Tag Archives: NHL Trade Rumours

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

Would You Do This Deal?

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nuge ebs leafs

As I was listening to Lowetide’s show from Friday it got the wheels turning in my head bone. What they were talking about on that show was the idea of trading of Taylor Hall. Now this subject is as contentious as they come but most everyone with their heads screwed on right dismiss the idea right from the get go UNLESS the return is that of a no.1 defenseman but what if there was a way to trade Hall, get that no.1 dman AND fill the hole that Hall would leave?

Lowetide had his guests on the show address this very topic. My interpretation of his guests responses were as such: Will Fraser give his top 6000 right-handed shooting dmen he’d deal Hall for, Alex Thomas from the Oilers rig came on to give his opinion (If it’s a Subban/Hall deal, do it!), Matt Iwanyk said the Oilers should start the upgrading of the defense by offering Eberle and if that’s not working, move up to Hall. LT’s last guest Paul Almeida was saying that the Oilers should put Eberle’s name out there to see how the market values him, select Auston Matthews, and at least take a shot at Stamkos and see where talks go. Almeida made the comparison money-wise of Stamkos being equivalent to Eberle/Pouliot, which would you take?

So what came to my mind is that obviously you don’t want to trade Taylor Hall because he’s a driver and the team would suffer unless he was replaced in the line-up somewhere by another driver like Erik Karlsson, PK Subban, or a Drew Doughty type BUT what if the Oilers could secure Steven Stamkos as a free agent?

Pick up a 16-bit Stammer tee before he’s playing somewhere else!

There are a couple of reasons that Stamkos came to mind and one of them was watching the Oilers piss away a handful of powerplays and scoring chances versus the Avalanche because they didn’t have a trigger man and another reason is, the Oilers had better get him before the Flames do and you know damned well if they had a chance to sign Stammer, they’d get it done.

So here’s how it’d work in the circus that is my mind.

  • Oiler sign Stamkos to a Toews/Kane-like deal. ($10.5M x 8yrs)
  • Trade Hall to St.Louis for Alex Pietrangelo.
    • You trade Hall instead of RNH because you don’t know what you’ve got in Nuge quite yet and the team HAS to keep its centre depth. Hall is 6 years into his career and we’ve got a pretty good idea of what he is as a player but Nuge is JUST about to turn 23. Also, we’ve come to live with the fact that Hall isn’t the sniper the team requires but he is an elite playmaker and possession driver.
    • I entertain this idea regularly because I’m not sure the Blues make it out of the first round with Jake Allen/Brian Elliott/Anders Nilsson guarding their net. Also, and I’ve said this before, if they can get Shattenkirk under contract for better term and price point, they’d have to consider this.
    • Would you switch up the deal and use RNH/Nurse instead? The Blues are lacking a real solid LH dman. Maybe It’s a Klefbom package instead?
  • Move Eberle to the Islanders for Hamonic.

This would give us a glut of dmen on the back-end and bodies would need to be moved for future assets. So with that being said this is what I was thinking:

  • Nurse to the AHL?
    • I hate this idea. I don’t think it’d be fair to Darnell after playing nearly an entire year in the NHL. It’s not his fault the team kept him up even though he was getting snowed under but the fact is he’s in over his head regardless of the guys he’s kicked the shit out of and players like Oesterle and Davidson who have had time in the minors are passing him in short order on the depth chart.
  • Fayne has to go. If the team has Pietrangelo AND a Hamonic/Demers or David Savard/Brodin in the no.4 spot, there’s no need to play him as the no.6. Better off putting Davidson there.
  • Trade Klefbom? Yikes. I mean is anybody else really concerned about the future of this young man’s career and the fact that the Oilers are playing this card really close to the chest? My personal feeling is that the broken finger and staph infection weren’t/aren’t the only things he is/was dealing with. But would you swap him out for futures? I can’t see this even being a viable option in anybody’s books to be honest. His contract is way too cherry and he was the Oilers best defenceman before he went out with his injury.
  • Let Gryba/Pardy walk? The blue-collar fan would be sad to see either of these guys go but are they the necessary sacrifices to getting this team back on the path to the playoffs?

