Tag Archives: Bob McKenzie

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Edmonton Oilers Organized Chaos: What the Hockey Pundits are Saying about the Oilers GM Search

Yesterday was a bit of a clown show with regards to the news on the Edmonton Oilers GM search. We were told Keith Gretzky was a front runner and then at the end of the night we were told he was out. Other pundits told us that Ken Holland hasn’t even been contacted and then shortly thereafter we were informed that he’s the leading contender for the job…

And then there are these tweets this morning from Ryan Rishaug and Jim Matheson.

https://twitter.com/NHLbyMatty/status/1124294204547579904

I think there’s a feeling within the club that they’ve liked how Gretzky has pulled things together and that it’s better the devil you know than the one you don’t. Nicholson has a working history with Keith Gretzky now that he doesn’t have with Mark Hunter but I do wonder if the Oilers current interim GM would be willing to work under Hunter with an eye towards being poached by another team in the future. Would Hunger agree to that? All very interesting…

More information will come but I wanted to go through and quote all these different hockey pundits from just yesterday to show you how nuts this is and how the Oilers are either loving this because they’re orchestrating it or how bad it really is in the organization right now.

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1) Let’s start at the beginning of the day (May 2nd) with the Dustin Nielson Show (TSN) who had Darren Dreger on to talk about the Oilers GM search.

  • On the leading candidate: I wouldn’t be shocked at all if Mark Hunter emerges as the next GM of the Edmonton Oilers.
  • On Ken Holland being 100% out of the hiring process: It feels close to 100% but I never box in because you never know. Everything that we’ve been told as a group at TSN is that Nicholson and Kenny Holland would’ve had a number of conversations that would’ve lead up to the Detroit Red Wings naming Steve Yzerman as the general manager and pushing Holland further up the executive ladder of the Red Wings org.Detroit wouldn’t have done that without consent from Ken Holland, but Kenny Holland loves to be in the fight. He is an active guy… Part of me wonders if Holland is going to be satisfied professionally if he’s not in that fight.

    But I go back to what I said 30 seconds before about the relationship between Holland and Nicholson. Nicholson would’ve known weeks ago that Ken Holland wasn’t going to truly be a candidate for the Edmonton Oilers because they probably, loosely, because there are some legalities here, would’ve shared some information and I’d be more surprised if Nicholson hasn’t used Ken Holland as a resource in potentially vetting some of the candidates that he’s talked to.

    I’m not saying it’s 100% dead but unless something’s changed in the last 5-7 days, I don’t see Ken Holland being the next GM in Edmonton. 

2) Next up we move on to Lowetide’s show where he had Frank Seravalli on to give his two cents on this whole thing.

  • On how attractive the Oilers GM position is and Ken Holland: It depends on where you were coming from and what you were doing. To me, I’m a glass-half-full guy, if I have a chance to run a team with Connor McDavid at my disposal with the rabid fanbase that supports your team like no other. To me, I don’t mind having to come in maybe tear some things up or burn some things down to try and make that work and put my own stamp on it because if you can make the Edmonton Oilers a winner, you know, there’s no better job in pro sports in my opinion. With the feedback and support you get from town and that community, I mean, it’s phenomenal, it’s second-to-none.If you’re Ken Holland and you’ve won three Stanley Cups and I don’t know how many presidents trophies and you’ve been in this league for 25 years, is that the job you wanna take? Is that how hard you wanna work? 
  • On Keith Gretzky: The best thing that Keith Gretzky has done since he’s been in this role has been to bring everybody back together again. He’s done a great job of mending some fences in that front office, getting everyone on board, being the communicator and team player that I think has made him and kept him in the mix in terms of this position moving forward.

3) Elliotte Friedman discussed the Oilers on this week’s 31 Thoughts Podcast and here’s what they had to say,

