Tag Archives: Alex Pietrangelo

Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Rumors

Edmonton Oilers Rumors: Could the Oilers Be in On Alex Pietrangelo?

During the Headlines portion of Hockey Night in Canada this weekend, Nick Kypreos offered up the idea that the Toronto Maple Leafs could be interested in St. Louis Blues defender Alex Pietrangelo.

“I don’t think that Armstrong is shopping Pietrangelo, but that doesn’t keep teams from calling … and asking about him,” said Kypreos. “I believe one of those teams is the Toronto Maple Leafs. I think where that would have to start is if Toronto and (GM) Kyle Dubas get St. Louis to possibly bite on (Nikita) Zaitsev’s contract – which is owed another five years at $4.5 million.

“If they can exchange right-handed defencemen, then there’s a chance you could put a package together maybe with a draft pick, a prospect, and then the likes of a young, fast player for St. Louis in the likes of (Kasperi) Kapanen or (Andreas) Johnsson.” (source)

If we couple this with the following quote from Blues General Manager Doug Armstrong, there’s a bit there to suggest that Blues management could be looking at a shocking the foundations of the hockey club with a massive trade.

“We’ve stayed patient with our core group of players and now that patience is at its thinnest.” (source)

Who is part of the Blues’ core group of players? Would it be farfetched if I suggested Alex Steen, Vladimir Tarasenko, Jay Bouwmeester, Jaden Schwartz, Carl Gunnarsson, Jake Allen, and Pietrangelo were part of it?

You’d have to say that before the Blues would think of moving Pietrangelo they’d move Bouwmeester or Gunnarsson, right? Then again, what kind of return would those players get compared to what Pietrangelo would? To further the hearsay, we’ve already heard Elliotte Friedman bring up Tarasenko’s name and now the Blues’ captain is coming up in the rumor mill too.

The stage is being set, a dismantling of the current Blues leadership core might be on its way.


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Could the Oilers Get In on the Pietrangelo Sweepstakes?

The 28-year-old is contracted for one more year after this one at $6.5M and he does have a no-trade clause in his deal. Any deal that St. Louis would want to make would have to get the OK from Pietrangelo.

I think the Oilers have to really decide what they’re going to do here in the next couple of months. What I mean by that is, are they going to go after a scoring winger or are they going to pursue that puck-moving right-shot defender that’s escaped them for all of these years?

Previously, I suggested the Oilers go after Tarasenko and finally fill that hole on their right-side with a proven scorer. The one thing I forgot to mention is that even though the Oilers had Jordan Eberle at one point, Tarasenko actually produces in the post-season.

That said, I find that it’s a lot harder to trade for players of Pietrangelo’s ilk. Teams simply do not trade them because once you have them, you do not get rid of them. Whereas with wingers, every year a good one is moving I feel.

If St. Louis is looking to trade their captain, as daft as that sounds, the Oilers HAVE to be in on this. I do believe they have the pieces to get it done but it’d take a great amount of creativity to consummate such a trade and real willingness for Doug Armstrong to work with his old Hockey Canada buddies that are employed by Edmonton. 

Who Would the Oilers Be Willing to Move?

Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli is now at a crossroads, does he trade out of the prospect cupboard he’s worked so hard to rebuild for Edmonton or does he move the more established players on the team?

The Oilers have some fine prospects coming through the pipeline at the moment.

  • Kirill Maksimov – LW – Niagara (OHL)
  • Cameron Hebig – C – Bakersfield (AHL)
  • Tyler Benson – LW – Bakersfield (AHL)
  • Kailer Yamamoto – RW – Bakersfield (AHL)
  • Joseph Gambardella – C/LW – Bakersfield (AHL)
  • Jesse Puljujarvi – RW – Edmonton (NHL)
  • Ryan McLeod – C – Mississauga (OHL)
  • Evan Bouchard – RHD – London (OHL)
  • Ethan Bear – RHD – Bakersfield (AHL)
  • William Lagesson – LHD – Bakersfield (AHL)
  • Caleb Jones – LHD – Bakersfield (AHL)
  • Joel Persson – RHD – Vaxjo (SHL)
  • Filip Berglund – RHD – Skelleftea (SHL)
  • Stuart Skinner – G – Wichita (ECHL)

Out of this group, you’d have to say that Bouchard, McLeod, Benson, and maybe Maksimov are the safest. Persson was just awarded SHL player of the month and Bob Stauffer has hinted at the Oilers possibly bringing him in near the end of the season for a look-see, so he might be safe too. The rest of the players could be used as trade fodder in my opinion.


