Tag Archives: Evander Kane

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

Oilers Featuring Prominently in Trade Rumors

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Last week it was Friedman and McKenzie mentioning the Oilers, now the word is leaking out of Columbus and Montreal and so far we’ve got the names of Jack Johnson, Ryan Murray, David Savard, and Carey Price being connected to Edmonton. Oh! And don’t forget about Oliver Ekman-Larsson not that he’s more or less put his name out there.

What I want to know is where do the Oilers REALLY need to upgrade their roster? So let’s look at said roster.

But before we get into that I want to thank all of the folks on Twitter who attempted to debate me re: Peter Chiarelli’s job so far. It was fun, easier than I expected. I hope we can do it again soon.

The roster…

Left Wing Centre Right Wing
Pat Maroon Connor McDavid Drake Caggiula
Milan Lucic Ryan Nugent-Hopkins Leon Draisaitl
Mike Cammalleri Ryan Strome Jesse Puljujarvi
Jujhar Khaira Mark Letestu Zack Kassian

Scratches: Brad Malone, Iiro Pakarinen
IR: Slepyshev

Left Defense Right Defense
Darnell Nurse Adam Larsson
Oscar Klefbom Matt Benning
Kris Russell Eric Gryba

Scratches: Yohann Auvitu
IR: Andrej Sekera

Then obviously we’ve got Cam Talbot and Laurent Brossoit minding the net.

https://twitter.com/dstaples/status/932770633435422720

Are there problems with this roster, yes. Is it worse than the one that played in game 7 of the 2nd round of the playoffs, I say no and I say that because most people think that Eberle was a factor in the Oilers getting to the 2nd round. He was not. At all. Others will suggest Sekera and I will say to that Darnell Nurse. Wanna throw Pouliot at me, I’ll toss Strome back at you with fewer o-zone penalties.

The problems with the team are that injuries have crept back into the picture, subpar goaltending has snuck its way into our view, slow starts as well. Now if there’s a GM in the entire world that could see all of that happening in the summer, hire that MFer because all of your woes are solved!

Speaking of woes being solved…

Within a month, Andrej Sekera will be back and from there I believe that we’ll see him paired back up with Russell which means one of Eric Gryba or Yohann Auvitu will be playing elsewhere. I’d put my money on Auvitu being that guy. So there won’t be the urgency to add to that group, upgrade maybe, but not add I do not believe.

Who would be the upgrades?

Well, that depends on how far you’re willing to go and how much you’re willing to spend. Are you willing to trade Leon Draisaitl or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins? If so, you might get an Oliver Ekman-Larsson or, god willing, an Erik Karlsson (Is this any more blue-skying than Stu Cowan suggesting Draisaitl for Carey Price?). But I have a hard time believing that the Coyotes and Senators would be okay trading away their best players and if we’re being honest, the Oilers desperately need an offensive stud on their back end. They’ve got the defensive ones in Nurse and Larsson, right? My only caveat would be that this stud be a tad older or Aaron Ekblad.

That’s the defense, how about the offense?

I’m getting very concerned with Pat Maroon. He is having a very tough go right now and no matter the amount of after-whistle scrums he gets into is kickstarting his scoring. I love his willingness to get in there and show that grit and desire but we need him to do that,

a) without taking a penalty
b) while the play is going on in front of the net

Meaning he needs to sit has huge glorious ass in the opposition goaltenders face so that he can smell what Patty ate last week.

But if he’s unwilling or cannot do that then I’d have no qualms sending him in a package to Buffalo for Evander Kane.

Kane has the speed, he has the shot, he’s got the toughness and willingness to play physical, so he sounds like a good fit. Attitude aside, I’m sure if that became an issue he and Lucic could throw on the boxing gloves and go a couple of rounds.

As for Columbus, I reckon they’re looking for someone to take either Jack Johnson off of their hands or Ryan Murray or both but they want a centre.

Would the Oilers move away from Ryan Strome so soon? He’s starting to look comfortable in his role now at 3C but Leon Draisaitl is getting itchy and my feeling is that he wants his own line, stat!

Or would you take the plunge and try to fill two holes with one bird in RNH? Meaning you insist on RHers David Savard and Josh Anderson being the return for the former 1st overall pick.

I’m not as afraid of taking on Jack Johnson as some are. He’s found a way to stay employed all of these years even though he’s apparently the worst defensman in the league. He’s right-handed but he offers no offence. And that’s a problem but neither does Ryan Murray. Johnson is very agitating though. Almost at a Phaneuf-like level. With the Oilers needed to draw a few more penalties, how bad could this dman on an expiring contract be?

Finally to the Montreal Canadiens…

The contract of Carey Price concerns me (slightly). $10.5M starting at age 31 for 8 years? He’s already started to break down. I know, he’s the best goalie in the league… When he plays. I don’t like that kind of uncertainty.

