Edmonton Oilers Rumors: Rishaug Says Oilers Not Interested in Rumored Korpisalo/Koskinen Trade “At This Time”.

Coming from an Edmonton Oilers point of view, BLH provides you with excerpts from 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!

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Cult of Hockey (David Staples)

Big Boys Bomb about to go off on Edmonton Oilers

• Since the 2013 draft, Edmonton has been stocking up on big d-men. A number of them are close to making an impact in the NHL.
• The Oilers have 10 large d-men in their prospect pipeline. If two or three of them pan out as Top 4 d-men, the Oilers will be set up for success in the second half of Connor McDavid’s eight-year contract.
• Oiler GMs Craig MacTavish started the work in 2013, drafting big Nurse, and in 2014, drafting thick Swede William Lagesson. GM Peter Chiarelli accelerated the Big Boys recruitment program, taking towering Ziyat Paigin in 2015, Filip Berglund and Markus Niemelanien in 2016, Dmitri Samorukov and Phil Kemp in 2017 and Evan Bouchard and Michael Kesselring in 2018.
• Current GM Ken Holland kept up the momentum in 2019, drafting Philip Broberg, then took Luca Munzenberger and Maxium Wanner this year.
• Bouchard, Samorukov and Broberg have the most obvious potential to play on Edmonton’s first or second pairings, with huge Niemelainen and Kesselring the best bets to stick on the bottom pairing.

BLH’s Thoughts: The big difference between this group of dmen and the ones that were often referred to as “Coke machines” in the past are that these guys can skate very well. They pass well, they think the game better, and their overall level of skill is much higher. 

Now, on a related note, one seed I want to plant in your mind right now is one that you might like. If you’re Bob Stauffer, you’re at half-mast just thinking about it. 

Colton Parayko. 

I’m curious if Edmonton takes a run at him at the trade deadline and uses a few of the dmen mentioned above to bring him in. Maybe someone like Phil Kemp and Dmitri Samorukov (if he’s not used to bring in a goalie) as well as a roster player. I mean, it wouldn’t really shock me if Cody Ceci was the guy off the club sent over in such a deal. I know he just signed for four years, but there’s no trade protection in the deal. 

Korpisalo for Koskinen and a high pick or prospect is not something the organization is considering at the moment. Have a great long weekend everyone!

— Ryan Rishaug (@TSNRyanRishaug) July 30, 2021

Woodblog

Duncan Keith Played Some 1st Pair but…

• A hobby horse of mine for years has been trying to figure out exactly how coaches are deploying defensemen so I dug into how CHI deployed Keith last year out of my own curiosity and thought it was interesting enough to share with a post.
• The first thing I look at is the Dmen’s 5v5 TOI/gm.  This result more than any  other will tell you how the coach viewed and used the player:

• My definition of “top pair” is the pair that played the most 5v5 and played the most vs Elite forwards, not which players had the most TOI/gm as that includes special teams.
• While time on special teams have value, they do not factor into figuring out if a player was a “first pairing Dman”.
• This was a strange year for tracking TOI% vs Elite forwards.  Due to the “division-only” schedule format the “usual” TOI% vs Elites that we see year after year was skewed in each division.
• In the Central and West division there were fewer Elite forwards so “1st pairing” Dmen often were around 25% of their TOI vs Elites, whereas in a normal year they would be ~35%.
• CHI was in the Central and there were less Elite TOI% to play against. 

• Keith’s results vs Elites Forwards were better than Zadorov’s with each of the RHD when they were in a Top 4 role.
• Even if those 3 Dmen aren’t great, its tough to get good results on a team that didn’t have its top 2 centers for most of the year.
• Murphy ended the season with almost 500 NHL games played and Zadorov ended with just over 400.  They were each other’s main partner and it makes sense that the coach would deploy them in *slightly* tougher minutes than Keith given that Keith had a lot of rookie time on this right side.
• Despite Keith leading CHI’s Dmen in TOI per game, he was not their “top pairing Dman”.
• Keith’s role won’t diminish on EDM compared to his role on CHI in my opinion.
• The job would have been a lot easier if Larsson was his partner, but now it looks like it will be Cody Ceci who was mostly 3rd pair in PIT last year.  Ceci did ok in a top 4 role in TOR the year before when with Rielly, so it might work, but we don’t know yet.

BLH’s Thoughts: It was a pain in the ass to try and find great excerpts from this blog, so I highly suggest you head over and take the 10 minutes and read it entirely so that nothing is lost.

• TL/DR: Mark Spector says Duncan Keith is a top-pairing defender using Keith’s overall TOI, Woodguy writes a very detailed blog explaining why he isn’t based on last year’s 5×5 data. 

Kudos to WG for going to all that effort to prove Mark Spector wrong… But, who the hell cares if Duncan Keith played “top-pair” minutes last year and why should WG’s definition of what a 1st pairing defender trump what an NHL coach or GM would consider one to be. 

Personally, I do not agree with WG’s definition of what a 1st pair defender is. I feel that if a defenseman is averaging near 24 minutes a night, he’s a top-pairing defender, regardless of how his time is split up. It’s obviously an indication of how much a coach trusts his defenseman when he’s willing to put said defender in such critical situations like a man advantage or a penalty kill.

Last year’s Norris Trophy winner played over 25 minutes a night at all strengths, but only a shade over 17 minutes at 5v5, does that mean he’s not a first pairing dman?

Look, no disrespect to WG, it’s interesting what he’s dug up but it’s trivial in my mind and honestly, unimportant unless the Oilers are planning on using him alongside Darnell Nurse. He’s only using one season’s worth of data and there’s a caveat for said data. To me, wouldn’t it make sense to derive your conclusion from information that doesn’t require caveats and clarifications?

What about instead of delving into whether or not Mark Spector’s quote was right or wrong, trying to project where Keith could thrive in Edmonton’s system under Dave Tippett? Why is there a need to look for failure?

Keith is going to play fewer minutes at all strengths in Edmonton, there’s no doubt in my mind about that, but WG and I do share a common concern and that’s his d-partner. I don’t mind Cody Ceci, but I am not confident that he’ll be a good sidekick for the 3x Stanley Cup winner.

The Daily Goal Horn

NHL Rumors: Rangers latest offer for Eichel

• According to Larry Brooks of the NY Post he’s hearing the Rangers original package has changed, partially due to the Sabres need of a starting goalie.
  • “There is a strong sense that Chytil would necessarily be included in a package going the other way in a hypothetical deal for Eichel, because the Sabres need a center in return and all that. But one individual with some knowledge of the proceedings told The Post on Thursday that the latest entreaty includes Vitali Kravtsov, Zac Jones, Alexandar Georgiev and a first-rounder, but not Chytil.”
• Last night they also went out and traded for enforcer Ryan Reaves to plant a seed in the head of Tom Wilson or anyone else that liberties against their stars will not be tolerated. That trade only added $1.75 million to their cap and they still have $14 million to play with.

Ritchie and Gabriel on the same line will be interesting. https://t.co/tg6MaL4X3k

— B.L.H. (Edmonton Oilers Enthusiast) (@BeerLeagueHeroe) July 31, 2021