*We’re experimenting with some content curation tactics here at Beer League Heroes and so many of the posts you’ll find coming from the BLH website will be snippets of full posts from other sites. We’re not interested in ripping any other writers off but we are looking to expand our audience a bit. If you’re blog has been featured in one of our “Around the Oilogosphere” posts and you don’t want it to be, contact us @beerleagueheroe on Twitter and let BLH know. He’ll be happy to remedy the situation. Otherwise, we hope you enjoy the content!*
An entire episode featuring Sportsnet 960’s Pat Steinberg with Dave, Graham, and Jack on The Roundtable! Pat shares his views on the current state of the Battle of Alberta, the Calgary arena saga, and his experiences as an on-air host on Calgary sports radio.
A few nights ago I was on the Oilers Live Podcast with Sean from theoilknight.ca and we talked about a plethora of things including:
the Oilers to date and why they are where they are and who’s to blame.
Their developmental system (or lack thereof)
Erik Karlsson and where he might end up
Pat Maroon and the recent rumors on his destination including one city nobody has thought of yet.
All the latest Oilers trade speculation.
You should head over to Mike’s website and also subscribe to his podcast as every week he’s got either a handful of Oilers die hard fans being interviewed or bloggers/journalists who cover other NHL teams. His latest before the one I was on was with former Edmonton Oiler Jason Strudwick and it was a beauty!
BRANDON DAVIDSON TRADED AGAIN!
So far Brandon Davidson has been an excellent source of “income” for Peter Chiarelli. Last year at the trade deadline Davidson was dealt for David Desharnais, who in turn provided the team with some excellent veteran leadership and a critical OT goal in the playoffs vs. San Jose and Now Chiarelli has acquired a 2019 3rd round pick for the defenseman from the New York Islanders.
I think it’s an awesome trade. Anytime you can turn a waiver wire acquisition into a 3rd round draft pick, you’re doing something right.
Would I have preferred to keep him? Hell yes! I really have enjoyed Davidson’s effort and impact on the team since being selected off of the waiver wire but I do understand that he’s a dman with value, he’ll never be anything more than a bottom pairing defender in the NHL, and that by dealing him Chiarelli opened up another roster spot on the 50-man list.
How do you think everyone else reacted to the deal?
I wish peter chiarelli traded himself to the islanders instead
You, sir, are an idiot. You wouldn't know value if it sat on your face. With every move you make you show yourself to be a charlatan. Stop destroying our hockey team.
— "Fire Chiarelli" T-Shirts HERE! (@ChiarelliMustGo) February 25, 2018
Those are the AGAINSTs. The way I see it, unless Davidson would’ve brought back a 1st rounder or a top pairing right-handed powerplay specialist, the trade was going to be a fail in their eyes anyhow.
Here are some FORs:
I like Brandon Davidson but he is easily replaceable. Why wouldn't people want to continue to stockpile picks is beyond me
I really like Davidson, but that's a solid return for a good third-pairing D, especially since EDM has two other good third-pairing D on the roster in Auvitu and Benning. https://t.co/6lFwu2TKGx
1/ Re: Davidson. I see a couple of sides to this story. On the one hand, the trade is a bit mystifying as Davidson is a solid young player on a good contract, wants to play in his hometown, and is an RFA (so he's NOT the type of player you want to sell at the deadline).
Davidson cost the Oilers nothing to acquire a couple of months ago, so good work turning that into a third round pick. Does seem a little odd to move him though.
Lordy that is a lot of tweets. So, I think, as usual, the fanbase is divided on the deal.
Look, the Isles get a nice depth dman and the Oilers get another asset to which they could use, and Chiarelli said he would prefer to do this, to try and obtain a near-NHL ready prospect at the draft. Another thing he could do is use it to try and move up in the draft this year.
One more positive, the Oilers are 1-0 in the post-Davidson era 🙂
LATEST ON THE TRADE FRONT
I suspect now that Rick Nash is a Boston Bruin that Pat Maroon will be going to Tampa Bay. I mean I guess the Bruins could pick Maroon up to if they wanted to really go for it.
