Eric is a passionate and knowledgeable Oilers fan who has been following the team on a day-to-day basis for nearly 20 years. Eric began writing about the Oilers for Oil on Whyte in June 2015.
Refreshed and recharged the Edmonton Oilers defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 in the shootout at Rogers Place on Saturday night following their first three-day break of the season. It was a much needed win after dropping a 3-2 decision to the Columbus Blue Jackets last Tuesday. The Oilers were spent by the time the time the Jackets rolled into town and went about business, knocking off a team that had played five games in the previous seven days.
Playoff teams take advantage of a beaten down opponent. Now, there are no easy games in the NHL, but when you are facing a worn down team on the second-half of back-to-backs with some key injuries (i.e. Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov), you need to win that game. And the Oilers did just that, improving to 16-12-5 for 37 points on the year and moved into a tie for second place in the Pacific Division with the Anaheim Ducks.
If the Oilers are going to become a playoff team this year, they need to win those types of games on a consistent basis. They had a great opportunity to put some points in the bank in late November with four straight games against three lowest seeded teams in the NHL; the Colorado Avalanche, a home-and-home with the Arizona Coyotes and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Most Oilers fans expected the team to go 3-1-0, possibly even 4-0-0 during that stretch. Instead, they posted a disappointing 1-2-1 record, including consecutive losses to the Coyotes.
Edmonton doesn’t exactly have an easy road ahead for the rest of this month or through January and February. But if the Oilers can keep pace in the playoff hunt over the next two months, then they really have a chance to do some damage is in March when they play 11 of 13 games at home. Whether it’s a team that is below them in the standings or battling injuries like the Lightning the other night, the Oilers have to find a way to get two points.
This is still a “growth team” as Head Coach Todd McLellan likes to say, and there will be bumps in the road. The Oilers are not going come away with two points in every “winnable game” this year, but if they beat the bottom feeders on a semi-regular basis, it will take some of the pressure off games like tonight when they take on the St. Louis Blues (17-11-4) on the road.
Thank you for reading my blog! Feel free to leave a comment below or connect with me on Twitter @EricJFriesen.
According toHockey Hall of Fame writer for the Edmonton Journal Jim Matheson, Arizona Coyotes defenceman Michael Stone is reportedly on the trade market. Matheson, who you can follow on Twitter @NHLbyMatty, tweeted on Friday: “Coyotes offensive D Michael Stone is apparently available. UFA in July. Would Edm be interested? Big shot”.
Though we are only 19 games into the 2016-17 season, I have no hesitation in saying this is the most talented as well as most balanced Edmonton Oilers team since 2005-06 when they went to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. However, the Oilers are still a few pieces away from becoming a top tier team in the league, most importantly a right-shot offensive defenceman who can be a difference maker on the powerplay. And Stone could be that guy.
The Oilers acquired Adam Larsson in the off-season (for a moment let’s forget about who they traded for him) to be a right-shot top pairing defender who can shutdown the opposition’s best forwards. And after almost a quarter of the season, I think he’s done an excellent job in his role and has been a stabilizing presence on the Oilers’ blueline. That said, he’s not going to see his name of the score sheet often. He has produced just three points in 19 games as an Oiler (0.16 points per game), which is below his career (0.25). Larsson’s numbers will likely improve as the season goes on and he gets more comfortable in his new home, but we shouldn’t expect him to develop into a powerplay weapon for the Oilers, either.
GM Peter Chiarelli worked the phones all summer to try and acquire another top four defenceman with a powerful point shot, but ultimately he wasn’t able acquire one. In early July, the Oilers were in the hunt for RFA defenceman Tyson Barrie who was reportedly frustrated with his qualifying offer from the Colorado Avalanche and wanted out, but the asking price was reportedly too high. Stone was another name the Oilers were rumoured to be pursuing, but nothing ever came of it. Still, he’s a player I’ve thought the Oilers should try to bring in if there isn’t a better option out there in free agency or on the trade market.
Stone was selected by the Coyotes in the third round (69th overall) of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft from the Calgary Hitmen of the WHL. Stone played four seasons with the Hitmen, notching 52 goals and 181 points in 264 career WHL games. Stone served as team captain in his final year of major junior led the Hitmen to the 2010 WHL championship. Over the last six seasons, Stone has split time between the NHL and AHL, tallying 23 goals and 90 points in 287 career NHL games all with the Coyotes. The 6-foot-3, 210 pound defenceman has good size, can be a physical presence and possesses a cannon for point shot.
