July 2, 2019 /

Edmonton Oilers: 2019 Free Agency Day 1 Review + Bob Stauffer’s Jesse Puljujarvi Trade Scenarios

Did you get the feeling that after the Oilers hired Ken Holland to be their new GM that he’d be making big moves right away? Were there any indications that he might try to build up the roster bit by bit instead of blowing it up? Was there anything that he said that lead you to believe that major changes were coming?

I didn’t think so. So why is it that so many people were disappointed yesterday? Holland did do what he said he was going to and that’s to add speed and depth to the bottom-6. So wouldn’t we want to give him some credit there? I’d say it’s looking pretty deep so far. Lots of competition and that’s what we want, right? We don’t want to be gifting AHLers jobs right at the onset of training camp anymore and Holland is doing a pretty decent job of preventing that.

Am I disappointed the Oilers couldn’t get their hands on Gus Nyquist? Sure. But I never really expected him to sign in Edmonton, so I’m pretty meh on it. Besides, there are lots of good free agents still out there and the longer they go without getting a contract, the less they’re more likely to sign for and that would be perfect for Edmonton. Look at this list,

  • Pat Maroon (More on him at the end)
  • Ryan Dzingel
  • Michael Ferland
  • Tomas Vanek
  • Marcus Johansson
  • Jason Pominville
  • Patrik Marleau
  • Joe Thornton
  • Justin Williams
  • Jake Gardiner
  • Derrick Brassard
  • Pontus Aberg
  • Nick Cousins
  • Niklas Kronwall
  • Ben Hutton

Tons of useful players still out there. So don’t fret that Edmonton didn’t make some blockbuster signing on day one of free agency and actually be happy they signed the players they did to short-term cheap deals because it sounds like push will be for the 2020 off-season to make some big moves. You should see the list of players that could be unrestricted…

  • Taylor Hall
  • Torey Krug
  • Tyson Barrie
  • Tyler Toffoli
  • Chris Kreider
  • Justin Faulk
  • Sami Vatanen
  • Robin Lehner
  • Brayden Schenn
  • Cody Eakin
  • Charlie Coyle
  • Jaro Halak
  • JG Pageau

Wow! If they make it there, next summer will be HUGE and you’ll really want the Oilers to have a lot of cap-room then.

But let’s talk about the players that Edmonton did sign.

THE NEW GUYS

Mike Smith is a player I did not like at all before yesterday but I’m going to love the shit out of him as an Oiler. “He’s the best puckhandling goalie the Oilers have ever had!” is how one source of mine described him. This is a player who is on the verge of retirement I reckon but he still has some magic left in him. He’ll be a great help to the Oilers locker room and even though he’s coming off his worst season ever, I will overlook that because we don’t judge on one season, right? He has a long stat sheet that’s full of above average numbers that I would prefer to take into consideration when judging the former NHL All-Star and Gold Medal-winning Olympian. For $2M, I’ll take him.

Markus Granlund was described to me by another source out of Vancouver as “someone who plays centre and wing – kills penalties – works hard. Good versatility.” Ken Holland praised him for how professional he is. Now, I’ll be frank here, he’s never stood out to me when the Oilers have played Granlund’s teams in Vancouver or Calgary but if the plan is to improve the PK, then this is a good add. I don’t need anything flashy out of him, but what I do want is a smart player here and someone who is an upgrade on Tobias Rieder.

The Finn averaged 2:22 on the kill for Vancouver last year, so he was a trusted member of the penalty killing crew and he also scored 19 goals spending most of his TOI with Brandon Sutter and Loui Eriksson a couple of seasons back. $1.3M per is a bit high for me, but what are we talking about here? A 3rd liner for under $1.5M is pretty decent in reality, especially if he scores in double digits.

Tomas Jurco used to be a pretty well thought of prospect in the Red Wings system when they had Martin Frk coming and Tomas Tatar. I guess things never really panned out for him as they moved him on to Chicago for a 3rd round pick in the 2017 draft that turned into another well-regarded prospect, Keith Petruzzelli.

