Tag Archives: Anders Nilsson

Edmonton Oilers, Micah Kowalchuk, Rumors, Trades

Recapping 24 Hours in Oilerville

TRADED SCHULTZ2

So, in the spirit of catching everyone up on things involving the Oilers trades…

  • Nilsson was traded for a 5th round pick and prospect goalie Niklas Lundstrom.  For those wondering, this was more than fair value.  The Oilers originally traded a prospect drafted in the 5th round for Nilsson, so they got back a bit more than they dealt.
  • Teddy Purcell went for a 3rd round pick to Florida.  Now, some people were disappointed after the deals for Hudler and Ladd, however this is fair value.  Purcell, although he had 17 points in 18 games one year in the playoffs, had 1 in 4 games his next time up.  Ladd has 52 playoff games in his career and Chicago paid more for a proven quantity who knows their lineup.  Hudler, he has 77 playoff games and can also play center.  You take the cards you’re dealt, Purcell’s trade wasn’t for great value, but it was market price.
  • Justin Schultz is moving on, and it’s for the best.  Although I still think there’s a player there, he’s one who won’t find his game here, and having a mentor in Kris Letang will work wonders for him.  For the Oilers, they got a 3rd round pick and can move on from there.  Schultz was essentially a 3rd pairing defenseman getting paid 2nd pairing money to be a first pairing defenseman, the scenario was never good for anyone.
  • Apparently Sami Vatanen and Eric Gelinas are now on the market and their teams want scoring for either one before the deadline.  Vatanen is a pending RFA rumored to want $6mil a season (but that’s likely just an opening offer, expect a 4-year $4.5 deal or so).  This explains why Jordan Eberle’s name is now being brought up again, and I’d say there is a chance we see a deal done.
  • Yakupov is also being thrown about as a possible trade candidate, with Montreal having quite a bit of interest to reunite him with Galchenyuk.  However, there’s other teams snooping around also, with a variety of rumors about his value.
  • What can we expect as Oilers fans?  There’s a solid chance we see Yakupov dealt, a smaller chance we see Eberle dealt for a defenseman, and that Korpikoski and/or Hendricks may be moved yet.  Chiarelli made it clear he doesn’t expect a big deal to go down, and that he wants to keep Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on the roster, so those are the likely candidates.
  • The stats on Vatanen say Top-2 offensive defenseman, Top-4 defensively, but he’s been on the third pairing in Anaheim, so it’s unsure if he can do the same in a more prominent role.  Gelinas is in a similar situation.
  • Tomorrow could get interesting thanks to the arms race in LA, Chicago, Florida and New York.  Teams like Nashville, Anaheim, St. Louis, Tampa, Pittsburgh and the like may decide they need to keep pace to have a chance, and we could see a lot more movement (and some higher end pieces) than we’d normally see, makes things interesting;

At the end of the day

We could see a very different team by Tuesday morning, one without Purcell, Schultz, Nilsson, Eberle, Yakupov, Fayne, Hendricks and Korpikoski… We could also see a team that looks essentially the same as the one that played last game with no other additions or subtractions. If I had to bet a beer or two on it, I’d be willing to bet a pint on a Yakupov deal, a can of Original 16 on an Eberle deal, and nothing firm on anyone else;

Check out the latest from Three Points Dave! You’re going to want to catch his intensity in this one… WOW!

Kris Hansen

BLH Edmonton Oilers Weekly Recap Feb 21st-Feb 28th

Alright, lets just get this out of the way first: the Oilers continued to stink as they went 0-3-0. They had good efforts against the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings but were absolutely putrid in the game against Ottawa.

It’s tough to give stars of the week when the entire team sucked, but there are some glimmers of hope.

Edmonton Oilers Three Stars:

3. Jordan Eberle. Eberle had two goals in three games this week, considering how the Oilers are once again, finding it hard to score goals, it’s a nice change to see Eberle stepping up. Sure, he looked lazy on some defensive plays, but Eberle is the best pure goal scorer on the team. He looks good with Connor McDavid. While I think that he’s the most likely to be dealt, I’m see why people are so leery of trading away number 14.

