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Oilers Trades: Real, Rumored, and Speculated

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This week the Oilers trade talk has been a real treat to experience. We’ve had deals that were never made, deals that are being made up, and an actual trade. The common denominator in all of them, Oilers fans have been given another reason to bitch and moan about Peter Chiarelli.

I mean isn’t it amazing, if you go to the sponsored Oilers blogs like Oilersnation, The Oilers Rig, Copper and Blue, or Oil on Whyte, it’s all FIRE CHIARELLI! Get rid of McLellan!

I get why they do it apart from clicks for the sites but it’s really a shame. I thought re-hashing the Larsson trade every month was bad but this is getting ridiculous (and unoriginal).

Rant over.

 

The Speculated Trade

Ray Ferraro threw a trade idea out into the wind this week that sparked the fires of discontent amongst Oilers fans. A deal centered upon two stars, Max Pacioretty and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

“What if there’s a deal to be made between Edmonton and Montreal that involves Nugent-Hopkins, and Pacioretty is in it? And there are some other pieces to equal the way that works. Edmonton gets a shooter. Gee, that would look pretty good on McDavid’s side. Montreal gets a centre. Gee that would look pretty good in that centre spot.”

Over at the Athletic, Jonathan Willis also jumped on the “trade Nuge” bandwagon this week and his reason was that all of his numbers are basically the same as they’ve always been but the difference being this year he’s riding a shooting percentage that is 40% better than his career average. Sort of the opposite of what usually happens to an Oiler before he’s traded.

My thoughts: If there’s a year to trade RNH, it’s this one unless the Oilers go on a ridiculous tear and are in a playoff spot come trade deadline. His value couldn’t get any higher and the Oilers still need a top 4 right-handed PP specialist on defense. Someone who can transition the puck a helluva lot faster than what the Oilers dmen are doing now. They could also use a proper right-handed 3rd line centre who is a marvel on the PK too and if they acquired both of those pieces in a trade for RNH, what’s the problem?

On the other hand, if the Oilers are looking for a LW who can score, why not simply move RNH to McDavid’s left wing and be done with it. Internal solution utilized!

The Real Trade

Al Montoya from the Montreal Canadiens to the Oilers for a 5th round pick which may turn into a 4th rounder if the former 6th overall pick plays more than 7 games.

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My thoughts: I like it but the folks in the Oilers Twittersphere who think they’re smarterthan everyone else hate it because they think that the Oilers could’ve grabbed a backup off of the waiver wire, even Montoya had they waited for Montreal to activate him off of the IR. The problem with that line of thinking is we don’t know what the price was for those backups and the Oilers defense could be held just as responsible for the poor goaltending performances earlier in the year.

Another thought out there was that 3rd string goalies can be had anything for a 4th round pick but I don’t subscribe to that. If that was the case, we would’ve seen some of these goalies like Pickard, Hutchinson, Hammond, Lindgren, or Sparks with new homes.

Todd McLellan said that they’re worried about Brossoit getting reps but somebody is going to have to be sacrificed for LB to get some games in. I’m guessing Brossoit hits waivers (gets claimed… wouldn’t that be fun fodder for the Chia-haters?), clears, goes down and then Eddie Pasquale goes to the ECHL or is traded/loaned. Nick Ellis, who’s had better AHL stats than Brossoit since taking over in Bakersfield is getting a raw deal here and I feel bad for him.

The Rumored Deal

What did Peter Chiarelli do to Darren Dreger? Geez.

Yesterday on Dustin Nielsen’s show Dreger dropped this massive bombshell that the Oilers had a deal with the Ottawa Senators that would’ve seen Taylor Hall traded for Cody Ceci but Sens ownership needed to approve it, was nowhere to be found, and subsequently Adam Larsson was traded for instead.

Taylor Hall was rumored to be traded for a lot of different dmen before he was actually traded. PK Subban was one, Dougie Hamilton was one, and Kevin Shattenkirk was another. So don’t get your speedos in a bunch by second-guessing Chiarelli’s player evaluation abilities.

