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Lowetide
GAME 27 2022-23: COYOTES AT OILERS
- Erik Karlsson is having a terrific season. He would represent a massive upgrade on RHD and change the look of Edmonton’s top pairings.
- What would it cost? People are speculating Tyson Barrie, Oscar Klefbom’s deal, Jesse Puljujarvi, Philip Broberg, a pick, etc.
- I wonder if Evan Bouchard is the target from the San Jose side? Suspect that could be the ask. Sharks would have to retain. Karlsson is real good again. Real good.
- I like the Erik Karlsson idea a ton. If you can trade Tyson Barrie in the deal (money has to be going), that could set up pairings of Nurse-Karlsson, Broberg-Ceci and Kulak-Bouchard. Or you could run Kulak-Karlsson, Nurse-Ceci and Broberg-Bouchard but the third pairing.
- Bruce Garrioch has the price on Jakob Chychrun at two first-round picks and a top prospect. So, for Edmonton it might be Tyson Barrie, Xavier Bourgault, and the 2023 and 2024 first-round picks.
- Darren Dreger talked about the Oilers and Chychrun on Lowetide and Jamieson recently, suggesting the Oilers don’t believe Chychrun is the solution for their top-four defense.
- More than anything, I think Holland needs to find out about Philip Broberg in the next 40 games.
BLH’s Thoughts: I was having enough trouble trying to go over the mental gymnastics of trading for Patrick Kane. Now Erik Karlsson? He’s got a shit ton of salary and term left and as you’ll read below, a deal for him would make more sense in the summer from a financial POV.
I do enjoy LT willfully ignoring the possibility of trading one of the $3M men in any of these deals though. That’s wishful thinking at the highest degree imagining the Oilers keeping Puljujarvi in any trade that involves a significant contract coming back to Edmonton.
That said, I would rather the team move Yamamoto than Bourgault in LT’s proposal. I think there’s a more rounded player in Gogo and a player with a higher ceiling. This is a player that could thrive playing with McDavid and Draisaitl because he’s very smart. Extremely high IQ in my opinion. But at the same time, do the Oilers have the time to wait on him as he works out his warts in Bako?
Personally, I’m very wary of the team moving Broberg, Bourgault, and Bouchard. I see enough there in those three players that I’d want to keep them. With that in mind though, Is Jay Woodcroft going to play them if they make the team?
GM27: Coyotes @ Oilers
Who’s Hot for Arizona
- #6 Jakob Chychrun – Three goals and two assists in his last five games to go along with 21 shots.
- #14 Shayne Gostisbehere – One goal and four assists in his last half dozen minus one on a paltry seven shots.
- #63 Matias Maccelli – In his last five outings, one goal and five assists.
Who’s Hot for Edmonton
- #27 Brett Kulak – One goal and three assists in his last five.
- #29 Leon Draisaitl – Five goals and five assists in his last five.
- #97 Connor McDavid – Six goals and six assists in his last five.
BLH’s Thoughts: Zach Hyman should be back tonight and so that should help immensely. However, the team is going to be without Ryan McLeod for another couple weeks with a high ankle sprain (so he won’t be “right” for a couple months now) and Warren Foegele probably won’t return until next week as he’s out with a core issue.
Recently, former Oiler Zack Kassian (will there be a video tribute tonight?) and former Toronto Maple Leaf Nick Ritchie have been healthy scratches for Arizona. My feeling is if you want to give the Oilers a hard time tonight, play heavy and those two wingers are about as heavy as they get in the NHL today and seeing how Edmonton is without any sort of enforcer, they could have a field day.
Trade Rumors
Oilers Now
Yesterday on his radio show, Bob Stauffer provided a trade proposal to insider Frank Seravalli between the Oilers and the Coyotes and asked him who would say no. The proposal went thusly,
- To ARI: Rafa Lavoie, Jesse Puljujarvi, Philip Broberg, and a first round pick
- To EDM: Jakob Chychrun
Seravalli said the Coyotes would say no because they’re hoping to get much more for their prized dman.
But here’s the thing, the Oilers need to bring in another high-end LHD to take the load off of “The Teflon Don” Darnell Nurse. He’s getting too much TOI and Broberg isn’t ready to take on that much responsibility yet. Chychrun could be that guy. Could Ivan Provorov do it? Vladislav Gavrikov could but Stauffer was saying that Columbus is asking quite a lot for him.
During the listener calls and text portion of Bob’s show he suggested that there could be a scenario where he could see Xavier Bourgault going to the Habs with a contract for Josh Anderson this summer.
So if I’m reading the tea leaves right, there’s a really solid chance that the Oilers could move on from two of Jesse Puljujarvi (very likely), Kailer Yamamoto (50/50 I’ll say), and Warren Foegele (50/50 again). I think Tyson Barrie’s going to get moved too and then Ken Holland will use the cap savings from moving the $3M men and Barrie PLUS Andrej Sekera, Milan Lucic, Oscar Klefbom, Slater Koekkoek, and Mike Smith’s contracts will all be off the books.
So let’s say Holland goes into the summer with $18M from just those moves above and then the cap goes up a couple million. Is it safe to say he’ll have around $20M, if not more, to play with again? He’ll need to spend some skrilla on Bouchard, Skinner, and McLeod internally plus find replacements for Ryan, Janmark, and Shore. Benson and Kostin are RFAs but they can be qualified for a small raise from the 750k they’re making.
My guess is that Holland will go hunting for help on the blueline if he doesn’t get it via trade this season. The names at the top of the list are guys like John Klingberg, Matt Dumba, Dmitry Orlov, Damon Severson, Ryan Graves, Vlad Gavrikov, Carson Soucy, and Scott Mayfield.
If people, *cough* journalists really start to pull the threads on Nurse, they'll be like Jim Carey in The Truman Show. He doesn't compliment 97? He takes the most icetime on a consistently poor PK? He's played 540 games and he still falls down on the ice? Is anything real?:)
— Dennis King (@DKingBH) December 7, 2022
Stauffer was talking about Luke Schenn yesterday as well. I’m curious if Artem Zub would tickle their fancy as he takes up a ton of minutes in Ottawa right now.
So we’ll see I guess. Darren Dreger was bringing up Erik Karlsson’s name saying that defense is Ken Holland’s top priority but Stauffer’s out there agreeing with Seravalli that they’ll address the forwards before the defense…
It’s a massive shit show and there’s not a lot of wiggle room right now to make any meaningful moves.
What if the Coyotes lay a beat down on Edmonton tonight? They just come out hammering the Oilers and work them out of their own building. Does Ken Holland have to make a trade to bring in some grit before the Minnesota games?
