Tag Archives: Patrick Maroon

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

An Oilers Trade Rumor Commentary AND Bonus Bob McKenzie previewing the Oilers Trade Deadline!

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This post is basically a rebuttal post on a rebuttal post. I found an interesting article commenting on a blog from thefourthperiod.com and I don’t really have enough to write an entire blog with but I do have some comments on the one I did find. This’ll be more or less a commentary on both if you will…

But before we get into it, here’s what Bob McKenzie said on his most recent podcast. You should subscribe to it on iTunes or whatever pod app you use because he cusses on his podcast and I dig a media guy who uses the devil’s tongue here and there! 

Bob Makes some good points there without really getting into what we don’t already know… But it ties into what the rest of our blog talks about.

Anyways, the main course of the day…

A recent report from The Fourth Period connected the Edmonton Oilers and Pittsburgh Penguins in what could be a significant trade within the next couple of weeks.

The Penguins are ideally looking for a 3rd line centre. Riley Sheahan may have to suffice as the team’s pivot in that position, but if Jim Rutherford can upgrade at the position, he will. He’s also looking for another scoring winger.

I’ve been saying that the Penguins are looking at the Oilers for some time now. They’d love to have Mark Letestu back as his experience and right-handedness will most definitely come in handy in the post-season for Pittsburgh. But with Sheahan seemingly building some nice chemistry with Phil Kessel, will the Pens really want to mess around with that?

The Oilers, on the other hand, are selling off, as this season is all but over. Patrick Maroon and Mark Letestu are two of the most talked about rental assets that Edmonton has to offer, and they happen to be a winger and depth centre.

I’m not entirely sure if the Pens will want Maroon at this point. Pittsburgh’s coach likes his wingers fast and responsible, two things that Maroon isn’t lauded for. 

While there are obviously more talented options on the market, they may come cheapest, and will fit the bill well enough. Rutherford doesn’t have a ton of great assets to give up, so Edmonton appears to be the perfect trade partner.

This is where things start to get a bit dodgy. Why would this author think that the Oilers are going to give Maroon and Letestu up on the cheap? Sure they won’t cost the acquiring team any 1st rounders or blue-chip prospects but that’s not to say Peter Chiarelli isn’t going to ask for, and get, some decent hockey players that a team would rather not give up.

And this isn’t just conjecture on our part.

Of course it isn’t… 

From The Fourth Period’s report:

“While it’s too early to guarantee whether either forward ends up if moved, there seems to be considerable interest in teams in the East, including the Pittsburgh Penguins, who have been eyeing both players.”

This is the only part of the original blog that connects both Maroon and Letestu to the Penguins… I’m impressed that the author could stretch a post out of one paragraph!

East-West trades are seemingly more common occurrences than in-conference trades, so this lines up with that general trend. This seems like a perfect match.

The Penguins have some B-prospects they could give up along with draft picks.

Do they? Because apart from perhaps Filip Gustavsson, Daniel Sprong, and Zachary Ashton-Reese, they’ve got a whole lot of nothing coming up. Which all three would be of interest to the Oilers as well as the Pens’ 1st and 2nd round picks in the upcoming draft. The key asset for a deal here that they don’t have is that 3rd rounder this year. 

But maybe, just maybe, they’d be willing to move the struggling Carl Hagelin plus for Maroon and Letestu. 

Maroon has 13 goals and 13 assists for 26 points in 50 games this year – he’s coming off a career-high 27-goal season in 2016-17.

Letestu has 8 goals and 17 points in 51 games. He scored a career-high 16 goals last season. He’s known to be able to play in most situations, and could be a decent option for Pittsburgh, should they decide to acquire both players from Edmonton.

So there you have it. Have your feelings changed on what to do with Pat Maroon and/or Mark Letestu? Have your valuations of either player altered since we talked about these players last? 

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

How Will the Oilers Deal with the Seattle Expansion? PLUS Trade Rumors and Proposals

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This morning I was discussing a hypothetical trade with some of my followers on Twitter (@beerleagueheroe) and one person brought up that the Oilers will need to think about the returns they get this year and how they might pertain to the Seattle expansion draft. I thought it was an interesting thing to go over, so I want to do that briefly and then go over some trade rumors real and proposed by myself.