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But if you look at that group, there are a plethora of right-shot defenders coming through the pipeline for the Oilers. St. Louis would want one that I assume is close to being NHL ready than not IF they were planning to rebuild on the fly.

Regarding the rest of the roster, I would think the following players would be available in the right trade,

  • Darnell Nurse(23 yrs old) – LHD – $3.2M/yr until 2019/20
  • Matt Benning (24 yrs old) – RHD – $1.9M/yr until 2019/20
  • Kris Russell (31 yrs old) – LHD – $4M/yr until 2020/21
  • Cam Talbot (31 yrs old) – G – $4.166M/yr (UFA at season’s end)
  • Milan Lucic (30 yrs old) – LW – $6M/yr until 2022/23
  • Jujhar Khaira (24 yrs old) – C/LW – $675k (RFA at season’s end)
  • Ryan Spooner (26 yrs old) – C – $3.1M/yr until 2019/2020
  • Zack Kassian (27 yrs old) – RW – $1.95M/yr until 2019/2020

If we’re being completely honest, there aren’t a lot of appealing options there for other teams to pick from. On paper, I’d say Nurse and Talbot have the most value out of that group but as I often say on Twitter, you never know what another GM values. Doug Armstrong might feel like his roster is in dire need of a player like Milan Lucic, who knows?!

There is one last player that could be moved but I would say is the unlikeliest of all mentioned so far, Leon Draisaitl. I’ve learned that the Oilers looked into Pietrangelo three years ago and the price then was Nuge or Draisaitl. Obviously that price was too rich for Chia’s blood then.

He’s not my candidate to be moved, that’s for sure but I’m sure there’s an appetite from some of the fanbase to see him moved. Then again, that portion of the fanbase would probably prefer the Oilers not to have ANY Europeans on the team.

Will anything apart from a deep playoff run save Chiarelli’s job? If the answer to that question is no, he has no choice but to swing for the fences in this scenario. With that in mind, does the Oilers fanbase trust this management team to make another blockbuster trade when, in the mind of some (not me), they’ve failed miserably at making such deals in the past (their sentiment, not mine).

I said this on Twitter yesterday, I would think that the conversations in a Pietrangelo to the Oilers deal would start at Darnell Nurse, Jesse Puljujarvi, and a high draft pick but after thinking about it a bit more, I’m thinking that either Oscar Klefbom or Adam Larsson would be the ask instead of Darnell Nurse.

Now, I’m 100% against any trade that involves Puljujarvi. I’d rather they move Yamamoto or Benson instead. Jesse’s potential is still way higher than any other prospect on the team plus Hitchcock really loves the kid.

I’m not sure if that fictitious Kypreos offer would better than this Oilers one but mine definitely has players who own a much higher ceiling and offer more cap flexibility too.

What would the Blues be after exactly? They’ve got some really good forwards getting started right now in Robert Thomas and Jordan Kyrou. They’ve also got Ville Husso, Klim Kostin, Sammy Blais, and Jake Walman percolating on their AHL team. Dominik Bokk is their only notable prospect not playing in North America.

Would it be fair to suggest that they might be after some players who are playing junior or are on the verge of starting their pro careers?

What would you offer for Alex Pietrangelo? Let me know in the comments below!

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Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Rumors, Trades

Would You Do This Deal?

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As I was listening to Lowetide’s show from Friday it got the wheels turning in my head bone. What they were talking about on that show was the idea of trading of Taylor Hall. Now this subject is as contentious as they come but most everyone with their heads screwed on right dismiss the idea right from the get go UNLESS the return is that of a no.1 defenseman but what if there was a way to trade Hall, get that no.1 dman AND fill the hole that Hall would leave?

Lowetide had his guests on the show address this very topic. My interpretation of his guests responses were as such: Will Fraser give his top 6000 right-handed shooting dmen he’d deal Hall for, Alex Thomas from the Oilers rig came on to give his opinion (If it’s a Subban/Hall deal, do it!), Matt Iwanyk said the Oilers should start the upgrading of the defense by offering Eberle and if that’s not working, move up to Hall. LT’s last guest Paul Almeida was saying that the Oilers should put Eberle’s name out there to see how the market values him, select Auston Matthews, and at least take a shot at Stamkos and see where talks go. Almeida made the comparison money-wise of Stamkos being equivalent to Eberle/Pouliot, which would you take?

