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NHL Rumors and Speculation
630CHED: Georges Laraque was on Oilers Now recently and when asked if he thought any team in the NHL would take overpaid Nashville Predators centre Matt Duchene if he was put on waivers, he said no but added that Duchene has a reputation for being a “cancer in the room”.
The former NHL heavyweight also added that he would only pay Ryan Nugent-Hopkins $6Mx6yrs if he was GM of the Oilers citing that he doesn’t think the Oilers star could produce 60pts/yr on another team.
TSN/NHL.com/Twitter: Three budding superstar youngsters out of New York will not be heading to the 2021 World Juniors. Jack Hughes (NJ), Alexis Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko (NYR) will continue to prepare for the 2020-21 NHL season instead of being loaned to their respective u20 national teams.
Sportsnet: “‘I’ll do it’: Logan Paul agrees to bout with Sharks’ Evander Kane”
The Score: Former Buffalo Sabres sniper Tomas Vanek doesn’t believe the NHL is tough anymore.
“I don’t know if it was really dirty (in the past), that’s the way it was – if you go in front of the net, you’re taking a punishment,” Vanek said. “Now the game has changed. You’ve got a lot of smaller defensemen who are more mobile. They cross-check a little bit, but those guys are nonexistent really anymore.”
James O’Brien (NBC Sports): Wonders if things don’t start well for the Bruins this season, will they decide to punt on the year and deal some veterans like Tuuka Rask, Jaro Halak, or David Krejci since their contracts are expiring at year’s end.
Rory Boylen (Sportsnet): Ethan Bear is expected to re-sign with the Oilers but another move will have to accompany it.
Josh Wegman (The Score): Predicts where these remaining UFAs will land: Erik Haula (SJ), Mikael Granlund (FLA), Anthony Duclair (LA), Andreas Athanasiou (NSH), Travis Hamonic (WPG), Sami Vatanen (PHI).
Eric Duhatschek (The Athletic): Believes the Oilers are TWO GOOD pieces away from the Western Conference Final/Stanley Cup Final. A goaltender and a difference-maker on defence.
A good friend of mine, we’ll call him Dave, sent me a message on Twitter the other day and offered me a scenario regarding the Oilers and the Islanders. Now, I know that’s not a rumor per se but this Dave contacted me about the Oilers signing Ryan Mantha last year months before he was signed and I trust him. We’ll get to why this is a rumor later on in the post.
But first I’ve got to ask you to listen to this clip from The Jason Gregor Show and tell me what you think they’re talking about.
Here’s what my friend Dave sent me:
Arthur Staple, the NYI writer, said this in an interview: “I would not be surprised if Beauvillier and de Haan are packaged in a deal for a top 6 F.” Stauffer dropping hints that the guy coming back for Eberle is a player that can play more positions in the top 9. Beauvillier is a C/LW.
Who are the top-6 forwards that have been rumored to be going to the Islanders?
So there you have the Bobfather (Bob McKenzie) saying that perhaps the Islanders will go ALL OUT and trade for both Matt Duchene AND Jordan Eberle.
Bob Stauffer said on Oilers NOW (June 20th) that he expects the Eberle trade with the Islanders to go down shortly after the expansion draft. He also echoed McKenzie’s sentiments that the Isles may go for both Duchene and Eberle.
THE PROPOSED DEALS
Stauffer thought something like Josh Ho-Sang+Travis Hamonic for Matt Duchene might be feasible and I could agree there. Elliotte Friedman thought that the Oilers would have to pay much more than just Jordan Eberle for Hamonic if they wanted him. Plus, I don’t think that Beauvillier and de Haan would get Duchene out of Colorado.
As for Jordan Eberle, if we go from my friend Dave’s thoughts, that deal would look like Calvin de Haan+Anthony Beauvillier for Jordan Eberle.
On paper, those deals would jack up the Isles forward corps quite a bit but what about the salary cap? At the moment, the Islanders have about $4M available and don’t Duchene and Eberle make $6M or more per year each?
Hamonic – $3.85M per year till 2019/20
Ho-Sang – $1.075M per year until 2018/19
de Haan – RFA
Beauvillier – $894k per year until 2018/19
I’d expect de Haan to be signing anywhere from $3.75M to $5M if you take his comparables like Mattias Eckholm ($3.75Mx6), Danny Dekeyser ($5Mx6), Chris Tanev ($4.45Mx5), into consideration. I mean he made a shade under $2M last season, so
I mean he made a shade under $2M last season, so it’s likely he’ll double that depending on the team?
