Near the end of the first segment of Oilers Now (I listen to it in podcast format) around the 17:30 mark, Bob was talking about how Mike Russo (Minnesota beat writer) and Jim Matheson (Oilers beat writer) were talking at the draft about the Oilers/Wild rumours. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins name came up and Stauffer said,
“Could be a player no one’s mentioned. Could be an organization looking for some scoring… We’ll see, my guess is he’s (Chiarelli) got a window here to make something happen and what we’ve seen so far, did anyone see the Maroon deal coming?”
Bobby kinda rambled a bit about the Maroon deal for a bit there but then said this:
“It makes me wonder if Chiarelli is looking for a specific price point, a range for a type of player.”
I don’t really know what this means, if you do, please let me know in the comments below.
Later on in the show Stauffer was presented with the question from a caller, “Do you think they’ll (Oilers) trade for a defenceman?” Bob’s reply was such:
“I think at this stage the more likely scenario is they will trade for a defenceman, and it will likely be a $6 million dollar forward that gets moved for a defenceman. I say that is more likely than signing a free agent like Jason Demers…Who knows maybe we’ll have more stuff to discuss as we close in on July 1st, which is free agency day. The Oilers are going to be a team to watch. If you’re an Oilers fan something is probably going to give here in the next week. It’s probably inevitable. Stay tuned on that front.”
Now Ryan Rishaug was doing his segment on the Jason Gregor Show and they got talking about the Oilers adding a blueliner. Gregor asked Rishaug. “Is there any name at the draft that got your attention as someone the Oilers should target? To which Rishaug retorted with:
“I still feel like, and I said it about a week before the draft, I feel like he’s (Chiarelli) going to come out of left field with someone we haven’t been talking about.”
Stauffer mentioned how he was on a flight with Wild GM Chuck Fletcher and Blackhawks assistant GM Norm McIver and how he got some time to talk with some hockey executives on that flight.
This got me thinking, there have been rumors about the Wild and Oilers, that’s nothing breaking but what about the Blackhawks? Are they still looking to shed some salary? I thought, could Duncan Keith be a player that nobody has been talking about? But then I checked General Fanager… No trade clause.
Other names that have been bandied about in the last few days are Brent Burns, Drew Doughty, Alex Pietrangelo, Kevin Shattenkirk but I just don’t see them as being viable options right now.
The 2nd name that came to mind, that’s the one that got the hamster wheel flying…
ERIK KARLSSON
I checked Karlsson’s contract details and he has a no-trade clause but it doesn’t kick in until the 2017/18 season. His cap hit is $6.5M per year for another three years, so that works for the Oilers. Now here’s the kicker…
New GM, new coach, new system… Welcome to a lot of 1-0 games Sens fans.
Guy Boucher is not an offensive coach. In fact, offensive defenders that have played on his NHL teams have put up some paltry numbers.
2010 – Brett Clark was the highest scoring defenceman with 32pts, Victor Hedman was 2nd.
2011 – MA Bergeron had the most points with 24, Hedman with 23pts and Brewer had 21pts
2012 – In the shortened season, Matt Carle lead the defense with 22pts and Hedman had 20pts
Karlsson is bound to be… Bound playing in Boucher’s system.
Karlsson said that he believes the way he approaches the game will have to be changed and that “It’s going to take a while to figure each other out”.
Do you think that Erik Karlsson is going to want to do that at this point in his career. Is he going to want to play in a system that stifles scoring and focuses on defense?
My opinion is that the Sens could go to a defence by committee and shore up the scoring up front to balance their team. They’ve got Dion Phaneuf there, not that he’s a good top pairing defender but he’d definitely be suited to it and he’s a yes man, so Boucher wouldn’t have any troubles with him.
The Sens could possibly use a LW depending on what happens with Mike Hoffman and Clarke MacArthur. I mean it doesn’t sound like they know what they have in Hoffman and MacArthur played what, four games last year? Hoffman is a perfect no.2 LW and MacArthur would be an even better 3rd line LW…
The Silver Seven blog wrote a post discussing left-wingers at the draft here but why look for one in the draft when you could have Taylor Hall?
So when we talk about trading Taylor Hall it is always for another elite hockey player, right? I mean in the past I’ve probably wanted to trade him for a plethora of different packages but I’ve seen the error of my ways now. Erik Karlsson is definitely the kind of player that you’d trade Taylor Hall for, especially if your team is looking to add Milan Lucic…
So here’s a proposal:
Taylor Hall, Oscar Klefbom for Erik Karlsson, Curtis Lazar and Mike Hoffman (RFA)
I think it’s an overpayment but it’s one I’m willing to make to get a 26-year-old Erik Karlsson on the Oilers. Lazar and Hoffman would be cherries on top and if pressed I’d add to it (Fack it! Toss in Yakupov) because I can only imagine what an Oilers team led by Connor McDavid and Erik Karlsson would look like. You want to see what the 80’s Oilers would look like in 2016? A team with those two would probably be the closest you’d get.
Hall is signed for $6M until 2019/20 and Klefbom has a contract until 2022/23 for $4.167M per year. These are highly valued contracts and the Sens would have to be more than pleased to get quality players under contract for such term as they’ve only got five players (Ryan, MacArthur, Phaneuf, Karlsson, Methot) signed past 2017/18.
Karlsson would benefit the Oilers in the most obvious of ways so there’s no need to get into his pros.
THE LINEUP REVISED
Lucic-McDavid-Eberle
Hoffman-RNH-Puljujarvi
Maroon-Draisaitl-Yak(Lazar)
Hendricks-Letestu-Pakarinen
Sekera-Karlsson
Davidson-Fayne
Nurse-Reinhart
Am I missing anyone?
What do you think? Is Erik Karlsson the mystery man who all of these Oilers Pundits are talking about? Let me know in the comments below!
