Tag Archives: Julius Honka

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

The Latest Oilers Trade Rumors Leading Up to Tonight’s Draft

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The day has finally come everyone. The day where every faction of the Edmonton Oilers fanbase can come together as one glorious fanbase and… Treat it like any other day in the Oilogosphere by arguing about what moves Peter Chiarelli made or didn’t make… SMH…

Anyways, it’s draft day, one of MY favorite times of the year as a hockey fan. I don’t know about you but it has actually combined two of my favorite times into one, the trade deadline and the draft. As a person who enjoys the Oilers as a form of entertainment and not as an extension of my personal self-worth, reading rumor blogs and following insiders leading up to this day is about as good as it gets.

I’ll post twice today before the draft. This one will be re: rumors going into the draft and the next one will be an Oilers mock draft using the ISS hockey scouting service’s draft list.

I should tell you that I’ll be joining Mike from Oilers.live, Sean from theoilknight.com, and The Dirtbag for a LIVE podcast during the first round of the draft later today. If that interests you, you can head over to Mike’s website and there’ll be a link you can click to listen to us hosers flap our gums about the Oilers.

THE AVAIL

Peter Chiarelli held his pre-draft avail yesterday and told us nothing that we didn’t already know. The 10th overall is in play for the right player. If it isn’t used they’ll use it on the BPA (best player available). He’s not talking about Milan Lucic’s trade request. Eric Gryba was bought out because they didn’t think he’d play for the Oilers and they wanted to give him an opportunity to seek employment elsewhere.

Am I missing anything?

Anybody in any hockey-mad community knows that it’s a small one and that acts such as this one with Chiarelli and Gryba don’t go unnoticed. Other players will see this and remember it. I think it’s a positive light on Chiarelli. They weighed the options and decided to do it. If Chiarelli gets fired for 600k spent over two years, he never really had the job to begin with.

Bob Stauffer said that the Oilers should have between 46 and 48 spots filled on the 50-man roster when all is said and done. So that leaves a few spots for trades, waiver claims, and NCAA free agents when the time comes.

RUMORS GOING INTO TONIGHT’S DRAFT

The MSM insiders have been talking Oilers since the day the regular season ended but more recently this is what they’ve been saying.

  • Rishaug said that there are teams inquiring about Nuge’s services.
  • Friedman has said that the Oilers are in on Parayko.
  • McKenzie says the Oilers first rounder is definitely in play.
  • LeBrun has talked about Lucic’s availability.
  • Matheson has tossed out Julius Honka’s name on multiple occasions.
  • Dreger did some Rishaug-ing of his own connecting Hanifin and the Oilers.
  • Stauffer has a been throwing Ryan Ellis’ name out for a good two weeks.

The amateur insiders have also been filling websites with words about possible moves the Oilers will be making

  • Eklund has the Oilers talking to both the Senators about Karlsson and the Flyers about Simmonds.
  • Marshall has 6 teams in on the Oilers first rounder (NSH, CAR, CGY, COL, MIN, NYR).
  • Treenas Oil has popped up with tweets about the Oilers and Habs on more than one occasion. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins being the piece of interest for Montreal obviously.

So make of it what you will. It’s called silly season for a reason. It’s obvious that Peter Chiarelli is on the hunt for that defenseman that will help on the PP. With names like Krug, Ellis, Ristolainen, Hamilton, Barrie, Faulk, etc. coming up over and over in my Twitter TL. My only hope is that whatever they do, don’t trade Puljujarvi, Nuge, Drai, or the 10th overall. Deal next year’s picks, Yamamoto, Bear, Jones, or whoever but this year’s draft crop for the Oilers is very important in my opinion.

I’d be very comfortable with them trading Kailer Yamamoto though. I feel that Puljujarvi has the higher ceiling and if the Oilers would like to move a blue-chip piece to get better right now, Yamamoto is the guy they should move.

The wingers that have been discussed as trade targets for the Oilers (Pacioretty, Simmonds, Skinner, etc) are all players that are one season from UFA. Do you think that the Oilers would be willing to sacrifice the long-term future of the club to acquire one of those players?

Peter Chiarelli HAS to walk the tight rope carefully this year. I’m pretty nervous to be honest. I don’t want them to cut into the core of the offense to improve the D. I’d rather they move on from Klefbom if they’re going to use a young player.