Jurco, to me, is another Ty Rattie or Valentin Zykov. The tools are there but something is missing. He’s depth scoring but I’m not sure if he’ll even make it up past the 3rd line in Edmonton. He had a good playoff for Carolina’s farm team in Charlotte mind you, 18pts in 18 games. He’s there to provide competition and as I said above, to make sure the Oilers aren’t rushing teenagers and first-year pros onto an NHL roster.  He could turn out to be this year’s Alex Chiasson if all the stars aligned. 700k? sounds good to me whether he’s getting that in Edmonton or Bakersfield.

Gaetan Haas and Joakim Nygard I have no expectations for. They’ll be who they’ll be but we won’t know that until we see them at training camp and into the exhibition games. One thing I’ve heard folks complaining about online is how he wasn’t even the best player on his team let alone the league he played in and to that I say, it’s not always about the stats… Sometimes the skill set and fit for the team is more important. Also, look at where Melker Karlsson sat on his team’s scoring the year before San Jose brought him over. Edmonton just needs some players who will work their asses off, play smart, and maybe contribute on the scoreboard from time to time. You never know with these guys, right? I mean, we’re not talking about 21-year-old kids coming over. Both Haas and Nygard are closer to thirty than twenty-one years old.

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

THE RE-SIGNINGS

Alex Chiasson is a player I’m glad the Oilers could re-sign. I like the term ($2.15M) and the length of the deal (two years). He’s kind of like an introverted Pat Maroon. He works his butt off, he sticks up for his teammates, he gets to the mucky areas, he stands in front of the goalie and actually screens him, plus he’s sneaky good at finding the open space for a scoring chance. He is streaky though, so fans have to come to grips with that, but he scored over 20 goals last season and Edmonton really needs as many 20 goal scorers as they can get.

Jujhar Khaira, I still don’t know what to figure about him. I reckon at $1.2M over the next two campaigns, he’ll be worth his pay. My friend Jeremy says JJ is working VERY hard this off-season to prove to the Oilers that he’s ready to take the next step and solidify his spot on the team. Now, be that as a left-winger or a centreman, that remains to be seen, but there are a couple of things I really enjoy about JJ’s game,

  • He’s tough as nails and already has a reputation league-wide as someone not to mess with. Cross-checking that one dman in the neck last season probably helped that a bit too.
  • He’s so powerful when he gets the puck. I really like watching him exit the D-zone with the puck.
  • He’s got pretty good hands for a man his size.
What’s interesting about these re-signings is that they’re completely moveable in the event that the Oilers are out of the playoff race again next season, they can move Chiasson and/or Khaira to a team that wants to “beef up” for their club for the playoffs.As we move deeper into the off-season, I think it would benefit Edmonton to bide their time and let the other teams blow up their cap-space. By the time training camp is ending, there’ll be some players who hit the waiver wire that might be of interest to the Oilers and it behooves them to have cap space available just in case a trade needs to be made or a player claimed.

Are the Oilers a better team today than they were yesterday? I’d say yes because they added some much-needed depth to their team and they didn’t sacrifice much to do it. Could they get better before game one of the 2019/20 season? Absolutely. I expect them to.

The fact remains though, the Oilers still need a player on their roster who can play in the top-6. I was told that they’re working on two deals, one that could bring in a forward and a defenseman and one that would bring in two forwards. So we’ll have to wait and see if that pans out and who it’ll entail.

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

JESSE PULJUJARVI/MILAN LUCIC

Bob Stauffer had quite a bit to say on the topic of Looch and Pulju during his free agency coverage.

“I can see Milan Lucic being moved in the next three weeks.”

The time frame here is important because Milan hasn’t had his bonus paid out to him yet, that’ll happen in the next three weeks… So we’ll have to wait on this one for a bit.

Stauffer also wondered what might shake out of NY with the Panarin signing… Brought up Kreider and wondered about Puljujarvi possibly bringing in a $3M-$4M player to play in the top-6.

I think Kreider would be a fine addition but he only has one year left on his contract and surely he’ll be looking for mega-bucks next summer. You’d have to think that the Rangers wouldn’t just take Puljujarvi straight across for Kreider, right?

“Could you get Rust out of PIT, could you get Heinen out of BOS?”

I believe PIT already turned down the Rust for Pulju offer but it could be revisited at some point. As for Heinen, his point totals went down this season for Boston by 13 points and he only managed 8pts in the playoffs. I don’t think that’s the kind of return that would “help” the Oilers. Rust’s point totals weren’t much better but he scored 18 goals. Also, he’s a bit more rounded out and experienced than Heinen.