So when we bring it all together, Duchene+Eberle’s salaries are around $12M and the four players mentioned above combined are about, let’s say, $10M because we’re not sure what de Haan signs for. That leaves the Islanders with approximately $2M to play with but with no 2nd pairing on defense
Right now their defense looks as such:
Leddy/Boychuck
XXX/Seidenberg
Mayfield/Pelech
If they really wanted to, they could move Dennis Seidenberg to his native left side and move Ryan Pulock into that vacancy but that’s an awfully inexperienced bottom three defenders.
Bob Stauffer had another suggestion, he suggested that the Islanders move Mikhail Grabovski’s rights (and salary $5M) plus the Islanders first round pick (16th OV) to the Vegas Golden Knights for one fo their 1st rounders that they are likely to pick up from another team. This would open up some cash for the Islanders to play with and if Grabovksi goes on the LTIR next season, the Golden Knights are only on the hook for $1M because the other 80% would be paid by insurance.
That is only for 1 season as well and if they can move Kulemin to Vegas as well, that’d be a dream scenario for Garth Snow.
WHY BEAUVILLIER/de HAAN TO THE OILERS IS A RUMOR
Bob Stauffer has been touting Eberle to the Islanders for a very long time now but he’s only let it be known the return would be for someone that is,
“Cheaper and less established. That might give them (the Oilers) a few more options with regards to where you could move him in to the lineup”
Naturally, myself included, I jumped directly to Ryan Strome but that’s too easy when I think about it and I am of the belief that the Islanders new head coach Doug Weight (DOOOUUUUGGGGIIIIEEEE) is a fan of Strome and would like to work with him. Ryan Strome was nearly .5pts per game after Weight took over coaching duties.
Anthony Beauvillier is cheaper and less established and can play multiple positions and hardly anybody is talking about him, unless you type in “beauvillier isles” on twitter, there you’ll get all sorts of commentary as he’s being connected to the Canadiens (of course he is) and the Alex Galchenyuk rumors. Hence, why his connection to the Oilers is now a rumor. Yes, if Twitter is talking about it, it’s a rumor… lol.
Here’s what McKeen’s had to say about Beauvillier in his draft year and pay attention because a lot of Beauvillier’s character attributes are things that Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli really values.
Anthony Beauvillier has only turned 20 years old and deserves to be on a team that can shelter him and bring him along slowly. Having Milan Lucic, Pat Maroon, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (maybe), Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid will certainly do that. He was a whiz on the faceoff dot in junior (not at all in the NHL yet) and perhaps that (3C) is where Peter Chiarelli could see him eventually. And wasn’t Beauvillier one of the pieces of the Griffin Reinhart trade? He was.
I think you’re probably asking, why would the Oilers need ANOTHER small forward? Didn’t we just go through years and years of trying to play with small forwards? And you’d be right in saying that but I’d have to say that the focus of such a trade wouldn’t be Beauvillier, it’d be De Haan.
I feel like I’ve oversold you on Anthony Beauvillier a bit and not even focused on the best part of that deal, Calvin de Haan.
In de Haan you’ve got a better and possibly cheaper player than Kris Russell.
Fenwick Against per 60 Relative to Teammates:
Russell: -.017
de Haan: -1.59
Shots Against per 60 Relative to Teammates:
Russell:-1.50
de Haan:-2.36
I like those statistics because they tell me how the other team is doing against said player. I like to look at a defenseman’s defensive stats if they are a more stay-at-home dman. And if we look at their “FOR” stats in both of the cases above, they are in the minuses, so that doesn’t help me much.
If you’re a Corsi fella:
Corsi For per 60 Relative to Teammates:
Russell: -7.38
de Haan: -5.13
Corsi Against per 60 Relative to Teammates:
Russell: 5.37
de Haan: 1.32
de Haan wins out here too even though the numbers don’t look great
If we take a gander at some more tradition stats, de Haan comes out on top more often that not as well.
Goals/Assists/Points/PIMs/Shots
Russell: 1/12/13/23/68
de Haan: 5/20/25/36/116
Hits/Shots blocked/Takeaways/ATOI
Russell: 67/213/36/21:13
de Haan: 139/190/24/19:51
It could be said that Calvin de Haan is a bigger better younger version of Kris Russell. They seemingly play the same style. I wonder if de Haan skates as well as Russell though. I’d lean towards no.
