Tag Archives: Max Pacioretty

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

Oilers Featuring Prominently in Trade Rumors

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Last week it was Friedman and McKenzie mentioning the Oilers, now the word is leaking out of Columbus and Montreal and so far we’ve got the names of Jack Johnson, Ryan Murray, David Savard, and Carey Price being connected to Edmonton. Oh! And don’t forget about Oliver Ekman-Larsson not that he’s more or less put his name out there.

What I want to know is where do the Oilers REALLY need to upgrade their roster? So let’s look at said roster.

But before we get into that I want to thank all of the folks on Twitter who attempted to debate me re: Peter Chiarelli’s job so far. It was fun, easier than I expected. I hope we can do it again soon.

The roster…

Left Wing Centre Right Wing
Pat Maroon Connor McDavid Drake Caggiula
Milan Lucic Ryan Nugent-Hopkins Leon Draisaitl
Mike Cammalleri Ryan Strome Jesse Puljujarvi
Jujhar Khaira Mark Letestu Zack Kassian

Scratches: Brad Malone, Iiro Pakarinen
IR: Slepyshev

Left Defense Right Defense
Darnell Nurse Adam Larsson
Oscar Klefbom Matt Benning
Kris Russell Eric Gryba

Scratches: Yohann Auvitu
IR: Andrej Sekera

Then obviously we’ve got Cam Talbot and Laurent Brossoit minding the net.

https://twitter.com/dstaples/status/932770633435422720

Are there problems with this roster, yes. Is it worse than the one that played in game 7 of the 2nd round of the playoffs, I say no and I say that because most people think that Eberle was a factor in the Oilers getting to the 2nd round. He was not. At all. Others will suggest Sekera and I will say to that Darnell Nurse. Wanna throw Pouliot at me, I’ll toss Strome back at you with fewer o-zone penalties.

The problems with the team are that injuries have crept back into the picture, subpar goaltending has snuck its way into our view, slow starts as well. Now if there’s a GM in the entire world that could see all of that happening in the summer, hire that MFer because all of your woes are solved!

Speaking of woes being solved…

Within a month, Andrej Sekera will be back and from there I believe that we’ll see him paired back up with Russell which means one of Eric Gryba or Yohann Auvitu will be playing elsewhere. I’d put my money on Auvitu being that guy. So there won’t be the urgency to add to that group, upgrade maybe, but not add I do not believe.

Who would be the upgrades?

Well, that depends on how far you’re willing to go and how much you’re willing to spend. Are you willing to trade Leon Draisaitl or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins? If so, you might get an Oliver Ekman-Larsson or, god willing, an Erik Karlsson (Is this any more blue-skying than Stu Cowan suggesting Draisaitl for Carey Price?). But I have a hard time believing that the Coyotes and Senators would be okay trading away their best players and if we’re being honest, the Oilers desperately need an offensive stud on their back end. They’ve got the defensive ones in Nurse and Larsson, right? My only caveat would be that this stud be a tad older or Aaron Ekblad.

That’s the defense, how about the offense?

I’m getting very concerned with Pat Maroon. He is having a very tough go right now and no matter the amount of after-whistle scrums he gets into is kickstarting his scoring. I love his willingness to get in there and show that grit and desire but we need him to do that,

a) without taking a penalty
b) while the play is going on in front of the net

Meaning he needs to sit has huge glorious ass in the opposition goaltenders face so that he can smell what Patty ate last week.

But if he’s unwilling or cannot do that then I’d have no qualms sending him in a package to Buffalo for Evander Kane.

Kane has the speed, he has the shot, he’s got the toughness and willingness to play physical, so he sounds like a good fit. Attitude aside, I’m sure if that became an issue he and Lucic could throw on the boxing gloves and go a couple of rounds.

As for Columbus, I reckon they’re looking for someone to take either Jack Johnson off of their hands or Ryan Murray or both but they want a centre.

Would the Oilers move away from Ryan Strome so soon? He’s starting to look comfortable in his role now at 3C but Leon Draisaitl is getting itchy and my feeling is that he wants his own line, stat!

Or would you take the plunge and try to fill two holes with one bird in RNH? Meaning you insist on RHers David Savard and Josh Anderson being the return for the former 1st overall pick.

I’m not as afraid of taking on Jack Johnson as some are. He’s found a way to stay employed all of these years even though he’s apparently the worst defensman in the league. He’s right-handed but he offers no offence. And that’s a problem but neither does Ryan Murray. Johnson is very agitating though. Almost at a Phaneuf-like level. With the Oilers needed to draw a few more penalties, how bad could this dman on an expiring contract be?