  • This week I expect the Oilers to get clarity now that the u18s are over on Kelly McCrimmon and Ken Holland. From what I can tell, the Oilers did not have the “official written permission” to interview Kelly McCrimmon. So they were hoping to get that this week.I’ve been on Ken Holland since the beginning as the guy I believe is no. 1 on Bob Nicholson’s list. I think they’ll also find out this week if Ken Holland is a legit contender, legitimately interested. If Ken Holland is interested, I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if they offer him the job and see what he says.
  • One of the things I’ve heard is that Steve Yzerman legitimately wanted Ken Holland there, he wants him there to bounce ideas off of.
  • After I wrote the list of guys who interviewed, I forgot to add someone. Bill Zito interviewed for the Oilers GM job. (Sean Burke, John Ferguson, Mike Futa, Ross Mahoney, Scott Mellanby). I left out Bill Zito. That’s a name somebody told me.
  • What somebody told me is not everybody suggested a quick recovery. Apparently, there were some people there that said, ‘You’re gonna have to take some more pain if you want to do this right.’ Maybe more than one (candidate) said this. ‘The way you get yourself into trouble is you try to trade your way out of these problems. You may have to take a couple years more pain to get better.’
  • You take a look at Ken Holland. He’s done it both ways in Detroit, right? Like, Detroit’s way was. ‘We’re going to keep our playoff streak alive.’ So he made moves to keep their playoff streak alive.
  • But if you take a look at it now, Larkin looks like he’s a player. Athanasiou looks like he’s a player. Mantha is up and down but he’s still there, Bertuzzi looks like he’s a player. They are stocked with picks and prospects. I know there are people killing Holland in the interim but when this team is good again, a lot of his pieces, whether they’re draft picks or prospects, are gonna be part of it. People are going to notice that. So he’s done it both ways. I’m curious to know what he’s going to say.
  • If I really believe that the guy who says two more years is right, I go there. Now I realize I’m not sitting in that chair, but if you bring somebody in and they make a bunch of trades that go badly, they could go well, but if they go badly, that’s always tied to you. That’s one thing where you have to go to McDavid and say, ‘This is what we’re thinking.’
  • But I think it’s really interesting that guys would go in there and say, ‘Okay… It’s gonna take some time.’

4) The Jason Gregor Show had a few guests on that chimed in on this including Gregor himself, former Oiler defensive legend Jason Strudwick, and Ryan Rishaug. Here are some quotes from Gregor’s show yesterday.

  • Gregor: Holland isn’t really in from what I’ve been told.
  • Strudwick: Keith Gretzky, who I’ve said in the past, has an advantage over other people, not that he’s ahead, but he’s got an advantage on people because of the fact that he has a plan in place here and now.
  • Strudwick: This idea of a 3-headed monster where everyone has equal say, why would he (Hunter) do that?… If Mark Hunter is here, I believe he’s the GM.
  • Gregor: Rishaug said that Sean Burke is out of the race. Like I’ve said all along, I’ve thought it was Mark Hunter. Now here’s the thing, a lot of people think it’s Hunter and Keith Gretzky.
  • Gregor: Do you think the Oilers, the reaction to season ticket holders, and at this point, no offense to non-season ticket holders; because right now when you have renewals for season seat holders, that’s your priority today. Once season seat renewals are up, now it changes and it’s open to everybody.I’m curious if they’re leery of that impacting season ticket renewals where it looks like you didn’t make an actual change and you’ve kept somebody from within.
  • Strudwick: Who is the best candidate and do we truly feel that this is the best choice? And if it’s Keith Gretzky and you feel he’s the best one, then it might hurt you in the short term, yes Gregs, there’s no doubt about it. But with the name association, I think it would hurt the team. But if you firmly believe that long-term that he is the right guy, I think you win those fans back by the success that happens under his regime and that’s Keith Gretzky’s regime.
  • Strudwick: Keith Gretzky has a plan in place now. He has the plan. If he’s hired in 5 minutes, his plan starts at 4 pm. Boom! ‘Thanks for hiring me!’ and he starts making adjustments to the group whatever he feels on the ice, off the ice, whatever it is.
  • Gregor: I’ll say this for Keith Gretzky, he wasn’t here for the Hall and Reinhart trades. I spoke pretty candidly about the Caggiula trade, that had numerous people tell me that I trust that that was more of a GM with a little bit of input from the head coach and no one else.
  • Rishaug on Holland resurfacing: The wildcard is Ken Holland and a change of heart from Ken Holland to me. Then you look at Pierre LeBrun’s tweet, his understanding that Holland is currently taking stock of what lies ahead for him. Edmonton remains a possibility. Seattle is of intrigue or he could stay on in Detroit. But it seems like Holland will want to resurface at some point as a GM somewhere.So, a Ken Holland change of heart that felt like a wildcard a number of hours ago based on that tweet from Pierre LeBrun I think becomes a bit more realistic. I would say, I don’t know what the chances are, I don’t know how to handicap it, but I guess what I’d say is that I believe that if Ken Holland wanted to be a general manager, he would be a prime candidate for the Oilers that Bob Nicholson would have extreme interest in him and it’s just a matter of if Holland wanted to be here (Edmonton).

    So with the news that he may be interested, it definitely shakes things up quite a bit and he would move into the pole position in my opinion, IF he’s interested.