A deal like this wouldn’t address the Oilers need of a right-handed defenseman though and it would leave them short on the right-wing. Mark Spector talked about the Oilers signing Tyler Pitlick this summer and Bob Stauffer said that it’d be a shame if Vegas signed Pitlick.
I’m not sure if a RW depth chart of Puljujarvi, Slepyshev, Kassian, and Pitlick would do it? Possibly toss in a Spencer Foo and we know that Drake Caggiula can play across the board. There’s all sorts of potential though and if Draisaitl moves up, then it’s not a problem but only if Nugent-Hopkins stays.
My only problem there is if Duchene is moved out of Colorado, they’ll need another centre, and the Oilers want Tyson Barrie… So maybe you deal RNH for Barrie and you fill that RHD hole but you make another at centre, right? Is that where a signing like Derek Ryan comes in though?
You wouldn’t have to worry about defense again though and a young D-Corps of Klefbom/Larsson/de Haan/Barrie/Sekera/Nurse/Benning would be one of the best in the league.
You can never have enough good defenseman, right?
That said, how do you feel about this new rumor? Let us know in the comments below!
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**This is a re-post of the previous blog because the site hit the skids as soon as I posted it**
OK… If you follow me on Twitter or read last night’s Halak to the Oilers rumor blog, do you remember how I told you about the 3-team trade rumor that seemingly gets tossed around every year involving the Oilers? I think Darren Dreger just gave this year’s proposal some legs…
Interested to see if Garth Snow goes big game hunting. Oilers say Eberle isn't moving. Duchene is a good fit for Isles…1/2
Last night I wrote a post detailing a Halak to the Oilers rumor and near the end, I included a little tidbit about a 3-team trade that I’d been passed. Well, I was prepared to wait a little bit to get this published and I did go out and ask a few more people who I believe to be in the know about this rumor to more or less get the amount of confirmation I needed to go forth with this post. I said on Twitter this morning that this rumored deal is ridiculous, like blockbuster ridiculous and probably something closer to an HF Boards trade proposal than a real one but Darren Dreger has weighed in now and that gives it real legitimacy…
These are the hazy details:
To Colorado: Travis Hamonic, Brock Nelson, *Brandon Davidson*, Oilers 1st round pick
To Oilers: Tyson Barrie, Jarome Iginla, Ryan Strome
To Islanders: Matt Duchene, Jordan Eberle
WHAT?!!
It sort of contradicts the Halak to Edmonton rumor that I wrote about last night but that is an insane rumor, right?
Now, I put an asterisk beside Davidson’s name because he was one of the iffy players my sources weren’t sure on. But the main players (Barrie, Duchene, Eberle, Hamonic) were in it for sure.
I know that Colorado is working like crazy to move Iginla and it’s becoming more apparent that Matt Duchene might be going the same way that Taylor Hall did in his last season with the Oilers. A good player whose attitude is souring on a struggling franchise who’s wasting his talents.
Any trade rumor I’ve been passed or come across on Twitter re: Jordan Eberle to the Islanders has included Ryan Strome coming back. I couldn’t confirm the draft pick, anytime in the past when I’ve asked about Chiarelli’s willingness to deal that pick I was told that if the deal was right, he would.
For the Islanders, this would be a very big statement made to John Tavares that the franchise is ready to move Heaven and Earth to get him to stay in Brooklyn. I believe the team values Ryan Pulock more than Travis Hamonic and after this season, can you blame them? Hamonic has been a disaster.
For Colorado, this would be the kind of deal that would start the reset. I believe that they need a top-pairing left-handed dman more than a right-handed one but that could be a player they acquired with Gabriel Landeskog, no? Cue, the Krug to Colorado rumours.
For the Oilers, there’s your top-4 offensive right-handed defenseman, your right-handed PP shot, and a young player with term left on his deal who can switch in and out from the centre position to the right-wing position. All that’d be left is the backup goalie and the shopping list would be complete.
But getting back to the mad deal that could be in the works above, I think there would need to be some wiggling around to do to make it work dollar-wise (mostly for the Islanders) but yeah, there you go.