We know GMs talk all of the time and they hash out potential deals on a weekly basis and then tweak them up if need be. Sometimes they sit on a trade for months before pulling the trigger.

The timing couldn’t get any better eh? Dreger had been sitting on this little tidbit of information for nearly two years before throwing it out into the world right when the Oilers mired in a 4-game losing streak and the heat couldn’t get any hotter on Peter Chiarelli?

Or was this a veiled shot at Sens GM Pierre Dorion?

Either way, what was Dreger’s motivation to do this? I can’t see any scenario where saying this would benefit anybody but himself or TSN’s radio numbers. He did mention it whilst talking about Edmonton and Ottawa not being good trade partners but still, I do not believe it was mentioned without ill intent aka it was a dick move.

Last Night’s Game

Fack! Was that a fun game to watch or what?!

The win versus the Ducks has their record versus teams in the Pacific to 4-1-0. They’ve outscored their division rivals 23-12 in that time but do you know what the fun part about the rest of the year is?

21 out of the remaining 41 games remaining in the season for the Oilers are against Pacific Division teams… And if you’re worried about that home PK (obligatory statistical preface: #smallsamplesize), the Oilers PK at home versus the Pacific, 85.7% and an added bonus is that their PP is 37.5%.

Peter Chiarelli said that he was going to build a team that would compete in the Pacific and despite how you feel about his handling of assets, you have to agree that he’s a man of his word.

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Oilers Now at 49 Contracts, Trades Are In The Works

There’s nothing sweeter than dropping a 7-spot on the Calgary Flames during the late game on Hockey Night in Canada eh? Adding to that sweetness was,

  • Pulju getting two goals (nearly three)
  • a shorty from Letestu (who has 9pts over the past 15 games)
  • ANOTHER goal from JJ Khaira (7pts in his past 8 games)
  • Eric Gryba rebounding to get 2 assists and going +4
  • Kris Russell having TWO good games in a row there. He had 6 blocked shots! When Brodie put that puck in his own net I yelled, “VINDICATION!”
  • The Oilers chasing Mike Smith from the net
  • Special teams for the Oilers were a tad better. Would like to get more PP goals for though.
  • The game was in Calgary and the Oilers did it without their no.1 goalie and their top 2 (arguably) defensemen… Making it double-sweet that the Oilers won it.

A stat that was kind of interesting to me given the status of the game at hand was that the Oilers only had 9 hits to Calgary’s 14. You’d have thought there would’ve been WAY more hitting, right?

On the other side of the coin though, there were some disconcerting happenings…

  • Draisaitl and Strome were the only forwards NOT to get a point. Benning and Auvitu went pointless as well.
  • Laurent Brossoit’s near-historic meltdown in the third which has probably landed him either on another team shortly or in the minors once the Oilers find a backup to trade for.
  • A shorty against and a PP goal against does nothing to help the Oilers ongoing special teams struggles.
  • Speaking of reffing… Two powerplays for Edmonton to Calgary’s six?… How is it that teams are simply not getting the calls vs. the Oilers? It’s mind-boggling if we’re being honest and I have to wonder if Peter Chiarelli has called Steven Walkom to have a chat with him about the standard of officiating during the Oilers games?

OILERS ADD WALKER AND DAVIDSON

Peter Chiarelli has gone out and added some speed and glue to the bottom-6 and another left-handed bottom-pairing defender which tells me a couple of things,

  • The players whose spots Walker and Davidson might be playing in are on notice.
  • The team may very well be going the whole taxi squad thing.

On Saturday night, the “healthy” scratches were Anton Slepyshev, Ryan Stanton, and Nathan Walker. Now we have to add Brandon Davidson to that list right? I’d venture a guess that Ryan Stanton will be heading back to Bakersfield.