2. Cam Talbot. After posting, and while concerning, sub .900 save percentages in three games straight, Talbot was strong in games against Anaheim and Los Angeles, giving the Oilers a chance to win in those games. Sometimes you need the goalie to stand on his head and Talbot was doing that despite the losses. In the last three games, he averaged .920 save percentage.

1.Brandon Davidson. Hey, Upper Deck. Why does Brandon Davidson not have a Young Gun Rookie Card? Besides Connor McDavid, Davidson has been the best Oiler rookie. He’s so damn calm in his own zone and had an impressive hit against Jake Muzzin of the Los Angeles Kings. He’s a shining example of a rightfully questionable development system: a 6th round pick in 2010 who’s fought cancer, you can’t help but cheer for the young man. There are rumblings that people want him to get a contract extension, but who knows about the price this point.

Edmonton Oilers Trade Rumors and News.

It’s that time of the season, one of my favorites: TRADE DEADLINE SEASON!

First we had Anders Nilsson go to St Louis for a 2016 5th round pick and goaltending prospect Niklas Lundstrom 

Then we had Teddy Purcell go to Florida for a 2016 3rd round draft pick. 

Finally, yesterday we had the end of the Justin Schultz era as he was dealt to Pittsburgh for a 3rd round draft pick (Oilers retained 50% of the contract cost)

Also, yesterday Peter Chiarelli had a Press Conference yesterday regarding the trades. I did a post at our friendly neighbors, theoilersrig, recaping the conference. 

Rumor wise: The Oilers are interested in Florida Panthers Left Winger, Brandon Pirri.

Also, there was a great article about Wayne Gretzky commenting on Connor McDavid being ready to be the next Edmonton Oilers Captain.

Around the NHL:

Hold on to your butts, because there were plenty of trades these last couple days. 

One of the biggest trade chips, Andrew Ladd was moved to Chicago for Marko Dano, a 2016 first rounder and a conditional 3rd rounder. Also included to Chicago was Matt Fraser and Jay Harrison. 

Chicago wasn’t finished. They flipped Rob Scuderi to Los Angeles for Christian Ehrhoff. and then traded Phillip Danault and a 2018 2nd round pick to Montreal for Dale Weise and Tomas Fleischmann.

San Jose made a spalsh by acquiring James Reimer and Jeremy Morin from the Toronto Maple Leafs for Alex Stalock, Ben Smith and a conditional 4th round pick in 2018. This was the second trade in the week between the two teams as Toronto moved Roman Polak and Nick Spalling to San Jose for two second round picks (in 2017 and 2018) and Raffi Torres.  

The Panthers made three moves as well: First they acquired Jiri Hudler for a 2016 2nd round pick and a 2018 4th round pick, picked up Teddy Purcell for a 2016 third round pick and Jakub Kindl for a 6th round pick in 2017.

The Penguins as mentioned above, acquired Justin Schultz from the Edmonton Oilers for a third round pick in 2016.

The Sabres and Senators had a blockbuster minor league deal as Ottawa acquired Jason akeson, Phil Varone and Jerome Leduc for Alex Guptill, Eric O’Dell, Cole Schneider and Michael Sdao.

Highlights

Blake Wheeler was interviewed about the trade of their captain, Andrew Ladd

 

Here were the top NHL moments from last night

Rakell scored a beauty against the Oilers on Friday night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrCHGjeDdto

 

The Week Ahead:

The Oilers have three games, including one tonight at 7:30 against the New York Islanders.

Next they have a three game road trip including the first McDavid vs Eichel showdown in Buffalo on Tuesday, A visit to Philadelphia on Thursday and finally facing the Blue Jackets on Friday.

And of course, tomorrow is the NHL tradedeadline. I know I’ll be glued for updates.

That’s the week that was, follow me on Twitter for some really stunning insight (okay, maybe some insight, not truly stunning). Have a great week guys!

