Tag Archives: Brad Malone

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

2019/20 Edmonton Oilers: New Rumor PLUS Bakersfield and Edmonton Add Roster Flexibility With New Signings

The signings are coming in fast and furious these days as the Edmonton Oilers and Bakersfield Condors keep some key players in the fold, in addition to adding some fresh new talent out of Sweden. Bakersfield Condors Re-Sign Two Vets

Assistant GM Keith Gretzky did the parent club a solid by getting veteran Condors Brad Malone and Luke Esposito to sign two-year extensions with the Oilers’ AHL affiliate. The key to these deals being that they’re AHL contracts and will not count against Edmonton’s 50-man limit thus giving Ken Holland some more room to work with when the time comes.

Similar to a player like Josh Currie (also a UFA and someone I expect the Oilers to re-sign given his significance to that team and the community), Malone and Esposito are very important to Jay Woodcroft’s team as they are highly-regarded and well-respected minor league players who will no doubt have a very positive effect on the younger players that will be playing in Bakersfield for the next couple of seasons like Raphael Lavoie, Kirill Maksimov, Ryan McLeod, Evan Bouchard, and Dmitri Samorukov.

Gretzky has been busy this off-season with signings. Since the AHL season was put on hold he’s signed Liam Folkes (RW), Janis Jaks (D), Devin Brousseau (F), and Blake Christiansen (LW).

Here are some notes on Brad Malone and Luke Esposito courtesy of BakersfieldCondors.com,

BRAD MALONE (stats) – 30 years old, 6’2″, 217 lbs., Chatham, New Brunswick, Canada

  • A veteran of 583 professional games combined between the NHL and AHL
  • Over three seasons with the Condors, he has recorded 89 points (34g-55a) in 148 games
  • Was in the midst of his best AHL season in 2019-20 with 31 points (13g-18a) in 49 games
  • Led the Condors in the 2019 Calder Cup Playoffs with 13 points (5g-8a) in 10 games
  • Has served as an alternate captain during his Condors career
  • Appeared in 199 NHL games with Colorado, Carolina, and Edmonton

LUKE ESPOSITO (stats) – 26 years old, 5’10”, 183 lbs., Andover, Massachusetts

  • Has played 150 AHL games over three seasons (two with Bakersfield) and has 57 points (15g-42a)
  • Led the 2019-20 Condors with two shorthanded goals
  • Second on the 2019-20 Condors with two game-winning goals
  • Went to the Calder Cup Playoffs in his first two AHL seasons (2019 w/BAK, 2018 w/GR)
  • Two-time ECAC Champion at Harvard University (2017, 2015) and was named to the 2017 ECAC All-Tournament Team

Lennstrom and Haas Sign with Oilers

You had to know something was going to drop given how much chatter there was going on with regards to Gaetan Haas last week on Oilers talk radio and this week the Swiss forward took a 10k paycut to sign a one-way one-year deal worth 915k with the club.

I talked about it earlier, but I really like having Haas on this team. It’s probably a bit silly to say given his nationality but he really is a bit of a Swiss army knife on the ice and possibly even more so going forward. I wonder if he might get some time on the second powerplay unit (a place he was well familiar with during his time in the Swiss league) given his ability to tip pucks as well as more time on the second penalty-killing unit.

That said, before any of that happens, he needs to get stronger and better on the faceoffs. He’s got the speed, the skills, and the processor to play the NHL game but he gets knocked around out there quite easily and loses battles that he should be winning. A bit of added strength and a sturdier core would go a long way I believe.

At the moment, Haas is back in Switzerland with his significant other recuperating from finger surgery awaiting instructions from the team.

Last time I spoke about Teddy Lennstrom I said that it was my belief that he’ll be depth for Edmonton’s AHL team in Bakersfield and I still believe that even with the news that was passed on to me yesterday.

Unless Ken Holland is thinking of shaking up his defense in a major way, I can’t see Lennstrom beating Oscar Klefbom, Darnell Nurse, Caleb Jones, William Lagesson, or Dmitri Samorukov for a spot on the Oilers defense patrolling the left side. Right now, Bakersfield has Samorukov as its sole left-side defender because we’re under the impression that Philip Broberg will be staying in Sweden for another year and that William Lagesson will be on the Oilers roster unless Edmonton trades him or is okay with losing him via waivers next year. Keegan Lowe and Brandon Manning are UFAs.

RUMOR

I was told, Kris Russell‘s time as an Edmonton Oiler could be coming to an end when the 2019/20 NHL season is concluded.