  • Rishaug on Sean Burke: I think he was close. I think Burke was a darkhorse that really impressed and it wouldn’t surprise me if moving forward he’s not in the mix if he wants to be, for some other positions that become available. I think he raised some eyebrows and impressed and there’s an appetite to potentially have him part of things and maybe he’s a, not necessarily the guy in this moment, but maybe the guy in the making.
  • Rishaug on Keith Gretzky: I think they’d worry a tremendous amount about the optics of it, but I think that if they feel he’s the best man for the job, they’ve got to hire him. I don’t think that you don’t hire Keith Gretzky because you’re worried about optics. If you go through this whole rigamarole and this whole process if you’re Bob Nicholson, you bring in all these people and you talk to them and you decide that Keith Gretzky’s presentation and his vision is what the organization needs, you gotta hire him. That’s the hardest decision Nicholson would have to make to hire Keith Gretzky in that role.
  • Rishaug on Holland Pt.2: By going back to someone who’s had success in the past, there is some risk in that.A couple of the things that would draw you to Ken Holland were Detroit’s absolute iron-clad reputation as an organization that handled development extremely well. They didn’t rush people. They had lots of home-grown talent. Their attitude towards development was solid and they were known for that and I think that’s very attractive if you’re the Edmonton Oilers based on what their problems have been.

    I think there’s also a willingness to be open and work with different people and not be somebody who’s just going to go in there and close your office door and do everything yourself. I think he would be an inclusive type of guy. I think that’s a draw for them.

    The other thing he’s shown he can do is develop good people underneath him. He’s developed some exceptional people underneath him and maybe that’s part of this as well. You want a guy that can do it now for sure but there’ve been a number of guys, the Jim Nills of the world, Steve Yzermans, and people like this. Maybe it’s a tandem type thing. Maybe it’s Ken Holland overseeing everything but then it IS a more increased role for Keith Gretzky developing into that role eventually. I don’t know.

    I think maybe Nicholson after McCrimmon falls off the board, maybe it’s about circling back and making sure and double-checking. Maybe increasing an offer before going down the path of the next candidate.

    Nicholson has to be careful here. This is dragging out and people need answers too.

  • Rishaug on Keith Gretzky pt. 2: I think Keith Gretzky is a good candidate for this job and I know that’s an unpopular opinion to hold in this city because people tend to get irate over it and I’m sure the Oilers take notice of that. But Keith Gretzky has been around this game a long time and he’s got lots of experience and he’s done things on his own. Nevermind the name, people need to get that out of their head that if he gets the job it has anything to do with his name, it doesn’t. It has everything to do with his accomplishments.

5) Next is a clip from yesterday’s TSN Overdrive that involves mostly Bob McKenzie and Gord Miller discussing Ken Holland with Jamie McLennan chiming in briefly. The feeling here that I got listening to this is similar to what you’ve already read, IF Holland wants the GM’s job in Edmonton, he can have it but there’s no indication (yet) that he wants it.

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Edmonton Oilers Rumor Roundup: Will Taylor Hall Return to the Oilers?

Last night during the Coyotes/Oilers game, a tweet from @PunjabiOil came across my timeline that quoted Elliotte Friedman saying on a local podcast if he were GM of the Oilers and he knew that Taylor Hall was going to free agency, his plan would be to bring him back to Edmonton.

This was funny because Bob Stauffer and Mark Spector sort of brought Hall up during yesterday’s edition of Oilers Now and it’s not the first time we’ve heard Bob talk about Taylor Hall coming back to Edmonton, right?

I’ve talked to my sources about the possibility of Hall coming back and some of them have told me that “it’s doable” and some of them believe there’s no chance. Edmonton would have to do major surgery to the roster to fit him in long term.

Now, that does leave the possibility of him coming back for the final year of his current deal though. Which would be next season. Edmonton could definitely deal in that a lot easier than competing for his services on the open market if he were to go UFA status.

Combine that with murmurs of Jordan Eberle possibly being willing to go back to Edmonton on a deal that could pay him $4M/yr for three years…

How ridiculous would that be if both Hall and Eberle returned?

All they’d have to do is find some way to get Hall out of NJ via trade, deal Lucic and one of Russell or Sekera without retaining salary, and then sign Ebs… It’s THAT easy! Wing depth restored!

Personally, I can’t see it happening but every GM, agent, and player are watching Toronto to see what they do and if it is deemed successful, every other team will try to copy it, including the Oilers.

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NEWS ON PULJUJARVI

On the latest “Insider Trading”, Bob McKenzie wonders aloud if the relationship between the player and team is “fractured beyond repair”. He says there’s lots of speculation that Pulju would not look kindly on being sent down to the AHL and even goes as far as to question if Jesse would even go to the AHL.