Finally to the Montreal Canadiens…

The contract of Carey Price concerns me (slightly). $10.5M starting at age 31 for 8 years? He’s already started to break down. I know, he’s the best goalie in the league… When he plays. I don’t like that kind of uncertainty.

But guys like Brendan Gallagher, Andrew Shaw and Max Pacioretty get me giddy. As I said above, the Oilers could use some agitation on their roster and Shaw is right up there as one of the most irritating players in the league. He’s a righty and a centre. Not only that but he can be trusted on the PK. Gally is an Edmonton boy too. Loved the team growing up and surely is losing his shit playing over in Montreal.

Max Pacioretty is one of the league’s most consistent scorers in recent memory. He’s only scored less than 30 goals four times in his career. His first two seasons he had 3 goals each. The next year was 14 and then in 2012, he had 15. He is a player the Oilers NEED!

But we’ll have to wait until the Habs lose some more before they start getting really desperate, right? Does Marc Bergevin get the axe before one more trade or vice versa? The Canadiens need a no.1 center and RNH could be that guy because they really shouldn’t have Jonathan Drouin or Philip Danault in that spot.

Would you do Nuge for Pacioretty straight across? Or would you look to make it bigger and shore up the right wing a bit more by asking for Shaw and tossing in Maroon or a defenseman.

Sooner or later the Habs lengthy IR list is going to shrink and those players are going to need a place to play. Ales Hemsky, Arturri Lehkonen, Nikita Scherbak, Noah Juulsen, and Carey Price are all going to return and that means Nicolas Deslauriers, Charles Hudon, Jacob De La Rose, and Byron Froese will be sent to Laval or traded.

Is Montreal a team the Oilers could finally take advantage of? They’ve got $8M of cap space to deal in…

Have I missed anything? I’m just spit-balling here folks but feel free to let me know in the comments below what you think about these trade rumours.

Links:

Elliotte Friedman
Bob McKenzie
Pierre LeBrun
Stu Cowan

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

Two Oilers That Need to Get Their Sh*t Together

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Here we have two players of immense talent being squandered. One by the team and the other by the player himself.

Now, the title might be a bit overdramatic but is there any reason that Jesse Puljujarvi should be up with the Oilers right now? And if Ryan Nugent-Hopkins can’t be relied upon to take face-offs for the team OR put up offense, then where does his future lie within the organization?

I asked the guys on the BLH team about RNH and this is what they had to say:

  • Eric Friesen (@EricJFriesen) – Not the right time to trade him at all
  • Johnny Potts (@Kosmicburrito) – His value is WAY too low right now
  • Michael Gerber (@Gerberoo) – RNH from 2011 – 2016 has a pts per 60 scoring rate of 1.62 points at even strength.  That scoring rate is good for 173rd in the NHL over that span among active players.

    Given that you would expect a top line center to be in the top 90 in scoring (there would be 90 top line players in the NHL based on 30 teams) and you would like a second line center to be at least in the top 180 RNH’s production makes him on par with the lower end of second line players. While you can point to usage as contributory to lower production, particularly this year, we are looking at a large sample size.

    In direct comparison his teammates Leon Draisaitl (1.88 p/60) and Connor McDavid (2.69 p/60) are 84th and 2nd respectively are both scoring at a very good rate equal to first line players.

    Thankfully for Nuge, points per 60 is only one measure of the value of a player and he does have redeeming qualities. He has decent skating ability, above average defensive acumen and can make and take a pass.

    Overall, a $6M center providing 2nd line equivalent scoring, 2nd power play minutes and checking depth isn’t ideal.

    Having Nugent-Hopkins right now is a luxury, but the Oilers still have needs in other areas on their team and would be wise to cash in if the price is right. 

  • G-Money (@Oilersnerdalert) – Nuge is being used by TMc as the shutdown power vs power centre this year. Not McDavid. Not Draisaitl. Nuge is the guy spending 41% of his time against the best players in the NHL. That’s creating a ton of clear air for McDavid and Draisaitl. If you’re comparing things like points, you better take that into account. Nuge’spoints are being sacrificed to give the other two a chance to score more.When Nuge is up against those great players, it’s true he’s struggling to keep his head above water.  Moreso than in years past.  And he’s not the only one. My suggestion: give him Eberle and Pouliot on an ongoing basis. Let those two (who are both struggling) right their ships. Nuge’s ship will get fixed right along with them.