So what came to my mind is that obviously you don’t want to trade Taylor Hall because he’s a driver and the team would suffer unless he was replaced in the line-up somewhere by another driver like Erik Karlsson, PK Subban, or a Drew Doughty type BUT what if the Oilers could secure Steven Stamkos as a free agent?

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There are a couple of reasons that Stamkos came to mind and one of them was watching the Oilers piss away a handful of powerplays and scoring chances versus the Avalanche because they didn’t have a trigger man and another reason is, the Oilers had better get him before the Flames do and you know damned well if they had a chance to sign Stammer, they’d get it done.

So here’s how it’d work in the circus that is my mind.

  • Oiler sign Stamkos to a Toews/Kane-like deal. ($10.5M x 8yrs)
  • Trade Hall to St.Louis for Alex Pietrangelo.
    • You trade Hall instead of RNH because you don’t know what you’ve got in Nuge quite yet and the team HAS to keep its centre depth. Hall is 6 years into his career and we’ve got a pretty good idea of what he is as a player but Nuge is JUST about to turn 23. Also, we’ve come to live with the fact that Hall isn’t the sniper the team requires but he is an elite playmaker and possession driver.
    • I entertain this idea regularly because I’m not sure the Blues make it out of the first round with Jake Allen/Brian Elliott/Anders Nilsson guarding their net. Also, and I’ve said this before, if they can get Shattenkirk under contract for better term and price point, they’d have to consider this.
    • Would you switch up the deal and use RNH/Nurse instead? The Blues are lacking a real solid LH dman. Maybe It’s a Klefbom package instead?
  • Move Eberle to the Islanders for Hamonic.

This would give us a glut of dmen on the back-end and bodies would need to be moved for future assets. So with that being said this is what I was thinking:

  • Nurse to the AHL?
    • I hate this idea. I don’t think it’d be fair to Darnell after playing nearly an entire year in the NHL. It’s not his fault the team kept him up even though he was getting snowed under but the fact is he’s in over his head regardless of the guys he’s kicked the shit out of and players like Oesterle and Davidson who have had time in the minors are passing him in short order on the depth chart.
  • Fayne has to go. If the team has Pietrangelo AND a Hamonic/Demers or David Savard/Brodin in the no.4 spot, there’s no need to play him as the no.6. Better off putting Davidson there.
  • Trade Klefbom? Yikes. I mean is anybody else really concerned about the future of this young man’s career and the fact that the Oilers are playing this card really close to the chest? My personal feeling is that the broken finger and staph infection weren’t/aren’t the only things he is/was dealing with. But would you swap him out for futures? I can’t see this even being a viable option in anybody’s books to be honest. His contract is way too cherry and he was the Oilers best defenceman before he went out with his injury.
  • Let Gryba/Pardy walk? The blue-collar fan would be sad to see either of these guys go but are they the necessary sacrifices to getting this team back on the path to the playoffs?

So yes, the Oilers lose their top two scorers for the past XX amount of years but they gain and they gain HUGE! Not only would its defense get the instant upgrade but so would the LW and the PP. Can you imagine McDavid feeding Stamkos on a regular basis? That alone would be an enormous plus for the Oilers. A fun fact about Stammer is that he can also play centre. So that’d give the team McDavid, Draisaitl, RNH, and McDavid possibly in their top six. Surely something that would have Todd McLellan foaming at the mouth to implement.

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Could adding Stamkos, Pietrangelo, and another no.4 dman be added to the cap? Moving Hall, Eberle, and Fayne is about $16M-ish per year, adding Stamkos, Pietrangelo, and no.4 right-handed defender would be about $19-20M annually, no? So it’d be a tall order to get things moved around for a near-perfect fit but the Oilers do have some players they could move to get it done. Pouliot being one, maybe they’d have to move Yak as well, and perhaps they’d need to move Klefbom.

Would Stamkos be as pissy playing on the wing in Edmonton if Connor McDavid were his pivot? Come on, think about it… McStamkos?… Pretty tasty isn’t it? Could Tampa replace the face of their franchise with a reinvigorated Jonathan Drouin? Are they doing the right thing by letting him go, if in fact that is what they intend to do given the expiring contracts of Victor Hedman, Nikita Kucherov, Ben Bishop, etc. on the horizon?

Maybe this all pie in the sky and wishful thinking or maybe it’s not. Would this scenario have real legs come summer time? Let me know in the comments below!

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