Who might the Lightning give up for the Big Rig? Who knows to be honest but here are a few names to let percolate in your head bone:
Vladimir Namestnikov
Anthony Cirelli
Matthew Peca
If I recall correctly, Winnipeg is in on Letestu and Maroon and you can add Mike Cammalleri to that list. Putting up 10 pts in the last 10 games tends to put you on the radar of other teams this time of year and if Davidson can bring a 3rd rounder, Plekanec can get the Habs some solid prospects, and Nash can bring in 4 pieces for the Rags, surely Maroon, Letestu, and Cammalleri will net the Oilers 1, if not two, acceptable young players who will have a chance to show what their worth down the stretch.
I’m hoping that Chiarelli clears some roster room up at this deadline too.
Winnipeg is in “win-now” mode more than ever right now. The iron is hot and they NEED to strike. But you know what? St.Louis is awfully quiet right now… The pundits are tossing Jake Allen’s name out there… Do the Oilers and Blues get together on a deal? It’d have to be a money in, money out type of deal though. St.Louis is right up against the cap at the moment.
You know what’s going to happen right? All three of those guys will head to teams that we never even thought of.. lol.
I was having a conversation with a buddy of mine at hockey last night and he suggested Josh Ho-Sang in return for that draft pick Davidson got the Oilers…
What do you think?
Click on 16-bit Ebs (Isles) and button hook your way to buying this sweet tee!Click on 16-bit Mat Barzal to check out this sweet design!Click the image above and get your shirt today!Click the image and head over to our Teepublic shop to grab some sweet BLH merch.
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?
Click the image and head over to our Teepublic shop to grab some sweet BLH merch.
The rumors are going to be coming in hard and heavy for the next couple of weeks until the trade deadline passes and Pat Maroon’s name will be the name de jour until he’s gone.
You know it’s funny, on Twitter I read someone said that if a team like Tampa Bay is looking into Oscar Klefbom, that should be a sign that the Oilers should be keeping him. Does that apply to Pat Maroon too? If a good team is looking at one of your players, regardless of who it is, is that a sign you should be keeping him? Would it be different if Klefbom was on an expiring contract?
Anyways, over the weekend, Elliotte Friedman said that he wouldn’t be surprised if Tampa was in on Maroon and Joe Haggerty has named Boston as a team interested in adding Maroon.
Per sources, there's Bruins interest in Edmonton Oilers power forward/trade rental/Bruins killer Patrick Maroon with the deadline a couple of weeks away https://t.co/eryXsBPn1d
Doesn’t surprise me that playoff-bound teams are looking to add size to their roster because that’s what good teams do.
But who should the Oilers target from Tampa and Boston in return for their Big Rig. I’ve got a few names in mind but it’ll all depend on how desperate Don Sweeney and Steve Yzerman are to get the power forward out of Edmonton. Personally, I don’t think they need to do a helluva lot to their rosters as they stand right now but Maroon has shown in the past that in a new environment, he performs well.
I imagine that TB and BOS won’t want to part with what I want them to in a deal for Pat Maroon. But here are the players that I’d like to see Chiarelli acquire in a deal for the Oilers big LWer.
Tampa Bay
Anthony Cirelli (C) – Leads Tampa’s AHL squad in scoring. Highly competitive+versatile.
Boris Katchouk (LW) – Pro shot sniper playing for OHL best Sault St. Marie.
Taylor Raddysh (RW) – Team Canada’s power forward scoring machine at the WJHCs.
Alex Lipanov (C) – Played pivot on Andrei Svechnikov’s line in Barrie Now in Sudbury. Very skilled.
Brett Howden (C) – Good 2-way centre with an eye for the net. Plays in Moose Jaw.
I don’t lean towards any of those forwards more than another. I like all 5. If we’re going for skill alone, probably Lipanov. If you want scoring wingers then you go with Katchouk and Raddysh. The solid 2-way centres would be Cirelli and Howden. All five of these guys are 6-feet or over if size means something to you.
