Tag Archives: Brent Seabrook

Beer League Hero, Brennen York, Corey Mitchell, NHL, Sunday Night Pint, Zach Laing

BLH Sunday Night Pint #3

Welcome ladies and Gents to another Beer League Heroes Sunday Night Pint! If this is your first time frequenting the weekly SNP let me tell you what you’re in for. Hard hitting questions regarding the Edmonton Oilers! It’s not all serious though, we toss in a bit of fun at the end to lighten the mood.

This week we’ve got the wonderful Corey Mitchell (@corn-cwm) joining us, Zach Laing (@loweded) is driving this beast and riding shotgun is our Draft Guru, Brennen York (@draftgeekdotca)! We’re going to be touching on Leon Draisaitl, the Calgary Flames, and the playoffs! Also, what does the perfect hockey player look like?

 

Is Leon Draisaitl Part of the Team in 5 Years?

CM – McDavid has changed everything with this team, including Draisaitl’s place on the roster. I’m strongly of the opinion that Drats should be playing this whole upcoming season in the AHL. He benefits more playing a 1C or 2C role in the AHL than he would playing third line winger with the Oilers. That being said, the top two spots in the middle are locked up long term, as I can’t see McDavid or Nuge going anywhere. So where does that leave Drats? As much flak as I might get for this, it leaves him as trade bait. If it comes down to him and Lander competing for the 3C slot, I think Lander is much more suited to the role, and will cost less to lock up long term than Drats will. So in five years, is Drats an Oiler? I’m guessing unless he becomes world class like McDavid and Nuge, he’ll have become the centre piece, pardon the pun, in a trade that makes the Oilers a serious contender.

ZL – Definitely. I foresee him moving to the wing and being a dominant top 6 player for the Oilers for years to come.

BY – With the lack of sizeable forwards in the organization I would say yes. He was unfairly rushed into the NHL last season, and we didn’t get to see the dominant game he possesses. Five years from now he’s going to be too good to be a third line center, so it’s a question of whether or not Ryan Nugent Hopkins is traded. If he is (in a package for a defenceman), then LD takes over that spot quite easily, if not then he fills in the second line left wing spot.

BLH – In 5 years the Oilers are going to be contending with some mad contracts. Every notable player on the team will have been extended and not cheaply. I think we’ll see Leon playing for the Oilers at the expense of maybe Nail Yakupov and/or Jordan Eberle. His size, his ability to protect the puck and his vision are all things I believe the Oilers would be better off having.

What Will it Take to Make This Team a Legitimate Playoff Contender?

CM – There’s work to be done, that’s for sure. But the easiest answer to this question is experience. This team needs to learn what it takes to win together. And then they need to learn what it means to lose together. Yes, they have already experienced losing. Too much, in fact. But they haven’t lost in the playoffs yet. I look back to the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2007. After losing to the Senators in the first round that year, I didn’t see disappointment on the Pens bench. I saw determination. I saw Crosby talking to Gary Roberts and Mark Recchi, asking what it would take to reach the next level. The following year, they made it to the Cup Finals, and won the Cup the year after that. Much like those Penguins, and even the Oilers in the 80’s, this team needs to learn what losing in the playoffs means, so they can learn what winning in the playoffs gains.

ZL – A little bit of luck, and a lot of hard work. I don’t believe the Oilers are very far out of being a playoff team. However, I think this team needs a few years (2-3) to gel and for a lot of the players to get their legs underneath themselves. I do think the team needs another solid top 4 defender to help round things out.

BY – Defence. Plain and simple. If you look back at the previous Stanley Cup Champions (Chicago, LA), their top two or three defenders have all been homegrown draft picks. That being said I think the most critical thing the Oilers have to do to become a contender is develop Darnell Nurse and Oscar Klefbom. Along with the development of the defence, I still feel the right side is something that’s been forgotten about. Grabbing a guy like Dougie Hamilton would’ve meant playoffs sooner than later, so if they go out and grab a top flight right defenceman, I believe the process of making playoffs will be much quicker.

