Tag Archives: Brian Boyle

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

Oilers talking to Patrick Marleau, Tyler Pitlick, and Brian Boyle

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Are you getting ready for the most exciting part of the offseason where the free agent courting period begins and the Oilers rumors start flying high and hard?

But just a preface before getting into what I was told.

I’m not an insider per se. What I mean by that is, just as most people back home in Canada or the United States, they know people who know people involved with hockey clubs. I’m just lucky enough to know a few people close to the Oilers organization and I just relay what I’m told. Nothing more and nothing less. Is any of it true? I’m of the belief that a percentage of it is.

Now, you don’t have to take what you read here as the gospel and I’m sure that none of you will because not everything that I’m told comes to fruition as negotiations can change at the flip of a switch. So at the very least, take what you read here today as entertainment, water cooler talk if you will and if what you read here on Beer League Heroes comes true someday, high fives all around!

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This came in late last night from one of my sources (who is neither Garfield nor Tracy Lane but she’s “reporting” it as well on Twitter):

“Todd McLellan is talking to Marleau about the possibility of signing with Edm. But, Oilers brass really likes boyle. Boyle is supposed to come for a private visit (No media) on Tuesday or Thursday. As for Pitlick, Oilers are definitely interested in bringing him back, but it’s believed that he DOES want to test the market. See what nibbles he gets.”

I asked about dollars and term and the response was thus:

“Marleau would be a 2 year term probably. Looking at atleast $3M per. Atleast. If not, more. This is Patrick Marleau were talking about”

“Pitlick is looking at a 2 or 3 year deal. If edm only offers another 1 year, he’s gone. I believe he’s looking for $2M-$2.5M on that term“

I don’t think that the Oilers can afford to sign Pitlick for that price point and that’s too bad. I really like him.

I didn’t really get anything with regards to contract details on Boyle but I was curious how these contracts might hit the salary cap and was offered this bit of insight:

“Oilers can offer max $3.5M.”

“If you only go 2 years. Any longer than that, it’ll f*ck your cap.”

“Still have to sign Kassian too. And find a stop gap D. 3-4 names for stop gap D are Stone, Franson, Wideman and 1 more.”

So that means the team is most likely out on Nick Bonino because he’ll be getting around $4M or more, right?

My Thoughts:

  • I think this would be an outstanding move. If Marleau could come in on a 2yr deal @3.5M and replace Eberle’s points for two and a half million dollars cheaper… Beauty.
  • Imagine the wealth of playoff knowledge and experience that would come along with a Patrick Marleau.
  • And this is a player that turns it on during the post-season as opposed to the player that was just sent to Brooklyn. 120 points in 172 games played in the playoffs. That is bloody good my friends.
  • I think a lot of people would be worried about the faceoffs and how Marleau has been a winger more often than a centre in his career. Well, his career FO% is 51.3 and that’s a number I can accept.
  • Between Boyle and Marleau, it’s a tough call isn’t it? There’ll be more teams lining up for the “younger” and bigger Boyle for sure. Hard to say if the Oilers could get him to sign for under $3.5M and only for a couple of years though.
  • Patrick Marleau, on the other hand, is closer to 40 years old than 30 and has a history with Todd McLellan. He can still skate and he can still put points on the board but what is more important right now, production or size + elite faceoff abilities?
  • The Oilers nearly made it to the conference finals without a stud on the dot right? But there were nights when they could’ve used a bit more production.

So stay tuned folks. Silly season is upon us!

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

Today’s Oilers Rumours: My Take

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The Edmonton Oilers bye week is upon us and not that we’ve got 5 days of no Oilers hockey there’s not a lot going on in the rumor mill these days regarding the Oilers so what we’re seeing is some fan fiction being tossed about on Twitter. Today, we had two instances, one coming from Alan Hull (Copper and Blue) and another from Josh Marshall (I know you’re asking yourself, who? It’s fine, you’re not the only one wondering.) and I’m going to offer my commentary on both if you please. If you don’t, go here.

Let’s start with the more notable of the two.

I think Brain Boyle must be Brian Boyle’s smarter cousin or it could just be a typo. Anyways, I don’t think that the Lightning are looking to deal for Davidson. Reason being, they have younger dmen who are equally as good, if not better AND they have three actual NHL defenders on the left side in Hedman, Garrison, and Coburn. Yes, Brandon Davidson can play the right side but even there Tampa has Stralman, Sustr, and Witkowski. One would have to argue if Davidson is better than Witkowski IF that was even an option. Jon Cooper likes his righty/lefty pairings on D. You can check out their organizational depth

You can check out their organizational depth here.