I honestly cannot see a trade like this going down now. These kinds of trade fall apart so easily because there are so many moving parts but it could set something else up that could be consummated before the trade deadline passes or another deal at the draft where money is less of a problem.
If this mega-deal does actually happen, I’ll have a more detailed post to follow.
**Disclaimer** Lastly, during this crazy time of the year, we’re bound to hear a shit ton of rumors coming from every nook and cranny out there. I’m not connected to the Oilers, I hear what I hear from people who know people and I pass that on to you. Rarely, IF EVER, do the things I post here come true but the batting average of an insider has never been that good anyhow. It’s all speculation until the teams make things official folks! So I hope you can enjoy what you read here but don’t take it too seriously. I don’t. **Disclaimer**
What do you think? Let us know in the comments below, RIGHT AFTER, you check out our sweet selection of Beer League Heroes swag we have for you! Click on the pic below to head over to our shop at Teepublic!
Click the image and head over to our Teepublic shot to grab some sweet BLH merch.
OK… If you follow me on Twitter or read last night’s Halak rumor blog, do you remember how I told you about the 3-team trade rumor that seemingly gets tossed around every year involving the Oilers? I think Darren Dreger just gave this year’s proposal some legs…
Interested to see if Garth Snow goes big game hunting. Oilers say Eberle isn't moving. Duchene is a good fit for Isles…1/2
Last night I wrote a post detailing a Halak to the Oilers rumor and near the end, I included a little tidbit about a 3-team trade that I’d been passed. Well, I was prepared to wait a little bit to get this published and I did go out and ask a few more people who I believe to be in the know about this rumor to more or less get the amount of confirmation I needed to go forth with this post. I said on Twitter this morning that this rumored deal is ridiculous, like blockbuster ridiculous and probably something closer to an HF Boards trade proposal than a real one but Darren Dreger has weighed in now and that gives it real legitimacy…
These are the hazy details:
To Colorado: Travis Hamonic, Brock Nelson, *Brandon Davidson*, Oilers 1st round pick
To Oilers: Tyson Barrie, Jarome Iginla, Ryan Strome
To Islanders: Matt Duchene, Jordan Eberle
WHAT?!!
It sort of contradicts the Halak to Edmonton rumor that I wrote about last night but that is an insane rumor, right?
Now, I put an asterisk beside Davidson’s name because he was one of the iffy players my sources weren’t sure on. But the main players (Barrie, Duchene, Eberle, Hamonic) were in it for sure.
I know that Colorado is working like crazy to move Iginla and it’s becoming more apparent that Matt Duchene might be going the same way that Taylor Hall did in his last season with the Oilers. A good player whose attitude is souring on a struggling franchise who’s wasting his talents.
Any trade rumor I’ve been passed or come across on Twitter re: Jordan Eberle to the Islanders has included Ryan Strome coming back. I couldn’t confirm the draft pick, anytime in the past when I’ve asked about Chiarelli’s willingness to deal that pick I was told that if the deal was right, he would.
For the Islanders, this would be a very big statement made to John Tavares that the franchise is ready to move Heaven and Earth to get him to stay in Brooklyn. I believe the team values Ryan Pulock more than Travis Hamonic and after this season, can you blame them? Hamonic has been a disaster.
For Colorado, this would be the kind of deal that would start the reset. I believe that they need a top-pairing left-handed dman more than a right-handed one but that could be a player they acquired with Gabriel Landeskog, no? Cue, the Krug to Colorado rumours.
For the Oilers, there’s your top-4 offensive right-handed defenseman, your right-handed PP shot, and a young player with term left on his deal who can switch in and out from the centre position to the right-wing position. All that’d be left is the backup goalie and the shopping list would be complete.
But getting back to the mad deal that could be in the works above, I think there would need to be some wiggling around to do to make it work dollar-wise (mostly for the Islanders) but yeah, there you go.
I honestly cannot see a trade like this going down now. These kinds of trade fall apart so easily because there are so many moving parts but it could set something else up that could be consummated before the trade deadline passes or another deal at the draft where money is less of a problem.
If this mega-deal does actually happen, I’ll have a more detailed post to follow.