I do wonder however if they’d be willing to trade Klefbom and the 10th overall to move up. That would free up cap room and roster space and allow them to pick a player (anyone rated that high will do for me but I’d like Quinn Hughes) they covet. Maybe Arizona cuts that deal.

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Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, NHL Entry Draft, Prospects, Rumors

Reviewing the Latest Oilers Trade and Draft Speculation

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Happy draft week folks! The rumors are a flyin’, aren’t they? By the time the Oilers are playing their first game over in Europe they’ll be rid of Cam Talbot, Milan Lucic, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Andrej Sekera, Oscar Klefbom, and Jesse Puljujarvi but at least they’ll have a random guy in net, Torey Krug, Erik Karlsson, and Justin Faulk playing D and Jeff Skinner flanking Connor McDavid.

BRUTAL!!!

THE SPECULATION

https://twitter.com/NHLbyMatty/status/1006969977167941632

  • Jim Matheson has the Oiler talking to Ottawa about Erik Karlsson this week…

It’s not happening folks. The talks start with Leon and go up and the Oilers finally have a great 1-2 punch down the middle, they’re both young, and they’re both under contract for the next 7 years. I’m not dismantling that for a 30-yr-old Erik Karlsson who is on the last year of his contract. Not one bit folks!

  • The Fourth Period has the Oilers sending Cam Talbot and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to the Hurricanes for Jeff Skinner and Justin Faulk

WTF?! Seriously? What are the Oilers going to do in net then? Is Koskinen going to take over the reigns? We’ve seen what this team is like when it doesn’t get goaltending and I do not see them dealing for any all-stars.

That said, Lowetide and Alex Thomas were talking about Tuukka Rask over the weekend and that is probably a guy I would send a package that included Talbot for. Do you think Lucic would go back to Boston? What about a blockbuster sending Lucic, Klefbom, and Talbot to Boston for Krug and Rask?

Getting back to that TFP post… Skinner has one year left on his deal and I believe Faulk has two years whereas Talbot’s on the last year of his and Nuge has 3 years left IIRC. The money is a bit of a wash but I don’t believe the talent is.

Nuge is going to be a revelation on McDavid’s LW this season. Book it!

https://twitter.com/NHLbyMatty/status/1008330578427404290

  • Another player Jim Matheson has been tweeting about is Julius Honka.

I like this guy quite a bit and he’s at that age where a player’s game starts to become more refined. And to add to that, he doesn’t have to play for Ken Hitchcock anymore. He hasn’t put up a lot of points in his career so far (9pts in 60+gp) but I believe he’d be a fair bet to help the Oilers transition game if they acquired him. I mean, can you really see Dallas playing him over Johns, Klingberg, or Pateryn? Plus they’ve got Miro Heiskanen starting next year…

Honka’s on the way out and the Oilers should try to grab him.

  • Bob Stauffer has the Oilers having their pick of Ty Smith, Vitali Kravtsov, Barrett Hayton, or Adam Boqvist at #10 overall. His choices being Hayton or Smith.

Listen, Hayton will be a fine 3rd line centre. He’s a lunch bucket guy that Stauffer likes to compare to Bo Horvat for some reason (It’s ridiculous if you really dig into things). But ISS says that Hayton has excellent Hockey IQ and that’s something that if you’ve been listening to his show for the last couple of weeks he’s been saying that Keith Gretzky really likes…

I’m also not sold on Ty Smith. When I watched him I didn’t like his skating or his engagement in the games. Maybe I picked the wrong games mind you but Stauffer likes to bring up his locker room presence and how much his teammates like him as reason to pick the kid. Not good enough for me. Stauff also brings up the Kris Russell comparable and I love me some Kris Russell but not at #10 in the draft.

Vitali Kravtsov, scratch him just because he’s based out of Russia. For whatever reason, and I’m not saying Russians are bad players or bad people or whatever, a few of my favorite players growing up were Russian, they simply don’t turn out for the Oilers unless they’re brought in from other organizations. The only way I think the Oilers would take another Russian in the first round is if they made a deal with the Hurricanes for #2 overall and took Svechnikov.

So that leaves us with Adam Boqvist.

If the Oilers cannot find a way to draft Quinn Hughes (Paul Coffey 2.0 IMO) then they should be taking Adam Boqvist. His offensive upside is unreal. He’s right-handed. The way he works his edges and how well he rushes the puck is outstanding! Add to that the planet destroyer he’s got for a shot… He’s a MUST PICK at #10 if he drops.

