According to Igor Eronko, a journalist that covers Russian hockey for Sport Express, the Oilers SR VP of Hockey Operations, Craig MacTavish has signed on to coach Lokomotiv of the KHL for the next two seasons.
Craig MacTavish signed a 2-year deal with Lokomotiv of the KHL. Another option for the head coach position was Kari Jalonen
I’ve said previously that the word that was passed on to me was that there was a slight chance Craig MacTavish could stay on and run the Oilers AHL team but I guess after meeting with Ken Holland, the new GM thought it would be better for the two parties to go their separate ways. I do wonder if that means Keith Gretzky will be given MacTavish’s old job as overseer of the Oilers’ AHL team as that is something I’ve also heard from sources in the past?
I do expect to hear others leaving the club as Ken Holland puts his stamp on it. The more prominent names I’d figure to be heading out include Bob Green, Scott Howson, and Duane Sutter. Maybe that happens closer to June. 30th mind you.
Save for a stint coaching in the AHL, MacT had been with the Oilers since 1999! Hellva run I say. It’s too bad they couldn’t seal the deal in ’06.
In Locomotiv, they’re getting a man with a decade plus of coaching experience. MacTavish will join up with former Edmonton Oiler Anton Lander.
So good luck to the last man to play helmetless in the NHL!
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It looks like the Oilers are going to have some openings in their top 13 as latest reports (unconfirmed) have one of their better penalty-killers heading and one of their more promising youngsters heading to the KHL for next season.
Some #KHL rumours today (nothing official on any of these): G Mikko Koskinen from SKA St. Petersburg to New York Islanders. F Anton Slepyshev from Edmonton Oilers to CSKA Moscow. D Roman Savchenko from Barys Astana to unknown.
I’m sad to see both players moving on (if the reports are indeed true) but I understand why the club would prefer to. Pakarinen was an excellent foot soldier and worked his ass off on the PK but his AHL offense didn’t translate to the NHL often enough. I always wondered why they wouldn’t use him on that left-wall during the PP. He had a cannon of a shot.
Same goes for Anton Slepyshev. He could blast the biscuit when given the chance but he never was given it. I think in Slepy’s case, he was so inconsistent too. He’d show you what he had every 6 or 7 games but only flashes in the others. I imagine he’s another player who feels let down by the coaching staff after performing so well with Draisaitl and Lucic during the playoffs in 2017.
But the players have to take some responsibility for this past season’s performance and this is one way the GM keeps the team accountable I guess. It also gives him the ability to bring in some new blood to spice things up.
I wonder if the Columbus Blue Jackets will look to shake the roster up a bit this off-season. Maybe a player like Boone Jenner becomes available.
Speaking of shaking loose, the Anaheim Ducks let go long-time assistant coach Trent Yawney. A bit of a shocker but something had to happen in Anaheim after their 1st round bowing out to the San Jose Sharks.
Yawney had been with the Ducks for 7 years and it was in the last 4 years he was in charge of their defense and penalty killing. In that time the Anaheim Ducks had THE BEST penalty kill in the NHL. Numero uno! The Oilers had the 27th best.
He also oversaw the development of key dmen like Cam Fowler, Hampus Lindholm, Sami Vatanen, Josh Manson, Brandon Montour, and to a lesser extent Shea Theodore.
Trent Yawney has an excellent track record of developing young defenceman. My guess is that he will be a coach that multiple organizations look at. https://t.co/XhG9vyrA9K
Yawney is a former teammate of Oilers Head Coach Todd McLellan in Saskatoon, spent 3 years as AC with McLellan in SJ. Yawney has been an NHL and AHL HC and oversaw a Ducks PK unit that has been top 5 last 3 seasons. He checks off a lot off boxes here! https://t.co/uR1CKSqnQ2
Bob’s right. Yawney does check off a lot of boxes. I hope the Oilers do indeed go after Trent Yawney as an assistant coach to replace Jim Johnson.
Will Jay Woodcroft get replaced is the next question though? It was his PP that ate shite all year whereas the PK improved after McLellan took over. People on the Twitter machine have been throwing out Glen Gulutzan’s name to replace Woody but I’m not for that. Calgary’s PP was pretty horrid in his two seasons with the club but John Shannon said on Oilers Now today that he’d be a good fit for the Oilers and is an excellent communicator.
Either way, the Oilers should bring in someone new to run their PP. Over the last four seasons, it’s ranked 22nd in the NHL and that’s not good enough with the playing personnel on hand.