SEATTLE

We’ve been told that the expansion draft rules will be the same for the Seattle franchise as they were for Vegas. Below I’ve copied and pasted right from NHL.com said expansion rules.

Protected Lists
* Clubs will have two options for players they wish to protect in the Expansion Draft:

a) Seven forwards, three defensemen and one goaltender

b) Eight skaters (forwards/defensemen) and one goaltender

* All players who have currently effective and continuing “No Movement” clauses at the time of the Expansion Draft (and who to decline to waive such clauses) must be protected (and will be counted toward their club’s applicable protection limits).

* All first- and second-year professionals, as well as all unsigned draft choices, will be exempt from selection (and will not be counted toward their club’s applicable protection limits).

Player Exposure Requirements

* All Clubs must meet the following minimum requirements regarding players exposed for selection in the Expansion Draft:

i) One defenseman who is a) under contract in 2017-18 and b) played in 40 or more NHL games the prior season OR played in 70 or more NHL games in the prior two seasons.

ii) Two forwards who are a) under contract in 2017-18 and b) played in 40 or more NHL games the prior season OR played in 70 or more NHL games in the prior two seasons.

iii) One goaltender who is under contract in 2017-18 or will be a restricted free agent at the expiration of his current contract immediately prior to 2017-18. If the club elects to make a restricted free agent goaltender available in order to meet this requirement, that goaltender must have received his qualifying offer prior to the submission of the club’s protected list.

* Players with potential career-ending injuries who have missed more than the previous 60 consecutive games (or who otherwise have been confirmed to have a career-threatening injury) may not be used to satisfy a club’s player exposure requirements, unless approval is received from the NHL. Such players also may be deemed exempt from selection by the League.

POTENTIAL OILERS ROSTER IN 2020

LW C RW LD RD G
Lucic McDavid Pulju Nurse Larsson no
Caggiula Draisaitl Yamamoto Klefbom Sekera tendy
Khaira RNH Strome Russell Benning past ’19
(open) (open) (open Davidson

Red=NMC/NTC, Blue=RFA signing this yr, Green=Expansion exempt

Please let me know if I’ve left someone out!

I’m just assuming that all of, or most of, the RFAs will be re-signed up to at least 2020. But the Oilers will have to have at least 1 goalie to expose. So keep an eye on what happens with Cam Talbot in the next summer or two.

I didn’t include any farm kids because I’m not sure if any of them will get 40 games combined in the next two seasons to force them to become expansion eligible.

Zack Kassian’s deal runs out the summer of the proposed expansion draft, so he’d still technically be part of the roster and could be left unprotected like Derek Engelland was for Vegas.

So if we’re hypothesizing here with the two protection lists, what would yours look like?

  • A) Lucic, McDavid, Draisaitl, Puljujarvi, RNH, Khaira, Strome, Nurse, Sekera, Russell, Goalie A?
  • B) Lucic, McDavid, Draisaitl, Puljujarvi, Nurse, Larsson, Sekera, Russell, Goalie

Either way, the Oilers are kinda hooped, no?

In option A, they’re forced to expose one of Klefbom, Nurse, Larsson, or Benning. In option B, they’re forced to expose Puljujarvi or RNH on fwd and one of Nurse, Klefbom, Larsson, or Benning on D.

Now, will there be a lockout again and with said lockout compliance buyouts? Which player with an NMC would be the best to let go strategically? Lucic, Sekera, or Russell? And who gets dealt first, RNH or one of the young D (Larsson/Klefbom)?

**EDIT** The NTC/NMC thing is a bit tricky. I didn’t read up on it before. But here’s the gist. NTCs don’t have to be protected but NMCs do. So Lucic’s no-movement clause switches to a no-trade clause (player submits list) a year after the supposed Seattle expansion draft. The Oilers are stuck with him unless there’s a lockout w/compliance buyouts. BUT Russell+Sekera’s NMCs switch to modified NTCs the season before the Seattle expansion draft. Therefore, they can be exposed. I hope I got that right! Sorry for the confusion! Read more here.**

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TRADE RUMORS/PROPOSALS

This section and the above are not connected, think of them as separate blogs. I don’t want to confuse anybody into thinking I’m writing about expansion and then trade proposals that would hurt the Oilers expansion draft strategy. I’m just shootin’ the shit here.

