Edmonton Oilers Rumors: “They have to do everything now to get another goalie.” Says Long-Time NHL Exec

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!

From Oilersnation

Other D-men Who Could be Available Via Trade

I’ve heard some rumblings that Ryan McDonagh might be left unprotected.
- In his 11 NHL seasons McDonagh has never had GF% below 52%. He only had one season where his xGF% was below 50%. He has been a very good defender for a long time.
- Tampa Bay needs to shed salary, and from a pure cap scenario, they’d rather lose McDonagh than (Cal) Foote to Seattle.
The Hurricanes are in a tough spot. Dougie Hamilton has yet to re-sign and if he doesn’t they will lose one of their top defenders. Would they risk exposing Brady Skjei or Jake Bean and losing two of their top-six defenders from last season?
- Would Don Waddell prefer to protect 7-3-1 and then trade one of Skjei or Bean and at least get a player or draft pick in return rather than lose a good player for nothing? Waddell is in a different position than Lighting GM Julien Brisebois who has to clear salary. Waddell could take a solid player back in return rather than lose one for nothing.
We heard rumblings about Brent Burns being available for the past few months. Burns is 36 and has four years left with an $8m AAV.
If St. Louis opts to protect seven forwards, then they expose Vince Dunn and Marco Scandella
Minnesota likely has to expose one or both of Matt Dumba and Carson Soucy. Soucy at $2.75m for two seasons isn’t expensive, although his possession numbers weren’t great this season, but were better in 2020.
Will Colorado protect five D-men? They have Cale Makar, Erik Johnson, Devon Toews, Samuel Girard, and Ryan Graves available. They could protect them along with Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Nazem Kadri. It would leave captain and UFA Gabriel Landeskog available, but is he going to sign in Seattle instead of staying in Colorado when they are a legit Cup contender?

BLH’s Thoughts: Gregor is right, there are other defensemen that the Oilers could target for trade instead of Duncan Keith, but aside from maybe Brent Burns, Erik Johnson and Ryan McDonagh (Two American-born players), I’m not sure if the team would be getting the off-ice intangibles they’re looking for with those other candidates. In addition to that, dealing with Doug Wilson in order to get Burns would probably be more painful that simply bringing in Keith.

I reckon Edmonton could ask Chicago to move Keith to Detroit and give them Caleb Jones for their troubles, then move one of their prospects (Samorukov possibly) to Detroit for the defenseman at a reduced salary.

From the Edmonton Sun

OILER NOTES: Skinner may be the goalie protected in expansion draft

With unrestricted free agent Mike Smith unsigned and Mikko Koskinen too expensive as a partner in the tag-team, the one expansion protected spot for an Oilers goalie likely falls to the farmhand Skinner

At present, Skinner, who has 123 minor-league games and just the one NHL look, seems on the same organizational trajectory as current Winnipeg Jets back-up Laurent Brossoit — another year away from being an NHLer, starting as a back-up as Brossoit did to Cam Talbot.
Seattle’s probably not taking him, but the Oilers want to get younger with Smith at 39. Somebody in their mid-20s to bridge the gap between Smith and Skinner— either by trade (Joonas Korpisalo, Darcy Kuemper?) or by free-agency (Linus Ullmark or Chris Driedger with his small NHL sample).
The odds of Koskinen being on the Oilers roster for 2021-22 are only slightly better than William Lagesson scoring a goal.
The first window for NHL buyouts starts 24 hours after the last Stanley Cup finals game. Winger James Neal is a far more likely first candidate. Koskinen’s buyout would be $1.5 million, spread over two years here. So $750,000 for the ’21-22 season, and the same for ’22-23.
They could try and trade him to Chicago in a Duncan Keith deal along with Caleb Jones and eat part of the goalie’s $4.5 million. But there is not a large market for a goalie who had a .899 save percentage and 3.17 goals-against average last season…

“I think the Oilers have to do something with Koskinen right now,” said a long-time NHL executive, who has a feel for the goalie spectrum. “Smith might just play the one more season because of his age, and with Koskinen unrestricted after this year, the Oilers would then end up with no goalies.That should scare them. They have to do everything now to get another goalie.”

“What’s Arizona going to do with Kuemper, somebody teams would want if he can stay healthy? (Free-agent) Ullmark in Buffalo is a legitimate starter, again if he can stay healthy. Driedger may be a risk (free-agent signing) because there’s no body of work (41 NHL games). I suspect Columbus would like to move Korpisalo, not (Elvis) Merzlikins. But for me, Korpisalo is a splitter. I don’t like goalies where you can pull pucks off their pads, outwork them at the net. You might be able to do that with him.”

Wildcard? Tristan Jarry in Pittsburgh. Right age (26). He has two years left at $3.5 million. If the Penguins, with their window for winning closing very rapidly, did make a play to bring back Marc-Andre Fleury from Vegas,then the ex-Edmonton Oil Kings starter would be expendable.

BLH’s Thoughts: If it was me, I’d have a hard time taking a chance on a goalie who has a history of health problems because it’s not like things get easier with age.

I really wonder what kind of state Elvis Merzlikins’ head is going to be in next season with the death of his roommate Matiss Kivlenieks just this past weekend. He could be more motivated then ever or things could go the other way too. In Edmonton, we unfortunately saw how the death of a loved one can impact a player’s performance when Adam Larsson’s father passed…

Now, is gambling on a goaltender with less than 50 starts a good way to go?

At least with Tristan Jarry, you know what you’ve got… The risk is somewhat mitigated and you’ve got a guy coming in who’s familiar with the environment.