Tag Archives: Edmonton Oiler Rumors

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

An Opportunity is Bruin that Ken Holland Shouldn’t Pass Up On!

Coming from an Edmonton Oilers point of view, BLH provides you with the latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation from all of the internet’s best sites including Spector’s Hockey, The Fourth Period, NHL Trade Talk, The Hockey Writers, Sportsnet, The Athletic, TSN and more!

From NHLTradeRumors.me

2 Boston Bruins Likely to be Traded this Summer

  • Jake DeBrusk: The 24-year-old hasn’t been able to find a steady home in Bean Town and once again finds himself within some trade chatter. DeBrusk recorded only 14 points in 41 games and was often seeing his ice-time reduced. The former first-round pick has one year left on his contract, paying him $3.675 million. Look for the Edmonton Oilers to come calling this summer.
  • Ondrej Kase: The 25-year-old is headed to restricted free-agency this summer and his next contract isn’t likely coming from the Bruins. Kase hasn’t done much since arriving in Boston via Anaheim and it’s likely management cuts ties with him this summer. In the season and a half Kase has been a Bruin, he’s only managed to be healthy enough to play in 20 games, recording nine assists. Tough trade when you acquire someone and they haven’t scored in almost two years….

(LINK)

BLH’s Thoughts: Sign me up for some Jake DeBrusk in Edmonton. In Boston’s loss to the Islanders last night, I thought he started the game fantastically. He was engaged and going to all the right areas to get chances and give the Isles defenders fits. 

I reckon the Oilers would be passing up on a glorious opportunity to bring in a player that could be a fan favorite from the get-go.

Look at it this way, if Nuge walks for more pay elsewhere, the fans are going to be pissed. One way to mitigate that frustration is to bring in a local lad with family ties to the organization.

Watch this video below and keep an eye on where Jake is scoring his goals from. After that tell me with a straight face he’s not a player the Oilers NEED in their lineup…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZcxJfP0aW8

LA Kings Discussing Trade For Top-Six Forward

  • Blake is currently having discussions with several teams and is believed to be involved with the St Louis Blues regarding Vladimir Tarasenko and the Buffalo Sabres regarding Jack Eichel and/or Sam Reinhart. All three players are headed for a change of scenery and if you asked them, they’ll probably be ok heading to the beaches of California. 

(LINK)

BLH’s Thoughts: I dunno about those players heading to LA. Are the Kings even close to being out of the first stage of their rebuild yet? I mean, Jonathan Quick is probably heading out of town and Drew Doughty is leading a group of 4-5-6 dmen on their blue line. Plus they’ve got three forwards over the age of 27 and they’re all on the first line!

Why in the world would they try to jumpstart things now? They’d probably be better off to stay on the same path, let this group grow together, and augment as required. If anything, try to upgrade the netminding and the defense first before blowing the assets they’ve worked hard to earn on high-profile forwards. 

From The Daily Goal Horn

Kings not interested in Jack Eichel

John Hoven is known as an LA Kings Insider. In his latest article he notes that it appears whatever interest GM Rob Blake had may be gone.

“In talking with several sources around the organization over the past few weeks, there just doesn’t appear to be much interest in Buffalo Sabres forward Jack Eichel. You can point to any number of different reasons why — the neck injury and the big contract (five more years at a $10M AAV, including four years of a No Movement Clause) certainly come up often — yet, in the end, it’s the acquisition cost than most likely kills any deal for the 24-year-old center. The Kings aren’t looking to trade Quinton Byfield, period. That alone could sour the Sabres. On top of that, LA’s other top of the food of chain assets are being saved for what they feel is their eventual ‘big move,’ namely a defenseman.” – John Hoven

(LINK)

BLH’s Thoughts: Looks like we’ve got some conflicting reports regarding Captain Jack. These things happen though as situations can change on the hour in some cases. Either way, there are some pretty tall challenges facing the Buffalo Sabres in their bid to sort out Jack Eichel… 

I do find it interesting that the Kings are dangling Alex Turcotte for a defenseman though. I mean, that’s who Hoven is referring to when he speaks to LA’s other “top of the food chain assets” right? Or is he talking about Anze Kopitar?… Couldn’t be… 

As for some of the Kings other vets, I could see the Oilers getting in on Dustin Brown around the trade deadline if the price is right. 