Ken Holland will be looking to move the veteran defender in a cost-cutting move and there is possible interest in the shot-blocking king from teams in the Eastern Conference.

Now, Russell as a M-NTC, NMC in his current deal and will need to pass on a 15-team trade list before the season starts. He’ll only be making $1.5M in real money next season but will be a $4M cap-hit for the team acquiring him.

Maybe a team like Ottawa would take a swing at him given that they’ll need to hit the cap floor. Plus they’ll have 39-year-old Ron Hainsey turning UFA and his last deal was worth $3.5M and the Sens aren’t going anywhere fast (even if they do win the draft lottery and select Alexis Lafreniere and Quinton Byfield).

The Sens also have a shite ton of draft picks to part with and speaking of teams with lots of draft picks who like gritty older defenders, the Montreal Canadiens intrigue me as another possible option. I reckon Rusty would be an upgrade on Xavier Ouellet and Brett Kulak and the Habs would only have to give up one of their three 4th round picks or one of their two 5th rounders.

I’m just speculating on trade partners and I would venture to say that anything else that’s being posted on the socials is just the same. With that in mind, anything could happen between now and whenever NHL teams are allowed to make trades again.

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Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, NHL Entry Draft, Prospects, Rumors, Trades

Oilers Trade Landscape to Change with Injury to Nugent-Hopkins?

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Poor Nugey, out with a fractured sternum, which is ridiculous by the way. The Oilers, and more importantly Todd McLellan, are now forced to go with McDavid and Draisaitl down the middle. Iiro Pakarinen is back up from his destruction of the AHL to hopefully help on the PK (at home).

FYI: Lowetide has a similar post up at the Athletic. If you’re not signed up, do so through my link here and I’ll get a tidy little gift certificate for $10 from Amazon and a hardy handshake from me if we ever meet. It includes a free 7-day trial so you can try The Athletic on for size free and see if they enjoy the in-depth, ad-free coverage on the site. If you don’t feel it’s worth the $4.49/month, cancel anytime during the trial before getting charged.

I just want to answer the question presented in the title quickly and if you’d like to read on to get a more detailed answer (albeit a bit unorganized), you can continue. It’s game day and I’d rather not waste TOO much of your time, that’s what we have Oilers Twitter for 🙂

Answer: RNH’s injury will not change the Oilers trade landscape. If there’s a team that wants him and is willing to pay, he’ll be traded. IF not, he’ll be an Oiler after the deadline and most likely into next season. This isn’t a playoff team today but ask me in a month and we might have a different answer because if there’s any team in the NHL that is capable of winning 85% of their remaining games, it’s this Oilers squad.

So, we’re about to see what the team might look like sans RNH but with Leon and Connor running their own shows. If I’m not mistaken I believe the latest line combos have Strome as the 3rd line pivot and Letestu as the 4C. I would prefer Khaira to be the 3C myself but I believe it was Woodguy who said that Strome should actually move up with Caggiula to play with McDavid on Lowetide’s show this week thus moving Puljujarvi and Lucic to Draisaitl’s line and Maroon down to RNH’s. That way the unicorns are still present but of course, that was before the extent of the RNH injury was known.

Speaking of Woodguy, I guess he’s not a fan of developing players…

Isn’t that a line of bullshit if you’d ever read one.

I’ve got time for McLeod but this is where the analytics community loses its traction with folks who are on the fence. Could you imagine if there was no Twitter to be a dick on?

Listen, if Nurse is already leading the team in scoring from the blueline, it’s obvious some offence is coming and whether that’s now or in 2 years, he’s going to get paid. Not giving him the reps to become a better dman would be an egregious error on management’s and/or the coach’s parts. This isn’t a 7 game “heater”, it’s a 46 game progression. Not only that but just because a player hasn’t played on the PP in his previous 3 years doesn’t mean he can’t do it now or he’s not equipped to do it. He doesn’t have to score goals to be an effective piece of the powerplay either as you’ll see below.

Moving on…

These are the lines as of practise yesterday:

The PP units have been altered slightly as well.

Now with Nuge out 5-6 weeks, how is that going to change what direction the Oilers go on the trade market and what kind of effect will his absence have on the Oilers’ roster?

Well, we can already see that the special teams units have been affected. The 2nd unit has no true playmaker but maybe that’s not such a huge deal. I put it out on Twitter and Kurt Leavins suggested that McLellan might just load up one unit and run that group for 1:30 of the 2-minute man-advantage. I remember back in the early 90s that the Pittsburgh Penguins would run Mario Lemieux’s unit for nearly the entire PP and it was so deadly that they were rarely out there for more that 1:30. The downside to this tactic might be having to run your bottom 6ers immediately after the PP and risk a bad matchup vs. the other team’s better players.