It’s all bullshit.

From what I’ve gathered, Puljujarvi IS pissed. He’s angry because he’s watching teammates of his who are of lesser talent getting the push up the lineup instead of him. Players like Alex Chiasson and oddly enough, Ty Rattie.

Now we could all argue about how he hasn’t earned it, right? If “earning it” means not scoring, then wouldn’t Jesse be fitting right in with Rieder, Rattie, and Chiasson?

I feel for him. Two coaches in a row refuse to even give him a chance on the PP.

I mean if you want a direct example of how old-school Ken Hitchcock is, look no further than how Josh Currie was used last night. I don’t even want to go into how much of a bullshitter Hitch is based on how he said he was going to use the player in the pre-game media avail…

Even in the OT, a perfect time to use a player who has speed and a shot, as Ty Rattie does, Hitchcock throws Chiasson out?!

3v3 OT is the PERFECT scenario for a player like Rattie or Puljujarvi (if he’d been on the roster and not out with some “mystery” LBI) or Currie for that matter. Sam Gagner comes straight into the roster and he’s GIFTED with 2nd line TOI and 1st unit PP time…

Think about it for a second. This young man is one of the hardest working players on the team. He stays after practice to work on little things. A quote I got from a former teammate of his said, “He’s the hardest worker and so unselfish.”

How does it make any sense for the media to be portraying Puljujarvi in a selfish light when he’s literally the polar opposite? Well, it gets the eyes and ears directed to their websites and TV channels is what it does.

I’ve said this on Twitter before, but the media is going to try and paint Jesse into the same corner that Nail Yakupov once occupied. We might even start to hear things about how he’s not liked in the dressing room or he’s hard to get along with. Maybe more on the language barrier…

It’s already started with McKenzie saying things like, “the Oilers would LIKE to send him (Pulju) down to the American Hockey League…”

“Like” as in they’re being held hostage here?

Don’t believe it…

He is NOT going to refuse an assignment to the AHL. His camp might feel that Bakersfield isn’t the right move for him right now but he’d report.

As far as I’ve been told, Jesse loves Edmonton, he wants to stay and play. He’s young, he’s got certain expectations of himself and also the team I imagine. It’s just that he’s been told one thing and the opposite is happening. That’d enrage anybody.

I think it’s possible that there’s someone in the organization that is leaking things that simply aren’t true (that he wants out) and the media is running with it because if it bleeds it leads.

If the Oilers truly want to repair this, find the leak and plug it!

My Solution: Get Hitchcock off that bench and have Manny Viveiros run the show. He had a young Finn in Swift Current that ran the show there for some time. I think his name was Heponiemi.

My Solution 2: Let Jay Woodcroft work his magic with him. Winning is the cure to a lot of ailments.

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THE NEXT MOVE: BENNING/PETROVIC OUT?

I’m still hearing that Pittsburgh has interest in Alex Petrovic, but teams like Toronto and Tampa Bay are also looking for depth right-hand shots. Matt Benning also fits the description there and in all honesty is probably who the Oilers would prefer to move given he’s got an extra year left on his deal.

Keep an eye on Alex Chiasson. He’s getting a ton of media attention right now. I think Boston is looking at him AND Kassian.

https://twitter.com/NHLbyMatty/status/1098251428445876229

The name of the game is clearing cap space folks. If Edmonton can rid themselves of all those players AND possibly one of Sekera or Russell, I think they do it with a smile on their faces and I think they’d even retain salary to do it.

Whatever it takes to get Hallsy and Ebs back into the fold, right? :p

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I Have a Problem With What Bob McKenzie Said About the Oilers

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Yesterday, the Bobfather (Bob McKenzie) released his 2018/19 Edmonton Oilers season preview podcast and within it, he made some pretty lofty claims. Claims that I think are off-base. So I’m going to pull a few quotes from McKenzie’s podcast and comment on them.

The podcast I’ll put at the end of the post for your reference.

Before we do that though I want to preface this post by saying I’ve got nothing against McKenzie and what I’m about to say is no slight against him. He’s one of my favorite insiders and when he speaks, we should listen, for the most part.

But sometimes, and I feel like this is happening more and more these days, we need to strip things away and really listen to what’s being said in order to make a proper judgment instead of just taking it at face value.

McKENZIE’S REFUTABLE QUOTES

“The reality is that general manager Peter Chiarelli actively chose to not make a blockbuster move in the off-season.”

I guess making a massive trade every summer since he took over has become boring for Chiarelli. One might even say that doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result might have you found insane but to each his own.