Just an aside, but is anybody else shocked that Buffalo, Arizona, and Florida passed on Davidson? Maybe there’s something about Davidson that the Oilers looked over though. He couldn’t find a way to overcome 3 AHL dmen and a teenager in Montreal and to me, that’s a bit of a yellow flag. Not a major concern because we don’t know what the deal was with Julien and/or Bergevin. We do know he’s a great locker-room guy that was well-liked before he was dealt for David Desharnais last year and that will help.

So who is going to come out of the lineup vs. Philadelphia on Wednesday?

Eric Gryba would be your first inkling, no? The Flyers are on a ridiculous 10-game losing streak (hopefully they can break that vs. Calgary this week) and usually they play a typical Flyers-like game. Heavy. So would Gryba be a better fit then? Davidson has the size and he’s a much better skater though. I probably still lean Davidson here but is that how you reward a player for a good bounce-back game? Tough call nevertheless.

How about the forwards? Who comes out if you want to see Walker, Aussie Oiler?

Right off the bat, I know exactly who I’d take out. Drake Caggiula for sure.

Chiarelli is not happy with his performances at all and I’d be surprised if he isn’t the guy dealt for a backup goalie. I mean, Caggiula CAN play much much better than he is and he doesn’t have to play on Connor’s wing to do it. He’s quick, he’s tenacious, and he can score… But he simply isn’t. Now, do we chalk that down to the sophomore slump or is there something else?

As for Anton Slepyshev, I love the guy because he doesn’t play the traditional Russian style. He’s got more sandpaper to his game and isn’t afraid to muck it up on the wall but he’s a guy that also has to be scoring and isn’t. I’d say he’s also a candidate to be used to bring back a netminding upgrade on Brossoit.

My initial reaction on the addition of Nathan Walker was that the Oilers had just added a younger Matt Hendricks and just as the Oilers dressing room lost a huge personality when Hendricks was let go, the Washington Capitals have as well.

Caps fans were NOT HAPPY that the team let Walker go on waivers. That right there should tell you all you need to know about the kind of player he is. He’ll be liked in Edmonton.

So will Nathan Walker be the Conor Sheary that Craig Button was talking about? I’m not so sure. He’s more waterbug that speed demon and that might just help us even more. Meaning he might be able to draw a few more penalties with his playing style and Lord knows the Oilers could use a few more of those players.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbmV6MHSURo

49 OUT OF 50 CONTRACTS

In normal circumstances, teams don’t want to be so close to the maximum contract allotment because it gives them very little wiggle room IF they want to make a trade. So right now any deal that Chiarelli makes will be made from behind the 8-ball a bit. I think he could probably find a team to give him a draft pick for Anton Slepyshev and that kind of trade would alleviate the pressure or another way would be to find a team that would take a Lowetide special (3-for-1). But how many teams are going to be doing the Oilers any favors, right?

As for the players on the way out, I believe that Chiarelli has to move some of those AHL players he signed. The Bakersfield Condors are NOT doing well and these AHL vets are simply taking up spots that could be used for the Oilers prospects.

50-man list courtesy of Lowetide

The problem moving said AHL vets is finding a team who’d take them. The Oilers do have a solid chunk of cap space on hand and they could use that to take back an unsavory contract from another team in exchange for two or three of the blue-colored players above. At this point, I’d say that’s his best bet if he wants to create some room on the list…

A COMPITENT BACKUP

Everybody and their dog knows that Peter Chiarelli is now on the lookout for a goalie upgrade. We’re not going through another promising season with bad goaltending. So who is all out there that the Oilers have the remotest chance of trading for?