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BLH on The Latest 31 Thoughts PLUS Is It Time for Connor McDavid to Have His “Mario Lemieux Moment”?

Coming from an Edmonton Oilers point of view, BLH provides you with the latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation from all of the internet’s best sites including Spector’s Hockey, The Fourth Period, NHL Trade Talk, The Hockey Writers, Sportsnet, The Athletic, TSN and more!

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From Sportsnet

Elliotte Friedman posted his latest 31 Thoughts blog over at Sportsnet yesterday. Here are a few of the juicier tidbits from the post,

  • A couple of other notes on Columbus: In their search for centres, I think they’ve talked to Buffalo about Sam Reinhart. The Sabres are looking at goalies; Joonas Korpisalo or Elvis Merzlikins would be a sensible target. This theory of mine was received with mixed reactions when mentioned on last week’s podcast. No guarantee it happens because there will be other options for both teams, but they are sensible trade partners.

BLH’s Thoughts: Does that mean they’re walking away from Linus Ullmark as well or looking for someone who can share the nets with him going forward? The Edmonton Oilers will definitely be inquiring about the Swedish goalie’s services this summer IF he makes it to free agency. 

  • I’m betting that Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang are back, too. The playoff loss is still very fresh, but my sense is the Penguins see themselves as a good team that didn’t get the necessary goaltending. That will be their upgrade, finding either a veteran to play with Tristan Jarry or a new No. 1.

BLH’s Thoughts: If you have a goalie who is good but his work rate isn’t as high as it could be, that could lead to problems down the road when things matter most. From what I’m hearing, that’s where the Penguins are at with Jarry. Now, that’s not to say the young netminder isn’t a hard worker or that he isn’t dedicated to his craft. I mean, he’s a no.1 goaltender in the NHL, how the hell do you think someone gets to that position without working their ass off? He’s still young however, and my experience watching hockey over the years tells me that players early on in their career can get buy on talent alone for a short period of time but eventually things catch up to them. 

I don’t know if he’s the right guy for where Pittsburgh is at right now. At some point the Pens are going to have to start transitioning the team from Sid and Gino to their next wave of players, right? I reckon they’re a few years from that, so maybe in the short term they could find a Jonathan Quick or a Marc-Andre Fleury to get them through that time but keep Jarry so he can learn from them so that he’s ready when it’s time to take back the net. 

  • The 12-week rest and recovery period Buffalo asked Jack Eichel to take ended on the weekend. Everyone’s being very quiet about this, because it’s already gotten enough public attention, but there will be conversations this week on where this goes from here. I do believe both the Sabres (with the NHL) and Eichel (with the NHLPA) have discussed what their options are if there is still disagreement about the next steps. The likely outcome is a trade.

BLH’s Thoughts: The likely outcome is a trade anyhow. I don’t see how with the way the Sabres are being run that Eichel is still considering a return. He’s right at that point where Taylor Hall was at in Edmonton before he uttered the famous words, “It’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel…”. 

Now, if Buffalo is shopping Sam Reinhart too, that’s only going to compound his wishes to leave. He wants to be part of a winner, not the star of the show. 

If he doesn’t get that surgery as part of the Sabres, how will that impact where he’s traded and for what?

