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Around the Oilogosphere, Bakersfield Condors, Edmonton Oilers, NHL, NHL Entry Draft, Prospects, Rumors

Around the Oilogosphere – April 3rd Edition – Oilers Prospect Reports, Staying the Course, Top-10 Free Agents, Karlsson/Trouba Rumors, and More!

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Two more games until the end of this disastrous 2017/18 Oilers season that has been derailed by slumps, injuries (disclosed and not), bad coaching, and questionable GM-ing.

That special portion of the Oilers fanbase is looking for their sacrificial lamb. Some yearning for Todd McLellan to be fired or for Peter Chiarelli to get his pink slip but this is what I don’t understand.

Peter Chiarelli’s job was to get the Oilers into the playoffs ASAP when he was hired, right? Why in Sam’s Hell are you all concerned with how he does it?

We’ve got “smart” people complaining that he’s built this team around heavy hockey, well, has he?

He signed Milan Lucic and traded for Adam Larsson (who is +31 since joining the team). He got rid of a jaded goalie for Zack Kassian (nobody was complaining about that deal until this year) but you can’t even say Kassian plays a heavy hockey game if you take the time to watch him. Maroon was brought in and if you’re going to complain about his contributions to the team, then I suggest you head down the QE2 and shack up with the Shames because you’re just complaining to hear your own voice.

Are you going to shit on JJ Khaira’s performance this season? He plays a heavy game but I bet you’d take the time to criticize Chiarelli if he dealt JJ. Does Leon Draisaitl fall into this category as well?

So what I’m getting here is that special portion of the fanbase is so mad that Chiarelli traded their boys in Hall and Eberle (no mention of Yak ever which is unsurprising) for specifically targetted pieces that the team needed that they are blinded to the good things that Chiarelli has done for the team.

My advice: Be careful what you wish for.

The Gagner-Hall years were filled with skill. So much skill in that teams just bullied them into submission. Well, I’ll tell you this much, the bullying hasn’t stopped with those teams and yes, they’re still heavy teams. Those are veteran-laden teams who get the call more often than not.

So we go back to getting to the playoffs and not caring how Chiarelli builds the team to get there. To get out of the division and into the playoffs in the Pacific division, every team has to go through California and to do that they have to outmuscle Getzlaf, Perry, Burns, Thornton, Doughty, Lindholm, Carter, etc.

Many will point to Vegas and say, “SEE!” without taking the time to look at their roster closely. Yup, they’re a fast team and forecheck hard. You can’t deny they’ve also had above average goaltending and the coach has done a wonderful job but have you counted the number of expiring contracts on that team? We all know players playing on the last year of their deal play better (for the most part) and that’s exactly what the Golden Knights are doing and good on them for taking advantage. What will they look like next season?

I think you can look at an Oilers supporter on Twitter and immediately deduce if they are pro-Chiarelli or anti-Chiarelli quite easily and that’s what all of this is boiling down to.

Personally, whoever gets traded or loses their job this summer has it coming. I’m not so far up my own ass that I can’t say Chiarelli made some massive bets on his roster and they backfired. I supported Todd McLellan at the beginning of the year but have found myself frustrated as hell with his staff’s performances 80 games later.

I see the holes on the roster and it’d be nice to see upgrades.

This tweet kind of sums it up for me:

https://twitter.com/Mr_JJT/status/981345249564901376

Speaking of Twitter, I’m going to start blocking people more liberally because it’s getting tiresome going around in circles for the sake of satiating another’s ego or my own for that matter. I’m not looking for people to always agree with my comments but I’m not looking for harassment either. It’s a drain.

OILERS NEWS

Sportsnet – Takeaways: Wild simply too much for nosediving Oilers to handle – It says here that the coaching staff is the least of this club’s problems right now, but tell me how you defend a staff whose special teams are this pathetic?

Sportsnet – Oilers Prospect Report: Kailer Yamamoto Offers Promise Up Front – Of the top four prospects in the Edmonton Oilers organization, none were drafted first overall. In fact, one is a deep first-rounder, another from Round 2, and then a fourth- and fifth-rounder — a sign the Oilers are perhaps figuring out how to find players below the No. 1 spot in the NHL Draft.

The Oil Knight – OHL Playoffs Round 2 – Niagara vs. Hamilton – Despite the success in the Regular Season vs. the Bulldogs, Niagara is going to be in tough in this matchup.

