Edmonton Oilers Talk: Perlini, Kassian, Line Combos, and the Latest NHL Rumors

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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Copper N Blue

SIGNED: Oilers Sign Forward Brendan Perlini

Perlini is a winger that can play on either side. His last NHL action was 2019-20 when he split time between Chicago and Detroit. He suited up for 35 games with the Red Wings, picking up four points (1-3-4) while playing a little less than eleven minutes a night. Most recently he was a member of the Switzerland club Ambri-Piotta, where he scored 17 points in 21 games.
Perlini’s deal is a two way contract, his cap hit is a tiny 750K when he’s on the big club, he will likely compete with Devin Shore for ice time.

BLH’s Thoughts: I think some are expecting Perlini to come in and compete for a spot out of camp but I don’t see it that way. I think he’s a signing for Bakersfield to give them some scoring depth on the wing since Tyler Benson will either be in Edmonton or on another team and in the event there there’s an injury, he’s the best option for a call-up.

Not to short change the guy, he’s only 25 and he’s 6’3″ and 210lbs and he looks like he can skate at an above average NHL rate. It’s hard not to like any of that, but he landed himself in Switzerland for a reason, right? Whatever that reason was, he’ll need to work that out with Jay Woodcroft in Bakersfield and I don’t think it’ll take long for him to make an impact at the AHL level with that speed and shot. That said, there’s a big jump from the “A” to the “Chel” and often a player’s role changes with the switch, can Perlini handle that?

The Athletic (Jonathan Willis)

A resurgent Zack Kassian could be an important part of the Oilers’ scoring

Kassian doesn’t shoot the puck much by NHL standards. He is a good finisher and a better playmaker than he generally gets credit for.
Kassian’s lines tend to outperform their expected numbers.
Kassian looks like a third-line five-on-five player. Sometimes he’s better than that and sometimes he’s worse, but what he gives up in possession he makes up for in scoring. If we ignore for a minute the chance that he’s gone off an age cliff, history suggests he can be a helpful NHL depth scorer.
The most successful Edmonton team of Kassian’s career was the 2017 club that went to the second round of the playoffs, and like a lot of Oilers players, Kassian had a good year. The weird thing is that he did it without the benefit of high-end linemates: mostly he played on the third line with Benoit Pouliot or the fourth line with Mark Letestu.
Edmonton invested in its forward depth this summer, in the form of Hyman, Warren Foegele and Derek Ryan.
- Vintage Kassian could be a pretty good complement to that line. He’s a selective shooter who finishes well, which makes him a nice match opposite Foegele, a volume shooter who doesn’t. Both bring size and speed, and Foegele is likely to be even better on puck retrievals than Pouliot. That Foegele and Ryan are both intelligent two-way types also make them a nice match for Kassian, who at his best gets a little bit of freedom to get in and hit.
If Kassian can score 1.5 points per hour while hitting everything that moves, he’ll be contributing to Oilers wins and the team will be more than happy to have him, even at $3.2 million.
..It’s easy to look at a player who had a down year and chalk it up to circumstances. However, Kassian is 30, and many a player has lost his game at that age — including Justin Abdelkader, to whom we have compared Kassian before.

BLH’s Thoughts: The way I’m reading the tea leaves is that Kassian is going to get a shot in the top-six. Be that with Hyman and McDavid or RNH and Draisaitl, I don’t know. With the fans being back in the stands (right?) and teams taking liberties with Edmonton’s stars, Kassian should be able to slide his foot right into that slipper one more time if not for his own good but also his trade value as the club will eventually need to move him.

Oilersnation (baggedmilk)

Random Thoughts: Nurse’s new contract, risky business, line combos, and more

Nurse being the second-highest-paid player on the team behind only Connor McDavid is a big ticket to cash, and it means that the pressure will be on Darnell to fill the big shoes he just stepped into.
I’ve got a feeling that this coming October is going to be about as important as any month we’ve ever seen around here. I mean, it’s not exactly uncommon for new guys to take a minute (read: month) to get used to their new team and we’ve got at least two of them in Keith and Ceci that won’t really be afforded the time to figure it out.
I have a hard time believing that this forward group won’t spend more time in the offensive zone than previous iterations.
- … if the bolstered forward group can do a better job of not just holding on for dear life when McDrai aren’t on the ice, then I think that will help to ease the stress on the blueline as well.
Bob Stauffer was talking line combos on Oilers Now and he mentioned that he could see Connor and Leon playing together 30-40% of the time…
- I’m also not sure that I’m as worried about it as some folks seem to be even if I’d absolutely prefer that they centre their own lines. Maybe it’s just that I’m bullish on having Hyman and Foegele as new forward options that it makes me want to what all kinds of different combinations look like.

BLH’s Thoughts: If you take a gander at Edmonton’s schedule in October, you’ll find that they only play SEVEN games in that month and that nearly doubles in November.

The Oilers will play Vancouver (2x), Calgary, Anaheim, Arizona, Vegas, Philadelphia, so if they could come away with 10pts out of an available 14, I would see that as a positive start to their year, wouldn’t you? Ideally, they need to come out of that month over .500 but November they’ll be facing a mishmash of competition too (SEA, NSH, NYR, DET, BOS, BUF, STL, WPGx2, CHI, DAL, ARI, LVG)…

I guess what I’m trying to say is that it doesn’t matter how the lines are made up, the first two months of the year are going to dictate how the rest of the season goes for this club. They’re not going to win every game but we need to be done with the days where the Edmonton Oilers play to their competition. It’s time to beat the teams that aren’t as good and to give the ones who are as good or better a helluva run for their money.

Spector’s Hockey

NHL Rumor Mill – August 7, 2021

SPORTSNET: Luke Fox took a more in-depth look at the top-10 UFA still on the market.

Palmieri, Cizikas and Zajac are believed to have handshake agreements with the New York Islanders but those agreements haven’t been officially announced yet. There’s also talk they’ve signed winger Zach Parise, who was bought out last month by the Minnesota Wild.

Chara is spending the offseason in his native Slovakia with his family. His agent said his client is working out hard and keeping all his options open. During his season-ending Zoom call, however, the big defenseman seemed uncertain about returning for a 24th NHL season.

Fox indicated the Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t fully closed the door on bringing back Galchenyuk. He also said the Montreal Canadiens were said to have some level of interest in a reunion.