For the second show in a row, a Puljujarvi for Erik Haula trade hypothetical was proposed by Stauffer. His reasoning was that if Carolina matches the Sebastien Aho offer-sheet, that might put them a couple million over their self-imposed salary cap and since Haula makes $2.75M, why not swap Haula’s contract for Puljujarvi’s? If Jesse were to just accept the qualifying offer, it’d be under half of what Haula makes and that might make it more palpable for Tom Dundon.

I still think that Pulju is going to an East coast team and I threw out five teams that might have or have had an interest in Puljujarvi (BOS, NYR, NYI, NJ, TB). Are there any top-6/9 forwards on those teams that could shake out or some good prospects?

  • BOS – Maybe I’d look at Jakub Lauko or Jack Studnicka if I were to go after prospects. If I wanted roster players, I’d ask around Charlie Coyle or Torey Krug and expand the trade a bit. Boston has some major players that need resigning, most notably Charlie MacAvoy and Brandon Carlo.
  • NYR – I know the Oilers were looking at Jesper Fast and Vlad Namestnikov in the past, would they still hold interest for Holland? Pavel Buchnevich is another name that I’m not too sure about in New York. He’s 24, an RFA, and has put up two really productive seasons in a row. My feeling is that he’d be a coveted player for New York but I’m just not sure they’re convinced he’s part of their future. That said, it’d take more than Puljujarvi to pry him out of the Big Apple. Maybe we have a friend in NYC that could help facilitate things?
  • NYI – The Islanders have a few youngsters who are taking their time developing. Michael Dal Colle, Josh Ho-Sang, Keifer Bellows, and Oliver Wahlstrom all have yet to realize their potential for the Big Lou’s team. Ho-Sang is probably the readiest but he’s got some attitude problems. As for the other three, they were great scorers before they turned pro… Could the Oilers help them to bring it out at the NHL Level? They wouldn’t be hurt the cap much.
  • NJ – I like Pavel Zacha here. He’s another player who is having a difficult time finding traction in the NHL but I like his size and his skill set. We know he’s good for 25pts because in his three seasons in NJ he’s never scored less than 24 and no more than 25. The former 6th overall pick in the McDavid draft hasn’t played more than 70 games either though… So there’s that to consider.
  • TB – Julien Brisbois needs to move some salary and pick up nothing in return so that they can re-sign Brayden Point. So I think the Oilers should target Tyler Johnson and his $5M contract. If they did get him, they’d have their own cap problems to deal with but at least the top-6 would have proper depth and time to relieve that pressure.

But there’s a new option as well. If Carolina lets Aho walk to MTL, could that be a destination for Puljujarvi? He could get back together with Aho and between those two and Kotkaniemi be quite the handful… Perhaps Charles Hudon, Joel Armia, or Artturi Lehkonen would be part of the ask.

Grab this sweet Nintendo Yamamoto parody shirt! Click the image above!

OTHER NOTES

  • As I reported before Mark Spector (hehe), the Oilers do have interest in Pat Maroon BUT he might be looking for term that Edmonton might not be able to give him. That said, in the event that the Oilers do sign him, they could reunite the Maroon/McDavid/Draisaitl line and bump Kassian down. It would mark the end of the Milan Lucic era.
  • If Carolina matches Aho’s offer sheet, it wouldn’t surprise me if Carolina and Edmonton got together NEXT summer to make a deal that would include Ryan Nugent-Hopkins going to the Hurricanes and Aho to Edmonton. This was suggested on Oilers Now and endorsed by Bob Stauffer.

CategoriesArmchair GM Beer League Hero Edmonton Oilers NHL Rumors Trades

Tags2019 Free Agent Frenzy Alex Chiasson Bob Stauffer Edmonton Oilers Gaetan Haas Jesse Puljujarvi Jujhar Khaira Markus Granlund Mike Smith NHL Tomas Jurco

Beer League Hero Written by:

I'm the Beer League Hero! I am from Camrose, Alberta but I make my home in Taipei City, Taiwan. I've been through the ups and downs and the highs and the Lowes, the Bonsignores and the McDavids, the Sathers and the Eakins but I'll never leave my Oilers, no matter what! They're with me until the end and then some. GO OILERS GO!