If the Oilers were to trade for Stone, Matthew Benning would likely be assigned to Bakersfield, which probably wouldn’t be the worst thing for his development, even though he hasn’t looked out of place through his first 10 games in the NHL. Given Stone’s skill set, it’s possible that he could play on the second or third pairing and first powerplay unit in Edmonton. Right now, the Oilers’ powerplay runs entirely through Connor McDavid and because the opposing penalty killers know Edmonton doesn’t have a big shot from the point to worry about, they are able to collapse down low and clog up the middle of the ice. If the Oilers had a guy like Stone would who can absolutely fire the puck, the opposition would have to focus more on him, which would open up more time and space for McDavid to work his magic and increase the team’s overall powerplay efficiency.
This is how I would envision the Oilers defensive pairings would look:
Klefbom-Larsson
Sekera-Russell
Nurse-Stone
*Gryba
The question now becomes what would it cost the Oilers to acquire Stone? I don’t see the Oilers wanting to give up a player like Jordan Eberle or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to the Coyotes for Stone. The 26-year-old Winnipeg, Manitoba native is on a one-year deal worth $4 million and can become a UFA on July 1, so if Chiarelli doesn’t like the asking price he can take a shot at him next off-season when he will have more flexibility to sign free-agents with Andrew Ference‘s contract off the books. There’s also the upcoming NHL Expansion Draft in June and the Oilers would have to protect Stone if they did a trade and sign, which could be problematic for them with their internal list likely already complete. It’s been well documented that the Coyotes’ new GM John Chayka is an analytics expert and we all know how much the analytics community loves Benoit Pouliot, so maybe there’s a trade to be made there? Pouliot is capable of playing in a top six role and providing and some physicality as well, but he has struggled mightily this year and I think most Oilers fans wouldn’t be overly upset to see him go. One thing is for certain, the Oilers need to add an offensive defenceman. Stone is just one option for them, but if this still team is still in the playoff picture at the trade deadline, Chiarelli might pull the trigger.
Feel free to leave a comment if you think the Oilers should go after Stone or not. And if so, what you think it might cost Edmonton to acquire him. You can also follow me on Twitter @EricJFriesen. Thanks for reading my blog!
The original Heritage Classic in 2003 will forever be the gold standard for outdoor NHL games, in my opinion, the 2016 event was pretty close. From the moment Elliotte Friedman broke the news on twitter on February 13 that Winnipeg would host an outdoor game in 2016-17 and Edmonton would be the opponent, I knew there was no way I was going to miss it.
About a month later, “The Great One” Wayne Gretzky announced that he was going to play for the Edmonton Oilers alumni against the Winnipeg Jets alumni prior to the regular-season game. As a lifelong Gretzky fan who never had the chance to see him play live during his legendary career, the Heritage Classic then became a once in a lifetime type event for me. I thought watching him on TV in 2003 alumni game would be the closest I would ever get to seeing him suit up in an Oilers jersey. I’m glad I was wrong. And 251 days after the event was announced, I flew to Winnipeg for the 2016 Heritage Classic.
I got to the Investors Groups Field on Saturday with one of my best friend’s Chris, who is a huge Jets fan, about an hour before the game. Just standing in line to get in the stadium, you could feel how excited all the fans were for the alumni game. Many of people my age or younger who never got to see likes of Wayne Gretzky or Dale Hawerchuk in their prime were grinning from ear-to-ear over seeing these legends take to the ice.
Once we got to our seats the atmosphere got even better. Thankfully for me, there was a good amount of Oilers fans in my section (I’ll guess around 15% of the fans were wearing orange and blue), though I never got chirped by one Jets fan the entire weekend. Tons of class by the fans in Winnipeg.
My friend warned me that Gretzky and the rest of the Oilers legends might get booed out of building after defeating the Jets in five playoff series between 1984 and 1990. However, that was not the case. In fact, Gretzky got the third loudest ovation after Hawerchuk and Teemu Selanne. Another great show of class.
The place erupted when fan-favourite Selanne scored on a penalty shot goal early in the game and seemed to louder with each goal they scored as the Jets jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the first period. The Oilers alumni quieted the Winnipeg fans with four straight goals in the second and third periods to take a 5-4 lead. But unfortunately for Oilers fans, the Jets alumni tied the game up late in the final frame and Selanne provided the dagger with another penalty shot goal with 3.6 seconds remaining in regulation to secure the victory for the home team.
Gretzky admittedly said, “I stink”in the post-game presser after going scoreless in the 6-5 loss, but it didn’t matter to me that. Sure, it would be great to see Gretzky score a beautiful goal or set up Jari Kurri from the behind the net for a tally, but what made it special for me was just to see my hero play live for the first time. That said, Mark Messier and Paul Coffey look like they could play. And the recently retired Ryan Smyth (my other childhood hero who I’ve been lucky enough to see play many times) was the speedster for the Oilers alumni!
Going into the day, I thought I would be upset if the Oilers lost, but I wasn’t. I can honestly say that was one of the best days of my life. Also, I tweeted out the picture you see above and it made up on the scoreboard at Investors Group Field. So that was another cool part of the day.
