Edmonton Oilers Trade Talk: Oilers Can Have Khudobin or Halak Right Now According to One NHL Pundit

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Oil on Whyte

Three Things to Help This Edmonton Oilers Team Now

1. Consistent Line-up
- The Edmonton Oilers have not had their full line-up since the first week of the season. Mike Smith has been injured for the majority of the season which is the largest part of not having a full line-up. There has also been a never ending parade to the COVID protocol list.
- According to Man-Games Lost, the Edmonton Oilers were top 5 in man games missed. In the NHL you need all your players to be available if you want to have a chance to win games.
- As cliché as is sounds, the best ability is availability.
2. Growth from within the organization
- I’m sure the Edmonton Oilers would love to make a trade, unfortunately they don’t have much cap space to bring in a player with skill without trading cap back. The players the Oilers would trade away to make cap space are either players that the Oilers want in their line-up or players other teams don’t want.
- One way the Oilers can gain an skilled player is from within their own organization. A perfect example of this is Dylan Holloway.
- You could also call up an older player that is having success on the Condors. Seth Griffith and Cooper Marody are both averaging more than a point per game in the AHL.

3. Play with confidence
- The need to get out of their own heads. If you let in one goal it is not game over. If your 2 goal lead gets down to one doesn’t mean they are going to score again. They do the opposite of what they should do.

BLH’s Thoughts: one goal early in a game shouldn’t sink a team. It really shouldn’t and that speaks to the mental fragility of the team and quite frankly it’s leadership. That’s got to change.

Seth Griffith amassed five assists in the Condors win last night and I’m really starting to like this guy. When he was called up in December, his work rate was top notch. He was tenacious and frankly, a pain in the ass thanks to his aggressive forecheck. I’d like to see him back up in Edmonton because he’s got that burning desire many don’t and the club could use right now.

The best ability is availability. I’ve never heard that, it makes sense.

That said, Edmonton’s re-jigged schedule where they play every two days, that’s going to test the Oilers and their capacity to stay healthy.

Oilersnation

Public Discourse

There was a time when Tuesday’s exchange between Post Media sportswriter Jim Matheson and Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers could have, and likely should have, taken place without any public airing of grievances.
That conversation – talking to each other as opposed to sniping at each other via technology like Zoom – has slowly been squeezed out of the relationship between media people like Matheson and athletes like Draisaitl over the past decade or so.
The transition from one-on-ones and being able to sit down and chat with players before and after practices and games has given way to one-and-done scrums where everybody gets pretty much the same stuff.
The days of players and writers sitting down to have a coffee and a chat wasn’t about becoming friends. It was about getting to know each other. Talking hockey. Finding out what makes somebody tick. Having a laugh.
The interaction also provided players and coaches the opportunity to call a reporter over if they had a problem with something asked, written or said, as in WTF was that?

BLH’s Thoughts: Oh, back in the day, eh?

Question/observation, is there not a way to ask the same question without asking the same question? I mean, what is a reporter looking to gain by asking a team’s star forward what the #1 reason for their current slump is? If that’s not a loaded question attempting to get Draisaitl to throw his goalies under the bus, what is? For me, Matheson went into that media avail guns loaded looking to empty the whole clip… And he did.

Anyway. It happened. Hopefully, this can be used as motivation for the guys in that locker room to turn this season around.

This whole thing about how covid is restricting the player-reporter relationship is bullshit. Just because the journalists don’t get to hang out in a locker room with the young men dripping wet and draped in towels doesn’t mean they can’t have a professional relationship elsewhere (towels optional).

Why can’t Matty and Leon get together outside of Rogers Place. They own phones, right? Why can’t they hash things out over the phone? Even prior to this, why can’t the media members and the players get together or use the telephone? Is there some sort of weird league-wide restrictions that I’m not aware of?

If things are that bad, Jim Matheson knows where Leon Draisaitl parks his car, they can smooth things over there too.

That said, maybe it’s time for Matheson to sail off into the sunset. Another journo from the glory days, Terry Jones, I guess he doesn’t make it down to the rink all that often these days and I’m seeing the Oilers’ nicest young men getting dismissive with Matty more and more… Surely it’s time to let the next crop of writers come in to cover the team, no?

https://twitter.com/FerdaOil/status/1483562345401970690

The Daily Goal Horn

“Well, goaltending remains a priority for the Edmonton Oilers – It needs to be better,” Dreger said. “Ownership and management, I’m told, are still on the same page. They believe in the group. You talk to anyone around the NHL who has played the Edmonton Oilers, they will tell you the Oilers simply need to be tougher to play against and they haven’t been that.”
Two possible options that could be had now are the Stars’ Anton Khudobin and Canucks’ Jaro Halak. According to Elliotte Friedman note on Halak, they’d have a better chance at Khudobin.
…it appears Toffoli wants to remain in Montreal.
“New York is in (the playoffs) and Chris Drury keeps quiet, but I could see them taking a surprise swing (in the trade market),” Friedman said in his latest 32 Thoughts Blog.
The Rangers will certainly be buyers at the deadline and maybe Chychrun is someone they go for.

BLH’s Thoughts: Like I said this morning, I’ve heard Jeremy Swayman is on Edmonton’s radar possibly and according to Jeff Marek, St. Louis Blues backup Ville Husso as well.

Personally, making a trade for the sake of making one doesn’t make sense to me. The Oilers have swung and missed for two years on starting goalies and I just think if they’re going to trade for a proper starter, then just get the best one available and leave it at that. Be that John Gibson (doubtful), Carter Hart (as if), Tristan Jarry (can’t see it), Carey Price (Risky), or whoever, just pay the price and lets move on.

Otherwise we’re going into another season with just a massive amount of pressure on a guy who’s never been a starter. Can the likes of Georgiev, Swayman, Korpisalo, Vanecek, or Husso handle that in Edmonton’s market?

If things don’t get solved in-season, surely we’ll see Holland go all-out for Darcy Kuemper in the off-season again or maybe Braden Holtby.

Beer League Heroes