Tag Archives: Johnny Boychuk

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

Islanders Looking at a Pair of Oilers?

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PeterChiarelli

I got a message late last night from my source and it said that Eberle to the Islanders was heating up. Oilers were looking at Strome and multiple draft picks in exchange for Eberle but that there was more to it and to wait and see…

I think I called something similar a couple of days ago…

In the summer, could Chiarelli get the Islanders to send him Ryan Strome and a pick or prospect for Jordan Eberle? (source)

Of course, it was a hypothetical but I’ll take it! Oh and just before we really get going into this, my source isn’t the lovely Treena’s Oil even though she just went on a twitter craze with a handful of tweets that mentioned some of the thoughts I will go on talk about below.

It’s funny, a lot of the same names keep popping up in rumours and in various blogs. I mean, Lowetide has mentioned Reto Berra on numerous occasions on his blog and I feel like the Halak to Edmonton murmurings have been on low-rumble since he was demoted to the Islanders farm team.

Personally, I don’t believe the Oilers coaching staff is convinced that Brossoit can handle the backup duties. Brossoit looks to be the kind of goalie that needs the no.1 spot and has to be playing all of the time, similar to Talbot. I also believe that Nick Ellis might be the better of the two.

How much better is Curtis Lazar than Anton Lander?

We’re two veteran dmen down right now after last night’s game vs. the Panthers. It’s unknown how long Larsson will be out and we haven’t heard a lot on Sekera. The Oilers will need Brandon Davidson now more than ever. Is trading him in a deal that smart? Unless said deal was bringing back a defenseman… *Cough* Shattenkirk *Cough*

I can’t see Edmonton dealing Khaira. He seems very much in the mold of a Chiarelli-type player. Big, strong, hard-working, positionally versatile…

The other little tidbit, I was also told that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was another player the Islanders might be looking at…

Not a huge surprise there but would it be a bigger surprise if the Oilers dealt both Eberle AND Nugent-Hopkins to the Islanders? That’s a MAJOR chunk of cap space right there and the Oilers would have to bring some back their way. Would you be shocked if it was Johnny Boychuk waiving his NMC, Jaro Halak (Bob Stauffer did say yesterday that he believes the Isles are prepared to buy Halak out though), and Ryan Strome coming Edmonton’s way? Edmonton taking the short-term hit on Halak and then going out and signing Brian Boyle and/or Derek Ryan in the offseason? If the Oilers can find a taker for Pouliot as well as Fayne, the kind of deal mentioned here becomes more palpable financially for the Oilers.

So maybe a version of the roster before July 1st hits would look similar to this:

Maroon/McDavid/Puljujarvi
Lucic/Draisaitl/Strome
Slepyshev/Boyle/Ryan
Khaira/Letestu/Kassian

Klefbom/Larsson
Sekera/Boychuk
Nurse/Benning

Talbot
Halak

When it comes to Nuge and Eberle, I really think we’re going to find out how much of the things we’ve ingested are true before the 2017/18 season gets going with a lot of what the Oilers can or will do in the future riding on what the upcoming RFAs will be demanding, right? So we wait… Will Draisaitl demand north of $6M or can Chiarelli convince the kids who are driving this bus to take a bit less for the better of the team? It’ll be interesting nevertheless.

Just before we conclude and I shamelessly plug our wicked t-shirts, I do wonder how much of the news we get is information vs. disinformation, this time of the year. How much of what Stauffer says is genuine as opposed to something just being tossed out to keep prying minds away from precious truths. Same goes for the news that I hear from my source or the rumours you hear or read from the sites or people you know.

The other thing is, I think it’s pretty common for the GMs to use the insiders to influence negotiations? For example, yesterday on Oilers Now! Frank Seravelli was really pushing the idea of the Oilers acquiring Kevin Shattenkirk and earlier in the week Dreger was saying how the Islanders/Eberle talks had taken place earlier but had cooled off more recently. Yet, here we are today getting news of trade talks heating up between the Isles and Oilers and my feeling before today on Shattenkirk was that the Blues were going to keep him. Bob MacKenzie has stated that he believes otherwise here.

So are the Islanders looking to put pressure on the Oilers to make a deal here while they are in the thick of a pretty kickass resurgence? Are the Blues laying some heat on Chiarelli to get his butt in gear because the pieces they’d like would be of better use now than later?