So yes, the Oilers lose their top two scorers for the past XX amount of years but they gain and they gain HUGE! Not only would its defense get the instant upgrade but so would the LW and the PP. Can you imagine McDavid feeding Stamkos on a regular basis? That alone would be an enormous plus for the Oilers. A fun fact about Stammer is that he can also play centre. So that’d give the team McDavid, Draisaitl, RNH, and McDavid possibly in their top six. Surely something that would have Todd McLellan foaming at the mouth to implement.

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Could adding Stamkos, Pietrangelo, and another no.4 dman be added to the cap? Moving Hall, Eberle, and Fayne is about $16M-ish per year, adding Stamkos, Pietrangelo, and no.4 right-handed defender would be about $19-20M annually, no? So it’d be a tall order to get things moved around for a near-perfect fit but the Oilers do have some players they could move to get it done. Pouliot being one, maybe they’d have to move Yak as well, and perhaps they’d need to move Klefbom.

Would Stamkos be as pissy playing on the wing in Edmonton if Connor McDavid were his pivot? Come on, think about it… McStamkos?… Pretty tasty isn’t it? Could Tampa replace the face of their franchise with a reinvigorated Jonathan Drouin? Are they doing the right thing by letting him go, if in fact that is what they intend to do given the expiring contracts of Victor Hedman, Nikita Kucherov, Ben Bishop, etc. on the horizon?

Maybe this all pie in the sky and wishful thinking or maybe it’s not. Would this scenario have real legs come summer time? Let me know in the comments below!

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Armchair GM, Edmonton Oilers, Micah Kowalchuk, NHL, Trades

Auston Matthews – What’s the Modern Equivalent of the Lindros Trade?

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With talk about the Oilers winning the lottery for the right to draft Auston Matthews, the question comes up as to whether or not the Oilers should deal the pick if they were to obtain the #1 yet again (and to be fair, this is the one thing this organization has proven able to win).

Now, trying to figure out what you could get for a “franchise” forward at the draft these days is problematic, this doesn’t tend to happen often.  The standard for “franchise center” deals is still the Eric Lindros trade, so, in the spirit of attempting to translate this to today’s era, let’s see what Eric Lindros was worth:

Peter Forsberg – At the time he was still a prospect center who went #6 overall in the 1991 draft, he was considered a top-6 center prospect, with first-line upside, so that means the Oilers get a Top-6 C prospect;

Steve Duchesne – At the time, he was 6 seasons into his career as a defenseman, and he was putting up approximately .75ppg and would be defined as a clear “offensive defenseman” with solid numbers, but I wouldn’t define him as elite per say.  So the Oilers can add in a power-play quarterback and top-4 defenseman to their haul.

Kerry Huffman – He had played parts of 6 NHL seasons as a left defenseman, and would best be described as a 3rd pairing player, so the Oilers get themselves a depth defenseman here.

Mike Ricci – He had played 2 pro seasons as a Center with solid point totals in those years, he’d best be considered an elite 3C or a solid 2C, so here, the Oilers get a premium 3C with 2C upside.

Ron Hextall – He had 6 seasons with the Flyers, at this point would have been considered an average starting goaltender in the NHL.  Oilers get a standard goalie.

Chris Simon – He was a left-winger, and at the time of the trade he was a prospect with point projections at the draft saying Middle-6 winger.  So the Oilers get themselves a winger prospect.

As for the draft picks, the Oilers would get a 1st round pick in two drafts of approximately #10 in value.

In regards to the $15 million in cash, the best we can calculate here would be retained salary on some contracts to help with cap space.