“It is the same basic group that fell on its face last season”

McKenzie did mention the Oilers signing Koskinen, Brodziak, and Rieder before this quote on the pod and he’s not wrong. It is the same. basic. group. But isn’t that putting it a bit too plainly?

The missing, and most important, key in my mind is that this team is coming back healthy, with a chip on its shoulder, a year older and more developed both physically and mentally.

So on paper, the roster seems like it’s the same one from last year but it really isn’t, is it? Oh! And don’t forget about the new coaching hires. Quaint that McKenzie didn’t talk much about those…

“I think the way most people look at it, every year you have a Connor McDavid-led team that misses the playoffs, that is a crime against hockey humanity.”

He’s not wrong but it’s a pretty heavy shot at Peter Chiarelli. I’d like to read some of McKenzie’s thoughts on how the Pittsburgh Penguins handled Mario Lemieux in his first four seasons in the NHL. Was it a crime against hockey humanity that the Penguins weren’t making the playoffs from 1984-1988 even though Lemieux was putting up an average of 129 pts a season?

I bet you it wasn’t.

Another thing to consider is Bob McKenzie’s relationship with the McDavids. What is it? Are they close? Do you know any other hockey insiders that have dedicated an entire chapter of their book to McDavid and why does he seem to know so much about Connor’s journey to the NHL but not John Tavares’? Or did he choose to use McDavid’s over Tavares’ or Ekblad’s in the chapter about being granted exceptional player status in the CHL

Is McKenzie just looking out for a friend by throwing some shade on Chiarelli? Is he out of line suggesting Chiarelli is doing such a disservice to hockey humanity without considering the plethora of mitigating circumstances that may or may not have been the cause of another playoff-less year of hockey for the Oilers?

“…some might argue anybody would put up decent numbers beside Connor McDavid.”

Well, last year’s MVP couldn’t do it and Jordan Eberle was traded partly because he couldn’t do it either.

“I think the Oilers stopped trying to think of him (Strome) as the replacement goal scorer for the departed Eberle, which originally was how it was billed.”

See this is flat out not true. It was not billed as that at all.

Bruce McCurdy did a write-up on the media avail Peter Chiarelli did right after the trade and not once did Chiarelli ever say that Ryan Strome was bring brought in to replace Jordan Eberle’s goals.

Here are a few of the quotes from McCurdy’s post,

On the rationale for the trade: A function of a number of different things. 1) a chance to acquire a player like Ryan Strome. 2) No secret we have to clear up some space to sign both Connor and Leon.

On Ryan Strome: Ryan hasn’t put the numbers up like Jordan, but he’s got some things to his game that will help us in our division. He’s got good size, he’s got a terrific wrist shot — I scouted him for a long time for the U-24 team —  a very very cerebral player, he can play centre or the wing, very good on the half wall. These are all some of the things that Jordan has, but when we can save cap space we have to do it. That’s the reality of building a team these days. It was a good fit hockey perspective, and a good fit from a team-building & cap perspective.

On why Eberle didn’t click with McDavid: I don’t know. He certainly thinks and mvoes the puck quickly. He was a 20-plus goal scorer, he still is and will be. He might have been with Connor this coming year if he was still around. There’s reasons we trade players, fair enough, but this is about cap management, this is about replacing good players for good players, and this is about long-term thinking.

I’m not sure why McKenzie said that the Oilers were thinking that Strome was going to come in a replace Eberle because obviously from the Chiarelli quotes above, that’s false. Did they hope Strome could come in a score at an Eberle-like pace, I’m sure they did but that trade was 100% cap management.

Lastly, the Lucic quote…

“Can Milan Lucic rebound from an abysmal season that was punctuated by him asking for a trade, one which he didn’t get.”

This is the first time that Bob McKenzie has commented on this and I’m sure that’s because Jason Gregor brought it up after the Bobfather went on holidays but he’s been back for a few days now and if it was THAT big of a deal, we would’ve heard more.

If you want a detailed timeline of the Lucic rumor rollercoaster from the beginning of June until the beginning of July, David Staples did one here.

 Insiders often talk to agents and pro scouts to get their info if GMs aren’t being cooperative and Lucic’s agent, Gerry Johansson, said on Oilers Now that he never had “that” conversation with Chiarelli BUT maybe he had it with Milan.

It’s obvious that that conversation was ended quickly because maybe his agent wasn’t interested in being embarrassed by the client.

“Stauffer said representatives from Lucic’s agency have made it clear Lucic has got to look to himself and do better.”

This quote from a Jim Matheson article where he interviewed Johansson,

“Milan didn’t ask for a trade and Peter (GM Chiarelli) 100 per cent has not come to us about moving Milan. If he wants to get out from under the contract, he has to talk to us.”