If that means bringing in Manny Viveiros from Swift Current of the WHL, so be it. If that means overpaying Todd Nelson to come back, so be it. Lastly, IF that means backing up a Brinks truck to Pascal Vincent’s house to get him to leave the Manitoba Moose (Winnipeg Jets AHL affiliate), so be it.
Get. Er. Done Boys!
Just a quick one on Mikko Koskinen.
Jason Gregor and Bob Stauffer are saying that the reported $2.5M per year for two years number that was thrown out by KHL insider and Hockeybuzz writer Aivis Kalniņš is incorrect.
I agree that the number sounds way too high. I’d heard he was making like 1.3M Euros per year but I can’t confirm that. I guess the conversion would make that close to $2M CDN. But anything over $2M would be very risky in my opinion.
This is all predicated on the Finnish goalie signing in Edmonton of course but we don’t know how Koskinen will perform on the smaller ice. He hasn’t played on it since his days in the Islanders organization… So Edmonton should treat lightly here.
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You probably have heard either via the Twitter or from Hockey Night in Canada Elliotte Friedman say that the Oilers are in on Finnish goaltender Mikko Koskinen. This new shouldn’t come as a shock to anybody. There are changes afoot in the KHL and a ton of talent is looking to come to the NHL. And if you’ve been listening to Bob Stauffer recently you’d know he asked both Todd McLellan AND Peter Chiarelli during their year-end avails questions as to procuring a goalie out of “non-traditional markets”…
Further to @FriedgeHNIC on Mikko Koskinen. My understanding is KHL UFA players contracts expire April 30th. Peter Chiarelli said Goaltending was "close or near the top of things to look at," when I asked him about getting another goalie to ease Cam Talbot's workload- April 11
Mikko Koskinen has played the last 5 seasons for Vladimir Putin’s team SKA in the KHL. He’s had the luxury of playing behind the best team money can buy over in Russia but that being said, he still has to play well to stay on said team and he has.
The 6’6″ 200lb Mikko Koskinen was once a blue-chip goaltending prospect in the New York Islanders system after being drafted as a 2o year old in the 2nd round of the 2009 draft 31st overall. Basically a first round pick.
But for whatever reason things didn’t pan out in that organization and his numbers were simply unacceptable, as you can see above, in his three seasons as a goalie in North America.
While in the Islanders organization, he had basically one full season in AHL Bridgeport with an ugly .892 save percentage, though it was on a(nother) weak team. A hip problem clearly interfered with his performance during his entry level contract playing for the Islanders, Sound Tigers, and their then-ECHL affiliate Utah Grizzlies.
A couple of things working in his advantage are his size and I believe his age. Koskinen is 30 now and we know that goaltenders can be fickle when it comes to development but this fella has put up consistently good numbers since moving to Europe.
If the Oilers are looking at signing Mikko Koskinen to be their backup in 2018, are they aiming high enough? What I mean is that last season was lost due to “hoping” the kids would step up. Are the Oilers back to that “hoping” model again? Or are his numbers and the scouting reports out of Russia/Finland telling the Oilers that this guy can play 25-30 games next season?
Is Mikko Koskinen the next Viktor Fasth/Anders Nilsson or is he Chiarelli’s next Tim Thomas?
I’m divided. He doesn’t have a good history in North America but he’s older now and there are plenty of examples of goalies who flourish in the later years. The optimist in me says the Oilers should go for it because he’s a big netminder and he’s put up fantastic numbers in the KHL but then the pessimist says he’s a slow netminder and the KHL isn’t the NHL.
Owns absolutely absurd playoff numbers as well. Career numbers in the KHL, by SV%:
Should the Oilers go this route and it fails, they’ll probably still have Montoya as the no.3 who could come up but if they do sign the Finn and he succeeds, how high is the ceiling here? Are we talking Pekka Rinne high? Kiprusoff?
What is a realistic expectation of a 3o-year old goalie coming to the NHL from the KHL with his size and his stats?
Are we overthinking this? For the love of Pete, this is the backup goalie we’re talking about here…
Here are some scouting reports of the big guy:
He takes up a ton of net and he is difficult to beat when he has time to square up to the shooter. Predictably, he struggles a bit with his mobility and regularly ends up scrambling. However, he is extremely flexible for a man his size. That combined with his long limbs helps Koskinen make up for whatever deficiencies exist in his lateral movement. Brent Craswell (link)
Koskinen’s greatest asset is his size, which he uses to seemingly fill the entire net and he covers a lot of space in the butterfly. He is inexperienced in terms of the number of games played and has not had a lot of international experience – excelling in the SM-Liiga where he ordinarily does not see the booming slapshots or accurate snipers more common in North America. Still learning as a goaltender, he must work to improve his quickness and foot speed. Very good at anticipating chances and setting himself to limit scoring opportunities. Quality teammate who has earned the respect of the veteran players in Espoo. (link)
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Are the Oilers going to lose Anton Slepyshev this summer?