These kinds of players would really do wonders for the Oilers AHL team and I think at this point and with this kind of deal, it wouldn’t hurt to keep adding to that cupboard. That said, the Oilers can grab all the talented forwards in the world but if they can’t develop them it means nothing. And one thing I do question is the coaching staff in Bakersfield and their methods in developing the forwards down there.
Boston
Danton Heinen (LW) – Probably not happening but he’d be my no.1 target.
Zach Senyshyn (RW) – Major scorer at JR level and is taking some time to learn the pro game in his rookie AHL season. Has speed and a shot though.
Jakob Forsbacka-Karlsson (C) – Projecting to be a shut-down centre in the NHL.
Alexander Khoklachev – (RW) – Was over a point-per-game player at the AHL level, is nearly the same in the KHL this season. He’s a player who produces where he goes.
With Boston, you know that Chiarelli and Gretzky are going to have the reports on each of these players.
Khoklachev is an interesting name here. I feel like he might’ve had a bit of the Linus Omark syndrome in Boston. Very talented player but has trouble seeing eye-to-eye with coaches. Some might say that he didn’t take advantage of his opportunities, I say that 9 pro games isn’t much time to take said advantage of.
Senyshyn is another name I’ve heard Bob Stauffer toss out there in the past. He’s bigger, around 6’3″ but he’s having a tough time finding his wheelhouse at the AHL level. There’s a lot of potential in him but you have to worry if he’s another Micheal Dal Colle.
In the end, even if the Oilers do trade Maroon and all they get back is a 3rd rounder, I think that’s fine too. We’d obviously want a good young JR/AHL prospect in return but there’s a certain level of reality that we have to face too.
On the other hand, Peter Chiarelli is quite good at making the small deal…
Thoughts?
Check out our new T-Shirt design below and please head over to our BLH YouTube page and SUBSCRIBE! We’re nearly at 700 subscribers and our goal is 1000 before the season is out!
Lordy lordy, what a return from the bye week it has been! The Oilers were on fire last night and had a great showing on Hockey Day in Canada! I’ll be honest, I was a bit worried that they’d come out of that week off with more rust than my first car! Luckily Connor was there to reassure me that the Oilers had shaken off that rust.
Jesse Puljujarvi folks! I think he was probably the last player I figured would dominate that game but boy was he a beast out there! I was on the Oilers Live Podcast after the game and we were talking about how the Oilers might fill the hole on McDavid’s left wing after they trade Pat Maroon (nice 2 goals by the way) and my thoughts were if that 2nd line of Lucic, Draisaitl, and Puljujarvi could dominate like that on a nightly basis, I’d have ZERO qualms with McLellan putting Nuge on Connor’s wing, as RNH seems to be a MUCH BETTER shooter than playmaker. I think the 3rd line is really starting to find itself and what I mean by that is Khaira and Strome are finding chemistry as I’ve been impressed with their performances recently.
Darnell Nurse on the PP was really a breath of fresh air. I’ve gotten a bit sick of seeing Klefbom and Benning out there, to be honest. The thing with Darnell is that I’m not sure we’ll find his maximum effectiveness coming from his shot. I think it’ll come from his skating and rushing. Sean from theoilknight.ca was also on the podcast with me had mentioned he’d watched a lot of Nurse in the OHL when Nurse played for Sault Ste. Marie and that the dman had one helluva one-timer. I think last night wasn’t enough for me to make a definitive judgement on Nurse as the PP QB but I like what I saw enough that I HAVE to see more!
Can we get some Slepyshev in the next game please? Mike Cammalleri had a shocking game vs. Vancouver last night. That 5-bell special he gifted Brock Boeser in the 1st period was mad! As if that’s the guy you want barreling down on Talbot. He had some other poor plays later in the game too. It simply wasn’t his night.