Now, the team everyone says would be willing to deal for Auston Matthews is the Arizona Coyotes.  So, let’s see what we can find as equivalents on their rosters..

First, let’s look at the prospects.  We need a Forsberg equivalent, essentially the top center prospect in their system, so that means Dylan Strome becomes an Edmonton Oiler.  And as the equivalent for Chris Simon, we get Michael Bunting, a power-forward middle-6 type of left-wing prospect.

Next up, we need a top-4 defenseman.  Now, normally people would be screaming for OEL here, but the equivalent on the Arizona roster might be closer to Michael Stone, a second-pairing quality defenseman with solid offensive ability, and he is a right-side guy the Oilers could use.

Moving on, we need a depth defenseman here, and the best equivalent on the Arizona roster for the Oilers here would be Zbynek Michalek, a veteran capable of 3rd pairing play as a right-handed defenseman.

Now, we need an elite 3C with 2C ability.  Martin Hanzal looks right in this spot, probably re-signed by Arizona in advance of the deal, and looking at the $15 million cash aspect, Arizona would retain salary to put his salary at what would be appropriate for the Oilers to use him as that elite 3C.

As for the goaltending, well, Mike Smith would be an equivalent to Hextall at this point perhaps, and yet again the Coyotes would be required to retain salary as part of the transaction, enough to make Mike Smith’s salary viable as a backup.

Lastly, we get those two 1st round picks as well.

So, here’s the rough equivalent:

Dylan Strome (top-6 center prospect)

Michael Bunting (middle-6 winger prospect)

Michael Stone (top-4 offensive right-hand defenseman)

Zbynek Michalek (bottom-pairing right-hand depth defenseman, salary retained)

Martin Hanzal (elite 3C, salary retained and resigned for 3 years)

Mike Smith (average league goaltender, salary retained)

First round picks in 2017 and 2018.

Now, I know, we don’t get OEL in this scenario, but there’s a variety of parts for the Oilers to work with out of this crew to address issues, and I think would be roughly equivalent to the Lindros deal in this case.

If this was the deal, would you make it for Auston Matthews?

 

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Armchair GM, Edmonton Oilers, Micah Kowalchuk, NHL

Fixing the Oilers the Trump Way

I know, some people love articles like these, some people hate them, however, for fun, if I were looking to turn this organization around with a little more success, this is what I would do:

Players to keep

Hall-Draisatl-xxx

xxx-McDavid-Yakupov

Pouliot-RNH-Kassian

Korpikoski-Letestu-Hendricks

Klefbom-xxx

Sekera-xxx

Nurse-Gryba

Talbot

There, those are the only players I consider necessary.  And I know, RNH is overpaid at the 3C spot, but that’s fine for now.  So, these are the players I’m leaving out:

Forwards:  Purcell, Eberle, Pakarinen, Klinkhammer, Gazdic

Defense: Davidson, Fayne, Schultz, Ference, Reinhart

Goaltending:  Nilsson

Who’s Coming In?

Now, first things first:  Goaltending, the Oilers need to acquire a stable veteran backup.  Some teams put a prospect here, when they’re supporting a veteran tested goaltender.  We don’t have that.  What the Oilers need is a quality backup who’s been in the show a long time and can get the job done.  And preferably one that can steal games and handle heavy minutes as needed.  My choice there would be Anton Khudobin, a proven backup who can perform on multiple teams.  He’s a low risk choice.  Nilsson can either be kept at the minor league level or, more likely, dealt for a low-end draft pick.  He was a gamble, it failed, we move on.

Next, the forward corps.  I assume Purcell is dealt for a solid pick, Eberle goes as part of fixing our defensive core, and Klinkhammer and Gazdic just don’t get resigned.  Now, the one thing the Oilers have continually refused to do is bring in quality skilled veterans who can play Top-6 minutes, are proven leaders, and have the ability to be role models.