But guys like Brendan Gallagher, Andrew Shaw and Max Pacioretty get me giddy. As I said above, the Oilers could use some agitation on their roster and Shaw is right up there as one of the most irritating players in the league. He’s a righty and a centre. Not only that but he can be trusted on the PK. Gally is an Edmonton boy too. Loved the team growing up and surely is losing his shit playing over in Montreal.

Max Pacioretty is one of the league’s most consistent scorers in recent memory. He’s only scored less than 30 goals four times in his career. His first two seasons he had 3 goals each. The next year was 14 and then in 2012, he had 15. He is a player the Oilers NEED!

But we’ll have to wait until the Habs lose some more before they start getting really desperate, right? Does Marc Bergevin get the axe before one more trade or vice versa? The Canadiens need a no.1 center and RNH could be that guy because they really shouldn’t have Jonathan Drouin or Philip Danault in that spot.

Would you do Nuge for Pacioretty straight across? Or would you look to make it bigger and shore up the right wing a bit more by asking for Shaw and tossing in Maroon or a defenseman.

Sooner or later the Habs lengthy IR list is going to shrink and those players are going to need a place to play. Ales Hemsky, Arturri Lehkonen, Nikita Scherbak, Noah Juulsen, and Carey Price are all going to return and that means Nicolas Deslauriers, Charles Hudon, Jacob De La Rose, and Byron Froese will be sent to Laval or traded.

Is Montreal a team the Oilers could finally take advantage of? They’ve got $8M of cap space to deal in…

Have I missed anything? I’m just spit-balling here folks but feel free to let me know in the comments below what you think about these trade rumours.

Links:

Elliotte Friedman
Bob McKenzie
Pierre LeBrun
Stu Cowan

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Armchair GM, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, Rumors, Trades

How Much is Pou Worth? By Andrew Taylor (@DrewTaylor1978)

Whether we are ready to admit it or not, the Edmonton Oilers officially have a cap crunch on their horizon.  With pending raises for Leon Draisaitl this coming season and Connor McDavid next season, they will be struggling to find a way to keep their core players, surround them with the proper support players, and compete for the Stanley Cup every year.

No matter what happens this season (Draisaitl contract, 7th defenseman signing, Puljujarvi making the team? etc.), with McDavid’s likely $10 million plus cap hit next year things are going to start to get really tight.  It’s going to be imperative that contracts present high value to the Oilers for them to be able to succeed.

This is where Benoit Pouliot comes in.  Whether you think he’s a terrible player (some do) or not, it’s hard to argue that he’s currently overpaid.  He’s still definitely a serviceable NHL player, and if he had only 1 year left I don’t think it would be an issue; you could play him out this year and let him move on.  I also think if he was a smaller cap hit, say $2.5 million, we wouldn’t be talking about him; unfortunately, that isn’t the case.  However, his 2 years remaining at $4 million which will overlap McDavid’s first year of his contract is where the issue lies.

Buying Pouliot out would reduce the amount of damage his cap hit would do per year but would extend the “dead” cap space further into McDavid’s contract.  As much as that can be a tool if required it’s best to stay away from it, as well as burying guys in the minors since you give up cap space to guys not even dressing on your team.

So, aside from packaging him up with draft picks to try to convince another team to take our problem (I am absolutely opposed to the idea of the Oilers throwing their draft picks away, especially carelessly), is there a way to move him out now so that the impact isn’t felt beyond this upcoming season (i.e. buying him out, which while it would give some cap relief now would cause the “dead” cap space to live on)?  It turns out if Chiarelli can be creative, there is.

The Oilers can trade their future headache to another team for that team’s current headache.  If they could take on a larger cap hit for 1 year, while clearing their obligations to Pouliot for the 2018-19 season, I think they would at the very least consider that.  I am going to assume that after Draisaitl’s contract they have in the neighbourhood of $3.5 million in cap space remaining, so if you hold on to a million and a half for trade deadline acquisitions (the Oilers should regularly be bolstering their line-ups for the next 10-15 years) they’ll have about $2 million they could absorb this season.

So, are there any players in the league who would fit the following:

  • Predominantly a left wing;
  • 1 year left on their current contract;
  • Have fallen out of favour with their team;
  • Have a cap hit higher than $5 million (it’d have to be a significant enough impact this year to make it worth it for the other team, and at $5 million they would receive $1 million in cap space, the difference between that players contract and Benoit Pouliot’s $4 million);
  • Have a cap hit no higher than $6 million (the $2 million the Oilers could absorb)?