BLH – Brent Seabrook and David Backes. I’m of the belief that the team is STILL too young and is lacking players that play in an assertive manner. The experience that Seabrook and Backes would bring to the team would be felt instantly in the squad and in the standings.

Are the Flames still the Oilers biggest rivals?

CM – After the moves both teams made this summer, the Battle of Alberta should be alive and well. But to say the Flames are the Oilers biggest rivals? I’m not sure about that. Not yet. The Flames have been running the Oilers show the last few years, much like every other team in the NHL. Hard to say it’s a rivalry when it’s been so one sided. From a fans point of few, and mine, it’s got to be the Canucks. Whenever the Oilers and Canucks play, twitter blows up with absolute resentment for Vancouver. But as for an official rivalry? We need to get some deep seeded hatred through playoff series, much like when Edmonton would face Dallas yearly. The new format should help with that, and with teams in the Pacific Division all improving, we should be treated to some of that soon

ZL – Living in Calgary, let me tell you that whenever I wear my Oilers gear around town I have people giving me slack. The rivalry is still there.

BY – Not right now, but they will be. I believe the Canucks are the Oilers biggest rivals given the Kassian incident, the Nuge – Hamhuis fight, and the fact there always seems to be some tension in the air when they come together. That will change quickly given the additions to both the Oilers and Flames roster and it will be exciting to watch.

BLH – Oh yeah! Both teams are young and are on the up swing. I love the idea of McDavid going head to head with Sam Bennett. Nuge going up against Monahan. Hall vs. Gaudreau, Nurse vs. Hamilton… It’s on like Donkey Kong but I don’t know if we’ll ever see the viciousness that was displayed in the 80s.

Using Attributes From Players Past and Present, How Would You Build the Perfect Hockey Player?

CM – Gretzky’s vision, Coffey’s skating, Lemieux’s size, Smytty’s character, Weber’s shot, Pronger’s nastiness, and Pat Kane’s skill

ZL – Someone (on Oilers Now) was quoted as saying Connor McDavid has the speed of Bure, skill of Lemieux and the head of Gretzky. I think that sounds like a pretty good hockey player to me.

BY – Can I just clone Connor McDavid and give him Pronger’s size and nastiness? That would be fun to watch. If I were to pick apart different players best assets I couldn’t pass up on P.K. Subban’s mindset. He’s such a smart player and brings this excitement factor not every player has. I’d mix in some of RNH’s skills (he’s going to have a big year), and I’d also throw in Brendan Gallagher’s give-a-shit levels. Throw all that into Jaromir Jagr’s body and you’ll have one hell of a player.

BLH – The perfect player would have Gretzky’s vision and passing, Lemieux’s hands, Paul Coffey’s skating, Bobby Hull’s shot and Brett Hull’s release. Said player would have Mark Messier’s character and Wendel Clark’s fearlessness. All of this would be packaged in the body of Gordie Howe.

Thank you for reading everyone and let us know in the comments below what your feelings are on the topics discussed today!

If you’re feeling chilly or nostalgic about the good ol’ days of NHL ’94! Head on over to the Beer League Heroes T-Shirt Shop and check out your favorite players in 16-bit! You won’t find a better price online!

You can always catch up with is on Twitter (@beerleagueheroe) and Facebook as well.

Take Care!

-BLH

Armchair GM, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Rob Cooke

Are the Edmonton Oilers Playoff Contenders Now?

9 Comments

     There is an enormous amount of talk on the Twittersphere right now about the Oilers attempting to negotiate a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks to land defensive stalwart Brent Seabrook. All that talk got me to thinking about what is realistic for the Oilers moving forward. I agree that adding Seabrook would be a tremendous boost and would make the team a playoff contender next season. But with that being said, I still don’t see Seabrook being moved. Although I can honestly say I didn’t think that Saad would be moved either. He would be a tremendous add to the team but that would be a best case scenario. While I would love to see him play in the blue and orange I just don’t see it as being realistic at this point.