Somebody is fibbing. Chiarelli did the ol’ “no comment” when asked, so he left everybody hanging with that non-answer yet Johansson said no trade request was made and McKenzie says there was.

Friedman has never said that Lucic requested a trade out of Edmonton, only that he’d heard rumors of a request (that were denied), that Lucic wanted out of Canada, and that Lucic’s name had come up.

Frank Seravalli has only commented that the situation is “almost untenable” and that the Oilers were doing their “due diligence” on a possible move.

So from what I’ve found, and there could be more out there that I’ve missed, let’s establish that, Bob McKenzie is the only one that has said Milan Lucic requested a trade. Everybody else has just hinted at the possibility (including myself).

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I get that hockey fans, famous or not, would look at the Oilers under Chiarelli and McLellan and lead by Connor McDavid would be frustrated but there is this overwhelming consensus that just because the Oilers have McDavid, it’s going to be a slam dunk that they make the playoffs every year regardless of what happens to the team on the ice or off of it. That’s wrong.

There are 30 other NHL teams that have a chance to make the playoffs every year and we more or less know who those teams are by American Thanksgiving. Not that that marker is set in stone but it’s generally a good point to look at if you want to have an idea of how things are going but anything can happen at any time, right?

We must evaluate and re-evaluate our expectations for our favorite teams and players all of the time. Are we expecting too much or not enough and how do we find the middle ground that offers us the opportunity to enjoy the team and the game of hockey the most? Folks like Bob McKenzie help us with that but I feel like a lot of pundits are butthurt over their predictions from a year ago and that they might be lashing out this time around.

Personally, I know that this is going to be a special season one way or another for the Oilers.

Santa’s Sock Drive

Summer’s over and you may have noticed it’s getting colder. As great as it is living in Edmonton, our winters are cold and unforgiving. While most of us are protected from the worst of it, there are always many that aren’t.

Santa’s Sock Drive is made up of a small group of volunteers that aims to try to help the underprivileged of our city that struggle to keep warm in winter. This is our third year doing the drive, last year we raised $3,076 and $923.26 the year before. The money we raise is used for buying things like toques, mittens, gloves, scarves, and socks to hand out. We also accept winter gear you may have at home, all we ask is that it’s clean and in good condition (no tears or stains).

Money can be donated via e-transfer to tejveer.sangha@gmail.com or through https://www.gofundme.com/santa039s-sock-drive-2018&rcid=r01-153660451446-bafc48a6b7874cab&pc=ot_co_campmgmt_w.

You can also drop winter supplies off or arrange a pick-up with tejveer.sangha@gmail.com or gurmanjit.sagoo@gmail.com.

We are going to be handing out the winter gear ourselves on October 8th (Thanksgiving). If you’d like to volunteer, email us. Everyone is welcome to come help out!

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Habs Chasing Oilers Centre and Comparing the Draft Rankings (ISS, TSN, Hockey Prospects, The Hockey News)

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According to a source employed close to Montreal, the Habs are targeting Oilers centre Leon Draisaitl.

Ummm. Sure.

Now it’s no mystery what position the Montreal Canadiens are going to try and beef up this summer. Bob Stauffer on yesterday’s Oilers Now thought that they would be going after Ryan O’Reilly and Paul Stastny and I think that would be a much better plan of attack than to try and pry Leon Draisaitl out of Edmonton.

For argument’s sake, what would it take for you to trade Draisaitl to Montreal? For me, I can tell you it’d have to include a package that included 4 of the following,

  • 2018 1st rounder
  • 2019 1st rounder
  • Brendan Gallagher
  • Victor Mete
  • Noah Juulsen

That’s just me mind you. I won’t trade Leon Draisaitl for Erik Karlsson. So that should be enough to tell you how highly I value the big German.

A DIFFERENT OILERS/HABS PROPOSAL

On Lowetide’s show yesterday morning Pierre LeBrun said that the Habs were looking for a top-4 left-handed defenseman.

Oscar Klefbom, come on down!

Would you be willing to move Oscar Klefbom to the Habs for Victor Mete and Nikita Scherbak? Thus saving some space on the cap whilst adding young talent on D and on the wing creating a bit more depth.

OR

Would you prefer to move Klefbom for Brendan Gallager straight across?

I’m sure some smartass out there is going to say neither and that’s fine. I’m just trying to create some banter.

COMPARING DRAFT RANKINGS

In the last seven days, I’ve managed to purchase the draft guides from The Hockey News, ISS  (International Scouting Services), and HockeyProspects.com (The Black Book) and I can tell you that I like each and every one but for different reasons.

