Edmonton Oilers Talk: “I love the guy. He’s so much fun to have on the ice.”

This is your TL/DR (too long, didn’t read) summary post where excerpts are taken from the best of the best when it comes to Edmonton Oilers blogs. BLH gives you his two cents on the latest posts being published in the Oilogosphere! Including those from Lowetide.ca, The Athletic, Oilersnation, The Cult of Hockey, Copper N Blue, Oil on Whyte, and more!

The latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation comes from all of the internet’s top sites like Spector’s Hockey, The Fourth Period, NHL Trade Talk, The Hockey Writers, Sportsnet, and TSN just to name a few!

If you’re short on time but want to keep up with the day’s Oilers news, you’ve come to the right place!

Give us a follow on the socials!

Oilersnation (Brownlee)

Off the Top of My Head

A lot of Oilers’ fans with raised expectations are awaiting the answer as Puljujarvi, still only 23, tries to build on a season in which he tallied 15-10-25 in 55 games and looked better and more engaged many nights than those numbers indicate.
Count me among the many who had doubts about Puljujarvi when he went home after three seasons. I understood the questions about how and with whom Puljujarvi was used in his first go-around, but when a player chooses to go home instead of staying with the team that drafted him into the best league in the world, you sometimes lose them for good.
Instead, Puljujarvi matured and grew his game. When he returned to the Oilers, he was 22, not the teenager who was pressed into playing before he was ready… there’s no doubt he’s an NHL player.

“I love the guy. He’s so much fun to have on the ice. He’s smiling all the time. You do a drill and he’s competing like crazy.” – Dave Tippett, Oilers Head Coach

Where does Cooper Marody fit with the Oilers? Does he fit?

BLH’s Thoughts: There’s a swell growing amongst the Edmonton Oilers media that has Marody playing elsewhere in 2021-22 written all over it, isn’t there?

The Oilers found a coach who was willing to stick with Jesse and to no surprise of my own, Pulju has repaid that faith.

JP is more mature mentally and physically now, but re-building his confidence at the NHL level and reintroducing him in a locker room that might’ve been apprehensive to his return, deserves some praise directed at Tippett, Holland and the club’s leadership core.

Now that Puljujarvi is comfortable and a year stronger, wiser, faster, quicker, more experienced, etc. AND that he’s in a contract year, we may very well see him take a Nursian leap in his development in 2021-22.

The Athletic (Mitchell)

Lowetide: Dylan Holloway headlines new arrivals for Bakersfield Condors in 2021-22

Dylan Holloway is a perfect fit for the big club, with size (6-foot-1, 203 pounds), speed and a rambunctious presence at centre or left wing.
His sophomore numbers at Wisconsin (Big Ten) were 11-24-35 in 23 games, making his closest college comparable Reilly Smith of the Vegas Golden Knights.
Under Rob Vollman’s NHL equivalencies, fans could expect Holloway to post substantially more than a point per game this coming season in the AHL.
The only big question with regard to Holloway is where he’ll play…
Philip Broberg is another anticipated arrival, although many Oilers fans view him as being more suspect than prospect after an uneven performance in 2020-21.
Broberg’s career so far has been similar to that of Oscar Klefbom, another Swedish defenceman drafted by Edmonton almost a decade before him.
The Oilers are thinking AHL for the big defender in 2021-22, and it’s also possible Broberg blows the doors off other hopefuls as he did in the bubble training camp at Rogers Place in the summer of 2020.
Broberg might be one of those players who are better on the smaller North American ice surface than the spacious European rinks.
Ilya Konovalov has an impressive resume, compiled in the world’s second-best hockey league (KHL).
Konovalov has the talent, but he’ll have to win the position from a fairly large group of candidates.
HockeyProspecting.com considers him one of the best players in the Oilers system and charts him as a possible difference-maker at the highest level…

BLH’s Thoughts: If Jay Woodcroft wants to ease Dylan Holloway into professional hockey, he’ll start him on the wing. If the club see him as a center in the NHL, then Woody will have him slotted at center from the get-go and then the education starts immediately.

Personally, I think Holloway starts at center. He has the size, speed, and skill as it is and the Condors are already stocked on the wing with blue chippers and AHL veterans to help ease the transition.

On the other hand, Broberg may very well beat out Kris Russell and William Lagesson for a spot on Edmonton’s roster. Last season he was fraught with injuries that started at the World Juniors and didn’t really get better as his season with Skelleftea wore on. A healthy Broberg will show us a very different picture and with the coaching staff and management being so high on this young man, don’t count on him being in Bakersfield very long if he acclimates well to the competition.

I’ve got nothing on Konovalov. I’ve not seen him play, just read a lot of reports on him. So I’ll reserve my comments on him until training camp.

Sport Illustrated (Chen)

Previewing the 2022 NHL UFA Class: Under-30 Forwards Edition

Johnny Gaudreau, Calgary Flames – $6.75 million AAV: If the Flames don’t pay Gaudreau, someone else will, and if doesn’t figure into the team’s long-term plans, he’s arguably their best trade chip. It’s no secret Gaudreau grew up idolizing the Flyers, another team that’s also going through a roster overhaul.
Filip Forsberg, Nashville Predators – $6 million AAV: … if the Preds stumble out of the gates and once again face an uphill climb to make the playoffs, there’s always a possibility Forsberg is traded for the right price.
Aleksander Barkov, Florida Panthers – $5.9 million AAV: It would be a colossal, franchise-altering decision if Barkov were to hit free agency, who would become the ultimate prize, just like how John Tavares ruled the summer of 2018.
Tomas Hertl, San Jose Sharks – $5.625 million AAV: There’s a valid argument to re-sign Hertl and build around him, but he’s also got a lot of trade value and he could bring in a massive haul of futures for a team that lacks multiple first-round picks and elite prospects beyond William Eklund…
Sean Couturier, Philadelphia Flyers – $4.33 million AAV: There is zero chance the Flyers even let Couturier get close to free agency.
Mika Zibanejad, New York Rangers – $5.35 million AAV and Ryan Strome, New York Rangers – $4.5 million AAV: Zibanejad and Strome’s futures are both tied to one player: Jack Eichel. There’s no room for all three of them if the Rangers manage to pull off that trade…Right now, the Rangers seem committed going into the season with Zibanejad and Strome as their top two centers, but given the franchise’s sea change this offseason, their futures with the Rangers seem very unsure.

HM: Max Domi (CBJ), Nino Niederreiter/Vincent Trochek (CAR), Rickard Rakell (ANA), Andre Burakovsky/Valeri Nichushkin (COL), and Calle Jarnkrok (SEA).

Edmonton Oilers Talk: “I love the guy. He’s so much fun to have on the ice.” – Dave Tippett