  • For all the talk about Edmonton’s current cap room, they will maintain flexibility for Darnell Nurse. He’s one year from unrestricted free agency, and played his heart out. It’s very clear that Nurse cares deeply about the franchise and identifies as an Oiler. In addition to trying to replace Nurse as a player, Edmonton would have to try and replace that true link to the organization. That’s not easy, and really matters.That brings us to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. This one’s a challenge. They were close in October, and it fell apart. They’ve tried during the season, but couldn’t build momentum. Don’t know how to handicap this one. I do think the Oilers make sure to open up room for Evan Bouchard and Ryan McLeod to be regulars. The difference between Edmonton and Winnipeg was depth. They need to develop their own draftees.

BLH’s Thoughts: Before Nurse took the next step in his development, I campaigned for the team to trade him numerous times. I couldn’t see any indicators in his game that revealed to me that he was going to be a no.1 defenseman in the NHL. I’m glad I was flat out wrong there because the Oilers have been screaming for a dman like him for decades maybe and I can’t see a world where they would allow him to leave or trade him. It would set the team back ten years if they did.

To Friedman’s point, when the team has drafted and developed their own and NOT traded them before they’ve blossomed, it’s been a pretty fruitful endeavor. That’s the thing though, in the past they’ve dealt away some damned good players just as they were hitting their stride.

As a fan of the club, I can only hope those days are over considering the quality of players Edmonton has in their system. That said, the Oilers are coming into win-now mode and often times that means good young players are sacrificed to keep the team winning… 

  • The NHL and NHLPA are forming another competition committee, and if I were Connor McDavid, I’d demand to be on it. The Edmonton captain keeps his opinions private, but don’t assume that means he doesn’t have any. There’s a bite. It’s not good at all for the NHL that he goes through an entire series without drawing a penalty. Even the Bad Boy Detroit Pistons were called for fouling Michael Jordan once in a while. But the surest way he can influence things is by making his voice heard in a forum where a difference can be made.

BLH’s Thoughts: Well put, Elliotte. Well put. Are we heading for another Mario Lemieux moment where the greatest players in the game start to complain about the quality of officiating in a very public manner. Is the NHL a “garage league” again but refuses to admit it? 

I’m a bit on the fence about the whole thing. During the regular season, Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid ran wild and had historic seasons statistically. We heard some minor complaining about the reffing then, but in the playoffs when those two were the targets of their opposition in a time when everybody knew that the refs would most likely be putting their whistles away, the tsunami of sentiment regarding the NHL’s mistreatment of its stars grew louder and louder. 

For the league’s leader in drawn penalties/60 this season to not even get one call in four games IS embarrassing but I also don’t want to watch 30 minutes of powerplays either. I’d say that the refs need to decide at the beginning of the year if they’re going to call it by the book or they’re going to let the players play. They’ve got to give the skaters a chance instead of calling it one way and then flipping the switch later one. 

  • Murray wouldn’t go into potential moves, but did confirm Anaheim made a serious pitch for Pierre-Luc Dubois. (I’ve reported in the past it did not include Jamie Drsydale nor Trevor Zegras.) I do think the Ducks will try to take a big swing. They’ve got flexibility, and another team pointed out that they could have an open space on its protected list depending on what they want to do. Going to be an interesting summer there.

BLH’s Thoughts: Could they use Rickard Rakell and Josh Manson to go big fish hunting? Word was at the trade deadline they didn’t want to move them separately and that’s possibly why Edmonton couldn’t get their hands on the Swede. 

  • (Brian) MacLellan didn’t shy away from refusing to commit to Evgeni Kuznetsov’s future. It’s becoming apparent the Capitals sent some feelers out during the past season to gauge interest in the centre.

BLH’s Thoughts: This is going to be an ongoing drama until Kuznetsov is playing somewhere else. Things will heat up as the draft approaches I assume. 

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Edmonton Oilers Talk: You’re Probably Not Going To Like This News

Boy, that was some Battle of Alberta last night. How many of you thought at the end of the first period when the Oilers were being outshot 21-10 that it was going to be another one of “those nights”? How many of you were right pissed when you noticed the Vancouver Canucks had beat the supposedly unbeatable Toronto Maple Leafs two games in a row and the second being a comeback victory?