The Hockey News ($6.99) – I like it because it’s visually pleasing. It offers a lot of articles and the scouting reports aren’t too long. Also covers a few prospects from the next two drafts briefly. I’m a big fan of comparables and each player up to a certain number is given one be it an NHL player comp or a positional/depth comp. Only 100 profiles though…

ISS ($10) – This is my first year purchasing the ISS draft guide and what I noticed off the bat was it was quite easy to read. Meaning the words weren’t too small that I had to get up close to read them whereas The Hockey News’ guide, the words were a tad tiny to try and fit all the reports in. This guide included a 1st round mock draft, risers/sleepers, and a top-5 best/worst of different attributes like “stay-at-home dmen”, “puck protection”, “underrated/overrated”. I also liked how they graded different skills on every player. Things like competitiveness, hockey IQ, and physical play were shown on a scale from below-average to elite. The downside to this is that the reports only to 110 players including goalies but the rankings go to 200. They also go into team draft histories five years deep.

THE BLACK BOOK ($50) – This is THE most in-depth draft guide available. It’s not flashy by any means as it’s all text. No mock drafts, no top-5 lists, it’s straight to business but it’s huge. 667 pages deep to be more specific. The one thing that Hockey Prospects does that I find rad is they include the game reports at the end so you can read what the scouts had to say about a specific player in a specific game. Another thing that they give the reader is actual quotes from scouts be they Hockey Prospect scouts or NHL scouts. Lastly, there’s one thing that annoys me about this guide, the scouting reports go in alphabetical order instead of the order of their ranking.

So depending on what kind of draft nut you are and how much money you’re willing to spend, all three I’d recommend.

I just wanted to give you that preface before getting into what these publications have the Oilers taking with their draft picks. Now, McKenzie and The Hockey News only have up three rounds of players to view and ISS and the Black Book have all 7 rounds available. Therefore two out of the four guides will allow us to see a bit more than the other two.

So let’s get into this. 

The Oilers have the following selections in the upcoming draft,

  • 10th
  • 40th
  • 71st
  • 133rd
  • 164th
  • 195th

As you can see there’s a jump from 71st to 133rd, the 4th rounder belongs to Montreal due to the Al Montoya trade.

Below are the players that each of the draft guides above PLUS Bob McKenzie has in those spots where the Oilers will be drafting.

Selection THN Bob McKenzie ISS Hockey Prospects
10 Ty Smith (LD) Adam Boqvist (RD) Joe Veleno (C) Evan Bouchard (RD)
40 Adam Ginning (LD) Jacob Olofsson (C) Danila Galenyuk (LD) Jake Wise (C)
71 Egor Sokolov (LW) Allan McShane (C) Kody Clark (RW) Milos Roman (C)
133 Billy Moskal (C) Erik Portillo (G)
164 Dan Kowalczyk (LD) Blade Jenkins (LW)
195 Linus Nyman (RW) Isaac Johnson (RW)

How wide open is that? No overlap whatsoever eh? This draft is going to be a lot of fun!

If you had to pick one, which group would you go with?

Personally, I’m drawn to how McKenzie’s is starting. I’m real high on Boqvist and I hear good things about Olofsson. McShane is not a player I’m familiar with but Hockey Prospects have him as an undersized playmaker with a quick release and good anticipation defensively.

But that Hockey Prospects group has some nice names in there. I’d have no issues if the Oilers selected Bouchard at all. A right-handed dman who has been labeled as one of the best passers in the draft is fine with me. Jake Wise is a name that has climbed up the rankings over the year. He’s a guy with great vision and passing skills. A very hard worker and he’s a 200ft player. Milos Roman is a name I’ve read now and then online and from what I can gather his skating is deceptively good. He’s a very cerbral player and he’s a very responsible player at both ends of the ice.

Your thoughts?

We’ve got some pretty rad draft videos up at the Beer League Heroes YouTube page. Please, go check them out and if ya can, subscribe to our channel and that way you’ll be the first to know when a new video is up!

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Around the Oilogosphere – May 4th Edition – Hurricanes’ #2 Overall Pick Available According to McKenzie, USA Downs Canada, Remenda on Oilers Fans, and Many NHL Rumors

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I hope you had a chance to take in that Canada/USA game World Championships game. Boy, it was a beauty! Connor McDavid and Matt Barzal were smiling like butcher’s dogs with so much room out there and they were electrifying!

Sadly Team Canada didn’t get much support from its goaltending and defense.

Darcy Kuemper looked like an AHL goalie and Darnell Nurse got caught out a couple of times on a bad pinch that resulted in goals against.

Canada plays Korea next on Sunday… What?! Korea?

