Tag Archives: Jonas Gustavsson

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

The Oilers’ Monday Moves

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Well, yesterday was a bit of a Twitter shit show wasn’t it? All of the know-it-alls letting us in on a little secret, that they could be better GMs than Peter Chiarelli and also that even though the Oilers are two points out of owning 1st place in the Pacific division, Chiarelli is still incompetent…

One follower of mine put it best,

OILERS FANS BE BEING OILERS FANS… 

I might add another hashtag to my growing arsenal… #HereComeTheOilersFans

 

Can you be a fan and criticize the team, its coach, players, or GM?

Yes, but don’t make that the only thing you do when following the team. You come off as a huge jaded dick. My favorites are the ones that seem to know all the answers and can’t wait to judge Chiarelli everytime one of his moves has a hint of failure coming on. The bitterness shown towards the Oilers’ GM for making that ever-so-wanted BOLD move by trading Hall for Larsson is ridiculous. It’s as if the Oilers made a mistake by moving Lowe and MacTavish and firing Tambellini.

No, by all means. We should’ve kept them because they were doing an excellent job of sitting on their hands and doing f*ck all.

Now, Peter Chiarelli isn’t immune to critique but if you’re going to sit there and nail him dry for signing Gustavsson, leaving Puljujarvi in the NHL, or trading Hall; could you do yourself a favour and check the standings, then take a short trip down memory lane and remember how the Oilers got to where they are now. They ate shit for a decade, that’s how. After you’re done remembering how bad the team (as a whole) was, check out how players like Pat Maroon, Matthew Benning, Cam Talbot, and Leon Draisaitl are turning out. And if that’s not enough for you, look at the hockey demi-god that the Oilers have playing for them in the pic below.

May the McDavid be with you!

 

THE MOVES

1. Jesse Puljujarvi gets sent down to Bakersfield

From what I can gather as to why it took the team so long to send him down, there are a few possible reasons:

– Lack of depth on RW
– Pending trades or negotiations that involved one of the Oilers’ forwards or more specifically one of their RWs.
– A disconnect between Chiarelli and McLellan on how to deploy the big Finn.

Now as we know, as soon as Puljujarvi hit the 40 game mark, the Oilers burned a year off of their control of him. Instead of being able to become an unrestricted free agent at age 26, he may now have that option at age 25. At least that’s my understanding and I could very well be wrong. Let me know in the comments below if I’m off base here.

I’m of the belief that Pulju could’ve been sent down a lot earlier but then Pitlick got hurt and that threw a wrench into some trade negotiations for the Oilers. Remember that Matt Hendricks was supposedly going to the Wild? I know, Hendy plays LW but not having Puljujarvi around if that deal did go down wasn’t a risk the Oilers wanted to take because it was unlikely that a winger was coming back in that deal.

I also believe that Chiarelli wanted McLellan to be playing Puljujarvi a whole lot more so that he could evaluate him a bit better. Reminded me of the scene in Moneyball when Billy Beane and Art Howe couldn’t come to an agreement as to who would play at 1st base. I’m glad Chiarelli didn’t feel the need to trade any of the other RWs to make a point to McLellan though… Not that Eberle hasn’t been a feature in the Oilers rumour mill this year or anything… Still is… (Montreal/Washington I hear. More below.).

While Puljujarvi is in the AHL, he’ll be a top-line player and I might try to catch some of Bakersfield’s games online to see how Puljujarvi acclimatizes himself to that league. I’d expect him to be on a line with Khaira and Laleggia or Beck AND to get some cherry minutes as the go-to guy on the PP.

As for the language concern. He’ll be fine in Bakersfield with fellow countryman Jere Sallinen plying his trade for the Oilers farm team as well.

I reckon that Puljujarvi will be back with the Oilers this season and that seems to be a common sentiment amongst the pundits. They’ll send him down in hopes that he finds his game and when the time comes, Chiarelli will call him back up with said game in tow.