  • Chad Johnson (BUF) – The Sabres are eating shit right now and I can’t see them making a huge run for the playoffs. He’s got a career .913 SV% and right now it’s sitting at .883. Was effective for Calgary last season.
  • Calvin Pickard (TOR) – This was exactly the reason why the Maple Leafs got Pickard. Now they can ask a premium for him.
  • Garrett Sparks (TOR) – Sparks, Pickard, and a stacked Toronto Marlies are having a helluva time in the AHL this year.
  • Michael Hutchinson (WPG) – Is doing very well in the AHL right now and Eric Comrie got the call-up over him when Mason went down… 9-1-1 .951 Sv% 1.73 GAA.

There are others like Neuvirth in Philly and Grubauer in Washington but my question is, do you go for an older veteran backup OR do you find a younger one that is just better than Laurent Brossoit?

Let me know in the comments below!!

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Oilers/Capitals: Five Things We Learned After Game 17

I’ll start off by saying this, I think this effort was 10x the one from yesterday. The Washington Capitals are an offensive juggernaut in my opinion and the Oilers held them to only 1 goal. The defense was on point but the offense is still struggling and I don’t really know what one can do about that.

I was very happy that Ovechkin and Kuznetsov didn’t take the game over though. A fine showing by the Oilers not to let that happen!

Five Things We Learned

  1. Pat Maroon wasn’t taking any shit tonight!

    I loved the passion from Big Rig tonight. He was battling everywhere and he’s showing us that he’s really making an effort to snap out of this slump by trying everything. That scrap with Tom Wilson was nearly a minute long and Wilson is no slouch when it comes to chucking knuckles. Add to that another 7 shots on net tonight.

  2. Khaira, Brossoit, and Auvitu came to play!

    I loved Brossoit’s game tonight. He was the rock Edmonton needed back there and each performance like this that he has increases the amount of confidence Todd McLellan has in him and the more likely he is to get the call in the future.

    JJ Khaira was having the kind of game that would’ve had him one of the 3 stars at the end of the night until he failed to stay on Orlov but thus is life for a young NHLer. The rest of the game he was solid and looked very confident.

    Auvitu… You want to get pissed at the guy for jumping into the play so much but luckily nothing too terrible happened as a result. Now, I don’t mind a dman that is so offensively minded as long as he’s putting up points but the Frenchman isn’t. At least he didn’t cost the Oilers a goal

  3. Todd McLellan HAS to do better. 

    I was flabbergasted when I didn’t see Jesse Puljujarvi in the OT but I did see Ryan Strome (who didn’t show badly) and Pat Maroon (who at one point was the only defender back). All of that open ice is tailor-made for Jesse Puljujarvi with the way he skates and all of his power… Personally, I think it’s bullshit that McLellan didn’t put him out there.

  4. NHL reffing is still garbage.

    This isn’t something we learned tonight but it’s something that continues to plague the NHL. I know that the job is a very difficult one to do and you can’t call everything on Connor McDavid but you can call something. Like one thing. At least!

  5. Oscar Klefbom bounced back.

    I loved his game tonight. The difference between tonight’s game and yesterday’s game was like night and day. He kept it very simple and really took to heart what the coaching staff laid out for him after the Rangers game. I hope that he can continue this trend up and we get to see a goal from him soon.

Next game up is versus Vegas and this is important for a few reasons.

  • Vegas is a Pacific division rival. The time to start climbing up the standings is now.
  • The Golden Knights are fast and tenacious, two things that kill the Oilers unless they’re playing New Jersey, so Edmonton is going to have to be well prepared for that. I hope they go with the same lineup but with Talbot in net.
  • I’m not 100% for sure but I’m assuming that Vegas will have Maxime Legace in net and what better opportunity for the Oilers to score more than 2 goals than against an AHL netminder.

Now, it’s going to be all unicorns and lollipops vs Vegas. At the moment, they are playing very well but it’s time for the Oilers to get their special teams on the right track and summon the spirits of 2016/17 to help them put some goals in the bloody net!

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Oilers/Canucks: Five Things We Learned After Game 2

Well, the dream of a perfect season is over for the Edmonton Oilers. Bo Horvat and the plucky Vancouver Canucks made good on some bad defensive plays by Edmonton and McDavid’s boys couldn’t get themselves back into the game quick enough to make good on any sort of comeback.

