Today’s news and speculation from the NHL includes notes the potentially botched Pens/Panthers trade, David Backes, Alexander Wennberg, the playing future of Dustin Byfuglien, and much more!
Simpson and Hughson are boring me to death during these hockey games. Anybody else? pic.twitter.com/AlL7KtjtHe
— B.L.H. (Edmonton Oilers Enthusiast) (@BeerLeagueHeroe) September 24, 2020
The News and Rumors
- Lisa Dillman (The Athletic): LA Kings GM Rob Blake says he doesn’t anticipate the club using a buyout in the upcoming window (Sept.25th to Oct. 8th).
- Josh Yohe (The Athletic): The Edmonton Oilers inquired for Matt Murray a few weeks ago, but said no when the Penguins were after a 1st round pick. Likely the return will be a 2nd round pick and a prospect.
BLH’s Thoughts: The Oilers did well not caving in to Pittsburgh’s demands for Murray. I suspect when everything is all said and done, we could be shocked at how low the price ends up.
- James Mirtle (The Athletic): It would be shocking if the Nashville Predators didn’t buy out the last year of Steven Santini’s $1.42M deal. They could save over $1.1M by buying him out.
- Kevin Woodley (In Goal Magazine): The Coyotes already have a 1st round pick on the table for Darcy Kuemper, but they want another pick or prospect along with it.
- The Athletic: A couple of league sources reached out to say both Cory Schneider (NJ) and Alexander Wennberg (CBJ) are possible names to be bought out this offseason.
BLH’s Thoughts: Wasn’t Santini the big prospect in the Subban trade?
The Coyotes are right to see if they can get more for Kuemper. He’s been one of the best goalies in the NHL for a couple of seasons now.
Wennberg has not been good since he signed that new contract with CBJ, but he’s still quite young and there’s lots of time for a bounce back. Schneider, on the other hand, should think about calling it a career. 34yrs old and is barely a .900 goalie in the AHL… I can’t see a lot of teams looking at his numbers as of recent and believing he’d be a good signing.
- Andy Strickland (The Athletic): Several teams have asked about free-agent d-man Dustin Byfuglien but it’s very doubtful that he returns to play in the 2020-21 NHL season.
- More Strickland: The Anaheim Ducks have told David Backes they intend to keep him and expect him to be a regular in the lineup in what could be his final season. Backes is 50 games shy of 1000 for his career and has been working with a skating coach twice a week in Minny.
- Sheng Peng (SJ Hockey NOW): SJ Sharks GM Doug Wilson intends to spend up to the cap ceiling this season.
- David Pagnotta (The Fourth Period): Contract talks between the Columbus Blue Jackets and pending RFA center Pierre-Luc Dubois are well underway.
- Rob Rossi (The Athletic): The did-it/will-it happen with reported Patric Hornqvist trade rivals — in terms of hearing conflicting info from sources — any story in my however many years covering Penguins. Makes for a potential messy aftermath. Not ideal for GMJR.
BLH’s Thoughts: So much for Mike Matheson’s contract being unmovable… Everyone thought Milan Lucic’s couldn’t be moved either… Maybe the myth of the untradable contract is just a bunch of bullshit after all. I mean, was Matheson’s deal really that bad? Bobrovsky’s is much worse, but watch Bill Zito find a way to move that one too…
As they say, where there’s a will, there’s a way.
The Oilers Speculation
There’s one trade that the Edmonton Oilers could make right now that could help the club in a massive way long-term. Here is that trade:
To the Ottawa Senators:
14th overall pick (2020)
To the Edmonton Oilers:
28th overall (2020)
33rd overall (2020)
60th overall (2020)
It’s true, the Oilers would miss out on some fantastic talent. Possibly a franchise netminder, a future no.2 center, and multiple top-6 wingers, but I’d argue that the depth of this club’s prospect pipeline isn’t deep at all. Personally, I don’t see a top-6 forward (aside for Puljujarvi) in their system nor do I see a top-pairing defenseman or a starting goalie being developed and that really needs to change.
I get it, it sounds contradictory to say that team doesn’t have all of those players and could if they kept that pick. My argument is that they should consider getting a few more kicks at the can in the draft if their guy isn’t there at 14.
If I had to guess, I would say Edmonton’s list of five for 14th overall looks like this:
- Yaroslav Askarov (G) – A franchise goalie who could be in the NHL within 3 years of being drafted.
- Seth Jarvis (RW) – A Brayden Point-type winger with lots of compete.
- Anton Lundell (C) – Models his game after Sasha Barkov, is closer to Mikko Koivu though.
- Dylan Holloway (C) – Major team player. Plays a sound all-round game. Future letter wearer.
- Jack Quinn (RW) – Scores goals from anywhere. Is gritty and gets in the muck. Good skater.
I would suspect possibly only Holloway being the one available once Edmonton’s pick comes up but there’s a chance Lundell or Quinn slip too.
Now, there’s an interactive element to this part of the post. I want you to go to this link and try out the FC Hockey Draft Simulator. You can make trades with the picks (bottom left corner once you’ve clicked through to the actual simulation portion), so try it out and let me know what you came up with.
Here are my results:
28th – Mavrik Bourque (C) – Very intelligent playmaker with a plethora of tricks in his bag.
33rd – Marat Khusnutdinov (C) – Impactful, all-around center. Plays w/o fear. Highly creative. Kuznetsov?
60th – Ridly Greig (LW) – Brad Marchand-lite? Skilled physical pest.
75th – Joel Blomqvist (G) – Good size, great athleticism, excellent puck tracking in traffic. Starting goalie potential.
137th – Ethan Edwards (LD) – Smooth skating two-way defender. Some comparisons to Neil Pionk.
168th – Samuel Johannesson (RD) – Mobile, safe, puck-moving rearguard.
199th – Yegor Chinakhov (RW) – Great wrist shot, high-end attacker, excellent skater. An overager.
You can never have enough good centers in your organization, can you?
Anyways, without that trade, the Oilers could have Lundell, Blomqvist, Edwards, Johannesson, and Chinakhov. But with it, they add two more highly-rated prospects in Greig and Khusnutdinov whilst replacing Lundell with Bourque. Not too shabby.
What do you think? Would you rather have the higher pick or the additional picks from a trade?
