Category Archives: Edmonton Oil Drops

Armchair GM, Edmonton Oil Drops, Edmonton Oilers, NHL

Edmonton Oil Drops: Things I’ll Be Watching in the Final Ten Oilers Games

March 18, 2019 Beer League Hero

The stretch drive is upon us! There are 10 games left in the Oilers season. They currently sit 7 points back of the Coyotes for the 2nd Wild Card spot in the Western Conference. They have to pass Chicago, Colorado, Minnesota, and Arizona to get into a playoff spot. This week, the Oilers have games against the Blues, the Jackets, and the Senators. The good news is that 3 of the next 6 are against teams near the bottom of the standings (OTT, LA, and ANA). The bad news is that the other 7 are against teams that are above them in the standings.

As much as I’d love to see a miracle run to the playoffs, it isn’t going to happen.

Despite that, there are still reasons to watch Oilers games for the rest of the year. Leon’s chase for 50 goals and 100 points is something that I’ll be cheering for. He needs 7 goals and 9 points to hit the mark. That’s the only thing that I’ll be watching for that affects this season though. I’m looking ahead to this summer and what the new GM can do to improve the roster going into next season.

Over the course of the spring, I’ll be posting articles about what the Oilers can do to improve the team this summer in my 2019 Oilers Off-Season Game Plan series. For now, here are some of the questions that I’ll be looking for the answers to over the course of these last 10 games.

CLICK HERE to read what Ryan will be looking forward to as the Oilers season winds down. Follow him @EdmOilDrops on Twitter.

Interested in reading about the best defenseman available in the upcoming NHL entry draft and who he compares to at the NHL level? Click here to read “Byram vs. Rielly” from TPE Hockey.

The Vegas Golden Misfits are going to the Stanley Cup Final in 2018!!! Love ’em or hate ’em it’s an amazing story and this is one punk rocker’s way of giving tribute! Click the pic above and get yours today!

Elias Pettersson’s nickname is “Alien”. Here’s a shirt to celebrate it! Click the image to buy one!

What a hilarious phrase! Click the pic to get yours today!

Click the image above and get this sweet Leon’s parody shirt!

Armchair GM, Edmonton Oil Drops, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Rumors, Trades

Edmonton Oil Drops: 2019 Oilers Trade Deadline Review

February 27, 2019 Beer League Hero

I didn’t expect the Oilers to be busy on trade deadline day, but I certainly was not expecting total silence. The Oilers stood pat… It made for a boring day for Oilers fans.

The Oilers were 8 points out of a playoff spot going into their game versus the Predators, and they sit 7 points out after scrounging a point out of Nashville. The good thing about them not making any moves is that they didn’t sacrifice any of the future for immediate help. The team was far from a position where they needed to take part in the annual trade deadline day arms race. Most people within the Oilers organization still believe that the team can make the playoffs. It’s good that they weren’t tempted to spend assets on a rental player that might have helped the team in their March push for the playoffs that will more than likely fall well short of success.

Thankfully, the team held on to Jesse Puljujarvi. Reports over the last week or so have suggested that Puljujarvi is unhappy in Edmonton. His value is at an all-time low right now. It would’ve been impossible to get anything close to fair value for him at this point in time. If the team really feels that they have to trade him, then it makes the most sense to do it this summer. This will not be the last that we hear of this story, I can promise you that. It is my hope that the Oilers keep Puljujarvi because he is bound to break out at some point soon, and we will want him on the Oilers roster when he does.

The bad thing about the Oilers not making any moves on the deadline is that…

CLICK HERE if you want to find out why the Oilers not making any moves on the deadline was possibly the worst potential outcome.

A new season means a new design! Click the image above to get the new Pulju shirt!

Armchair GM, Edmonton Oil Drops, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Rumors, Trades

Edmonton Oil Drops: Oilers 2019 NHL Trade Deadline Preview

February 25, 2019 Beer League Hero

Keith Gretzky basically laughed at the idea of the Oilers being in on any of the big-name rental players, as he should have. The Oilers are currently 8 points back of a playoff spot with 5 teams to hurdle in order to get into the final wild-card position.