I’ll get back to the game against Calgary in a moment but I’d like to just comment on how ridiculous all those hockey pundits I heard on Edmonton sports radio over the previous week sounded saying that this edition of the Toronto Maple Leafs is the best since the 60s… Are you kidding me? I can’t speak for any of the rosters before 1990 really but the teams lead by Doug Gilmour, Felix Potvin, and Wendel Clark in the 90s and then the teams with Curtis Joseph, Alexander Mogilny, and Mats Sundin later on would have Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner in their back pockets. Reckon William Nylander and Morgan Rielly would have any free time with the puck if Darcy Tucker and Tie Domi were running around out there?

Anyway, in the COVID era, the highs are going to be high and the lows will be low… I’ll keep saying it until things become predictable again. I maintain that this Oilers team will be a playoff club and I’m still confident that they can win the division.

Let’s talk about the Flames game from last night for a moment and then discuss the latest from my sources.

On my list of fights I thought would happen, the Nurse/Lucic and Neal/Tkachuk bouts weren’t on it but damn am I happy they did. I’ll have to give Milan the slight edge over Darnell in their fight but James Neal gets the KO against Eric Francis’ boy. That said, I don’t think either coach would approve of having their star in the penalty box for 5-minutes let alone risking the season.

In Edmonton’s case, someone had to do something as Calgary was running around hitting everyone whether they had the puck or not. I can’t say I approve of Yamamoto’s slewfoot on Andersson in front of the Flames’ net or Draisaitl’s stickwork on Gaudreau, but that’s big boy hockey and these are two teams who do not like each other.

What was Andrew Mangiapane on? He was barking up some awfully big trees and playing with fire all night long. I don’t mind it if it’s not dirty, but I reckon he’s a lucky little man that Zack Kassian and Josh Archibald weren’t in the lineup.

It was hard to see Turris get filled in at the blue line by Chris Tanev but I was glad to see him uninjured on the play. Morbidly, I’m kind of hoping it knocked something loose and he’ll play better from now on.

How do you feel about Tippett putting McDavid on Draisaitl’s line and moving RNH to center Kahun and Puljujarvi?

I don’t know if we’ll see it against Ottawa, but I do wonder if he does it against Toronto at the end of the month. In fact, if I were the coach, I’d experiment with the three center system against the Sens. All the big boys on their own lines just to see what kind of hockey is played as a result.

Haas-McDavid-Puljujarvi (extreme putting Haas there, I know)
Kahun-Draisaitl-Yamamoto
Archibald-RNH-Kassian (Kassian has got to be back soon, right?)
Neal-Khaira-Chiasson

Caleb Jones and Ethan Bear were marginally better Saturday night, I feel. Bear is still working through some challenges I’m noticing though. Jason Gregor (TSN1260) recently noted on his radio show that he came into camp a little heavy. Now, I can’t tell you if that’s muscle-heavy or fat-heavy, but the boots are indeed… heavy. He’s not moving as quick as he needs to be and he’s going to have to correct that before he has management thinking his rookie year was an outlier. Plus, he’s got Evan Bouchard right on his ass. Bearsy has to get going tout suite.

I harp on the Oilers ability to shut down the other club’s offense often and last night was looking to be quite the shit show after the first, but from the second period on Tippett’s club really didn’t give the Flames a whole lot. They limited Calgary to 15 shots in the last two frames of the game and that, my friends, is the kind of two-way hockey I’d prefer the team to play. Could that’ve been because Edmonton was chasing the game? Maybe, but the Flames had 12 scoring chances themselves and they started the 3rd with a goal early on.

Honestly, at the end of night when it was all said and done, I believe Calgary Flamed out…

Thank you very much! I’ll be hear until the end of the week. Please tip your servers as you leave.