I guess Max Domi is on the block. That’s really interesting to me because I feel like he’s a pretty decent player having a tough go in the desert right now. It’s not like an analytics-leaning GM to deal a young player like this unless of course, it’s been suggested to him by an agent.

Max Domi is in the final year of his entry-level contract and will be an RFA this summer.

He has been in pretty sharp decline since his first season though.

  • 2014/15 – 54pts (81 gp + 18 goals)
  • 2015/16 – 38pts (59 gp +9 goals)
  • 2017/18 – 22pts (52 gp +3 goals) to date.

Domi and McDavid are pretty good buddies. Tie’s kid can skate and shoot and he’s as fearless as they come. Top that off with his willingness to correct the other team’s behaviour with his fists and I think we’ve got the kind of player who would thrive in Edmonton.

I wonder what the Coyotes are looking for here? Would they accept Ryan Strome and one of the Oilers’ D prospects not yet in Bakersfield? I know the narrative is a tad Hollywood but I’m thinking Jujhar Khaira is a better fit for 3C than Strome for the Oilers and the Elder Strome would slide right into Max’s 3C role in Arizona seamlessly. He’d also be one of the older forwards on the Coyotes upon arrival as well.

At the beginning of this blog I talked about a trade proposal I sent out on Twitter that got the conversation about expansion started. Here it is:

What if the Oilers had two offers on Patrick Maroon,

  • From Toronto: Josh Leivo + Nikita Soshnikov (Both RFAs this summer)
  • From St.Louis: Jordan Kyrou

Which one would YOU pick or would you hold off for something better?

So as it pertains to the expansion draft, maybe you take the World Junior and OHL scoring standout Jordan Kyrou since he’d be exempt or do you take the duo from Toronto because they offer skilled depth and the Oilers HAVE to make a better run for the playoffs next year and not even think about the Seattle expansion draft…

Tough call…

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!

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Armchair GM, Beer League Hero, Breaking News, Edmonton Oilers, NHL

Friedman & Rishaug on the Oilers Re-Signing Pat Maroon

Below I’m going to re-post a blog from yesterday that I think ties in well with the above radio clips from Elliotte Friedman and Ryan Rishaug speaking to how much it could cost the Edmonton Oilers to re-sign hulking winger Pat Maroon. I talk about what I think a fair price for Pat Maroon would be, how that would affect other players on the roster like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jesse Puljujarvi, and a comparable for Maroon.

If you read it already, then there’s no need to scroll down unless you want to do it again 🙂

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Enjoy!

TSN’s Ryan Rishaug sends out a tweet this morning that says there’ve been some preliminary talks regarding a new contract for Pat Maroon, there’s interest on both sides to get things done, and the term/$$$ will be “tricky”.

I like that both camps are digging into this early and I’m hoping they can sign a new deal sooner than later. I’ll try to keep this short.

Now Lowetide believes if Maroon buries another 25 this year, he’ll be up around the $4.5M mark whereas David Staples is of the opinion that if Maroon goes for the “hometown discount”, that the Oilers might be able to get him down around $3.25M but there’ll need to be some term AND a no-trade clause to discourage the Oilers from dealing Maroon half-way into his new deal to a bottom dweller like NJ.

The analytics community has predictably hopped all over this as well:

Not many players have been able to find themselves consistently on the wing of Connor McDavid’s line. In fact, Pat Maroon has been the most consistent. It’s common knowledge that these generational types are hard to find linemates for. Just ask the Penguins.

The good thing for Maroon AND the Oilers is that the coach and GM are big fans of his play and his demeanor off the ice. To add to that, he makes sure that no liberties are taken with Connor and he loves playing in Edmonton.

Something else that works in Maroon’s favor is the Oilers LW depth going into the season:

  • Maroon
  • Lucic
  • Jokinen
  • Caggiula
  • Slepyshev
  • Khaira
  • Kailer Yamamoto (Capfriendly has him listed as a C/LW)
  • Brad Malone
  • Kirill Maksimov
  • Tyler Benson

Who’s coming up through the system that could replace Maroon in 2018/19? Drake Caggiula? Kailer Yamamoto? I don’t see it.