The Oilers have already made two trades prior to this deadline. They traded Cam Talbot for a younger and cheaper backup named Anthony Stolarz. They also unloaded failed experiment Ryan Spooner on to Vancouver for Edmonton’s new favorite former Oiler, Sam Gagner. Stolarz has yet to make his Oilers debut, but Gagner has 2 goals in his 4 games in an Oilers uniform since being acquired, including the game-winner against the Ducks last night.

The team has gone 2-1-1 since making those trades after the loss in Carolina. Gagner represents a clear upgrade in the forward group, and the return of Andrej Sekera has been helpful. Coach Hitchcock has said that they have played well in all but one of their games since the bye week ended. They certainly haven’t been rewarded in kind for their efforts, but the team is playing better than it had been prior to the break.

What might they do on deadline day? Will Milan Lucic get moved? Is Jesse Puljujarvi going to get traded? Will Alex Chiasson and Zack Kassian remain Oilers? Click here to find out

Click the pic and grab a 16-bit McDavid tee!

Armchair GM, Edmonton Oil Drops, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Trades

Edmonton Oil Drops: Busy Times in Edmonton

February 20, 2019 Beer League Hero

Today’s Cap Hit for the Oilers is at $78.1 million, which is $1.4 million under the $79.5 million limit. The Oilers are cap compliant based on this number, which is all they needed to worry about because of the LTIR situation. It is my understanding that normally, teams need to be under the $79.5 million limit with both values (Projected Cap Hit and Today’s Cap Hit) at all times, with LTIR being an exception (although as we learned, I have been wrong in the past). Basically, the Oilers are fine cap wise now for this season, even though it took some subtracting to make it happen.

The two trades are interesting from a hockey standpoint. It was clear that Talbot wasn’t going to be re-signed after Koskinen was extended, so a trade felt inevitable. Talbot was Chiarelli’s big acquisition that was supposed to fix the goaltending. Talbot had one incredible season in 2016-17 where the Oilers made the playoffs largely because of his performance. He had runs in the second half of his first and third seasons here where he was also outstanding. However, he was just too inconsistent to be the goalie that Chiarelli hoped that he would be. He started 3 of his 4 seasons in Edmonton slowly, which put the team behind the 8-ball early each year. It’s not all his fault because the defensive play in front of him was brutal at those times, but he does wear a good portion of that. This year, he could never really get it going for any length of time.

The other trend of his that was noticeable was…

CLICK HERE if you want to find out what else was noticeable about Cam Talbot and read the rest of Ryan’s analysis on the Oilers recent and future moves as we head into the NHL trade deadline. You’re not going to want to miss the portion about Jesse Puljujarvi!

Armchair GM, Edmonton Oil Drops, Edmonton Oilers, NHL

Edmonton Oil Drops: The Oilers Should be Sellers

February 11, 2019 Beer League Hero

We are now two weeks away from the NHL trade deadline. As the rumors start to pile up, teams are going to have to make decisions on whether to be buyers in hopes of making a run towards the spring or to be sellers in preparation for the future.

While Chiarelli was still the GM in January, the Oilers were reportedly aggressively trying to find scoring help. Chiarelli was on the hot seat, and he was likely well aware of how much pressure there was on him to make the playoffs. The standings in the West were muddled, and the Oilers were in thick of the race despite a stretch of futility that dates back to mid-December.

Fans didn’t want Chiarelli to make any more moves in an effort to save his job because they had lost all trust in the former GM. They did not want him mortgaging the future to help this team limp into the playoffs this season. However, since his firing, many fans have become more open to possibilities when it comes to trades.

Two days after the firing occurred, I posed a question on Twitter about which prospects that Oilers fans perceive as being untouchable. I suggested that Puljujarvi, Yamamoto, Bouchard, Jones, McCleod, Benson, and Maksimov are the prospects that I view as being untouchable. Perhaps “untouchable” is a strong word, but those are the ones that I would be upset to see moved unless the return is impactful.

Of the 29 people that offered an opinion on the subject, only 4 suggested…

CLICK HERE if you want to find out what those four people suggest and why Ryan thinks the Oilers should be sellers at the trade deadline this year.

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