An Uneventful Trade Deadline

I got me some ridiculously long DMs from a few of my sources. I guess some of them finally found a moment or two to deal with my incessant inquiries and to that, I’m grateful. So let’s take a gander at what I was passed along.

Remember, things could always change and in professional hockey, they often do.

  • Still radio silence on Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ contract talks. The club and player have agreed to park things until the end of the season and then get back to business.

Man, how far would a nice playoff run go towards re-signing RNH? Conversely, if Nuge is asking for $7.5M/yr for 6 years and Taylor Hall is willing to take $6M/yr on the same term… That is quite a conundrum…

  • Mike Smith has been much more vocal in the room this season over last year. He’s become a real leader in that room. The players really love him so don’t be surprised if they DO bring him back.

Look, if Smith is going to play like he has been this year, bring him back. He’s been nothing short of fantastic when deployed properly. If he’s happy to sign a deal with big incentives and he’s a positive impact on the team, why not? So many times in the past, the team has had these kinds of players only to lose them to trade or an expiring contract. It’s about time we kept this sort of character on the team.

That said, a lot of the traits that Mike Smith exhibits are found in the recently claimed Alex Stalock.

  • Nothing is going to happen on the goalie front. Ken, Tipp and Co are happy with Smith and Koski. Stalock will get a look see but he’s going to be taxi squad most likely unless he outplays someone.

Makes sense on a level. The prices for starting netminders are sky high and the Oilers could have to find a taker for Mikko Koskinen. How many teams have an extra starting goalie and cap room to absorb another $4.5M? Edmonton doesn’t want to trade anymore draft picks than they have to and I’d have to think that 1st rounder is off-limits.

  • The Oilers are looking for a 3C because Turris has been a disappointment. He’s a shadow of what he used to be but at the same time, they didn’t bring him in to provide offense. His new role is foreign to him. He’s in a defensive role with the team.

If this is indeed the case, Holland has shot himself in the foot with this signing and wasted precious funds and a roster spot. Sure, Turris is a good guy and I’ve got nothing against him as a player or a person, but signing him with the notion of turning him into a defensive stalwart is a bad idea. It doesn’t work that way. Turris has never been that kind of player.

  • They might look at bringing in a 3C. It’s been confirmed tonight that Ken spoke with Benning about Brandon Sutter. A pick, More like a 3rd or 4th, maybe a 5th rounder was mentioned to go back to Van along with a depth guy. The depth guy wasn’t named and Van would retain what’s left of Sutter’s remaining cap hit.

Just as I’ve been saying recently. The rub is that Edmonton needs help on it’s PK badly and someone like Sutter at 50% of what he’s making could work for the Oilers. We have to also consider the fact that he’s playing for a contract next season and that could be a massive challenge for some bottom-six players in the COVID/Flat Cap era.

If the club is going to make any deals that involve players on the current roster and ones coming in, I would expect them to do it on the weekend prior to the deadline 4/12/21. From the 10th to the 25th (I believe), they only have 5 games slated. Before that they’re going every other day with a few back-to-backs thrown in.

So there you have it. That’s something to chew on for the next little bit.

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Edmonton Oilers Talk: Stauffer Hints at Two Possible Moves

Monday morning on his daily radio show, Oilers Now, Bob Stauffer hinted at not one, but two possible roster moves that the Edmonton Oilers could make depending on what scenarios or circumstances present themselves.

In a conversation with Drew Remenda, the pair were speaking to Ken Holland’s moves over the summer and if the Oilers might’ve brought in too much skill. This is where Stauffer drops one of two speculation nuggets,

“McDavid, Draisaitl, and Turris are the top-3 centers; if Haas doesn’t come in here and kill it or Khaira, if he doesn’t fit into the mix anymore, maybe they go an acquire themselves a hard-nosed defensively responsible 4th line center.”

I don’t have the foggiest of ideas who Edmonton could go after here but I did have a dear friend ask me if I would sign Riley Sheahan as the Oilers’ 4th line center. I said only if Haas or Khaira weren’t in the picture.