Lastly, Puljujarvi was barely 18 when he started the year and he’s not the first highly drafted 18 year old to have struggles scoring in the NHL (Thornton, Stamkos, Seguin, and Draisaitl come to mind), Remember that.

2. Gustavsson hits the waiver wire

I’ll just ask this question to the know-it-all bloggers off the bat, how is Jonas Enroth doing this year?

On Jason Gregor’s show last night he explained to us the reason that Chad Johnson wasn’t an option (because he’s the next player that fans/bloggers bring up in the backup goalie debate) for the Oilers. Chad Johnson wasn’t going to sign with a team that wasn’t prepared to give him some real ice-time and with Cam Talbot being the no.1 guy in Edmonton, Johnson wasn’t going to get that wanted TOI.

On the Cult of Hockey podcast, Staples and McCurdy discussed Gustavsson and length. Bruce McCurdy, who was a proponent of the signing for Edmonton (I didn’t know this. I didn’t know anybody was okay with it.), explained how Gustavsson’s career SV% at that time (.909) wasn’t that far off of the NHL’s average SV% (.915) from the year previous.

So there wasn’t this supposed extreme risk for Chiarelli in signing the Swede. He’s got a winning career record to boot and he signed for relatively cheap. Brossoit was going to be in the minors on a one-way deal, so if Gus didn’t work out, Brossoit was already there.

But this year has been quite unforgiving for him (1-3-0-1, 3.10 GAA, .878 SV%) and I support the decision of putting him on waivers with the intention of sending him down to the minors. As far as I’ve been told and Rishaug echoed this on Gregor’s show last night, Gustavsson will most likely never play another game for the Oilers unless something drastic takes place. Meaning an injury is the only way he will suit up for the Oilers again in 2016/17. I guess McLellan was pretty steamed at his performance vs. Ottawa and that lead to this move being made.

A lot of speculation is being bandied about as to who the Oilers will get to replace Jonas Gustavsson now and the 1st name that came up was Columbus’ back-up, Curtis McIlhenney, because he was put on waivers as well yesterday and his numbers don’t look too shabby either (2-1-2, 2.39 GAA, .924 SV%). But that loss to the Rangers scuffed up the shine on him.

Another name is Laurent Brossoit but he’s not lighting up the AHL right now. So I’m not too sure with regards to an AHL goalie coming in.

Other goalies that have been connected to Edmonton recently:

Jaro Halak, Ondrej Pavelec, Reto Berra, and Michael Neuvirth.

Oilers aren’t taking on Halak due to his contract’s term, but those other three are viable options. I like Neuvirth the best to be honest.

I don’t believe that the Oilers will make a claim on McIlhenney because they are sitting at 48 out of 50 contracts and going into the trade deadline with only 1 contract spot available could make negotiations quite tight. But I could see the Oilers sending over a LHD prospect in return for McIlhenney.

Gustavsson may very well stay on the roster until the time comes too. He doesn’t have to be sent down for another 30 days or 10 games after he clears waivers… So don’t get too ancy as to why he’s not being moved to the AHL if it takes some time.

3. Anton Slepyshev recalled!

AWESOME!!!

I’ve been a huge fan of Slepy all year and, in my opinion, he brings all the right tools to Chiarelli’s renovation party. He hits, he skates, he shoots, he’s a creative passer, he’s young, he plays a very gritty game, and he’s such a hard worker.

It’s going to be good to watch him again.

FUTURE MOVES

I know that the Oilers had scouts in Montreal watching the Habs/Caps game. There was some chatter online talking about Montreal having interest in Jordan Eberle and I guess Chiarelli likes Lars Eller but I can’t see either team moving on either player.

Edmonton can’t trade Eberle right now with that super funk that he is in. They’ll get taken to the woodshed Miroslav Satan-style. Not saying that the Oilers couldn’t use another Barrie Moore and Craig Millar but… No, I’m saying that. But if he doesn’t find that scoring touch by the deadline… Things could get some interesting.