This season Ryan Nugent-Hopkins took over Jordan Eberle’s scoring, so we may very well get hit there too. That being said, Nuge only had two goals in the last month, so I might be wrong there.

The Oilers PK could take a hit as well. Nugent-Hopkins has been a mainstay on the kill since he joined the team and I find him to be a good penalty-killer. Will the road PK continue to be top-5 in the NHL with RNH on the IR?

On the other end of the spectrum here is an opportunity. When one player goes down with an injury, it opens up the door for another player to take advantage of the situation. I believe that most fans are thinking that person will be Ryan Strome. I think it will be Jujhar Khaira. But it’s entirely possible that it’ll be both.

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Bumping Strome up to the 1st unit PP might be exactly what he needs to kick start some production out of the guy and I really love Khaira on the PK. I think he’s just as good of a player as Benoit Pouliot in that role.

Where do the Oilers go from here with the trade deadline approaching fast?

I am of the belief there are two ways they can go:

  • Go for it! – Basically, try and do the improbable and make the playoffs. Make trades that’ll better the club more than weaken it.
  • FIRE SALE! – Concede the season and make plans for the summer and next season.

There’s actually a third way to go and that’s simply staying status quo.

There’s a belief that the Oilers really need that right-handed PP guy who can improve the Oilers’ transition game but if we look at some of the teams who have top PPs we might be tempted to believe that a top RH’d defenseman isn’t what the team needs for its PP but more for its transitions.

2017/18 Top PP Teams (PP%/goals):

  1. Pittsburgh (26.9%/46) – 3 goals from dmen (Letang has 2, Oleksiak has 1)
  2. Winnipeg (25.5%/42) – 4 goals from dmen (Myers has 3, Byfuglien has 1)
  3. Tampa Bay (24.4%/39) – 3 goals from dmen (Sergachev has 2, Hedman has 1)
  4. Nashville (23.6%/38) – 12 goals from dmen (Josi has 5, Ekholm has 4, Subban has 3)
  5. San Jose (22.1%/34)- 7 goals from dmen (Burns has 4, Heed has 2, Vlasic has 1)

Edmonton’s PP is 27th in the NHL and running at a blistering 15.4% and they’ve only scored 19 times with the man advantage with Oscar Klefbom scoring the only tally from the point on said PP.

Kind of a long way of saying that maybe the Oilers don’t need to pay a premium price for an effective RH’d defenseman who can run the PP. Maybe if they’re going to make a big move using a Nugent-Hopkins or a Klefbom, that they go for an elite RH’d 2-way defender who is an upgrade on the current personnel offensively.

But I digress (sort of). Despite Nugent-Hopkins being hurt, there’d still be teams interested in him, like the Montreal Canadiens, the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Arizona Coyotes, and the Carolina Hurricanes.

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A wild card might be the Colorado Avalanche though. Now that they’ve got Samuel Girard running their PP due to Tyson Barrie’s injury, is there an opportunity there for the Avs to send Barrie to Edmonton for RNH to upgrade their 2C position from Carl Soderberg?

The Boston Bruins are looking to add a LH’d dman apparently and if it weren’t for the strained relationship between Chiarelli and the Bruins brass, I’d think there would be a real chance at Chiarelli being able to strike a deal there.

Those would be summer moves though.

Realistically, the UFAs are gonzo. I’m not sure if Slepyshev will find a new home next month or head back to Russia this summer. So what we’ll be looking at is Chiarelli thinning out the wings even more so and replacing those players with temporary solutions with an eye to the summer where he’ll (if he’s around) sort out the flanks then.

Does that mean Ty Rattie and Brad Malone are coming up from Bakersfield? Does it mean we’ll finally see Slepyshev (if he survives the deadline and McLellan) up in a top-6 role? If those players were successful in their short stints, would you sit on them and look for them to continue their performances into 2017/18 or would you try to deal them or simply say thanks for helping out and let them walk?

If Chiarelli and his team decide to take a mulligan this year I’d be very excited to see who he brings in but concerned for the compete level of the team for the rest of the campaign. It’s been a bad luck year which keeps getting compounded with injuries like the one to RNH.

Would you be okay if he moved out some of the youthful players who are RFAs this summer like Drake Caggiula or Matt Benning in return for some older players who have term left on their deals? Maybe you trade both for Andrew Shaw or simply one of them for Charles Hudon (sniper with a poor sh%).

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