Of course, I didn’t think that the Oilers would win every game but I was confident that they wouldn’t lose in their first road game of the year to the team that 99% of fans and pundits alike picked to be in the basement of the Pacific come the end of the regular season.

That being said, even Taylor Hall’s Oilers won a game from time to time.

FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED AFTER GAME 2

  • Connor McDavid can be stopped

All you have to do is take a page out of the 1980s and put a shutdown/pest on him. Ryan Kesler did wonders during the playoffs last season and Derek Dorsett, of all players, was very successful last night of taking the Oilers captain off of his game.

  • Laurent Brossoit IS an NHL goalie

WOW! I’ll be honest. I had my doubts when it came to Laurent Brossoit before this season but boy did he safely tuck those away after last night’s relief performance. The Oilers basically left their goalies out to dry last night and Talbot got worse as time wore on whereas Brossoit really held the Oilers in the game till the end. How many breakaways or grade-A chances were the Canucks gifted that LB turned away. He was better than Markstrom in my opinion.

  • The Oilers forward depth isn’t holding up their end of the bargain

Khaira – 3:50 TOI
Strome – 8:00 TOI
Pakarinen – 5:25 TOI

I can’t really heap a lot of blame on Pakarinen but Ryan Strome isn’t doing himself any favors with Todd McLellan early in the season. What happened to Jujhar Khaira last night? Not even four minutes of ice-time? Was there an injury or did the coach simply Petr Klima his ass to the bench? Khaira’s from the area, you’d think he’d have had some friends and family in the stands watching.

Either way, the bottom 6 isn’t getting it done so far this year and maybe that’s because Zack Kassian has that sort of impact on the bottom two lines when he plays on them but it’s not as if they’re lacking skill.

I thought that Jokinen/Strome/Caggiula were extremely quiet and ineffective. Letestu/Khaira/Pakarinen also left a lot to be desired.

  • Consistency is what the Oilers brass is preaching

And it’s something this young team is still struggling with. Not a surprise really but it’s going to make Todd McLellan’s practice planning very easy. And with each poor-to-average game they play, Chris Kelly inches closer to a contract and somebody’s job becomes more at risk.

  • Matt Benning is struggling

Battlin’ Matt Benning is struggling to adapt to his new role on the team. He basically gifted that lane to Bo Horvat last night and the future Canucks captain capitalized on it to tie the game. Then for whatever reason Benning tried to stickhandle out of his zone on a PP rush up the ice and he turned the puck over there too.

I don’t like this new role being thrust upon a 2nd-year player. Now, I’m not averse to having players being given increased responsibilities but at this point, I’d be giving Darnell Nurse a bit more of the responsibility pie here than Benning because he’s shown that he can handle it.

I reckon this has a lot to do with Benning being a right-shot but he’s a helluva lot better at being a gritty two-way no.5/6 defender. Let the boy grow into his role on this team I say.

COMING UP

Next game on the docket is against the Winnipeg Jets and this is a team that is going to be one of two things:

  • A pissed off group looking to take out whatever is in its way.
  • A complacent group who’ll be taken out by whatever is its way.

The Jets are winless this season with a goal differential of -8. They’ve only managed to score 5 goals but that new goaltending tandem of Steve Mason and Connor Hellebuyck are leaking goals left and right.

The problem with the Jets is that they are a perfect mix of players. Size, speed, and intelligence all throughout their roster but they can’t seem to translate that into wins. From Scheifele to Laine to Wheeler to Ehlers on the front end is a scary bunch but then they’ve got Byfuglien, Trouba, a healthy Tyler Myers, and the burgeoning Josh Morrisey.

So what i’m getting at is… Things could go majorly wrong for the Oilers if they don’t take this Jets team a helluva lot more seriously than they took Vancouver.