 

Beer League Hero, Breaking News, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Trades

BREAKING: Oilers Acquire Goalie Niklas Lundstrom from Blues

Newest Oiler Niklas Lundstrom

So there it is. The Oilers have picked up Swedish goalie Niklas Lundstrom from the St.Louis Blues along with a 5th round pick in this year’s draft for their own Swedish goalie, Anders Nilsson. And to fill the hole left by Nilsson’s departure, Laurent Brossoit has been recalled from Bakersfield.

Lundstrom is a 5th rounder himself from the 2011 draft and has been plying his trade in the ECHL for the Elmira Jackals as of late. He had a great World Juniors in 2013 posting a 1.60 GAA and a .944 sv% in four games, so that’s a plus I suppose. I can’t be sure he’ll see pro action ever with the Oilers and he’s an RFA at season’s end but he should get in a few games for the Bakersfield Condors backing up Eetu Laurikainen.

I have no idea who this guy is apart from that so let’s let the folks in the know describe him!

Lundstrom attended training camp with the Blues before beginning the 2014-15 season with the Alaska Aces. Sharing the goaltending duties with fellow ECHL rookie and former Cornell University goalie Andy Iles he should get the experience necessary to develop and reach his potential. As with any goalie his long-range prospects are difficult to project but Lundstrom has the physical attributes and technical skills to be successful. – Hockey’s Future

Here’s a Go Pro video of him from Blues development camp in 2014!

Here’s Three Point Dave’s latest vlog as well. He had a bone to pick with a few Oilers from last night’s game versus the Ducks!

Grab a sweet “Beat His Ass” tee from the merch shop! Click the pic!
Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Breaking News, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Rumors, Trades

BREAKING (Not really): Anders Nilsson Heading to the Blues

Looks like Anders the Giant will head to St.Louis to play backup for Jake Allen and the playoff bound Blues. The big Swede was scheduled to play tonight versus the Ducks but was relegated to backup right before the game and the same happened with the Oilers no.1 goalie in Bakersfield. Laurent Brossoit was supposed to start tonight but was told he wouldn’t be right before the game….Dun dun dunnnnn!

With Brian Elliott going down with an injury this week, the Blues could surely use him but I wonder why they wouldn’t have gone after a guy like James Reimer. Probably price point. But even then, Nilsson’s track record short of a month earlier in the year isn’t good.

I’m surprised the Oilers are getting anything at this point but you never know what a draft pick could turn out to be. Maybe another Brandon Davidson?…

Well if Bobby Mac is talking about it, there’s probably some fire where that smoke is coming from. Until the morning we wait for the next Oilers trade though! In the mean time check out our new Youtube channel and subscribe too! We’ve got the ever-entertaining Three Points Dave busting his ass to get you a new one everyday!

And grab a tee, a hoodie, a tank, or a sweater whilst you’re add it. They’re super affordable and of the utmost quality in design and manufacturing!

Click the pic and grab a 97C Hoodie to celebrate a the return of Connor McDavid!
Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, Edmonton Oilers Post Game Report, NHL

BLH Post-Gamer G48 Oilers VS Lightning: Boyle-d Alive!

It’s always a disappointing feeling when you’ve worked so hard whilst feeling tired due to playing the night before when a teammate has a brain fart at a most critical moment in the game. That’s exactly what happened last night when Anders Nilsson, who is having an atrocious time in net recently, decided to give the game away to Brian Boyle so he could win it for Tampa. Let’s take a look at the sequence below.

https://twitter.com/DoleWhipz/status/689641387176902657

Two things jump out at me here.

1 – Nail Yakupov even on one leg should be able to catch Brian Boyle 999 times out of 1000. Even if his first inkling is to go to the net, he’s got to make a choice here and do it at full speed. Had he even got on his horse and tied Boyle’s stick up, that would’ve made a difference.

2 – What in the good Lord’s name was Nilsson thinking. The odds are in his favour if he stays in his net and if he’s going to commit to chasing down the puck, then bloody well commit! He half-assed it to the puck and when he got close enough and it was clear he was going to be beat, he still tried to go for the stick check.

So Yak is all ladder-legs here. Watching the puck… Is that what they teach the Oilers as soon as their drafted… “Wait to react, it always works!”

