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Edmonton Oilers Talk: I Love This Trade Proposal!

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 The Daily Goal Horn

Kirill Kaprizov Leaving for Russia?

There is some trouble brewing in Minnesota as Wild rookie superstar, Kirill Kaprizov is talking with a KHL team to stay in Russia. NHL Network analyst Kevin Weekes broke the story this week. He states Kaprizov is in Russia and negotiating with CSKA for a return that would also include the Olympics.

  • The Wild want to sign the soon-to-be rookie of the year to a seven- or eight-year contract that would assuredly make him the highest-paid player in franchise history. It would also buy out four or five years of Kaprizov’s unrestricted free agency rights. Kaprizov’s camp, on the other hand, is looking for not just shorter term, but it sure sounds like they’re looking for a two- or three-year bridge deal. – The Athletic

It is odd that a player would look to make less in both money and term. So why is Kaprizov only looking for a bridge deal? Does he have he have his sights on free agency so he can pick exactly where he wants to play out his NHL career at 27 or 28 years of age?

BLH’s Thoughts: This guy is going to be a superstar but if these are the kinds of games he wants to play, I don’t think he’ll endear himself to the management and ownership in Minnesota after the patience they showed in getting him to the NHL. 

My question is, if things get really testy, would GM Bill Guerin contemplate trading Kaprizov for a first line center? Maybe somebody like Jack Eichel?

From The Athletic

Lowetide: The 7 Oilers Roster Spots GM Ken Holland Must Improve This Offseason

Holland has seven areas he must address this summer, each of them an important element in building a contender. Those priorities are:

  • A No. 1 left winger for the Connor McDavid line
  • A No. 2 left winger for the Leon Draisaitl line
  • A No. 3 centre who can outscore opponents five-on-five, mentor young players and penalty kill
  • A No. 3 right winger for the remade third line
  • A starting goaltender
  • A right-handed defenceman for the first or second pair
  • A left-handed defenceman if Oscar Klefbom doesn’t return

Lowetide’s Mock Roster

LT’s mock roster for the start of next season has the team putting Oscar Klefbom and James Neal on LTIR, Kyle Turris in Bakersfield, and both Tyler Benson and Dylan Holloway on it. Kailer Yamamoto has been re-signed, but they’ve lost Dominik Kahun to Seattle leaving five open spots and $29M to sort everything out. 

These are his changes,

  • A No. 1 left winger for the Connor McDavid line (Blake Coleman is skilled, affordable and versatile)
  • A No. 2 left winger for the Leon Draisaitl line (Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is the favourite, but is he the one?)
  • A No. 3 centre who can outscore opponents five-on-five, mentor young players and penalty kill (Barclay Goodrow is gaining momentum among fans)
  • A No. 3 right winger for the remade third line (a trade for a speedster is in order)
  • A starting goaltender (Holland has suggested Mike Smith is the target)
  • A right-handed defenceman for the first or second pair (Oilers are in negotiations with Adam Larsson based on reports)
  • A left-handed defenceman if Oscar Klefbom doesn’t return (Alex Goligoski is a candidate who never gets mentioned)

A trade with the New York Rangers sends away a solid future from an area of depth to improve the third-line right wing. I have Zack Kassian and Dmitri Samorukov headed to Manhattan for young centre/winger Filip Chytil and a draft pick. He’s a solid talent who can play middle or wing and perhaps put pressure on the other youngsters ahead of him on the depth chart.

BLH’s Thoughts: My first impression of this team is that they’re going to have some tough nights against the more physical teams in the league. Opposing coaches will target Ethan Bear and Caleb Jones with hard forechecks and they’ll send their “checking” lines out against the Draisaitl line because they know Hall, Yamamoto, and Leon can be checked out of games. 

The talk is that Blake Coleman wants to sign closer to home and seeing as he’s from Texas, Edmonton is about as far away as he can get while still playing in the NHL. So, with all due respect, I disagree with LT here. That’s not to say the Oilers won’t get a LW from Tampa to play alongside Connor McDavid though…

Unless Holland is sending a sweetener to Seattle, I don’t think Kahun is the player they’d be selecting from Edmonton. I’d guess the odds are firmly stacked in Caleb Jones’ corner as the player who the Kraken might take from the Oilers. 

Now, what I do love about this mock roster is how much skill is distributed throughout the team. Every line has one or two or three players that can make a play and score a goal and Lowetide leaves a bit of change left over to accommodate for internal transactions.

I do not mind the trade that LT suggests. The Rangers want some crazy in their lineup and they’d be getting it in spades with the additions of Kass and Dima. Chytil would look fantastic on a line with Holloway and McLeod too.

Grabbing Barclay Goodrow is never a bad idea in my opinion and Taylor Hall would give that second line the double threat but in reality it’d be a triple threat because we know Killer can score and in this scenario having Hall and Leon on the ice at the same time would force the other team to focus mainly on those two thus allowing Yamo to sneak into the soft ice for the easy goals. 

If I had to change some things with Lowetide’s projection, I’d bail on Holloway at 3LW and as I already said, I think Coleman is signing in the states and Jones is somewhere else.

Let’s say we’ve got around $5.5M to play with then, here’s what I’d do:

  • Sign Sean Kuraly for the third line ($1M)
  • Sign Ian Cole for the third pair ($2.5M)
  • Sign Corey Perry for the fourth line ($1.5M)
  • Instead of having Chytil on the third line, I’d move him to the top-six and Archibald onto a line with Goodrow and Kuraly.

*Chytil-McDavid-Puljujarvi
*Hall-Draisaitl-Yamamoto
*Kuraly-*Goodrow-Archibald
Benson-McLeod-*Perry

Nurse/Bear
*Goligoski/Larsson
*Cole/Bouchard

Smith
Koskinen

You can probably see that I prefer some more battle tested soldiers for my bottom-six and third pairing. I’d also add that players like Ian Cole and Corey Perry would bring insane mentorship values to such a young roster. I don’t want a team that is easy to push around in the regular season OR the playoffs.

Some downsides to my roster is that the top-six is now pure skill as opposed to LT’s which had a bit of bite with Coleman. In addition to that, my third line doesn’t have a lot of scoring on it but my justification for that is that I’m not worried about regular season scoring, I’m more concerned with being able to survive in the playoffs. I want forwards on my bottom six who’ll run through a wall to get a goal which is how a ton of goals are scored in the post-season. I also feel like I’ve got backup in Bakersfield should I need to add more scoring to the roster. 

What do you think? Do you prefer my roster or Lowetide’s? Let us know in the comments! 

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