Big Rig could name his dollar and Chiarelli, since he tends to overpay for the players he likes, would probably do it. Not always the smartest choice but he gets his men that way.

So what happens to Nuge?

It depends on the price point at which Maroon signs for, no?

I know that the brass really like Nuge and with the new faceoff violation penalty being “introduced” teams are going to need more than one guy per line capable of taking a faceoff, but they really like Maroon too and it makes me wonder if they’d be willing to part with a high-end prospect like Jesse Puljujarvi to keep both of them.

“Puljujarvi doesn’t make enough to balance the books if he’s traded alone!!!”

I’m well aware and that’s why the team trading for him would have to take a contract, Andrej Sekera’s or Kris Russell’s.

“But clauses…”

NMC and NTC are like suggestions. Just because they’re in the contract doesn’t mean they can’t be waived.

The reason I said Puljujarvi is because Chiarelli has a track history of dealing young players who have draft pedigree and there’s this Yamamoto kid making life difficult for everyone involved.

  • Taylor Hall
  • Tyler Seguin
  • Phil Kessel
  • Blake Wheeler
  • Nail Yakupov

I’m sure you’re all familiar with these players. Most of them have gone on to have blossoming careers with other teams because Chiarelli moved them. By the beginning of 2018/19, will that list include Ryan Nugent-Hopkins or Jesse Puljujarvi though?

So what do you do?

If I’m the GM, I’m probably dealing Nuge and hoping for a deal like the Sergachev/Drouin deal that took place this summer. There are some other RFAs that need to get paid and long-term it’s not in the Oilers best plans to have a $6M player in the bottom 6 unless he’s doing what Phil Kessel does for the Penguins aka scores 35+ a year.

I know that Carolina needs a top 2 centre and Arizona needs one as well. They have lots of cap room and some nice prospects too… Just saying.

I like Puljujarvi enough to hold onto him and see him through another contract. So I don’t want to trade him. There’s just too much potential there to justify dealing him before he turns 20 years old.

Patrick Maroon was/is just the right player for the Edmonton Oilers who came in and just the right time for both him and the team. When Chiarelli brought him in the team was really lacking the kind of player Maroon is. His hard-working, take-no-prisoners, hit-everyone-in-sight style really invigorated the team and the fanbase.

And it still does today.

I really like him as a player and a person. He says the right things and he plays the right way for me and I’d have no problem see the Oilers give him a 4-5 year deal WITH a NMC/NTC (Modify it how you like) worth a $4M per year.

That said, the Oilers probably look at Patrick Eaves deal ($9.45M over 3 years) and uses that to go from. Eaves is 4 years older mind you and that contract takes him to his 36th day of birth and Maroon is only 29 as we speak.

I dunno, feels like I’m all over the place here. I like Maroon and Puljujarvi more than Nuge at this point but if there’s a way to keep all three I’ll be ecstatic. It’s going to be a difficult task for Chiarelli and Co but I have faith the best thing for the team will be done. So I’ll leave it at that.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

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NHL

The Edmonton Bruisers

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Please welcome Mike Sifeldeen to the BLH family! Mr.Sifeldeen is an up and coming writer on the Oilogosphere scene and we’re stoked to have him on board! We think you’re really going to dig his smooth free-flowing writing style which make for an easy read and his knowledge of the Oilers is extensive to say the least. The other thing I personally like about Mike’s writings are that they have some character and they don’t feel like essays. We hope you enjoy his posts as much as we enjoy having you visit the site. Give him a follow on Twitter (@sife)!

Take a trip back to last year with me. It’s spring of 2015, and the Edmonton Oilers have just won the right to pick first overall in the Connor McDavid Sweepstakes. Peter Chiarelli has just been fired from the Boston Bruins organization after a lacklustre few years since their 2011 Stanley Cup victory. The powers-that-be in Edmonton have rightly decided that — with the arrival of the greatest prospect in hockey since Sidney Crosby — so, too, should Oilers back office receive a new face or two. Within a matter of days, Chiarelli is the Oilers GM and Todd McLellan is swiped from San Jose to take up bench duty from Dallas “My Firing Was a Gift” Eakins, and would you look at that: there’s a small beacon of hope emerging on the horizon for the Edmonton Oilers’ fan base.