According to an article published over at Championat.com, winger Anton Slepyshev is being courted by his old KHL team, Salavat Yulaev UFA, to return to the KHL next season.
Translated version below:
As it became known to the “Championship”, “Salavat Yulaev” is actively working on the return of striker Anton Slepyshev. Several sources confirmed this information at once.
The 23-year-old forward was chosen by the Edmonton Oilers in the NHL Draft of 2013 in the third round under the overall 88th number and performs in North America from the 2015/16 season. This season, he played 34 matches in the NHL and scored 10 (5 + 5) points with a score of “-3”. In the last games Slepyshev came out in the first link with Connor McDavid.
In total in the NHL on his account 21 (9 + 12) points in 86 games with a score of “-3”. In the AHL for three seasons Slepyshev played 59 games and scored 31 (16 + 15) points for performance.
Rights for Slepyshev in the KHL are assigned to “Salavat Yulaev”, for which he performed from 2013 to 2015. In the KHL, the striker played 159 games, scored 29 goals and made 20 assists with a “-4” utility score.
In addition, Anton twice participated in the junior world championships, and also played at two youth world championships. As part of the Russian national team, he won bronze YuCHM-2011 and two bronze MCHM (2013, 2014).
I haven’t found anything on Twitter about it yet to corroborate this but I’m willing to bet that later today some “news” will come out.
Anton Slepyshev played for Salavat Yulaev from 2012/13 to 2014/15 amassing 22 goals and 17 assists in 95 games.
Slepyshev is a restricted free agent this summer and the Oilers would be in the wrong to let him go back to the KHL if he can be signed for similar money. I’m not 100% sure how much he has to be qualified at but let’s be real here, Salavat could offer him much more than Edmonton could or is probably willing to right now.
I hate the idea of Slepy moving on, he’s just now recovered from injury and I definitely see a shooting winger with size and speed there. That said, I don’t think he’s got the trust of the coach but this is the kind of player the Oilers need to be adding.
Maybe the coach should start to break from the norm a bit and give more ice time to players like Slepyshev and Puljujarvi in the top 6. Just an idea because there’s no need to lose this player to the KHL if it can be prevented merely through TOI.
On the other hand, ten points in 34 games this year isn’t much to shake a stick at.
I’d still like to see one more full season of Anton on the wing of a good centre. Then if he doesn’t move the needle, give him his release to the KHL to play alongside some ex-Oilers who play for Salavat.
Ben Scrivens
Linus Omark
Teemu Hartikainen
Philip Larsen
Vladdy Tkachev
A better idea yet, work out a deal for Slepyshev to go to Salavat and for Vladdy hockey to come back to Edmonton.
We’ll probably hear a lot of “lost through translation” comments by the media if this picks up steam. But I think we’re smarter than that. This is a play by Slepyshev’s agent to try and put pressure on the Oilers to sign his client.
Also, quotes like the one below from the Edmonton Sun (2/22/2018) tell me the relationship between player and team is fragile at best.
“My agent was trying to make some trades,” said Slepyshev, who wanted a change of scenery. “I didn’t play like for one month. We were losing and I was being scratched and, of course, I was disappointed. I thought it might be better to try someplace else.” (source)
His agent was trying to make some trades? Haven’t heard that one before.
What are your thoughts? Please comment below!
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This morning Igor Eronko tweeted (below) out that longtime Oilers tweener and AHL superstar Anton Lander has agreed to terms with KHL club AK Bars and will start next season. According to thearticle‘s google translation, he’ll be one of the highest paid foreign players in the KHL. The article also said that nothing would be announced until the end of the season.
Back in October, a list was published on Sportsnet here and it detailed the 30 highest paid players in the KHL. The highest paid “foreign” player was Mikko Koskinen at $1.3M per year. So I guess that means Lander get a slight raise from his $987k that he makes here.
It’s too bad. I really liked Anton Lander and it’s a shame that his wheels never got that upgrade because the heart was there and he was quite good on the defensive side of the puck. Can’t forget about those faceoffs either as he was one of the best draw takers on the Oilers.
The Swede only mustered up 4pts in 22 games this season for Edmonton but a mind-blowing 46pts in 31 games for the Oilers farm club in Bakersfield.