I love how Sheahan helped out the team on the penalty kill but he had a tough go 5v5. What would his season have looked like if he had played on the 4th line all year, not the 3rd?

Would you sign Sheahan if Khaira was moved out?

A texter to the show asked Bob if it would make sense for the Oilers to move a player like Alex Chiasson for a 2nd or 3rd pairing player on defense to which he replied,

“It might be a 3rd pairing defenseman. I don’t think realistically you’re getting a top-4 defenceman for Alex Chiasson, but there might be a team that’s got some funds allocated to a 3rd pairing guy with a $1.5M-$2M range and they might be short a right-winger that can play on the powerplay and is a good character guy.”

Second speculative nugget! Quite specific no less too!

If you’re wondering, here’s the list of defencemen, from CapFriendly, who make between $1.5M and 2M contracted to play next season,

1. Mark Borowiecki
 NSH 30 LD Left UFA $2,000,000 $2,000,000
2. Justin Holl
 TOR 28 RD Right M-NTC UFA $2,000,000 $2,000,000
3. Jordie Benn
 VAN 32 LD Left UFA $2,000,000 $1,600,000
4. Brett Kulak
 MTL 26 LD Left UFA $1,850,000 $1,400,000
5. Justin Braun
 PHI 33 RD Right UFA $1,800,000 $1,800,000
6. Carl Gunnarsson
 STL 33 LD Left M-NTC UFA $1,750,000 $1,750,000
7. Troy Stecher
 DET 26 RD Right UFA $1,700,000 $1,200,000
8. Nick Holden
 VGK 33 LD Left UFA $1,700,000 $2,000,000
9. Braydon Coburn
 TBL 35 LD Left NTC UFA $1,700,000 $1,600,000
10. Dean Kukan
 CBJ 26 RD Left UFA $1,650,000 $1,300,000
11. Scott Harrington
 CBJ 27 LD Left UFA $1,633,333 $1,600,000
12. Robert Hägg
 PHI 25 LD Left UFA $1,600,000 $1,500,000
13. Adam Pelech
 NYI 25 LD Left RFA $1,600,000 $2,500,000
14. Andrej Sekera
 DAL 34 LD Left UFA $1,500,000 $1,500,000
15. Connor Carrick
 NJD 26 RD Right UFA $1,500,000 $1,500,000
16. Mike Reilly
 OTT 26 LD Left UFA $1,500,000 $1,500,000
What do you think?

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Edmonton Oilers Rumors: Latest NHL Speculation feat. Fleury, Steen, Rielly, Holtby, Kovalchuk and More! (9/25/2020)

Today’s news and speculation from the NHL includes notes on if the Oilers are planning on qualifying RFA d-man Matthew Benning, what the Ottawa Senators plan on doing with some of their extra draft picks, the future of Morgan Rielly and the Toronto Maple Leafs possibly being tied to Alex Pietrangelo, Braden Holtby, Ilya Kovalchuk, and much more!

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The News and Rumors

  • Jordan Hall (NBC): Tyler Pitlick is the most likely pending UFA to re-sign with the Flyers this off-season. A deal in the $2M to $2.2M AAV range would be good for both sides.

BLH’s Thoughts: Coming off of a great playoff performance, this is deserved. You do have to wonder though, at what point will Morgan Frost or Isaac Ratcliffe be joining the Flyers full-time? Pitlick could be blocking their roads to the NHL. 

  • Jeremy Rutherford (The Athletic): Don’t expect the Blues to buy out Alex Steen. It would only save them $2.4M on the cap and the GM there views him as instrumental to the club’s culture.
  • Elliotte Friedman (Sportsnet): On the Lightning’s cap issues: “Some of the players in Tampa aren’t willing to waive their no-trade clauses, which makes things more difficult.”