Please subscribe to our YouTube channel! We’re on the hunt for 1000 subscribers (currently at 639) and we could really use your help!
Let’s move on to the Paul Coffey hiring.
I don’t feel like this is a bad hire and I’m all for having more smart guys in the room whether they’re part of the old boys club or not. Look, I get that there’s a faction of the fanbase who get really pissed off when the Oilers hire someone from their glory days but there aren’t a lot of players in the history of the NHL that can speak to the kind of ups and downs that young players deal with like the OBC. If they can offer something that isn’t being offered within the team now, how is it going to hurt?
He doesn’t have the professional resume! Is what the naysayers will shout from their huts. And they’re not wrong either but it doesn’t matter. He’ll be with the team until they see fit to give him an ambassador tag. I mean MacTavish’s contract has run out but he’s still with the organization. What’s Messier doing these days? I just reckon these boys are on the year-to-year deals until someone says they’re not.
I do feel like the hire wasn’t Chiarelli’s doing though. It was Gretzky’s move and that says to me that there’s a disconnect between the brass up top and the GM. Which you can add to the disconnect between the GM and the coach and lastly, the special teams coaches and the players.
It tells me that perhaps Mr.Coffey is joining to find out what the hell the issue is and report back to Gretzky and Bob Nicholson.
You might be asking yourself why that is and I’m of the belief that the men above wanted Chiarelli to let one of the assistant coaches go and when Chiarelli took that request to McLellan, the head coach refused to sign off on it.
So in the end, loyalty, not a poor performance on the coaches’ or GM’s part, might see them out on their butts this summer. I mean we know that Chiarelli will stick with his head coach through thick and thin as he did with Claude Julien in Boston. And I’m not opposed to that. This organization has been through WAY too much turnover in the last 10 years, right?
If you look at Winnipeg and how their ownership has stuck with their GM and coach through all of these lean years, it’s paid off. As opposed to Buffalo for example, where they cleaned house AGAIN this past summer and it’s not paying off for them at all. What do you do?
Hire Paul Coffey in a skills coach role, right?
How different is this title to that of say, Ryan Smyth’s?
We’re being told that Coffey will help the young dmen throughout the Oilers organization, be that players that are in junior still, the AHL, or the NHL.
Lowetide is going to have something up later on detailing Coffey’s addition over at the Athletic.
If you haven’t subscribed to the Athletic yet, you should! It includes a free 7-day trial so you can try The Athletic on for size free and see if they enjoy the in-depth, ad-free coverage on the site. If you don’t feel it’s worth the $4.49/month, cancel anytime during trial before getting charged. Go here and I’ll get a little kickback for referring you in the form of a handy $10 Amazon gift card 🙂
If it were me, I’d have axed those asst. coaches long ago, contacted Darryl Sutter and Dan Bylsma to see if they’d be interested in forming a sort of MEGA-Coaching personnel for the rest of the year and re-evaluated this summer.
I have heard Dean Lombardi’s name out there in connection to the Oilers too though… So we’ll see.
THE RUMOR
First off, I’ll tell you that I get all sorts of messages in my DMs from people claiming to be on the inside. Some are outright ridiculous and some are thought-provoking but I wanted to share this one with you to let you pick it apart.
Apparently, Vegas wants Erik Karlsson and Karlsson wants Vegas but Ottawa wants a player out of Edmonton that the Oilers won’t include in a deal to get Hoffman and the Sens don’t want to take a whole lot of money back in ANY deal. So Vegas is offering William Karlsson (yeah, the 20 goal guy) and Nate Schmidt to Edmonton for “that player” so they can package him with some other assets to acquire Karlsson from Ottawa.
Where it falls apart for me is Vegas dealing its no.1 centre and a LH’d dman to Edmonton… Regardless if Karlsson is a UFA, he’s the teams best pivot and why in the hell would Edmonton want another leftie on D?
You gotta wonder sometimes…
What do you think? Leave your comments below!
Click the image and head over to our Teepublic shop to grab some sweet BLH merch.