Lastly, in the back of my mind, I’d like the things I share here with you to come true because it’d make me ego feel good and who doesn’t enjoy a good stroking of the ego 🙂 But the reality is, even if the reports I get are true, they may never come to fruition because the line is always moving in negotiations and trades fall apart all of the time. I mean, what is an insider’s batting average when it comes to rumours anyhow?

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Armchair GM, Edmonton Oilers, Micah Kowalchuk, NHL, Trades

How Much Does a Right-Handed Defenseman Go For Anyway…

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So, at this point of the year, we’re left wondering with these two questions.  First, what is a quality Top-6 NHL winger worth, and second, what is the going price for a quality Top-4 right-handed defenseman.

In an effort to answer these burning questions while I wait for the snow to melt so I can start golfing, because, well, that’s what us Oilers fans do in the spring, here’s my best guess.

To do this, we can essentially just look at the deals for defensemen, there’s really only been 8 deals involving high-end right-handed defensemen in recent history, and here’s how they break down:

  • Jason Demers, originally a 7th round pick, had played parts of 6 seasons with the San Jose Sharks when he was dealt to the Dallas Stars for a 3rd round pick and Brenden Dillon. At that point of his career, he could safely be considered a 4/5 defenseman who has flourished in Dallas with more opportunity;
    • He was dealt for a defenseman who was younger and considered to have more upside at the time, and who was 6’3 225lbs.
  • Kevin Shattenkirk, in his first season with the Avalanche, was dealt along with a 2nd round pick and Chris Stewart, at the time considered a Top-6 NHL power forward, for Erik Johnson, a first round pick, and a depth forward;
    • Once again, we have defensemen going both ways in this deal as a balance, and both were considered quality young defensemen with high upside;
  • Matt Niskanen was dealt, along with James Neal, to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Alex Goligoski, who at the time was considered a potentially premier offensive defenseman;
    • Again, we see a defenseman for a defenseman swap, with the better defensemen resulting in the inclusion of a scoring winger;
  • Tyler Myers, along with pending UFA winger Drew Stafford, a pair of prospects and a first round pick to the Winnipeg Jets for Evander Kane and Zack Bogosian;
    • Once again we see scoring forwards to balance the deal in favour of who gets the better defenseman, but again there are defensemen moving in the deal;

Now, to look at the deals where no other defensemen were involved:

  • Brent Burns for Devin Setoguchi and a first. Now, it has to be noted here, Burns was as much a winger as a defenseman at this time, and therefore was dealt for another winger with an included draft pick;
  • Dustin Byfuglien (along with Ben Eager, Brent Sopel and Akim Aliu) for a 1st, 2nd, and a selection of depth forwards. Once again, Byfuglien was considered as much a power forward, and therefore his price was more along the lines of a scoring forward;
  • Seth Jones for Ryan Johansen. This was the most recent move, where a larger 1st line center was moved for a player who, although having potential, was a 2nd pairing right-hand defenseman on his team;
  • Johnny Boychuk for two 2nds and a conditional 3rd. It has to be noted that the Islanders caught Boston in a bad cap situation and was able to take advantage of it due to their cap space. This deal, although fans scream for the Oilers to make a similar one, was lighting in a bottle and is unlikely to be duplicated;
  • Dougie Hamilton was dealt for a 1st and two 2nd round picks when he didn’t sign his RFA deal;

So, to summarize, we can discount the Boychuk deal as a rarity, and we can consider the Burns and Byfuglien deals to essential be for forwards (at the time).  That leaves us with the various deals where they are essentially Best Defensemen in the Deal for Scoring Forward and Lesser Defenseman, and then the deal of a 2nd pairing with potential Defenseman for a Top-3 Center.  This shows us how much value is generally placed on a right-handed defenseman, and we can expect one of our younger left-handed defenseman will be going alongside any winger we deal to obtain such a right-handed defenseman.

Now, one can debate the quality of players such as Jordan Eberle, Nail Yakupov or Taylor Hall, but as becomes clear, no one deals a quality right-handed defenseman for a winger unless a secondary defenseman was included.  Goligoski for Niskanen and Neal are an example of this.  The only real exception would be the Burns scenario, which would still place a rough price of approximately Jordan Eberle and our first round pick to make that deal happen.  Essentially, any deal the Oilers do will probably have to include one of Oesterle, Davidson or even Klefbom along with a winger to get that quality right-side defenseman, or else our first-round pick plus a winger.  The only exception would be if the Oilers chose to deal Nugent-Hopkins, who may at best on his own fetch a right-handed defenseman with “potential”.

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