The Cult of Hockey – Fans should be wary about buying “stay the course” narrative from Edmonton Oilers – Heading into the season, most folks predicted the Oilers would be one of the top teams in the NHL. On paper, this looked like a good-to-great team. There is a serious gap between these expectations and how things turned out. I see a number of possible courses of action…

Oilersnation – Monday Mailbag – UFAs, trading the first round pick, and Al Montoya

Oilersnation – Let’s find some positives from this season

The Hockey Writers – Oilers Six Thoughts: Benson, Maksimov, Skinner; and Others – Here’s a quick recap of what’s transpired during the CHL’s first-round action, and how the Oiler prospects are doing.

NHL RUMORS

Dreger and Friedman ponder cap space usage for Canucks

Friedman | Surprise team could pursue Karlsson trade

Ranking the Top-10 NHL Unrestricted Free Agents at Season’s End

McKenzie | Trouba probably looking to drive real hard bargain

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Oilers Fans Gearing Up for a Sens-ational Trade?

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The Ottawa Senators are open for business folks! According to Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun, the Sens are expected to make another deal before the Christmas trade deadline next Tuesday and that could be good news IF the Oilers are looking to tinker with things but lets look at some of the other things that have been published today regarding the Senators and the Oilers that might give us a better idea as to the trade compatibility of both teams.

LOWETIDE

The Ottawa Senators appear to be contemplating something rash and a team like the Edmonton Oilers would do well to pay attention. The Alberta team’s continuing search for a shooter to place on Connor McDavid’s line could be solved with the addition of a pure scorer like Mike Hoffman of the Senators.

I love the idea of adding a player like Mike Hoffman but not for the reason that LT outlines here.

It’s because he’s a pure shooter and the PP needs that injection. Hoffman is as selfish (I use that in a complimentary way) as one can hope for when it comes to shooting vs. passing.

Could McDavid run a line with two pure shooters on it? It’s very possible but the rub with Hoffman is similar to that of Eberle’s, if he’s not scoring, what else is he doing? That said, he’s one of the elite shooters in the NHL today in my opinion.

I look at their roster and think the club requires defence, but Ottawa is extremely patient with their blueliners. The Sens are an internal-cap team, so saving a couple million dollars on a trade (Hoffman is at $5.187 million through 2020 summer and has a modified NTC) should have appeal.

Read into that what you may but what I’m getting out of that is Pat Maroon (to replace Hoffman) and the Oilers’ younger dmen like Nurse, Benning, Bear, or Jones. You can combine one of those players with a draft pick and/or other prospects I imagine and with the Oilers extra cap space available, there should be a fit for a trade.

Those quotes come from The Athletic. You should sign up for it because you’ll get all of your roster speculation articles from LT there as opposed to his own site nowadays. Plus if you do sign up through the link below, I get a bit of scratch to help feed the kids with 🙂

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Speaking of Darnell Nurse and another article from The Athletic…

WILLIS

Jonathan Willis has an article out speculating which Oilers dmen might get pushed out with the emergence of the defensive beast that is Darnell Nurse.

The typical Edmonton solution to this would be to deal Klefbom. Like most NHL teams, the Oilers tend to move guys at low ebbs in their career, rather than waiting for a better return later on. It might even be the right move, depending on what his value on the market is; if there’s a team out there willing to pay full price for the guy, it’s a trade that could make sense. There are precious few untradeable players in hockey today.

It’s possible yeah. Klefbom has had one real good season to date, the others have been tainted by injury or inconsistent performances and you’d have to wonder how that makes the coach and GM feel. This is a team that is desperate for consistently solid defensemen. From what I’ve noticed just as a fan, Klefbom starts his seasons slowly and really picks it up as the year progresses. He was one of the Oilers best players let alone dmen last season… So there’s that.

The outside-the-box idea would be to deal Nurse. His value is undoubtedly high right now, and as a general rule it’s better to trade a player when he’s at a peak rather than a valley in his game. It’s hard to imagine such a deal, though. Nurse fits the kind of team Chiarelli wants to build to a tee, he’s strong in some areas the Oilers are weak, and given his age we probably haven’t seen the best of him yet.

Yup, Willis makes another good point here. Would this be the carrot you dangle in front of Senators GM Pierre Dorion in order to get trade talks regarding Erik Karlsson started?

I really love the way that Nurse has progressed and questions about Karlsson’s health are starting to emerge. Add that to the idea of having to pay Karlsson MORE that Connor McDavid and things start to get a bit murkier.  Could a team survive in the cap era with those kinds of salaries on the books? Or would acquiring Erik Karlsson be akin to when the Pittsburgh Penguins traded for Paul Coffey?… Something to think about.