**Disclaimer** Lastly, during this crazy time of the year, we’re bound to hear a shit ton of rumors coming from every nook and cranny out there. I’m not connected to the Oilers, I hear what I hear from people who know people and I pass that on to you. Rarely, IF EVER, do the things I post here come true but the batting average of an insider has never been that good anyhow. It’s all speculation until the teams make things official folks! So I hope you can enjoy what you read here but don’t take it too seriously. I don’t. **Disclaimer**
What do you think? Let us know in the comments below, RIGHT AFTER, you check out our sweet selection of Beer League Heroes swag we have for you! Click on the pic below to head over to our shop at Teepublic!
Click the image and head over to our Teepublic shot to grab some sweet BLH merch.
The Oilers are in a bit of a funk at the moment but there’s no need to panic. Head coach Todd McLellan through the line combos in the McBlender and came out with the beauties below and I can’t wait to see them in action. I hope he sticks with them for a little while and gives them a chance.
I’m especially looking forward to seeing how the 2nd line does. I think that Slepyshev has been working his ass off since being recalled and I guess Lucic and Leon had some good things going for them earlier in the year. So, let’s hope this is the kind of line that takes the pressure off of McDavid’s line and really gives the opposition something to be concerned about.
Drake
I’m getting a tad concerned with Drake Caggiula. He’s not standing out as much during this scoring slump and that’s usually not the case. Most times if he’s not scoring, he’s getting his nose dirty and that has come to a stop now too. Why not send him to Bakersfield during this time and see if he can get some of that swagger back? Give that ice-time to Iiro Pakarinen and Anton Lander to divvy up between themselves. Could the Oilers waive Benoit Pouliot to open up a spot when they want to bring Drake back up? Would they? I can’t see anybody taking on that contract and if they did, Wunderbar!
Ebs
A lot of fans getting on Eberle’s case right now and he’s getting close to falling into the same pit that Justin Schultz fell into before he was pilfered out of town for a 3rd rounder. I imagine that’s where Ebs’ value is sitting at this very moment too. Unfortunate it is but his fancies are shit compared to previous seasons. He’s simply trying to do too much as he transitions from being a 1-way player to a 200-ft player under McLellan’s reign and it’s affecting his offense.
Will Jordan Eberle get traded?
Yes. But it’ll be this summer when most of the big deals are done up. I suspect it could be right before free agency IF the Oilers have a big fish like TJ Oshie lined up like they did last summer with Lucic. Maybe Eberle goes for a young right-handed dman in a deal that could look like a loss on paper. Sound familiar?
One thing, Eberle scores an important goal in the playoffs, this regular season will be forgotten by the fans. That goes for Pouliot and Lucic as well. All the lazy talk and they don’t give a crap rhetoric will be out the window and jersey sales will be up once again. Kris Russell will have to lead the team in scoring for Henderson and Co. to forgive him though 🙂
Matt Duchene
I think that the Avalanche are straight up insane to be dealing this guy but apparently, it’s bound to happen and the Avs want a top young dman, a 1st round pick, and a blue-chip prospect in return. This had me thinking a bit…
By the sounds of it, Chiarelli is going to re-sign Kris Russell and that is going to take up, what I believe, Darnell Nurse’s spot in the top 4 next season IF it does go down and would it be better or worse for Nurse if he were to play another season of bottom pairing minutes in 2017/18? And how would doing that impact the prospects coming up from Bakersfield?
What I’m getting at is would it be to the Oilers betterment if they dealt one of Oscar Klefbom or Darnell Nurse in a package deal for Matt Duchene? He’s primarily a centre but he did play some wing at the World Cup, no?
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating the Oilers trade either Klefbom OR Nurse because I love them both. They’re young, they’re going to be on value contracts for quite some time (fingers crossed on Nurse’s contract signing this summer), and in Nurse’s case; He’s def. a Chiarelli guy. Big, strong, mean, can skate, and I reckon there’s some offense in his bones too. At the moment, the Oilers are really missing his transition game I believe.
I’m just curious how Oilers fans feel about Duchene and the price it might cost to get him. I did read online somebody was ready to offer Sakic a package of Brandon Davidson, Griffin Reinhart, Jordan Eberle, and two draft picks for Duchene, Siemens, and Grigorenko… Wouldn’t it make more sense to trade RNH?
Let’s be honest though, Duchene and Landeskog are being dealt to the East. Boston is going hard after them and I can’t wait to see what Neely/Sinden tell Sweeney to do in order to acquire one of them. God help their souls if they move Charlie McAvoy…