BLH’s Thoughts: This is the kind of scenario that sees a player like Anthony Cirelli or Mikhail Sergachev moved out for futures. Any team with multiple draft picks in the first two rounds of this year’s draft would be good to see what it would take to get one of those players out of Tampa. Realistically though, I bet they find homes for Alex Killorn (M-NTC) and possibly Cedric Paquette as well as Blake Coleman. 

Tampa has to be thinking of some other players too. Carter Verhaege, Alexander Volkov, Mathieu Joseph, and Eric Cernak are all RFAs too and looking to break into Tampa’s lineup. Will they all be qualified? If not, there’s some talent there for the Oilers to pick from…

  • More Friedman: The Montreal Canadiens looked at Antti Raanta and Devan Dubnyk before acquiring Jake Allen from the St. Louis Blues.
  • Michael Russo (The Athletic): Minnesota Wild GM Bill Guerin says they will not be buying out Victor Rask. Says he’s been treated unfairly and scored big goals when he’s played.

BLH’s Thoughts: Rask needs to score more goals, not just big ones, to justify that contract he’s on. 

  • David Pagnotta (The Fourth Period): Neither the Penguins nor the Panthers are done tinkering with their rosters. More moves are coming down the pipe, it’s just a matter of time.

BLH’s Thoughts: Pittsburgh kinda screwed themselves a bit adding a 6th left-handed dman to their roster… They may need to lose a couple of these trades coming up to re-balance things. A perfect opportunity for some GMs. 

  • Jesse Granger (The Athletic): MA Fleury: “I want to stay in Vegas. I don’t know what the future holds, but I’ve loved every moment… I want to end my career here.”

BLH’s Thoughts: Fleury is such a team guy. Right to the end he puts the club ahead of himself. Even when he’s been royally screwed over by the coach. Personally, I’d like to see him end his career in Edmonton, but that’s just me 😉

  • Frank Seravalli (TSN): The Senators need to spend $18M+ to get to the salary cap floor. They plan to use their 2nd round picks to acquire players from teams in cap trouble.

BLH’s Thoughts: Oh you know Ken Holland has been on the phone to Dorion every week since before the trade deadline trying to get one or two of those 2nd rounders. I still think Edmonton should offer the 14th overall to Ottawa for the 28th, 33rd, and 60th picks. Would Kris Russell waive his no-trade to go to the Sens?

  • Tarik El-Bashir (The Athletic): The Capitals are actively pursuing an extension for pending UFA Brenden Dillon. Radko Gudas and Ilya Kovalchuk will hit the free agent market.

BLH’s Thoughts: The Capitals are going to be an interesting team to watch over the off-season. Their defense is going through a bit of a transition at the moment. Take away John Carlson and what are you left with? Dmitri Orlov and a handful of 3rd-pair defensemen. Dillon would be a good player to keep around, but could they do better? With Connor McMichael graduating to the pros, maybe it’s time to move on from a guy like Lars Eller in an attempt to bring in said better blueliners… 

  • Renaud Lavoie (TVA Sports): Alex Pietrangelo is believed to want to “go home” to Toronto this off-season in free agency.

BLH’s Thoughts: All the Ontario boys want to go back to Toronto, right? Aside from that are the Maple Leafs planning on giving five players $50M/yr and the other 17 or 18 a share of the remaining $30M? That doesn’t work out either because $10M of that $30M belongs to Muzzin and Rielly. So it’s more like $20M to pay for 15 players. 

  • Josh Yohe (The Athletic): Penguins goalie Matt Murray is expected to fetch a 2nd round pick and a prospect.

BLH’s Thoughts: Sounds about right. If Edmonton had a 2nd rounder (wink wink) they’d be in on this I reckon. 

  • Kevin McGran (Toronto Star): The Maple Leafs could potentially move defender Morgan Rielly to clear cap space to pursue d-man Alex Pietrangelo.