BYE BYE AUVITU

Yohann Auvitu is off to Europe and that’s a shame. I really liked his game once he got comfortable. He moved the puck the right way and was a Coffey-like threat on the rush.

Unfortunately, Todd McLellan didn’t feel the same way. He never put Auvitu in a position to succeed (*cough* THE POWERPLAY *cough) and in my opinion didn’t allow himself to gain the trust in this player.

I truly feel that if McLellan had given Auvitu some more leash that the Frenchman would’ve been able to replace Andrej Sekera…

Everybody says the Oilers lacked a puck moving defenseman last year. No, they didn’t. They had one right under their noses…

HURRICANES MAKE #2 OVERALL AVAILABLE

On this week’s Bobcast, Bob McKenzie told us that the rumor was that after the 3 finalists for the 1,2,3 spots in the draft were drawn (at the draft lottery) during the break Carolina was very much interested in letting the league know that if they won the 1st overall pick it would be available for the right price.

Now once the draft lottery was over and the order had been said, Tom Dundon made it known that the no.2 was very much up for grabs and that they were going to consider all of their options according to McKenzie.

The kicker to all of this is Rick Dudley being hired away from the Montreal Canadiens, to be their VP of hockey ops.

In a 5-year span, Rick Dudley traded the 1st overall pick THREE TIMES according to Bob McKenzie. Between 1999 and 2003 Dudley moved that pick thricely.

  • 1999: Tampa Bay had the #1 pick and traded it to Vancouver for the #4, #75, and #88. Was all part of the Sedinery as McKenzie calls it because Vancouver found a way to move it in order to be able to select both Sedin brothers. Atlanta ended up with the 1st overall and picked Patrik Stefan.
  • 2002: Florida had the #1 but didn’t want to take Rick Nash, they wanted Bouwmeester, so they flipped picks and the option to swap 1st rounders in 2003 (that wasn’t exercised) with Columbus if Florida wanted. Interesting side note here is that Dudley sent two more picks to Atlanta (a 3rd rounder in 2002 and a 4th rounder in 2003) in order for them NOT to draft Bouwmeester at no.2.
  • 2003: Florida had the #1 and traded it along with the #73 to Pittsburgh for #3, #55, and Mikael Samuelsson. FLA took Horton 3rd overall and PIT took MA Fleury 1st overall.

The Bobfather says that historically teams haven’t been willing to pay huge prices to move up because the teams further down the draft order aren’t willing to pay a massive premium to get up to no.2 because the player they take at no.2 isn’t all that different than the player they’ll get at 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, or 8th overall.

But is this year different? The Hurricanes are positioning themselves in way that hints to them moving that pick and as McKenzie tells us during the podcast, Rick Dudley was working very hard on the draft for the Canadiens before leaving for Carolina. So he’s going to have a deep knowledge of this year’s crop of players coming in. Moving down and pickup up more selections makes sense.

Now, how does this tie in with the Oilers?

Well, like it or not Oilers fans, Peter Chiarelli has been active at every draft he’s run for Edmonton. Be that talking about hockey trades or moving up in the draft, he’s had his nose in the thick of things every year and I don’t see this as any different.

IF Chiarelli wants to rid himself of some salary, he could do it here BUT it wouldn’t be a contract like Russell, Lucic, or Sekera. It’d be a Ryan Nugent-Hopkins or a Leon Draisaitl in my opinion. I talked a bit about this yesterday (link).

I’m not saying I’d support a trade of that magnitude but the Hurricanes need a no.1 and I think that RNH or Leon would be that in the Eastern Conference. The Oilers could use to shed a few dollars and add depth on the wing. Svechnikov or Zadina will score 20 goals next year for sure. Would it be more on McDavid’s wing?

You can work out a trade proposal yourself but there are a few teams who are looking to shake their foundations, Carolina, Ottawa, and Buffalo. If the Oilers were smart, they’d be trying to fleece those guys.

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OILERS NEWS

Oilers at the Worlds: McDavid watching shootout from sin bin encapsulates a mixed bag on Day One

Should Oilers Go for Justin Faulk?

Drew Remenda talks Oilers coaches, fans hating him, and broadcasting notes from Sportsnet

Woodcroft discusses his first Head Coaching job

Yet a third Euro leaves Edmonton Oilers as Yohann Auvitu heads back (towards) home

NHL RUMORS

NHL Rumors: Blues and Sharks … Evander Kane’s Pending Free Agency

NHL Rumors: 2018 Draft Picks In Play and Players Who Could Be Moved This Offseason

NHL Rumors: Coyotes, Hurricanes and Senators

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