That is my topic for the day, what is realistic going forward? I read a blog this morning from Richard Cloutier over at PrettySkateMachine and it got me to thinking about what fans should expect this coming season. If you want to read the post it is here. Now before I begin to discuss the post I need to make it perfectly clear that I DO NOT dislike Richard in any way. I respect his opinion and someday hope to be as widely followed as him. Truth be told, Richard is a big reason that I got into blogging in the first place. So if you hate my writing or whatever please direct all complaints to him. But in all seriousness, Richard and I don’t have any animosity between us and even though we rarely agree, we respect each others opinions and enjoy discussing the team. I read the post mentioned above and I agreed with virtually everything that he wrote in the piece with the exception being that the Oilers will be a playoff team in 2015-16.

I do think that the team will take an astronomical step forward this season but there are still far too many variables that need to break right in order for this team to see the second season. The Oilers were 35 points out of playoffs last season. Yes you read that right, 35 points! That is a huge number of points to make up in one season. While the Oilers got better this summer, dramatically better in fact, so did a lot of teams in the Western conference. To assume that the additions we made is enough is putting the cart before the horse in my opinion. Of course if the Oilers get the puck luck that the Flames had last season it is entirely possible but not probable. So what needs to happen for this much maligned franchise to see the post-season for the first time in a decade? A whole lot actually.

Cam Talbot has to be the bona fide starter that the team expects him to be, we cannot afford to have another goaltender issue like we have in the past couple of seasons. Talbot has to be able to steal games for this team and keep them in the games that they have no business being in. On top of that he is going to need to be able to handle the 60 plus game workload normally associated with being a true starting goalie. That is a ton of pressure to put on a guy that has played less than a hundred games in the NHL. Is he ready for it? I guess we will know in the coming months.

What else needs to happen? Well we need Andrej Sekera to play huge minutes for us on the top pairing and this season and do it well. Is he capable of it? Possibly but he is definitely better suited to be the number three defender on the . The unfortunate thing here is that the Oilers are again going to be forced to play the defense above their heads as we don’t have the real top pairing guys, a la Drew Doughty or Duncan Keith and we won’t see one coming this year either. That was a large part of the issue last season. All the defencemen were playing over their ability level and that is something that the good teams never do.

To me those are the two biggest factors moving forward this season. The goaltending needs to be much much better and the defense needs to be less chaotic and more efficient at moving the puck out of our zone. If both of those items break in the Oilers favor we could see hockey in late April again.

Now that I have framed the issue at hand lets look at what we know so far. We know that our star players will be our stars again. Hall, Nugent-Hopkins, and Eberle are all a year older and capable of handling the tougher competition. Benoit Pouliot, Nail Yakupov, Teddy Purcell, and Lauri Korpikoski will fill out the top nine wingers positions adequately if not spectacularly. Lander looks extremely capable of handling the third line center spot and chip in offensively on a consistent basis. The fourth line players like Mark Letestu, Matt Hendricks, and Rob Klinkhammer will be counted on to be sound defensively and little else. We also know that Oscar Klefbom is capable of playing top four minutes this year without quite as easy zone starts, depending on his partner. Dragging Schultz around again this year will virtually guarantee massive offensive zone starts if for no other reason than Schultz is a train wreck in the defensive zone. At this point barring other players joining the roster before training camp in September that is about all we can count on being true.

Of course I am leaving out the phenom and future league superstar Connor McDavid. The reason I am leaving him out for now is we don’t know just how well he will do this season. I fully expect him to be a finalist for the Calder trophy, but since the league seems to hate awarding trophies to Edmonton Oilers players, he will be runner-up to Jack Eichel from Buffalo. McDavid’s numbers will depend a lot on Todd McLellan and how much he decides to play the youngster. Richard states in his article that he feels that Connor could challenge for the Art Ross this season and depending on his minutes and zone starts it isn’t outside the realm of possibility. That would obviously be the best case scenario but it isn’t entirely unrealistic.