First, on our Top Line, we need a defensively skilled veteran winger who has the speed to keep up.  This doesn’t need to be an elite guy, and it can be a budget signing for now.  Looking at free agency, the names that jump out are Troy Brouwer, Jaromir Jagr, and Kris Versteeg.  Jagr would be a great mentor, but I doubt Florida lets him walk.  My choice here is Kris Versteeg on a 2-year deal.  He’s got good defensive skills, he provides leadership, plays physical, and has the speed to keep up to this line.  I like Pakarinen, but I’d let him develop another year or so in the minors to see if his scoring ability continues to improve.

Moving to McDavid’s line, we want someone there with playmaking ability and defensive awareness who can provide physical play.  Eriksson or Ladd would be great choices here, but I’m unsure how nasty the price tag will be on either one.  However, I’d go for Eriksson.  He’s not overly physical, but his defensive ability is very good, and although his price won’t be cheap, he’d be a very good player for McDavid to have to rely on, and would take some of the defensive lifting off of Yakupov.  If he wants too much term or costs too much, I’d consider bringing in a guy like Alex Tanguay.  Yes, I know, he’s a soft player, but he’s a cup winning veteran with very good hands and his defensive intelligence is underrated (but this would be on a one year deal only).

So we’re now at:

Hall-Draisatl-Versteeg

Eriksson-McDavid-Yakupov

Pouliot-RNH-Kassian

Korpikoski-Letestu-Hendricks

Goal:

Talbot

Khudobin

Fixing the Defense

Now, that takes us to the defense. First up, we all know how much we want Hamonic, but the rumors are he’s going to go in a deal for Trouba, so I’ll sadly accept this as a reality. That leaves us Shattenkirk in the off-season, and possibly Vatanen. Now, with Shattenkirk, I know I wanted to keep RNH, but odds are they’ll ask for him in a deal, and they’ll want a young LHD as well (because they’re weak on the left side). So I’ll sigh and deal RNH and Davidson for Shattenkirk, and ask them to throw in Berglund for our 3C coming back, and ask for a conditional pick as part of the deal until I resign both.

I’ll also assume, other than Eberle, all the rest of our trade bait will likely just fetch us back draft picks, which is simply life these days. At that point, I’ll sigh and call up Anaheim to offer them Eberle for Vatanen. I know, Eberle’s a great player, but we do need defense badly, and we can use the salary room for a couple of quality veterans at forward anyhow. All the players I can deal for picks and prospects I use to replenish the RW and RHD sides.

Your Revised Edmonton Oilers

So, this is what we end up with:

Hall-Draisatl-Versteeg

Eriksson-McDavid-Yakupov

Pouliot-Berglund-Kassian

Korpikoski-Letestu-Hendricks

Klefbom-Shattenkirk

Sekera-Vatanen

Nurse-Gryba

Talbot

Khudobin

So, is this a roster we can actually afford to ice? Yes, this roster works out to be cap compliant with re-signings, and we shed a few high-dollar (for their relative spot) contracts gradually over the next 2 years in Korpikoski and Hendricks (who’ll be replaced with prospects like Slepyshev and Pakarinen). As well, Versteeg would be on a 1-2-year deal, and Pouliot will also wander off down the road at some point. When Draisatl comes up for renewal, we’ll have lost $2.5mil for Korpikoski and $1.85mil for Hendricks that season. When McDavid comes up for renewal, we’ll have also shed $1.8mil for Letestu, and Pouliot will be in his last year and can be traded.

But, for next season, this would be a more veteran team, with stronger hockey IQ, veteran leadership, and not all that much less talent (and quite a bit more talent on the back-end).

Give me your thoughts, feelings, emotions, and/or comments about what I might be drinking today.

Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL

Oilers Musings on Hockey Day in Canada

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Happy Hockey Day in Canada everyone! First off I want to thank everyone who has visited Beer League Heroes over the last few days! We’ve seen record numbers of visitors in that time and we’re super stoked to have been able to fulfill your hockey cravings. Now onto the HAWKEY!!!