Here is a list of players that might fit into that category (minus the “fallen out of favour with their team part”):

  1. Evander Kane – Buffalo Sabres – Left Wing – $5.25 Million Cap Hit for 1 year – Actual Salary of $6 Million for 1 year

  1. James Neal – Vegas Golden Knights – Left Wing – $5 Million Cap Hit for 1 year – Actual Salary of $5 Million for 1 year

That’s it!

I don’t see Vegas giving up James Neal 1 week after drafting him in their expansion draft, at least not in a deal like this.  In my opinion, they have every intention of having James Neal on their top line in October unless someone knocks their socks off.  They’re not trading him for Benoit Pouliot, and if they wanted Pouliot they would’ve drafted him in the expansion draft since he was available.

So, we take Evander Kane for a year and Buffalo gets $1.25 million in cap space?  I’m not sure that the reputed locker room issues that Evander Kane presents are bad enough to warrant that on the Sabres’ end, and likely he has grown out of them for the most part.  Also, Buffalo is not in a cap crunch so I’m not sure they’re desperate for the room.  If that deal was to go down I would imagine it would be Edmonton throwing in some assets to entice Buffalo to consummate the deal, and as discussed before, this is a strategy the Oilers need to avoid.

I think Benoit Pouliot is here for two more years.  He just doesn’t fit any other teams’ needs they won’t be able to fulfill through free agency for a better deal.  He is, after all, struggling to be successful here as a third line winger while getting paid as a second line winger (on the expensive side at that).  Maybe he comes in this season motivated to turn things around and increases his value enough to garner some interest, but at this point, he should probably be seen as a “learning opportunity”.

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Beer League Hero, NHL

Beer League Heroes 15 -16 Season Primers: The Buffalo Sabres

If you’ve been following the Buffalo Sabres for the past few seasons you’re probably aware that they are just right down terrible. But that also means you know they’re going to be absolutely amazing and in a fraction of the time it took the Edmonton Oilers to do it. A Rebuild done the proper way.

Last season saw the team end the year in 30th place our of 30 teams but lose the first overall pick via the draft lottery to the ever-so-lucky Edmonton Oilers. Remember the way Sabres GM Tim Murray’s face looked after? Like a ripe tomato. God he was pissed and he took a bit of flack in the media for it. What a cry baby…

So at the draft, without thanking anybody which is customary, Murray stepped up to the mic and with the urgency of a toddler needing to go pee, spat out, “The Buffalo Sabres select Jack Eichel.” Worst consolation prize ever… SMH.

Key Additions: F Jack Eichel, F Ryan O’Reilly, F David Legwand, F Jamie McGinn, F Evander Kane, D Carlo Colaiacovo, G Robin Lehner

Key Departures: F Cody Hodgson, F Mikhail Grigorenko, D Nikita Zadorov, D Andrej Meszaros, G Anders Lindback

Roster Contenders: F Sam Reinhart, D Jake McCabe, G Andrey Makarov

Projected Lineup

Evander Kane – Ryan O’Reilly – Tyler Ennis
Matt Moulson – Jack Eichel – Zemgus Girgensons
Marcus Foligno – Johan Larsson – Brian Gionta
Nicolas Deslauriers – David Legwand – Jamie McGinn

Josh Gorges – Rasmus Ristolainen
Mark Pysyk – Zach Bogosian
Mike Weber – Carlo Colaiacovo

Robin Lehner
Chad Johnson

Jack Eichel will help turn this franchise into a Stanley Cup contender but it was well on its way anyhow given the additions of Evander Kane, Ryan O’Reilly, and Zach Bogosian, the emergences of Zemgus Girgensons and Rasmus Ristolainen, and using draft picks on Sam Reinhart, JT Compher, and Nick Baptiste.

In 2015/16 I believe the Sabres will be in the race for a wildcard spot in the playoffs. Of course that could be contingent on Ryan O’Reilly’s impeding court date for impaired driving and leaving the scene of an accident. Doubtful anything comes of it on apart from some community service. But as for the rest of the team, the offense is there with Kane, Eichel, Moulson, and Ennis leading the way.

It’s the defense and goaltending that could let them down. We don’t know if Robin Lehner is ready to take on the role of starting netminder and a top pairing of Josh Gorges and 3rd year defender Rasmus Ristolainen would be 2nd pairing dmen on another team if not 3rd pairing on a Cup contender.

Sam Reinhart is one player I’ll be keen to watch this season. I remember his stint in the NHL last year and he was getting his ass handed to him everytime he touched the puck. He’s a competitive player and I think he’ll make his mark as a top two-way center in the league ala Patrice Bergeron no doubt but should he spend a season or two in the AHL?

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

Thanks for reading! I hope you’re enjoying our Season Primers series and let us know in the comments below if you agree with our assessments.

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Take Care!

BLH