He knows exactly what Boyle is going to do with the puck and he’s committed to the net to back up his goalie but the problem is… HE’S NO WHERE NEAR THE NET!! He should be unlocking those knees and getting ready to block the shot that will undoubtedly be coming. But unfortunately his effort results in this:

Come on… What is that Yak? Block it if you’re going to block it.

So with the elephant out of the room let’s talk about the rest of the game. Overall I loved the pushback from the Oilers even though they were on the hind end of a back-to-back and it was their third game in four nights that included racking up some major points on the old air miles card. It’s not an easy flight from Cali to FLA, then again it’s not like these guys are flying coach.

In the absence of Ryan Hugent-Hopkins, I thought Matt Hendricks looked fine going 64% on the dot but the fancies did not like him or his line at all. He finished that game at 18%, Ebs at 12%, and Pouliot at 16%… Yowzas! But as bad as Ebs or Pouliot have been I did see flashes of improvement from them. I like how Pou has been asserting himself physically lately and Eberle is starting to get that hunger back in his eyes.

The top line of Hall/Draisaitl/Purcell didn’t start off well on that Nesterov goal but they didn’t get a lot of help from Jultz and Hunt on it either. The trio did however finish the game with the best fancies on the team as Hall was 59%, Draisaitl 62%, and Purcell with 61%.

I was really impressed with Draisaitl, his ability to protect the puck and his silky mitts are really impressive. He played really aggressive against the Lightning and I personally believe that the team has a better chance of success when they’re taking the game to their opposition as oppose to letting their opponents take the game to them and reacting to it. A pipe dream of mine is to see Jaromir Jagr in an Oilers jersey for one season so he can teach these kids a thing or two about the game on and off the ice.

**For future reference, “fancies” mean even strength Corsi for %. I get the #s from Oilersnerdalert’s post gamers here. He does such a fantastic job and it really helps me when I’m trying to filter through the eye test and the numbers test. You should definitely make his blog a daily stop!**

How about the games from Mark Letestu, Zack Kassian and Iiro Pakarinen? Outstanding! Both Kassian and Pakarinen came away from the contest with a goal and an assist but that wasn’t all for Kassian. He also racked up two PIMs, two shots, and four hits. A very complete game from him and he’s been nothing short of impressive since he’s been called up from Bakersfield.

And Iiro the Hero’s goal.

That line was buzzing all night and I’m jacked that there’s the possibility that we might have the makings of a good 3rd line right there. I’m hoping we see this group stay together for some time so a proper evaluation can be made but if they can continue to produce on the scoreboard and maintain a physical game, I reckon we’re gold!

Coach Todd was really working the bench this evening. He had 7 defenders to choose from and none of them played more than 20 minutes. I was really surprised to see that Sekera only played 17 minutes and Mark Fayne, whose play I’ve been really happy with lately, only had about 15 minutes. Justin Schultz and the revelation Brandon Davidson had the highest on the blue line with 19 and a half minutes. Brad Hunt managed 7 and half minutes with 4:46 of them being on the PP.

Speaking of Brad Hunt, this guy is supposed to be shooting the puck… Last night he had ZERO shots. Is it a problem with him not being able to get the shot off in time or the PP unit’s problem being unable to get him the puck?

Before we move on to talk about the next game I’d like to point out this slewfoot that Steven Stamkos put on Zack Kassian. Now I noticed that Kassian was going after Stammer continuously throughout the game when they were on the ice at the same time and Stamkos didn’t shy away from the hitting and stood his ground strongly but I don’t condone this sort of tactic. He was penalized for it but honestly, It’s no better than a hit from behind or a blindside hit. Check it out below and let me know what you think in the comments section!

Next up are the high-flying Dallas Stars who are 2-6-2 in their last ten and the season series is split 1-1. This could be a great opportunity for the Oilers to steal one from Jamie Benn and the boys. With Cam Talbot playing the way he is and the Oilers’ top line of Hall/Draisaitl/Purcell producing a bit more lately, it’s definitely in the realm of possibility.

Take Care!

BLH