Until then! Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Be safe and responsible!

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ANSWERED: Cult of Hockey’s 22 Biggest Edmonton Oilers Questions Going into 2017/18

The Cult of Hockey put out a late blog (as they tend to do) with 22 questions about the Edmonton Oilers going into the 2017/18 regular season and I’m going to answer them to the best of my abilities using my limited Oilers and hockey knowledge.

But before we get into the blog I need to promote the new F*ck Kesler and the new True Grit Pat Maroon shirt designs we’ve got up at our Teepublic Merch Shop and I want to let you know that our Youtube channel is really taking off. We’ve doubled our subscribers just this month! So please come and join us in growing the channel by subscribing!

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  1. Will Jesse Puljujarvi turn the corner and become a Top 6 NHL winger? 

    – The way I want to look at Jesse Puljujarvi is that THIS is his rookie year, even though we all know it isn’t. He’s 19, a year older, stronger, smarter, and he’s going to be put in a better spot for his development and NOT be force-fed ice-time and opposition he’s not ready for.But with that being said, he will not put up top-6 numbers on the 3rd line with Nuge and Juicy. He will, however, put up respectable numbers for a 19-year-old on the 3rd line and show us what he is capable of. I’m thinking 3o-35 pts.

  2. Will Milan Lucic be more of a force as a two-way player at even strength? 

    – I believe so. He’s changed up his off-season routine a bit and he’s brought his body fat percentage down a bit meaning he’s a leaner tougher Lucic this year. His one-year grace period is over and now that he knows what’s expected of him and the systems, he’ll be returning the Lucic of old. But don’t expect him to be running around smashing bodies or fighting all of the time. That’s not really what he does. He spent many-a-year building a reputation so that he doesn’t have to play that game all of the time even though we love it when he does. He preserves his body that way too because that’s a tough way to make a living as you get older, ask any power forward.A counter question I have is if Lucic does become more of a 5×5 force, will that take away from his PP numbers?

  3. Will Laurent Brossoit be an adequate backup goalie for Cam Talbot? 

    – Laurent Brossoit has taken some time to become a top goalie in every league he’s played since junior. Patience goes a long way with LB and to date, it’s always paid off. Brossoit WILL be a perfect backup to Cam Talbot.

  4. Will Ryan Strome earn a place in the Oil’s Top 6 with steady play and scoring? 

    – He doesn’t have to “earn” a place in the top-6. He’s already been placed there. Will be stick is another question.One of the reasons the Oilers picked him up is because he’s good at moving that puck off of the boards to his streaking centre and that’s important because his centre will probably be Connor McDavid and how many times did we see him curl down into the zone and circle up to the blue line expecting a pass to fly out of the Oilers zone and natta. Eberle or Puljujarvi or Slepyshev or Caggiula couldn’t get it to him and a chance to exit the zone was lost.It shouldn’t be the case this season.

  5. Will Ryan Nugent-Hopkins regain his offensive mojo? 

    – 50 pts as a player being deployed like a 3C would be something, 60 would be GLORIOUS but unrealistic. His wingers will probably be Jussi Jokinen (who’s also looking to bounce back) and the Grinnin’ Finn Jesse Puljujarvi. This could be an offensively devastating line because it’s going to see the 3rd defensive pairing of the other team most likely.So if Juicy Nuge Pu is coming down on a Flames 3rd pairing of Michael Stone and Brett Kulak, does the ice not tilt Edmonton’s way a bit?The Oilers have no intention of putting RNH up with McDavid, therefore, I’m of the impression that they’re not truly concerned with his offense. But would they toss him up with Draisaitl? Chiarelli did talk about having McDavid, Draisaitl, and Nuge in the top 6 as a way of making the money work. We may see 93 in the top 6 after all.