The Oilers are getting set to light up the Habs with Ben Scrivens scheduled to be back stopping Montreal and Connor McDavid’s return has seen the boys in blue and orange light the lamp 12 TIMES in the last two games!!! WOW! Good times indeed. Not only that but Darnell Nurse took us back to a time where the Oilers had players who through knuckles with hate in their eyes with every punch. Fawk ya!

So as I was listening to Oilers Now today (Friday’s edition), I heard Bob Stauffer and Elliotte Friedman talking about what Edmonton might do with the deadline coming up. They started talking about the possibilities regarding Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle, Justin Schultz, etc. But then a very important point was brought up and I think it’s one that not a lot of people truly consider.

The Oilers have not played one game with their best five players on the ice once this season – Bob Stauffer

I have to go off the top of my head here but I’m thinking those five players are:

  • Taylor Hall
  • Connor McDavid
  • Jordan Eberle
  • Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
  • Oscar Klefbom

In my opinion it would be foolish to make any moves without seeing what the team has when the team does indeed have those fantastic five on the ice playing together in the same game.

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Now I have been told that Chiarelli is happy going forward with a young group on defense. Meaning that Nurse, Klefbom, Reinhart, and Davidson are safe and adding an ever-improving ‘Rej Sekera, a steady Mark Fayne, and a solid Eric Gryba would all but eliminate any notions of a trade to upgrade to that area apart from moving Justin Schultz. But that was when the team was struggling to score. The message I got was that Chiarelli was willing to move a forward to get help for the forwards… Probably not the case now that the return of McDavid from injury has re-ignited the flames of scoring.

Stauffer and Friedman also spoke about Justin Schultz’s value.

If the Oilers could get a 2nd for Schultz, I’d be impressed. – Elliotte Friedman

Me as well. But he could very well be a nice pick-up for a team in the wildcard hunt or a wildcard spot with cap space and looking to add a puck-mover on the back-end.

Two teams jump out at me, the Arizona Coyotes and the Nashville Predators.

Arizona at the moment is two points out of a wildcard spot and has $31 million dollars roughly in cap space according to General Fanager. Their defense looks like this:

Defensive Pairings

Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Connor Murphy

Klas Dahlbeck
Zbynek Michalek

Nicklas Grossmann
Michael Stone

I see some fine two-way dmen there in Murphy, Dahlbeck, Michalek. An Elite offensive defender in OEL and two stay-at-home blue liners in Grossman and Stone. I reckon Schultz could be of some value to the Coyotes on the 2nd PP perhaps. I might go as far as to say he’s better than Grossman, at least more mobile and a better puck mover.

As for the Predators, they are sitting in a wildcard spot with 56 points but area 5-4-1 in their last ten. They’re stuck running with a under-performing Pekka Rinne and that’s a tough spot for them. The have $27 million in cap space, so absorbing Schultz’s cap hit would be nothing to them. Their defense looks like this since the trade of Seth Jones:

Defensive Pairings

Roman Josi
Shea Weber

Barret Jackman
Ryan Ellis

Mattias Ekholm
Anthony Bitetto

Who is Anthony Bitetto? I might be displaying some blatant igonorance here but I have never heard of this guy. A rookie nonetheless and I don’t think I’d be able to find someone who’d disagree with the sentiment that Justin Schultz would fit perfectly in that 3rd pairing role beside Mattias Ekholm or Barret Jackman.

The return I’d seek from these teams would be near-ready NHL prospect or a 3rd round pick. Such prospects might include former Oil King Henrik Samuelsson, QMJHL scoring leader Conor Garland or Swedish wrecking ball, Anton Karlsson. I love that Swede!

From the Predators I’d be looking at NCAA standout Jimmy Vesey or the behemoth defenceman, Jonathan-Ismael Diaby.

