Stauffer Says Three to Five Players Could be Moved Out of Edmonton in the Coming Weeks
Happy Canada Day! 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!
BS – Man, is there a more debated player out there in the Oiler Twitterverse?
WG – No, and I think the guys in the media drive it and I’ll include you in that, Bob. You’ve got a show everyday and you bring him up.
BS – It’s my fault?
WG – Well, it’s partially, sure. Absolutely.
I was told awhile back from someone with press credentials that how a player gets smeared in Edm is Stauffer shows up to the morning skate with the latest nuggets about who has fallen out of favour. Now, the rest know who they can kick without the GM denying them access
BS – Hey! I’m the one that first brought up Nichushkin and my concern that is this guy a potential Nichush~ And one of the real things that got animated was the goals vs. expected goals debate that occured. What do the numbers tell you about Jesse Puljujarvi and did anything change in terms of how they perceive Puljujarvi this year as the season went on.
WG – Well, yeah. Okay, first of all, I’m not going to use expected goals because it’s poison for a lot of people. I look at goals, shots, scoring chances, and high danger scoring chances. Everyone can relate to that, right? And I put out a little thread on Twitter before I came on your show, Bob, just to show JP’s affect on all four centers he played with, McDavid, Draisaitl, RNH, and McLeod. I showed the offensive effects and the defensive effects.
Going on @OilersNow to fill time for Bob at 1:35pm
Puljujarvi might come up on the show so here's his small thread showing his effect on each center, both offense and defense results
With small samples I pay more attention to shots and scoring chances and not goals (1/
The offensive effects playing with Jesse, with every single center, the Oilers score more when they’re playing with him. You know, you talked before that there’s an opportunity cost playing with JP. No, there’s not. There’s an opportunity cost NOT playing with him.
I get the frustration that he’s not a great finisher and that’s the big thing with Jesse, he will flub an opportunity right in front of the net and everyone loses their mind. What you can’t see with him is that all the opportunities that are created by him that go onto other people’s sticks go into the net because he’s there. That’s not easy to see with your eyes but you can see it when you break it down like I broke it down on the Twitter thread.
The Oilers forwards score more with him and they get scored against less. They get more shots with him and less shots against. More scoring chances with him, less scoring chances against. More high-danger scoring chances with him, less high-danger scoring chances against. That’s what the game of hockey is, goals, shots, scoring chances, ALL BETTER WITH JESSE on both sides of the puck for the most part.
I think he’s so polarizing because you just want him to finish more. I don’t know, if he worked with someone on how to score more, cut his stick, do whatever, I don’t know. And knock in just a few more of those pucks this debate wouldn’t be happening. It’d be ‘Oh boy, I hope we can afford to keep him.’
But the fact that he hasn’t scored a lot, you an exploit that efficiency in the NHL and you probably don’t have to pay him that much.
BS – Ohhhhh. It’s called an opportunity cost. You focused on the opportunities that weren’t cashed in.
WG – No, you did.
BS – Well, but you brought the numbers to support the argument that he creates opportunity. You did a great job of explaining that. What’s the cost and desire going to be from the agency for said player in this situation? Do they dig in?
And again, yesterday, this is where we credit the source, Tom Gazzola, on another platform, has the time come, and I didn’t listen to the whole thing, but basically said has the time come where both parties feel it’s best for everybody to move along?
I’m the one who thinks he can still be Nichushkin. I think he can be a guy at 26, 27, 28, maybe 27, 28 where he might have a 20 plus, 25 goal season. In fact, if anything, he’s been more productive. I mean, Nichushkin had a zero goal season in 57 games with Dallas.
WG – Don’t forget that Jesse was scoring at a fine rate this year until he got COVID and then he got hurt and everything fell off the Earth.
BS – All fair comments on your part.
BLH’s Thoughts: I’ve had my run-ins with WG over the years and he can be an abrasive fella to deal with, but on the whole I think he means well even if he comes off like a massive prick sometimes. That said, this appearance on Bob Stauffer’s show was really good and I loved that he took the Oilers media to task on Puljujarvi.