The best solution might actually be dealing Sekera, since that would leave Edmonton with two young guys on modest deals to anchor the defence for years to come. The problems with this are myriad. Trade value is one. Another is that Edmonton hasn’t fared very well without their veteran safety net on the blue line this season; Nurse has excelled while Klefbom has struggled, and given their age and experience levels it’s not crazy to expect a few more ups and downs from both players before they settle into a steady mid-career keel. Finally, Sekera has a full no-move clause through 2019, which theoretically means he could block any deal made before that point.

 

Andrej Sekera is going to get traded sooner or later, as is Kris Russell. I know that because that’s what I’ve been passed on. I agree with Willis here though and I’ve always thought that an older roster is one that I trust more, especially when the team is bringing along young A-level prospects. The trick being not to give those young prospects as much leash as they want and to trust your veterans.

Who would you trade?

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THE INSIDERS

The insides like Friedman, McKenzie, Dreger, and Lebrun are all over this story as expected. Here are a few quotes from them courtesy of Fanrag Sports.

My sense, according to people that I talk to, is that Melnyk does not want to make that change (firing the coach). So we might see some trades. Dorion may not be done yet with his three-way trade that brought Duchene to Ottawa. Maybe he has to move out some other pieces before they decide that it’s time to give up on the coach.

If they’re not certain that they’re going to be able to sign this guy either financially or if Karlsson decides he wants to test the free agent market, then they don’t have much choice. – Dreger (source)

It seems that the coaches of struggling teams are getting some leeway this season and I dig that. After seeing the Oilers fire so many coaches season after season, it’s a breath of fresh air to get the feeling that the coaches might have some security and the players are the ones who are sitting on eggshells.

Dreger didn’t mention other teams or other players

I don’t believe for a moment that right now they’re picking up the phone and they’re trying to make a trade for Erik Karlsson, or that that’s even a consideration for them at this point in the season. And it may not even be at any point in this season, although I suppose you’ve got to leave the door open a crack depending on what happens between now and March and if they keep going the way they’re going.

But I do think that – and Bruce Garrioch  wrote this in the Ottawa Sun/Citizen this morning – that they are looking at making some moves. I think Mike Hoffman’s name and Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s name have been mentioned. We’ll see.

Now, I don’t think they’ll trade Hoffman or Pageau for a bunch of draft picks and call it a day by any stretch. They’re obviously looking to make a hockey deal here using some pretty good hockey players. – McKenzie (source)

I tell you what, if the Oilers could get their hands on Pageau AND Hoffman, that would be a coup for Chiarelli but what kind of “hockey deal” could be made there? Both Pageau and Hoffman are vital to the Senators special teams. Would you deal RNH and say… Ryan Strome for both of them?

But I think Pierre Dorion is working the phones for sure right now trying to make another trade and trying to shake his team up here.

I think there’s a bunch of guys on the Senators I think they would listen on. I mean, Cody Ceci is an interesting player to look at. Right-handed defenseman, top-four guy, plays behind Karlsson. It just so happens where his deal is up at the end of the year where he’s an RFA. So the Senators were going to have to decide on him at some point anyway between now and the summer because either you commit to him financially or you move on, right. – LeBrun (source)

I’ve got no interest in Ceci right now. I’ve watched a few Sens games this year and he looks a bit like Phaneuf at the moment. Meaning I’m not sure how smart of a player he is compared to what we’ve got now in Edmonton. I like Larsson AND Benning much more and I probably like Brandon Davidson more too.

Ceci used to be a hot prospect coming up but I just see an average player there. Mind you, if the Oilers could lose something off the cap in a deal for him, maybe that’s something to consider.

one of the things I was told – or theories I was told – was that maybe they were upset that Karlsson had said what he said, so they wanted to rattle his cage back by asking for his list. I mentioned that to someone, and I guess that person mentioned it to someone else, and they called me. And they kind of knew Ottawa’s situation a bit. And they said that’s not what’s going on here.

And I think that’s what this is. If you look at their contracts, they’ve got to deal with Cody Ceci, they’ve got to deal with Mark Stone who’s having a phenomenal year, they’ve got to deal with Derick Brassard, they’ve got to deal with Matt Duchene, they’ve got to deal with Erik Karlsson in the next two years. I think they’re looking at it and saying, ‘What are we going to do here.

So I just think it’s – when you’re losing, it’s always worse. And they’re losing and the walls close in on you when this happens. – Friedman (source)

If the player and the team are playing games like this in the media, it’s time to move on because it’s not going to get any better and the trust between both parties isn’t going to get any stronger. That’s just my thoughts on Friedman’s Karlsson comment there.

Mark Stone is another player I absolutely love from Ottawa. He would look outstanding on the Oilers, right? He’s simply one of the smartest players in the league.

