekera being moved without issue.
So if you can’t use his transaction record as a crutch to criticize Chiarelli, what’s left? He’s got a history of building winning teams. He’s got two Stanley Cup appearances under his belt. He seems quite good at drafting and the Boston Bruins of today are using a lot of players that were added/developed during his tenure as Bruins GM.
That special portion of the Oilers fanbase needs to realize that the cupboards were bare before Peter Chiarelli was hired on. There were few viable options coming through their developmental system and that’s partly because they were drafting so high in the 1st round, throwing those 18-year-olds into the fire the next season, and picking coke machines in the 2nd/3rd rounds that never panned out.
Now Chiarelli is getting value players in the mid-latter rounds of the draft and starting next season we’re going to start seeing those players populate the Oilers’ AHL squad in Bakersfield.
**Just an aside for one moment. Jason Gregor reckons the Oilers will fire their AHL coach because he’s not doing what’s expected of him. That leads me to wonder if Bob Stauffer’s favourite WHL coach, Manny Viveiros, might be the leading candidate for that job?**
The problem I see here is that for years the Oilers fanbase was crying for a Milan Lucic type and they Oilers wasted a lot of draft picks trying to find one. Once they got him the switch flipped because their beloved Taylor Hall was sacrificed to bring him in. To add to that, everyone expected Looch to be banging and fighting every single game and were disappointed when they learned that’s not the case with him. How do you think he’s managed to play so many games for so many years? Plus nobody will fight the guy anymore. I think Derek Engelland is the only guy that might drop ’em with Lucic now.
So we have a lot of fans whose feelings are bruised because Hall is gone and Eberle is gone and they’re not on board with the long-term vision that Chiarelli has because their favourite players were dealt for less-than-expected returns. Yet, what the team does have, well that doesn’t matter because Hallsy and Ebs are outtie 5000 and loving life elsewhere and they should be! They’re in the prime of their careers playing in the Metropolitan Division! But the Oilers are stuck with a roster that was built to compete in the playoffs, which it did.
The word that best sums up the year for the Oilers is: Outlier.
Can you honestly tell me that it’s Peter Chiarelli’s fault that the Oilers’ PK would be 1st on the road and worst at home? I’d love to hear that explanation if that’s the way you feel.
Is it Chiarelli’s fault that Benning and Caggiula have been more off than on this season. Do we point the finger at the GM when the goalie can’t stop a the first shot of the game for a 5th of the season? Should the GM be held accountable when his coach won’t play the players he signed, like Auvitu or Jokinen earlier in the year?How do we blame PC for the scoring droughts of Strome, Lucic, Puljujarvi, and Cammalleri? How is the GM at fault for the underwhelming number of PP chances the Oilers have gotten this year? Should we berate Chiarelli because Draisaitl got concussed at the beginning of the season?
If so, can we also praise the GM for the season Darnell Nurse is having. Can we give him props for the year that RNH was having before being injured? Should we be shaking the hand of the GM whose team he built beat the best teams in the NHL this year? Is the emergence of Jujhar Khaira something we should put solely at the feet of Peter Chiarelli? What about Leon and Connor being two of the best 5×5 players in the league?
They say that this team isn’t built to compete with the quicker teams in the NHL but I call bullshit on that. NJ, Tampa, Vegas, and the Islanders are all quick teams that Edmonton beat this year.
Should they get faster? It wouldn’t hurt but don’t go 100% back to small/skilled.
So to sum it up, I support Chiarelli because I believe in his plan. I understand why he made the trades he did. I see proactivity during his time so far which is much better than what I saw during the DoD. I see a guy who’s had a tough year but feel that it’d only fair to give him one more year to see if this season was the outlier or if 2016/17 was. I really do feel, because I’ve seen what this team can do when it’s on its game, that this team is closer to last year’s level than this year’s. A lot of bad luck has hit the team this year but if the team gets off to a bad start next year, I have no problem with the Oilers moving on to someone new. It’s the nature of the beast. But I won’t call for his head like the mob did with Lowe.
TRADE RUMORS!
Hearing from another NHL source again today that #NHLBruins and #Oilers have discussed D Torey Krug but B's not interested in moving him now. Also two NHL sources now have told me D Oscar Klefbom has been discussed in these discussions and w/other NHL clubs.
I think this would be a mistake. Krug makes $5,5M per year and last year Klefbom outscored him. Also, if the Oilers can’t buy a PP with the best player on the planet, Krug isn’t going to be of much use given that 40%-50% of his point totals come from the man advantage.
Murphy did talk about the Bruins using Brandon Carlo in a package to acquire Ryan McDonagh though and I do wonder if the Oilers would be willing to make a deal for the Rangers captain? That’s probably the kind of trade where I’d be okay with using Klefbom as trade fodder.
So thefourthperiod.com has pulled a couple of pretty prominent names out of the Oilers hat and tossed them into their trade rumors. Those names being:
Oscar Klefbom
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
This is what they had to say about those players:
As we reported earlier this afternoon, the Edmonton Oilers are willing to take calls on defenceman Oscar Klefbom, but only if it means bringing in a top-winger that can play alongside Connor McDavid.
The Oilers want to add speed to their lineup and lack a few wingers who can keep up with the likes of McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
Klefbom isn’t actively being shopped, but Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli isn’t hanging up the phone. According to multiple well-placed league sources, discussions have already taken place, though nothing is imminent.
I assume by keeping up with Connor and Leon that they’re talking about hockey IQ because I’m not 100% sure if it’s absolutely necessary the wingers who play with either need to be barn burners.
Now if the discussions have already taken place, that could mean anything. That could mean that Chiarelli talked to a GM about Oscar two years ago.