  6. Will Darnell Nurse and/or Matt Benning step up to be decent Top 4 d-men? 

    – I’m very confident that we might see Nurse and Benning end up being the 2nd pair in Edmonton come the New Year’s Eve this pushing Kris Russell down to the 3rd pairing where some believe he should be.Nurse, before his injury last season, was showing great gains in his development and Benning stepped up on numerous occasions to help the Oilers out as a no-nonsense Adam Larsson-lite.

  7. Will Adam Larsson’s two-way game develop to the point where he’s seen as a strong first-pairing d-man? 

    – I’m not sure he’ll get to that Scott Stevens level of dman but Lordy is he good! But as long as he’s in Edmonton and the Oilers don’t go out and get a player like Erik Karlsson or Drew Doughty, he’ll be top-pairing.Today I was thinking on Auvitu though because Bob Stauffer put him in the same breath as Brian Rafalski. Would Rafalski have performed as well as he did had he not been paired with great dmen? I want to say he played a lot with Lidstrom and Stevens but I could be wrong.Could Auvitu blossom being paired with Larsson or Benning? Unlikely, but it’s worth a thought or two.

  8. Will Andrej Sekera be anywhere near his peak level of play by the playoffs? 

    – I don’t think so. He will be tossed into the annual category of “like a trade acquisition” though. We’ll have to wait until next year (if he’s here that long) to see the old ‘Rej. Will Sekera be another Andrei Markov or Sergei Gonchar?

  9. Will Connor McDavid shift up one final higher gear and score between 110 and 120 points this year? 

    – Unless he’s peaked at 20 years old or he gets hurt, he should be taking it out of turtle and into rabbit on the ol’ ride mower. The wonderkid is just getting started folks.
     

  10. Will Peter Chiarelli find a way to smartly bolster the team with all that extra cap space? 

    – The Oilers have a shade over $8M in projected cap space according to Cap Friendly and there are plenty of tasty players about to enter the free agent market next summer including Joe Thornton, Mike Green, Rick Nash, John Tavares, Evander Kane, James Neal, and Kyle Turris If you’re one to think big.If you think adding a depth player would be more beneficial then you might be able to pick from Tyler Bozak, David Perron, Cam Atkinson, Cam Ward, Jaro Halak, Leo Komarov or Dan Hamhuis or John Carlson.

  11. Will Oscar Klefbom find a way to play solid defence all year, the way he played in the final two months of the 2017 hockey season? 

    – Young dmen tend to perform in higher peaks and lower valleys, as Klefbom ages, those peaks and valleys will even out. So expect a little less volatility in that regard this season. Also, being paired with Adam Larsson will calm his game down too.

  12. Will Leon Draisaitl raise his two-way game at centre yet again, becoming an undisputed two-way force in the league? 

    – I’m halfway expecting a bit of a regression from Leon. Nothing major though. Maybe he’s not a top-10 scorer in the regular season this year and having a revolving door on the RW might have something to do with that or perhaps not getting as much 5×5 time with McDavid will be the cause.I do expect his performances in the playoffs (when made) to continue to be something we’ll be talking about as his calling card.

  13. Will Kris Russell be more assertive moving the puck? 

    – Or put another way, Will Kris Russell show more confidence in his zone exits instead of deferring to his d-partner or the glass?I hope so. I know he can do it. He’s got the skating ability and the passing ability but will he be more assertive? I think he’ll try to do what the coaches ask of him but as I said above that may be in a 3rd pairing role if Nurse and Benning do indeed take the next step.
     

  14. Will Cam Talbot start showing signs of wear-and-tear? 

    – No, I think he will continue to be the Talbot we all know and love. It’s not like he’s been playing 70 games a year since he was in his early 20’s. Goalies take later to develop and I think we’ve got him right in his prime. The next contract will be interesting though.