We know what we have so far and who can be counted on to be effective and consistent players moving forward. I am not going to get into exactly where I see the players finishing point wise as that would take away from future posts that I plan to write this summer. What I do want to look at is where I predict the Oilers will finish in the standings this season. Unlike Richard I don’t see Edmonton being quite there yet. To get into the playoffs last season in the west you needed a minimum of 97 points and that was just the wildcard berths. To be looked at as an actual contender would require 100 plus points and I am sorry Oilers but that just isn’t going to happen. Especially with the Oilers atrocious record against the west last season. Edmonton finished the season 20 games below .500 and to me that is just too much ground to make up in one off-season.  If we are  being realistic and even a little optimistic, I know that is hard for us Oilers fans, I could see maybe 15 more wins next season. That adds 30 points to our total from last year and while it is a massive increase it still isn’t enough to take us to the promised land. I see Edmonton finishing ninth or tenth next season which while not appeasing the franchises need for playoff it does mean meaningful games into March and I for one would be completely okay with that!

What do you think? Has Chiarelli done enough of a transformation to this team to make the playoffs? Where do you see the boys finishing this year? Hit me up in the comments section or on twitter, @cooke_rob, with your thoughts on this or any other hockey related topic. I am always up for a good discussion. Thanks for reading Beer Leaguers and please spread the word about our fantastic little site here!

Cheers!

Rob

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

McDavid Day Rumblings

Happy McDavid Day! I just want to get out a quick post about some Oilers pre-draft roster rumblings before I head to bed. It’s blistering evening here in Taipei.. Hot… Very hot…

What if I told you the defence of the Edmonton Oilers would start the season looking something like this:

Oscar Klefbom – Brent Seabrook
Martin Marincin – Mark Fayne
Barrett Jackman – Adam McQuaid
Darnell Nurse

Would that be something to perk the ears? Who would you rather pay top price for? Brent Seabrook or Dougie Hamilton? Would you be willing to buy out or take a bad deal to get rid of Andrew Ference and Nikita Nikitin? The bottom three names there just scare me looking at it. Not a trio of dmen I’d want to mess with. Older and more physical albeit but who’d you rather pay $4.5 million for, Nikitin or Jackman?

https://twitter.com/SportsnetSpec/status/614134509886435332

And What if I said the goaltending might look something like this:

Cam Talbot
Craig Anderson

You might say I’m crazy but how would you feel if that was your Oilers goaltending tandem going into 2015/16? Would you be happy to go without draft picks in the 2nd round for a couple seasons? I think I might.

As for the forwards, would these lines appeal to you?

Hall-RNH-Eberle
Pouliot-McDavid-Yakupov
Winnik-Lander-Beleskey
Henricks-Gordon-Klinkhammer

If the Oilers don’t go out there and grab Beleseky, you know the Flames are going to and I believe he’d be an awesome RW on the third line with Lander and Winnik. And I know that a lot of people are penciling in Draisaitl but I can’t, at this point, see him starting the year with the team. He’s better off starting in Bakersfield. What about Nurse? Well he’s a beast of phenomenal proportions. On my list he’s a no.7 but surely that wouldn’t last, injuries will catch up to someone ahead of him and that will be that.

Do you think it’s even possible to trade for Brent Seabrook, Cam Talbot and Craig Anderson and keep all the major pieces intact for next year? Would signing Daniel Winnik, Barrett Jackman, Adam McQuaid, and Matt Beleskey as well as re-signing Martin Marincin be too much?

What do you think Oilers fans? Is it all a bit hasty for one off-season? I fear it may be.