BLH’s Thoughts: Oh my… Silly season is really upon us. I mean, they could move Rielly to make room for Petro but man… As good as Pietrangelo is, is moving Rielly to bring him in a great long-term strategy? Morgan Rielly is really f*cking good… Maybe that’s a sign-and-trade scenario though… Who knows?!

  • Rick Dhaliwal (TSN): The Canucks could potentially go after goalie Braden Holtby if Jacob Markstrom departs in free agency.

BLH’s Thoughts: I dunno… I’m not going to say it couldn’t happen but wouldn’t the Canucks be better off by signing a guy like Thomas Greiss or Anton Khudobin to team up with Thatcher Demko and using the saved funds to upgrade their defense?

  • Dan Kingerski (Pittsburgh Hockey NOW): Penguins blueliner Marcus Pettersson could be a surprise trade candidate due to the abundance of left-shot d-men in Pittsburgh.

BLH’s Thoughts: I’d be pretty surprised if it was Pettersson that the Pens decided to move on from. He was one of their better defenders this year. Of their left-handed defenders, Brian Dumoulin is a more likely candidate to be traded in my opinion. 

  • TSN 1200: The Ottawa Senators are interested in bringing in Capitals forward Ilya Kovalchuk as a veteran presence this off-season.

BLH’s Thoughts: I like this idea behind this but I don’t believe for one second that the penny pinching Senators would be able to lure a player like Kovalchuk to its club. This is a player that’s looking to win a Stanley Cup not be a mentor for a rebuilding team. 

  • Craig Custance (The Athletic): The Carolina Hurricanes are getting numerous calls on d-man Brady Skjei and may move him this off-season.

BLH’s Thoughts: Of all the teams that probably have the assets to acquire a Patrik Laine or a Max Domi, it’s the Hurricanes. Skjei is a very solid 2nd pair defender that would be a great addition to any team looking for an upgrade on defense. 

The Oilers Speculation

We’ve got a couple of real nice topics for you to discuss at the proverbial water coolers today.

Let’s start with Jesse Puljujarvi.

I speculated last week that Pulju would be coming back to the Oilers on a one year deal worth between $1.05M and $1.45M and that was more or less confirmed by Bob Stauffer on his radio show today.

Furthermore, there are rumblings that with JP coming back into the fold and Joakim Nygard breaking his hand again over in Sweden, that the Oilers will be looking to move one of their (potentially) six right-wings for a left-wing.

We’ve talked about a previously-discussed Alex Chiasson to Boston for Anders Bjork rumor but I want to throw out the idea of Edmonton moving Zack Kassian instead.

Kassian makes more money ($3.2M over the course of the deal but $2.5M for the next two seasons) and functionally, is the better player. To add to that, Chiasson is important to the Oilers’ PP and is well-respected in the Oilers locker room.

Would it make sense to trade Kassian to a team like the LA Kings with their $16M of cap room?

We know that Kassian likes to go to California during the off-season and Todd McLellan really trusted him on the PK when he coached in Edmonton.

Circling back to Puljujarvi, if Ken Holland trades Kassian, Jesse is going to play in the top-six at some point with Connor McDavid. Presumably he’d switch on and off with Alex Chiasson and Josh Archibald if Kailer Yamamoto is playing with Leon Draisaitl and Patrick Russell is the extra man.

Good times!

On to Matthew Benning, and this could change at any time, but it sounds like the Oilers aren’t going to give him a qualifying offer.

There’s really not much more to say. The plan is to bring Evan Bouchard along slowly and not to rush him in. So, I don’t think that they’d let Benning walk because they’re giving the spot to Bouchard. Don’t get me wrong, third-pair on the right-side has his name on it, just not quite yet.

I’m thinking they may want to bring in another veteran, like they tried with Mike Green, to partner Caleb Jones but eventually the idea is the have Jones and Bouchard as a pair.

Lastly, keep an ear out for Ryan Getzlaf news. It won’t be this year because he makes over $8M a year, but it could be next summer that we hear he’s a target for the Oilers.

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