Coming from an Edmonton Oilers point of view, BLH provides you with the latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation from all of the internet’s best sites including Spector’s Hockey, The Fourth Period, NHL Trade Talk, The Hockey Writers, Sportsnet, The Athletic, TSN and more!
From Sportsnet
Elliotte Friedman posted his latest 31 Thoughts blog over at Sportsnet yesterday. Here are a few of the juicier tidbits from the post,
- A couple of other notes on Columbus: In their search for centres, I think they’ve talked to Buffalo about Sam Reinhart. The Sabres are looking at goalies; Joonas Korpisalo or Elvis Merzlikins would be a sensible target. This theory of mine was received with mixed reactions when mentioned on last week’s podcast. No guarantee it happens because there will be other options for both teams, but they are sensible trade partners.
BLH’s Thoughts: Does that mean they’re walking away from Linus Ullmark as well or looking for someone who can share the nets with him going forward? The Edmonton Oilers will definitely be inquiring about the Swedish goalie’s services this summer IF he makes it to free agency.
- I’m betting that Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang are back, too. The playoff loss is still very fresh, but my sense is the Penguins see themselves as a good team that didn’t get the necessary goaltending. That will be their upgrade, finding either a veteran to play with Tristan Jarry or a new No. 1.
BLH’s Thoughts: If you have a goalie who is good but his work rate isn’t as high as it could be, that could lead to problems down the road when things matter most. From what I’m hearing, that’s where the Penguins are at with Jarry. Now, that’s not to say the young netminder isn’t a hard worker or that he isn’t dedicated to his craft. I mean, he’s a no.1 goaltender in the NHL, how the hell do you think someone gets to that position without working their ass off? He’s still young however, and my experience watching hockey over the years tells me that players early on in their career can get buy on talent alone for a short period of time but eventually things catch up to them.
I don’t know if he’s the right guy for where Pittsburgh is at right now. At some point the Pens are going to have to start transitioning the team from Sid and Gino to their next wave of players, right? I reckon they’re a few years from that, so maybe in the short term they could find a Jonathan Quick or a Marc-Andre Fleury to get them through that time but keep Jarry so he can learn from them so that he’s ready when it’s time to take back the net.
- The 12-week rest and recovery period Buffalo asked Jack Eichel to take ended on the weekend. Everyone’s being very quiet about this, because it’s already gotten enough public attention, but there will be conversations this week on where this goes from here. I do believe both the Sabres (with the NHL) and Eichel (with the NHLPA) have discussed what their options are if there is still disagreement about the next steps. The likely outcome is a trade.
BLH’s Thoughts: The likely outcome is a trade anyhow. I don’t see how with the way the Sabres are being run that Eichel is still considering a return. He’s right at that point where Taylor Hall was at in Edmonton before he uttered the famous words, “It’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel…”.
Now, if Buffalo is shopping Sam Reinhart too, that’s only going to compound his wishes to leave. He wants to be part of a winner, not the star of the show.
If he doesn’t get that surgery as part of the Sabres, how will that impact where he’s traded and for what?
- For all the talk about Edmonton’s current cap room, they will maintain flexibility for Darnell Nurse. He’s one year from unrestricted free agency, and played his heart out. It’s very clear that Nurse cares deeply about the franchise and identifies as an Oiler. In addition to trying to replace Nurse as a player, Edmonton would have to try and replace that true link to the organization. That’s not easy, and really matters.That brings us to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. This one’s a challenge. They were close in October, and it fell apart. They’ve tried during the season, but couldn’t build momentum. Don’t know how to handicap this one. I do think the Oilers make sure to open up room for Evan Bouchard and Ryan McLeod to be regulars. The difference between Edmonton and Winnipeg was depth. They need to develop their own draftees.
BLH’s Thoughts: Before Nurse took the next step in his development, I campaigned for the team to trade him numerous times. I couldn’t see any indicators in his game that revealed to me that he was going to be a no.1 defenseman in the NHL. I’m glad I was flat out wrong there because the Oilers have been screaming for a dman like him for decades maybe and I can’t see a world where they would allow him to leave or trade him. It would set the team back ten years if they did.
To Friedman’s point, when the team has drafted and developed their own and NOT traded them before they’ve blossomed, it’s been a pretty fruitful endeavor. That’s the thing though, in the past they’ve dealt away some damned good players just as they were hitting their stride.
As a fan of the club, I can only hope those days are over considering the quality of players Edmonton has in their system. That said, the Oilers are coming into win-now mode and often times that means good young players are sacrificed to keep the team winning…
- The NHL and NHLPA are forming another competition committee, and if I were Connor McDavid, I’d demand to be on it. The Edmonton captain keeps his opinions private, but don’t assume that means he doesn’t have any. There’s a bite. It’s not good at all for the NHL that he goes through an entire series without drawing a penalty. Even the Bad Boy Detroit Pistons were called for fouling Michael Jordan once in a while. But the surest way he can influence things is by making his voice heard in a forum where a difference can be made.
BLH’s Thoughts: Well put, Elliotte. Well put. Are we heading for another Mario Lemieux moment where the greatest players in the game start to complain about the quality of officiating in a very public manner. Is the NHL a “garage league” again but refuses to admit it?
I’m a bit on the fence about the whole thing. During the regular season, Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid ran wild and had historic seasons statistically. We heard some minor complaining about the reffing then, but in the playoffs when those two were the targets of their opposition in a time when everybody knew that the refs would most likely be putting their whistles away, the tsunami of sentiment regarding the NHL’s mistreatment of its stars grew louder and louder.
For the league’s leader in drawn penalties/60 this season to not even get one call in four games IS embarrassing but I also don’t want to watch 30 minutes of powerplays either. I’d say that the refs need to decide at the beginning of the year if they’re going to call it by the book or they’re going to let the players play. They’ve got to give the skaters a chance instead of calling it one way and then flipping the switch later one.
- Murray wouldn’t go into potential moves, but did confirm Anaheim made a serious pitch for Pierre-Luc Dubois. (I’ve reported in the past it did not include Jamie Drsydale nor Trevor Zegras.) I do think the Ducks will try to take a big swing. They’ve got flexibility, and another team pointed out that they could have an open space on its protected list depending on what they want to do. Going to be an interesting summer there.
BLH’s Thoughts: Could they use Rickard Rakell and Josh Manson to go big fish hunting? Word was at the trade deadline they didn’t want to move them separately and that’s possibly why Edmonton couldn’t get their hands on the Swede.
- (Brian) MacLellan didn’t shy away from refusing to commit to Evgeni Kuznetsov’s future. It’s becoming apparent the Capitals sent some feelers out during the past season to gauge interest in the centre.
BLH’s Thoughts: This is going to be an ongoing drama until Kuznetsov is playing somewhere else. Things will heat up as the draft approaches I assume.
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