With that said, I hope you enjoy the draft! I can’t wait to wake up in the morning and see what all the fuss is about this 3rd jersey everyone is talking about. Will it be better than the Beer League Heroes official jersey?

Ok that’s all! Have a great day! If you’re going out to one of the draft parties, drink responsibly and don’t let one bad decision ruin McDavid Day.

Take Care!

-BLH

Armchair GM, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, NHL Entry Draft, Prospects, Rob Cooke, Rumors, Trades

Lowered Expectations

1 Comment

I have seen a lot, and been involved in more than a few, conversations about what could occur in Florida between Friday evening and supper time Saturday. It’s a no-brainer that Edmonton is going to select Connor McDavid with the first overall selection and that the heavens will open and all the angels rejoice at the rebirth of the saviour. Well maybe that last part won’t happen but McD is a lock to be in Oilers silks come June 26th. Every basement dwelling blogger, myself included if I had a basement, will be going insane with anticipation on Friday night watching the first round to see what will actually occur after this horrendously long off-season. Yes I know there are a ton of rumours flying around about the Oilers 16th overall pick and I for one am hoping that they turn out to be completely baseless and false. Most times I am seeing this pick mentioned in trade it involves acquiring goaltender Cam Talbot and I am adding my voice to the overwhelming number of Oilersnation faithful in saying that the guy just isn’t worth it! Don’t get me wrong the guy played fantastic down the stretch when the King went down but he has limited games played and I for one don’t feel comfortable paying that amount for an as of yet unproven goalie. Especially one on the final year of a contract that sees him reach unrestricted free agency should he be so inclined.

The rumour mongers are going absolutely ape shit like normal at this time of year and all I am here to ask is that fans and bloggers alike, please be realistic in your expectations for Friday night and early Saturday morning. Talbot very well could be acquired by Chiarelli but I think it is much more likely for the 33rd pick. No I am not including Marincin as I have seen some others do because again that is an overpay in my opinion and the Rangers are not in that strong of a position to demand it. The 16th overall pick, if moved at all, will be better spent on acquiring help on defense as that is the biggest hole that is going to be the hardest to fill. No we are not going to see Brent Seabrook or Brent Burns as Oilers next fall so don’t even bother suggesting it.

I have no idea who the team could be targeting with the pick if it is traded but should the team do the boring thing and use the selection there is a better than good chance that this will add another elite prospect to an already young franchise. That’s not necessarily a bad thing considering where the team finished last year and what we will likely see as far as improvement this coming season. When I am saying that people need to be realistic I’m not just talking about the upcoming draft and free agency. I am also including the 2015-16 NHL season. Last season the Oilers finished 35 points out of the playoffs in this league a deficit like that is nearly impossible to make up in one season. I mean teams have gone from bottom dweller to playoff team in one year, most recently the Colorado Avalanche in the 2013-14 season and the vastly over achieving Calgary Flames from this past season. Neither did much in the playoffs but at least they made it there is my thought. IS Edmonton going to be the odds defying team this season? They very well could be the belle of the ball but I really have my doubts on that. With the outside possibility that the team will actually bring in two legit defenders and a new starting goalie there could be a possibility but I don’t think Mr. Chiarelli finishes his shopping list this summer with another top defender hopefully joining the team next summer if Nurse and Klefbom don’t develop into the role first. I think that if we are being realistic and even a little optimistic we can expect a jump of roughly 25 points next year which unfortunately in the extremely deep western conference wouldn’t even move the team up 1 spot in the standings but would like see some meaningful hockey come February and March. And at this stage of the game that is really all that we can ask for!

I really hope that I am wrong and we do get the players we need this summer and go on a miracle run that takes us to the second season for the first time in a decade. God knows that the fans sure deserve it but when have what us fans deserve ever entered into the equation? If you think I’m wrong let me know. What do you expect to happen over the next couple of weeks as we pass the draft and head into free agency? Hit me up in the comments or get at me on twitter, @cooke_rob. Until next time Beer Leaguers!