The Caps paid a pretty salty price for Lars Eller, can’t see them moving him. Marcus Johansson on the other hand…

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

The Day After: Looch, Goose, and the Nuge

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I remember all those years ago when we’d bitch and moan that we didn’t have a guy like Milan Lucic on the team. Now we do and I can’t be happier. To put it in context, I as happy that Lucic is an Oiler as the fanbase was sad that Taylor Hall was traded. Honestly, it’s game f*cking on in Oil Country and I truly hope that the rest of the teams in the NHL are ready for the juggernaut that is about to roll through the league come October.

FREE AGENCY DAY ONE

Signed:

  • Milan Lucic – 7 years at $6 million per year
    • The thing I dig about this contract is that is front loaded. In those final three years, the ones that the stats community are worried about, he makes an average of just over $4M per year.
  • Jonas Gustavsson – 1 year at $800k per year
  • Mark Fraser – (2-way) 1 year at $575k per year
    • This is a two-way deal. Some are suggesting it’s cover in case of injury but I have to wonder if it’s something more than that. He’s a leftie and the Oilers quite simply have too many left-handed shooters on D right now. I wonder if there’s a trade in the works to move a prospect like Griffin Reinhart, Dillon Simpson, or David Musil…

I love the Lucic signing and see him as the Semenko to McDavid’s Gretzky. The Gustavsson signing I’m not too sure about. He doesn’t have the same pedigree at backup goalie as Talbot did before the Oilers traded for him. I’ll have to reserve judgment on Fraser as I have no idea if he’ll even play a game next year for the team. He’s a big guy, not afraid to muck it up and isn’t the worst defenseman to sign.

The Oilers are still left with the task of finding a right-shot puck moving PP defenseman and possibly a third line centre who’s also a right-shot. They have a shade over $8 million left in cap room, so if they wanted to they could add another substantial contract. They’re also only sitting at 43 contracts out of 50.

THE OILERS DEPTH CHART TO DATE

L1: Lucic – McDavid – Eberle
L2: Maroon – Draisaitl – Yakupov
L3: Pouliot – RNH – Puljujarvi
L4: Hendricks – Letestu – Kassian
Extra: Lander, Pakarinen

D1: Klefbom – Larsson
D2: Sekera – Fayne
D3: Nurse – Davidson
Extra: Reinhart, Fraser

I think there’ll be a few of you that will ask about the forwards being lined up as such. I believe that the days of the traditional line set up is over. There’s no scoring line 1, scoring line 2, shutdown line, checking/energy line. Now each team must have three lines that can contribute. That is why I have Puljujarvi with RNH and Pouliot. He’ll need to be insulated in his first year or two at least. You can’t throw him to the wolves and the top line of Lucic, McDavid, and Eberle is a bona fide top scoring line in the NHL. You could toss Yak up there and see what he does but I reckon Ebs is firmly entrenched there for the time being. The Draisaitl, Maroon, Yak line could be taken advantage of by the opposition as it’s not the fastest or the most defensive.

THE COLORADO AVALANCHE

The Avs are going to move a defenseman, it’s not a matter of IF but WHEN. Yesterday that added left-shot Fedor Tyutin (recently bought out by Columbus) and fancy stats darling and right-handed shot Patrick Wiercioch. So the Avs D corps. looks like this right now:

Erik Johnson – Nikita Zadorov
Francois Beauchemin – Chris Bigras
Fedor Tyutin – Tyson Barrie
Eric Gelinas – Patrick Wiercioch

I don’t get this team. I loved Sakic and Roy as players but they’re bending this roster over and going in dry with the way their treating its stars. Are they seriously thinking of taking Tyson Barrie to arbitration? For real? They must be a sucker for losing because Barrie is going to wipe the floor with them in that case.

Edmonton needs to get on this and if you follow Ryan Rishaug on Twitter you’d think the deal is already in the bag.

I couldn’t tell you what the return might be here. I think if you’ve got your ear to the ground you’d probably say Eberle or Nugent-Hopkins but I have to wonder if Chiarelli will try to sell Colorado on Yakupov or Reinhart.

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