From an Oilers perspective, this would be a steal of a deal. Edmonton would get their BIG strapping centre who’s good on the dot, it would give them some more centre depth, and he’s very experienced playoff in the post-season. Being a 32-year old UFA at the end of the year wouldn’t worry them one bit.

From a Tampa Bay expansion perspective, the Lightning are a tad screwed. Stralman, Hedman, Garrison, and Coburn all have no-movement clauses and to add to that group on forward are Ryan Callahan, Valtteri Filppula, and Steven Stamkos. So that is 7 players they need to protect and automatically are forced into the 4-4-1 format for the expansion draft unless one or more of them agree to waive their clause. One of those players could do that this month and make Steve Yzerman’s job a bit easier too. In that scenario, MAYBE Davidson

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becomes a member of the Lightning.

So I call BS on Mr.Marshall’s “breaking news”.

Alex Thomas from the Oilers Rig also offered his take on this rumour here. Thomas’ coverage of the rumour is tight and worth a read but it’s this one sentence that irks me a bit.

Tampa Bay is in desperate need of young defenders

This is simply not true. If you look at the link above and check out their org. depth, you’ll see that of the left-handed defenseman in the Lightning’s pipeline that there are players like Slater Koekkoek, Dominek Masin, and Jonathan Racine playing in the AHL. We could add to them the Saskatoon Blades’ Libor Hajek. So they’re not “desperate” by any means. Could they get younger, YES! Coburn and Garrison are in the latter halves of their careers and not getting any faster.

I agree with Thomas, in that the Oiler should pull the trigger, I just don’t see it as realistic.

HULL OF A EFFORT

To NYI:Jordan Eberle (RW) & Kris Russell (D)

To EDM:Travis Hamonic (D) & Jaroslav Halak (G)

This is a fan proposal from Copper and Blue and if you can’t see the plethora of wrong in it already, we may have a problem, Houston.

The whole proposal is banking on the Oilers picking up a goal-scoring right winger. If the Oilers made this trade, and Hull certainly does a fine job trying to sell you on it, they’d be behind the 8-ball again. Just like in the summer when they traded Hall. I like the Hall trade more than ever now and perhaps that deal might not be viewed as trading from a bad position today but it really did in the summer and this is not the kind of place you want to be trading from because the other GMs will eat you alive.

They also get Kris Russell, who, I’ve been among the largest critics of, though I have always maintained he was a legitimate NHL Dman. Russell’s inclusion is a short-term plug for the hole left by the loss of Hamonic.

It’s not surprising to see Hull include Russell in such a proposal, his allegiance to Matt Henderson does nothing to help. But with that said, swapping Russell for Hamonic would be an upgrade for the Oilers and I’ve advocated for Halak being the Oilers backup before. Of course, my proposal was that the Oilers trade Pouliot for him… Not sure if that is any better than the above.

Is Travis Hamonic not a less skilled version of Adam Larsson though? I wanted to say grittier but Larsson has shown us this year that he’s no shrinking violet and he’s been consistently healthy (knock on wood). He also cost the team Taylor Hall. #ThePriceYouHaveToPay

Bottom line is, Hull makes a semi-compelling argument but the Oilers defense is performing fine, in fact, better than fine. According to NHL.com, the Oilers are 10th in the NHL in goals against. Last season the Oilers finished 27th…

So adding anything more than a Shattenkirk-type to aid the PP is redundant. Taking away from the RW with the “hopes” of adding to it is pie in the sky thinking. Are the Islanders in a position to be removing such a strong part of their defense in return for offense?

So adding anything more than a Shattenkirk-type to aid the PP is redundant. Taking away from the RW with the “hopes” of adding to it is pie in the sky thinking. Are the Islanders in a position to be removing such a strong part of their defense in return for offense?

I’d love to add Travis Hamonic and Jaro Halak to the team but in my opinion, take it for what you will, it doesn’t work without both teams making other moves first and that’s the kicker. It’s hard enough to make a trade in the NHL today but to have not just one team but two teams move multiple pieces around so they can make this one deal, it simply doesn’t fly.  I’d argue that the Islanders would rather add a player like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins anyhow and then restructure the roster to fit around a 1-2 Tavares/RNH punch.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!

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