In addition to Klefbom, injured centre Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ name is popping up again. He’s expected to be out until the end of the month, or early March, but word on the street suggests he may be ahead of schedule.
Nugent-Hopkins has generated plenty of interest from a number of teams, including the Montreal Canadiens and Columbus Blue Jackets, but he’s not going anywhere unless the Oilers can swap him out for a top-line winger or a top mobile defenceman.
So this isn’t really new news either. RNH has been on the block since the summer Hall was traded. If you think Hall was the first guy being offered out for Larsson or any other dman that summer, you’re sadly mistaken. Add to that the rumors that had Nuge connected to Tyson Barrie and Matt Dumba and you shouldn’t be surprised that his name is creeping up into the trade rumors as the deadline approaches.
I do agree, however, with the author here though. Unless it’s a top pairing (not Adam Larsson top pairing) dman or a LWer, with youth or term cheaper than RNH, the Oilers aren’t moving him. The GM and coach love having him on the team and rely on him a lot.
With the Ottawa Senators dangling sniper Mike Hoffman, could a Klefbom swap work for both clubs? Edmonton’s been disappointed in Klefbom’s play this season, so it’s entirely possible – unless they’re trying to aim higher.
I also wonder if the Oilers kick the tires on Arizona Coyotes star blueliner Oliver Ekman-Larsson, though Arizona may wait until the off-season to know if they’re drafting first-overall or not before deciding what route to take with OEL.
Hoffman is a guy I’ve wanted on the Oilers for quite some time now and a Klefbom for Hoffman deal could be one that I could get on board with but is it one that fits for the Senators right now? They’ve got Phaneuf they’re trying to trade (good luck!), Ceci is up for contract renewal, the Erik Karlsson drama is still unfolding, and Thomas Chabot is rounding into a solid NHLer.
I did toss out there the idea of trading both Ryan Nugent-Hopkins AND Oscar Klefbom for Oliver Ekman-Larsson recently though. I mean is there a team that could offer the Coyotes something better than a 1st line center and a top pairing defenseman?
What are your thoughts on the topic? Let us know in the comments below!
This post is basically a rebuttal post on a rebuttal post. I found an interesting article commenting on a blog from thefourthperiod.com and I don’t really have enough to write an entire blog with but I do have some comments on the one I did find. This’ll be more or less a commentary on both if you will…
But before we get into it, here’s what Bob McKenzie said on his most recent podcast. You should subscribe to it on iTunes or whatever pod app you use because he cusses on his podcast and I dig a media guy who uses the devil’s tongue here and there!
Bob Makes some good points there without really getting into what we don’t already know… But it ties into what the rest of our blog talks about.
Anyways, the main course of the day…
A recent report from The Fourth Periodconnected the Edmonton Oilers and Pittsburgh Penguins in what could be a significant trade within the next couple of weeks.
The Penguins are ideally looking for a 3rd line centre. Riley Sheahan may have to suffice as the team’s pivot in that position, but if Jim Rutherford can upgrade at the position, he will. He’s also looking for another scoring winger.
I’ve been saying that the Penguins are looking at the Oilers for some time now. They’d love to have Mark Letestu back as his experience and right-handedness will most definitely come in handy in the post-season for Pittsburgh. But with Sheahan seemingly building some nice chemistry with Phil Kessel, will the Pens really want to mess around with that?
The Oilers, on the other hand, are selling off, as this season is all but over. Patrick Maroon and Mark Letestu are two of the most talked about rental assets that Edmonton has to offer, and they happen to be a winger and depth centre.
I’m not entirely sure if the Pens will want Maroon at this point. Pittsburgh’s coach likes his wingers fast and responsible, two things that Maroon isn’t lauded for.
While there are obviously more talented options on the market, they may come cheapest, and will fit the bill well enough. Rutherford doesn’t have a ton of great assets to give up, so Edmonton appears to be the perfect trade partner.
This is where things start to get a bit dodgy. Why would this author think that the Oilers are going to give Maroon and Letestu up on the cheap? Sure they won’t cost the acquiring team any 1st rounders or blue-chip prospects but that’s not to say Peter Chiarelli isn’t going to ask for, and get, some decent hockey players that a team would rather not give up.
And this isn’t just conjecture on our part.
Of course it isn’t…
From The Fourth Period’s report:
“While it’s too early to guarantee whether either forward ends up if moved, there seems to be considerable interest in teams in the East, including the Pittsburgh Penguins, who have been eyeing both players.”
This is the only part of the original blog that connects both Maroon and Letestu to the Penguins… I’m impressed that the author could stretch a post out of one paragraph!
East-West trades are seemingly more common occurrences than in-conference trades, so this lines up with that general trend. This seems like a perfect match.
The Penguins have some B-prospects they could give up along with draft picks.
Do they? Because apart from perhaps Filip Gustavsson, Daniel Sprong, and Zachary Ashton-Reese, they’ve got a whole lot of nothing coming up. Which all three would be of interest to the Oilers as well as the Pens’ 1st and 2nd round picks in the upcoming draft. The key asset for a deal here that they don’t have is that 3rd rounder this year.
But maybe, just maybe, they’d be willing to move the struggling Carl Hagelin plus for Maroon and Letestu.
Maroon has 13 goals and 13 assists for 26 points in 50 games this year – he’s coming off a career-high 27-goal season in 2016-17.
Letestu has 8 goals and 17 points in 51 games. He scored a career-high 16 goals last season. He’s known to be able to play in most situations, and could be a decent option for Pittsburgh, should they decide to acquire both players from Edmonton.
So there you have it. Have your feelings changed on what to do with Pat Maroon and/or Mark Letestu? Have your valuations of either player altered since we talked about these players last?
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