People are talking about Boqvists injury history and to that, I say two things,

  • Have you seen Oscar Klefbom’s injury history?
  • I’d be surprised if none of the top prospects in any draft didn’t get concussed once before now.

I do want to say this though, I don’t think that Boqvist will be there at #10. He’s simply too good. Now, if that happens I could see one of Bouchard, Tkachuk, or Wahlstrom being available and that’s a very hard decision for me. I like all three for different reasons but it’d be hard for me not to take Tkachuk simply because his brother plays for Calgary and he’s not a perimeter player.

Stauffer has Zadina falling to #9 and if that scenario takes place, the Oilers best be doing their damnedest to trade up to pick him. Unreal if that guy dropped to #9…

We’ve got some pretty rad draft videos up at the Beer League Heroes YouTube page. Please, go check them out and if ya can, subscribe to our channel and that way you’ll be the first to know when a new video is up!

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

Oilers Should Look to Dallas For Help

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Wow! What a game that was last night in Winnipeg eh? Who would’ve thunk that if I wrote an article outlining what the Oilers could do to get out of their powerplay funk that they would actually go ahead and get out of it in a major way! Three goals on the PP? And did you notice where that first one was? Right in the upper slot. A place where Eberle should’ve been the whole time.

How many of you completely forgot about the Oilers getting scored upon in the first minute of the game like I did? And Patrick Laine… Good Lord can that guy shoot a puck. Is he the best sniper in the NHL right now?

Ze German, Leon… Wow! Mr.Draisaitl moves up to #20 in the NHL in scoring with this beauty!

There are probably a few who could do it better but that was a pretty damned nice goal. The German is en fuego!

SEARCHING FOR STARS IN DALLAS

So I guess the Stars are leaking goals left and right and I suppose that might have something to do with them running a defense who can barely grow a beard.

Before Johnny Oduya went down the Stars had 8 or 9 NHL level dmen getting ice time for them. Those included are:

  • Esa Lindell
  • John Klingberg
  • Patrik Nemeth
  • Jamie Oleksiak
  • Julius Honka
  • Stephen Johns
  • Jordie Benn
  • Dan Hamhuis
  • Johnny Oduya

Despite going ape sh*t on the Jets PK last night, the Oilers still could use that guy to run the PP for them. Swede John Klingberg is off last year’s pace with only 12 pts this year and has been healthy scratched at least once. Blazing up behind Klingberg is Finn Julius Honka, who has played 6 games and has 3 assists already. Stephen Johns leads the team in hits and I believe is 4th in blocked shots.

The reason I speak of those three defenders is because they are all right-handed and that’s the type of dman the Oilers will be looking for? But my question is, why would the Stars consider dealing any of Klingberg, Honka, or Johns for anything less that somebody in the Oilers top 6. They surely don’t need any more defensemen, so what could Chiarelli possibly offer the Stars to get one of those righties?

John Klingberg would be the guy I’d go after. He’s got a very nice Klefbom/Larsson-like contract being signed for $4.25M until 2021/22, he has a history, short albeit, of producing offense, and he’s a rightie! But that would force the Oilers to leave a pretty decent forward unprotected for Las Vegas and Jim Matheson wouldn’t get to keep his beloved Kris Russell 🙁

We know that Edmonton NEEDS to rid themselves of a Pouliot and a Fayne. But there is no way in Sam’s good green hell that Jim Nill is going to take those guys without a helluva sweetener and only $1.8M in cap space.

Would Mark Fayne be the kind of experienced veteran that could calm the Stars blueline corps down a bit? Dan Hamhuis has been scratched one time already but maybe their in the same situation that Edmonton was in before Kris Russell came on board. Perhaps they could just use a couple of veterans to sort things out and calm everything the f*ck down.

Dealing Jordan Eberle would leave the Oilers SEVERELY short-handed on the right side and they’ve got no use for Nugent-Hopkins if their center depth is Seguin-Spezza-Eakins… So ChiaPete would have to really put on his thinking cap for this one.

Best Case Scenario (For me at least): Peter Chiarelli pulls a rabbit out of his ass and finds a way to get Klingberg and Antoine Roussel for minimal damage. Perhaps Pouliot/Fayne/1st rounder/prospects and eating some salary. I’ll just slip away here and see if my NHL 17 will let me make that deal…

What do you think? How do you reckon the Oilers could take advantage of Dallas Stars team that is looking to solidify their defense? Let us know in the comments below!