Then the 2015-16 season started, and we pretty much sucked about as hard as we had for the last decade, but there were flashes of brilliance which were seen in that injury-riddled season that we certainly had not seen in the previous decade, which much smarter people than me have written about in-depth.

Moving on to the spring/summer of 2016…

So, let’s take stock: Since the addition of Chiarelli in the big boss chair, we have seen some new adjectives added to describe this lineup that I think few pundits ever imagined they would use for the Oilers, this team is scary now. They’re big, mean, and I think fewer and fewer teams are looking at them as a joke, a quick 2 points and a ‘see ya later’.

We have the bash brothers of Pat Maroon and Zack Kassian, who were super cheap pickups in the latter half of last season. Kass cost us all of Ben Scrivens, a much-beloved-but-really-only-AHL-calibre goalie we had taking minutes away from Laurent Brossoit in Bakersfield, and the Big Rig was a steal at the low low cost of Martin Whoever and our 2016 4th round pick. Both showed up big time for the Oilers, with Maroon racking up 14 points in 16 games next to McDavid, and Kassian eating up minutes on the bottom-6 and spitting out fools on the opposition.

With the gift of big Finnish winger Jesse Puljujärvi at this year’s draft in Buffalo, add another 6″3+ body to the bench for next season to go alongside our equally tall and shiny new Swedish defenceman heartthrob, Adam Larsson.

And for the pièce de résistance of the Summer of Chiarelli, the Edmonton Oilers are now the proud owners of a like-new Milan Lucic. 233 pounds of left-wing power forward hulking in at 6″4 and eager to impress his new mistress Connor, Looch is looking like one of the final pieces which will turn this team fully to the dark side it’s been toying with since Darth Peter took the reigns.

Let’s recap:

• Zack Kassian: 6″3, 217lbs
• Patrick Maroon: 6″3, 229lbs
• Jesse Puljujärvi: 6″3, 202lbs (and just barely 18, so who knows how big Poolparty will end up with those Northern European viking genes)
• Adam Larsson: 6″3, 206lbs
• Milan Lucic: 6″4, 233lbs

I don’t know about you, but if I’m a team heading into Rogers Place this fall, I’m not liking my chances of leaving without a few serious cuts and bruises from this revamped Oilers squad. Say goodbye to the quick-but-fragile Oilers of the last 6 years and more, and hello to the Boston… er, Edmonton Bruisers.

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Edmonton Oilers, Lindsay Ryall, NHL, Trades

Could Peter Chiarelli Be the Next Glen Sather?

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For most of the new generation of Oiler fans, Craig MacTavish is known for his success as a coach in the 2006 playoff run, and his lack of success as a GM.  So you would have to go back some years in the fanbase to know that MacT, as he came to be known, more or less had his career, arguably his quality of life, resurrected by 80’s Edmonton Oilers’ GM Glen Sather.

Charged with vehicular manslaughter, MacTavish, a former full-time NHLer with the Boston Bruins, even spent time in jail, later accepting an invitation from Sather to try out for the Edmonton Oilers.  MacTavish would later flourish in a third-line role for the Oilers, the perfect pivot slotting in behind Wayne Gretzky, and Mark Messier, and of course, eventually moving upstairs in the Oilers’ organization.

Fast forward to today’s version of the Edmonton Oilers, current General Manager Peter Chiarelli seems be applying that same reclamation template to the current version of the blaze orange and blue, signalled by his most recent signing of Zach Kassian to a one year, one more chance contract.  Kassian sounds to be motivated and excited by the opportunity, in spite of the pay reduction.

There is a lot of potential value in a NHL reclamation project.  Typically a player of that type can be secured for a reasonable low price, (whether Kassian will or won’t succeed is a question that remains to be answered) and showing a practice we hadn’t really seen utilized by post Sather GM’s.  The ideal template is to identify a troubled young talent who is on the ropes, and nurture him back to health in a safe environment.