I’ll be the first to admit I was more excited for the alumni game than the actual regular-season game, but when I got back to the stadium on Sunday the intensity picked up. Now, two points were on the line. After a two hour delay due to sunlight (who would have thought?) the tarps finally came off the ice and we were ready to go.
The pre-game ceremony was excellent with Gretzky and Hawerchuk coming out to drop the pucks alongside Connor McDavid and Blake Wheeler. It was a brilliant way to blend the past, present, and future of these two hockey clubs. Obviously, the Oilers pulled out the win thanks to three quick goals in the second period that sucked the life out of the building for Jets fans, but I probably cheered louder than I have since the Oilers run to the Stanley Cup in 2006. It felt like a playoff game, or even like the Grey Cup since it was played in a CFL stadium. All in all, it was a great weekend of hockey for the 33,000-plus fans who can say they were there.
My original plan was to fly home to Saskatoon on Sunday night after the game, but all the flights were fully booked so I had to catch the red-eye home Monday morning. Little did I know that this would make my trip to Winnipeg even better. While I was standing with my friend in a gift shop at the airport I saw a familiar face walk by. At first, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me at 5:30 AM, but I walked over just to be sure. It was former Oilers goalie and playoff hero Dwayne Roloson, who was the best of Edmonton’s three goalies in the alumni game. He was gracious enough with his time to give me a couple minutes to talk hockey with him and take a photo. I’ve never been so happy to miss my original flight home before. Hopefully, many of you reading this had the chance to attend the Heritage Classic as well. And if not, you will likely get another a chance in the future. With McDavid on
Hopefully, many of you reading this had the chance to attend the Heritage Classic as well. And if not, you will likely get another a chance in the future. With McDavid on team, the Oilers are bound to have more opportunities like this going forward. Although Gretzky mentioned that if there is another alumni game in the future, he likely won’t be a part of it. If this is true, I’m so thankful that I was in attendance for his last game. 50 years from now, that will be what I remember most about this weekend.
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Jets forward Blake Wheeler wasn’t wrong when he said “the alumni game might trump the main event” at the Heritage Classic presser. It likely will. As excited as I am for the Oilers-Jets regular-season game, the alumni game will be a once in a lifetime event for many hockey fans, myself included.
Lowe jokingly said that the Oilers would hold a “training camp” to fill the last spot or two for the Oilers alumni on defence. Not unlike the current edition of the Oilers, the alumni roster could use another right-shot defenceman as well. Today I wanted to look at some of the top candidates to fill the last spot on Edmonton’s blueline for the 2016 Heritage Classic Alumni Game.
For the fans who were hoping to see more players from the 1990s and 2000s named to the Oilers alumni roster, Smith would be an excellent addition. Smith was a hard-nosed blueliner who consistently sacrificed his body to block shots and was team captain from 2001 to 2007. The 42-year-old Calgary, Alberta native was recently named the Head Coach of the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets, who play the Seattle Thunderbirds on the night of the alumni game, so he likely won’t be available to the Oilers.
Niinimaa was the Oilers best offensive defenceman in the early 2000s. At 6-foot-1 and 220 pound, Niinimaa had great size, a solid point shot and was great on the powerplay. The 41-year-old Raahe, Finland native retired from professional hockey in 2013 and would give the Oilers alumni some “young legs” on the back end.
Staios is another younger option for the Oilers on the blueline. The 43-year-old Hamilton, Ontario was strong, two-way defenceman and only retired four years ago and is certainly in better shape than any of the already named alumni defenceman. As the President of the OHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs, it would be easier for Staios to suit up for the Oilers than his former teammate Smith.
A heart and soul defender, Fogolin is arguably the greatest right-shot defenceman in Oilers history. He’s best remembered as the player you handed the ‘C’ to Gretzky in 1983. The 61-year-old Chicago, Illinois native would be the oldest player on the team, but if he’s able to play, I’d love to see him throw on the Oilers jersey one last time.
At 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds, Beukeboom was a hulking defenceman who won battles in front of the net and in the corners and was able to clear the puck out of his zone efficiently. The 51-year-old Ajax, Ontario native won’t provide much offence punch, but would be a solid choice to fill a third pairing role. And who doesn’t love that name, right?
Thanks for reading. Let me know if you agree with my picks and we’ll see if any of these former players make the cut in October!
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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![[Vintage] Jeff Beukeboom hits Jocelyn Lemieux into the bench](https://i0.wp.com/i.ytimg.com/vi/sLJ5oviH1qg/hqdefault.jpg?w=474&ssl=1)
![Jordan Eberle First NHL Goal vs. Calgary Flames (2010) [HD]](https://i0.wp.com/i.ytimg.com/vi/tB9K_eG8_3I/hqdefault.jpg?w=474&ssl=1)