What do you think? Should the Oilers let it ride into next season and then try to make a deal? Let me know in the comments below!

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Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, Rumors

Oilers Roster Shake-Up Imminent!

I was going to write about the Oilers utter collapse against Arizona but what more is there to say. The team can’t hold a lead and as soon as one good thing starts to go their way, they sh*t the bed on something else. I mean how many times can you leave the Coyotes’ most lethal scorer alone? Mark Letestu I’m looking your way. With that said, it was nice to see that Draisaitl isn’t dependent on Hall to produce and Jultz scored! Eberle put forth a great game too.

Anyways I shall move on to the task at hand. My sources tell me that the Edmonton Oilers have been in talks with three teams as of recent. The Montreal Canadiens, the Washington Capitals, and the Buffalo Sabres. It’s not a surprise that GM Peter Chiarelli is getting tired of what this team is putting out and I see Todd McLellan getting more frustrated in his search for ways to tell the media why the team is losing.

Just before we get into things I want to say that it is possible for bloggers such as myself to know people who know people on the inside but the reality is, it’s all 2nd or 3rd hand information and is no more likely to be a guarantee than what you read on Eklund’s page or over at MyNHLTradeRumors. We just write what we’re told. And no, we’re not going to tell you who told us. So you can call BS or you can enjoy the read and revel in the entertainment that is roster speculation.

So the first team I was told was the Buffalo Sabres. They are looking for an affordable puck moving d-man who can contribute offensively and can lead a PP. Apparently, there are only five or 6 players on the roster that are untouchable and if I were to guess on those players they’d be Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart, Rasmus Ristolainen, Evander Kane, Ryan O’Reilly, and Zemgus Girgensons. 

Would the Sabres really take a chance on Justin Schultz?

If we’re talking about Justin Schultz here and dealing him to the Sabres, I’m looking at two names right away. Marcus Foligno and Mark Pysyk.

Foligno is a bruising bottom six left winger. He plays a physical game and he’s not afraid to muck it up if need be. I’d see him as an upgrade on Hendricks and possibly Pouliot. He’s an RFA this summer so he’d be under team control but at a shade over $2 million, I think he’s worth the trade.

Mark Pysyk is a former Edmonton Oil Kings defenseman who was partnered with current Edmonton Oilers farm hand Griffin Reinhart during their days in the WHL. There’s instant chemistry there and I’m of the belief that Pysyk is about as NHL ready as a player can be these days. He’s just coming off injury at the moment but he’s a steady hard-working two-way defender in the mould of say… Kris Russell.

The second team that was mentioned was the Montreal Canadiens. This one is a bit more hazy. Apparently they were looking at Nuge and the Oilers 1st rounder and in return they were offering Lars Eller and Alexei Emelin… Rough!

If that is seriously how the negotiations were going then I’m not sure I’d ever call Marc Bergevin back. Talk about low balling. Good Lord!

In my opinion, any deal that includes Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and the Montreal Canadiens would have Alex Galchenyuk and Nathan Beaulieu included. That’s just me though.

As for the Washington Capitals, all I was told is that they were looking at Nugent-Hopkins. No mention of returning players.

If I were moving RNH to Washington I’d be looking at John Carlson as the return but that’s just my feeling and no doubt the Capitals would scoff at that. But we do know that the Caps are possibly looking to move Marcus Johansson because that’s what Elliotte Friedman told us in December but even then, he’s playing 3C behind Backstrom and Kuznetsov. I personally like Tom Wilson but I’m not sure where a deal would be made around RNH and Wilson.

Just as Lowetide said this morning, changes are going to be made. The team is about to go through a small overhaul and I’m starting to think that since game twenty (Chiarelli’s self-imposed guideline) the Oilers have been making calls to try to toughen up this squad. Starting with the call up of Zack Kassian…

Things are about to get real interesting in Oil Country. Stay tuned…

Take Care!

BLH

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