  15. Will Drake Caggiula and Anton Slepyshev establish themselves as Top 9 NHL forwards? 

    – Yes, I believe so. They may even establish themselves as top 6 NHL forwards if everything falls into place.I look at Caggiula and I see a young Chris Kunitz and I love that idea. He’s gritty, fast, goes to the dirty areas, and plays the game the right way.When I look at Slepyshev I still see a bit of a raw forward but the potential is there if he’s played with the right linemates who can make up for his shortcomings. When he was playing with Lucic and Draisaitl, I thought that those two were good partners for Anton in that they’re willing to play a more physical game to get their linemates the puck and with Slepy’s shot, all he needs is a chance to get that puck off.

  16. Will Jussi Jokinen bounce back from his 28 points season? 

    – I don’t think we should expect him to be putting up 60 points. I’m really fine with him putting up 30-40 pts because his role on the team is to help on the penalty kill and to see that Jesse Puljujarvi starts to realize his potential. You could probably add taking a bit of the defensive responsibility away from Nugent-Hopkins as another job of his.

  17. Will Yohann Auvitu demonstrate the defensive acumen to stick in the NHL? 

    – I wouldn’t expect him to but we’ve only seen him under the guidance of the NJ Devils coaching staff. Under Todd McLellan that might be a different story. What we have in Auvitu is possibly a PP specialist with the potential to grow into something more but I’m not expecting too much. This isn’t Torey Krug 2.0 coming into the team here for Chiarelli or Dan Boyle V2 for McLellan.

  18. Will Jujhar Khaira seize his NHL opportunity? 

    – I’ve always thought JJ as sort of a Jordan Nolan or Dwight King kind of player. He’s definitely got the size and the guile to take after those two but I wonder about his skating and hockey IQ.How will his skills be utilized on the Oilers? Is he going to get some PK time? He doesn’t fight all that often, so that won’t be his role and he can’t skate well enough to be a shutdown forward and I don’t believe he brings enough offense to the table to earn higher than 4th line minutes.To me, he’s a 13th forward and if not for his size, he wouldn’t even be that.
     

  19. Will Mark Letestu keep draining goals on the power play? 

    – While Todd McLellan likes to take out the McBlender to his forward lines on nearly a nightly basis, his special teams units tend to stay the same for extended periods of time. Letestu, McDavid, Lucic, Klefbom, and Draisaitl will probably continue to be the Oilers no.1 PP unit.The 2nd unit I’m guessing will be RNH, Maroon, Strome, Puljujarvi, and Benning or Auvitu.

  20. Will Patrick Maroon and Zack Kassian be able to consistently maintain the high level they set last year? 

    – This is a good question. Maroon is in a contract year so we should expect him to continue to deposit McDavid’s passes into the net for another season. Which could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you feel about keeping him on the Oilers. Another thing Maroon has going for him is he’s changed his off-season training and he’s coming into camp in better and better shape each year.This worked well last season, let’s hope it compounds this upcoming season.As for Kass, he’s less of a risk given he only plays bottom 6 and PK and he’s a young lad at 24 years of age. I’d love to see him hit 10 goals and 20 assists in 2017/18. Will he, I think he might if he can avoid suspensions.

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  21. Which of the three old Core of Four, Justin Schultz, Taylor Hall or Jordan Eberle, will Edmonton fans miss the most this year? 

    – They didn’t skip a beat when Jultz was traded, nor did they when Hall was dealt, so the true question is, will they miss Eberle’s goals?No, they will continue to grow as a team and others will pick up where Eberle left off. I’m not saying Strome will get 30 this year or Jesse will put up 25 goals but the combination of each and every forward on the team taking the next step will cover Ebs absence.Not only that but they’ll be better defensively…
     

  22. How many regular season points will the Oilers get this year? 

    – Earlier in the summer, I’d said I thought that the Oilers would be in tough to beat the Ducks but I’d forgotten that they’re without Sami Vatanen and Hampus Lindholm to start the year and isn’t Kesler out for some time too? those are some major pieces for the Ducks. So I’m going to amend my previous prediction and say, yes, the Oilers will win the Pacific with 107pts.

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