The trade of Jesse has ZERO to do with his on-ice production. For a club to be so enamored by the advanced analytics of Zach Hyman that they sign him to a long-term deal one summer only to go ahead and ignore Puljujarvi’s the next makes no sense to me. This all driven by the fact that JP isn’t one of the boys and that 97 and 29 prefer to play with more predictable wingers. But it’s not only that, I think there’s a chance that Jess wants more responsibility than the club is willing to give him.
All this garbage about him being called a “play killer” by Spector is non-sense. It’s just a narrative. Sure there’s been times that he’s been given the puck and it’s bounced off his stick or he’s made a pass that was nowhere near the intended receiver, but I saw Leon Draisaitl button hook at the other team’s blueline and turn the puck over just as many times. I watched Darnell Nurse fire a 100mph pass to nobody on more occasions than I was required. How many times did we see Nuge (who Jesse outscored last season 14-11 by the way) absolutely blow a wide open PP chance?
It’s horseshit. But the reporters have to get their clicks. I’m sure somebody had mentioned within earshot of Stauffer or some journo that the plays die on Jesse’s stick and now it’s a thing, but as we approach a new era with the Oilers and their impending adoption of a proper advanced statistics department, it seems really ignorant (and irresponsible) to pay no attention to the good he’s done for this team and in all honesty, trading him feels like a mistake made all too many times by this team over the course of multiple owners, coaches, and GMs. The only thing that’s been constant since glory days has been the media… Weird.
Former Edmonton Oiler Andrew Cogliano lifts his first Stanley Cup after 1100 games.
Now, all of that being said, Jesse is pretty much powerless seeing as he’s a restricted free agent and as far as I’ve been told, he’s happy to play in Edmonton for the Oilers but his ultimate goal is to be in the NHL.
If the Oilers really wanted JP back, they’d use Wasserman (McDavid’s agency) to lean on his agent, but my feeling is that both parties are tired and it was an eventuality that there’d be a separation anyhow. Maybe it’s just a coincidence that Pulju had a tough second half and we’re finally at that separation point.
As for the rumored 3rd/4th round pick that Spector has Edmonton receiving for him, all I can say to that is I would think they’d flip it. The panel talked a lot about moving picks around and managing short/long term goals in their latest YouTube video is…
So, here are some moves I think have a reasonable chance of taking place.
They could move Duncan Keith to a cap floor team with a sweetener (the pick from Puljujarvi’s trade?) to get that club to buy him out and then go ahead and re-sign him at a very affordable salary.
Tyson Barrie to the Montreal Canadiens in a deal that could see the first round pick go with Barrie with Josh Anderson and a pick in 2023 come back.
The writing seems to be on the wall for a Warren Foegele to Ottawa for Connor Brown trade.
There’s smoke coming out of the Edmonton media regarding a Kassian to Columbus trade maybe with hulking bottom-six Winger Eric Robinson the return. Remember Stauffer’s been talking about adding speed and size to the 4th line and Robinson has both, in spades.
I’m very curious if Yamamoto digs his heels in and in turn gets moved to a team like Chicago. Maybe a futures package that’d bring both Dach brothers to the Oilers.
I also wonder about the Oilers sending a Puljujarvi package to San Jose for Evander Kane’s contract. Could that include Mike Smith and Oscar Klefbom’s contract with the Finn?
Stauffer reckoned three to five players getting moved in the coming weeks… So buckle up. Conservative Kenny might be letting his hair down this summer.
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I'm the Beer League Hero! I am from Camrose, Alberta but I make my home in Taipei City, Taiwan. I've been through the ups and downs and the highs and the Lowes, the Bonsignores and the McDavids, the Sathers and the Eakins but I'll never leave my Oilers, no matter what!
They're with me until the end and then some. GO OILERS GO!