In some ways it harkens back to the Edmonton Oilers’ first GM who had a penchant for such projects, some of which were not always successful.

The Oilers first GM/President/Coach Glen Sather, had a string of successes with his first reclamation projects:  Craig Mactavish was rescued from jail, sobered up, cleaned up, and eventually brought some much needed two-way play to the 80’s Oilers.  He may be one of the best reclamation projects in the history of the NHL.  But Slats did have others, and its interesting to compare with what Chiarelli has on the go.

Slats’ Other Projects Over and Above MacT

Petr Klima: Traded out of the Red Wings organization in the Jimmy Carson trade of the 1989 – 90 season because (among other things), he went on a bender with Bob Probert during the 1985 Wings’ playoff run (ironically enough) against the Oilers.  Klima didn’t do much during the Oiler’s playoff cup run that year but did score a memorable goal five-hole on Andy Moog to end the longest overtime in Stanley Cup final history against the Boston Bruins.

Closest Chiarelli Comparble:  There isn’t one really but we’ll put Kassian in this spot as he is talented and a recovering alcoholic.  The two players have different skill sets, and comparable demons.

Outcome: Remains to be seen for Kassian, but Klima did more or less clean up his act and went on to score over 200 goals over the balance of his NHL career with the Oilers and Tampa Bay Lightning before retiring.

Joe Murphy: Murphy was a former first overall pick of the Detroit Red Wings (they weren’t always great at drafting and developing!) who was essentially a throw-in in the 1989 – 90 Jimmy Carson blockbuster trade.  In Edmonton, he turned his game around a complete 180, scoring 15 points in the 1989 – 90 playoffs and went on to have a productive career (528 pts. in 779 NHL games).  One of Slats’ more notable reclamation projects.

Closest Chiarelli Comparable: Hard to count this one because he has never left the Oilers organization, but, Nail Yakupov could draw a lot of comparisons to Murphy.  They were both first overall pics (Murphy, 1986; Yak, 2012).  Yak is the big tease but his appeal is rapidly losing its allure.  He didn’t learn from his episodes with Eakins how to keep drama out of the media, recently starting a war of words with Russian national coach Oleg Znarok.  He remains a challenge to coach and has very little value on the open market.  Still, Chiarelli has not discarded him from the organization (a la Schultz).  My guess is he sees something salvageable in the future, at least, significantly more than if he flogged the player on the open market now.

The Outcome: Murphy ended up having a productive if not spectacular career.  Yakupov could have the same, if he gets his attitude and hockey sense adjusted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh7M75bnQgY

Jason Smith: Picked up as a defensive support in the 1998 – 99 season.  Prior to his trade to the Oilers, the former first round pick had not really established himself as an NHL player when he became Oilers’ property.  However, Smith eventually turned out to be one of the best defensemen of his type to don the copper and blue, a huge part of the 2006 playoff run and memorable captain of the Oilers.

Closest Chiarelli Comparable: Maroon is a small scale reclamation project but could be classified as one nonetheless.  Not a full-time player in the Anaheim organization, he has seen his career bloom on McDavid’s wing providing, physical prowess and deft touch as a power forward.  Once again, not a direct player type comparable, but both were/are needed for their physicality and toughness.

The Outcome: Still too early to tell but Maroon is proving full value, as Anaheim eats half his salary and is sure to be a 20 plus scorer on McDavid’s wing next season, especially if he improves his skating.

But while reclamation projects can be good value there can be risk.  After leaving Edmonton, Sather was burned badly on his trade for Eric Lindros as well as Theoren Fleury.  In Lindros’ case, Sather didn’t get good value (over-paid), and in Fleury’s case, New York offered too many temptations for someone who wasn’t prepared to battle them.

As for Chiarelli’s current projects, it’s too early.  But it is encouraging to see him think out of the box for solutions to the team’s problems.  As long as the risk level is low (as it has been to this point) these experiments won’t outright cost the organization anything significant.  As for Yakupov, well, that risk was taken in the 2012 draft.  If Chiarelli can salvage something, it will be a bonus.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!

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