    When Nuge is not against those great players, against pretty much every one else, he runs roughshod.  The Nuge is Yuuuuuuuge!

G-Money’s comments are just an excerpt from something he whipped up for us and I’ll be sure to post that on its own for you to read.

  • BLH (@Beerleagueheroe) – RNH… At around the 15 game mark something started to go wrong and his face-off percentages have taken a nose-dive since then. His best day at the dot was Nov.17th versus the Kings, where he was 52% on the draw. His worst day was on Dec.4th versus the Wild, a mind-boggling 16.7% on face-offs… 13 points in 28 games is not cutting the mustard but if we cut that down to the past 5 games we can see that he has a goal and two assists in that time. So there’s a sliver of hope still hanging for us.I mean, it’s not like he’s doing THAT bad. Patrice Bergeron has 8 pts this year… Even so, RNH is the de-facto no.2 centre and yes, the responsibilities within that position include taking on the opposition’s best offensive centre, but it doesn’t mean Nuge has to shut down his own offense at the same time. And if that is going to be what happens, he’d better be next version of Guy Carbonneau in order to be earning that $6M paycheck annually.

    I’ve always felt ever since the Oilers got Hall, then Nuge, then Yakupov; that they’d have to go through the same process that the Quebec Nordiques went through when they drafted Mats Sundin, Eric Lindros, and Owen Nolan. Meaning that before the Oilers will be able to take the next step, those three 1st overalls will need to move on and if Nuge is progressing this badly, then I stand by the idea that the Oilers should see what they can get for him.

I know the Habs are constantly the name being linked with 93 this year with injuries taking out their no.2 and no.3 centres. But I don’t see anything apart from Brendan Gallagher that I reckon would be realistically possible unless you believe that Max Pacioretty is available…

Pacioretty-McDavid-Eberle
Lucic-Draisaitl-Puljujarvi
Pouliot-Caggiula-Slepyshev
Maroon-Letestu-Pitlick/Kassian

Makes you think a bit, doesn’t it? Then again, why would the Habs even consider moving their no.1 LW?

The Islanders would be a target for me, the Ducks’ defense, as well as, the Wild’s defense; would be targets if I were GM.

But let’s not kid ourselves, Nuge’s ticket is staying in Edmonton. He’s an underperforming centre who makes $6M per year.

As for Puljujarvi…

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Tyler Pitlick and Anton Slepyshev are experienced professional hockey players now and Jesse Puljujarvi is not. This is becoming painfully obvious with each passing game where he’s either scratched or lining up in the bottom 6 without an adequate center. Actually, what he reminds me of is that first year that Leon Draisaitl played. Flashes of brilliance mixed in with a shit ton of growing pains. Puljujarvi should be getting time on the second PP unit but for whatever reason, the coach doesn’t see him as a fit and I’d love to know why… Maybe Jim Matheson can ask another question on behalf of the bloggers like he did the morning after the Buffalo game 🙂

Pitlick and Slepyshev deserve to be playing for the Edmonton Oilers on a nightly basis. They bring speed and sandpaper, skill and smarts to the ice when they are out there. One could argue that Anton Slepyshev would be handy on the powerplay with his shot and puck patience and Tyler Pitlick would be a huge add to the penalty kill with his size, speed, and forecheck.

Puljujarvi needs a pick-me-up and sending him to the World Juniors is not an option. At least no more an option than sending McDavid back to Erie. The Grinnin’ Finn should be gone to Bakersfield before any more of his confidence is sapped out of him. Colorado’s Mikko Rantanen did it last year and that choice turned out to be nothing short of brilliant.

I understand why Pulju isn’t going down and that is because the Oilers are actively shopping Benoit Pouliot and Matt Hendricks and need Puljujarvi up to cover on the wing in case they are moved. But I hope the Oilers can do something and fast because we’re now closer to the 50% mark on the year than the beginning mark and teams are starting to catch up to the Oilers in the mire that is what we call the Pacific Division. Calgary are even-steven with us now baby and it’s time to start getting real about roster decisions.

What do you think? Are you ready to move on from Nugent-Hopkins or do you think the Oilers should hold onto him and wait for his ridiculously low shooting percentage (5%) to come back to normal (approx. 10%)? And Puljujarvi? Do you think he’s better off on the Oilers or down in Bakersfield on the Condors?

Let us know in the comments below!

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