I’m under the impression that the Oilers aren’t looking to trade right now and the reason for that is they don’t want to be negotiating from the position their in right now. Meaning, they’re behind the 8-ball and other teams know that. I reckon Chiarelli wants to make a deal but is using every ounce of patience he has not to.

BUT. I’m a fan first and foremost and I like roster speculation as much as the next guy…

I’d have ZERO problems if the Oilers decided to go all in and try to acquire Hoffman, Pageau, and Stone. I’m a fan of earth-shattering trades but what would the Oilers have to give up to get all three?

Trade Assets:
Nuge, Yamamoto, Puljujarvi, Maroon, Letestu, Benning, Klefbom, Nurse, every draft pick…

I can’t imagine the Sens wanting to part with Stone if we’re being honest. Not unless Puljujarvi is coming back and that would be a mistake for the Oilers. Pulju is coming on and I wouldn’t be surprised if he starts scoring more as the team continues to pick up steam.

Thoughts? If I’ve got any Senators fans following the blog, let me know what you think about all of these rumors and what you guys expect back for players like Hoffman and Pageau.

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, Trades

McKenzie Says Oilers Still Working On Another Trade

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Now for the life of me, I can’t find the radio hit and Chris Nichols hasn’t posted anything over at Fanrag Sports yet. So we’re going to have to run with the word of the honorable Moe Jaber! He’s good people, so no worries there folks!

Disclaimer: This is just me messing about playing basement blogger GM. I think there are lots of teams the Oilers could do a deal with but today I’m just looking at one possibility. I’m just speculating but feel free to flame away. I’m @beerleagueheroe on Twitter 🙂

But it got me thinking about who the Oilers could possibly be talking to and I remember seeing prized defensive prospect Gabriel Carlsson (CLB) lining up on the 4th line in Columbus recently. I thought that was odd given Sonny Milano was available, right? And according to Pierre LeBrun, the Blue Jackets have been looking for a top-two center all season long and just lost out on the Matt Duchene sweepstakes.

The Athletic: The Columbus Blue Jackets hope to land a top-six center before the Feb. 26 trade deadline. Alex Galcheyuk of the Montreal Canadiens and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins of the Edmonton Oilers as two potential options. Galchenyuk’s slow start this season sparked suggestions he could be available. So far, however, the Habs are resisting the temptation to move him. Were he to be shipped to the Jackets, his struggles at center could test the patience of coach John Tortorella.

Nugent-Hopkins is a better option but he carries a $6-million annual salary through 2020-21. With over $5 million in cap space, the Jackets would have to make room to absorb his contract or convince the Oilers to pick up a portion of his cap hit. The Oilers lack of offense at right wing suggests the asking price could Cam Atkinson or Josh Anderson. – source

LeBrun also said this,

“But as it stands right now, I think they want to go out and find a top-two center or certainly a top-six forward, and they feel pretty good about their team if they can do that.” – source

Interesting… Of course, both quotes were from Nov.15th and since then the Oilers have added a… Left-winger… But let’s keep running with Moe’s tweet and say the Oilers are still looking to add a player or two.

We are under the impression that the Oilers are looking for help on D and for some scoring. Who could help out there that play for Columbus that they “might” be willing to move?

  • Ryan Murray (LHD) – Has never really panned out for CLB the way they thought he would.
  • Josh Anderson (RW) – That holdout at the start of the year might’ve soured relations.
  • Sonny Milano (W) – Is definitely NOT a Tortorella guy.
  • Matt Calvert (W) – Injured now but is a UFA this summer.
  • David Savard (RHD) – Also a UFA but would be a hard bargain to acquire for EDM give his RH’dness.

Let’s keep in mind that the Blue Jackets aren’t exactly eating shit this year, they’re 2nd in the Metro division, so there’s no real pressure on them to make any moves but from the way LeBrun and McKenzie are talking about them, they’d really like to get that top-two centre sooner than later. I think the thing with Columbus is that they don’t really have a lot of prospects, well great ones, to use as trade fodder. If they’re dealing with Edmonton though, I don’t think the Oilers would want prospects back anyhow, they’d actually like to move some. So in that sense, perhaps they are better trade partners after all!

If RNH is the rumored target for Columbus and Edmonton is looking to add scoring depth, in order to give them the ability to separate Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, and a dman, would you consider something along these lines:

To Columbus:
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
Kris Russell
Anton Slepyshev

To Edmonton:
David Savard
Josh Anderson
Sonny Milano
1st Rounder in 2018

STOP! I know! I don’t want to trade The Nuge either! He’s playing out of his skin this season and Todd McLellan would probably saw off his own dick with a rusty butter knife than deal him BUT this is all for conversation anyhow. Shits and giggles if you would.

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A deal like this would give the Oilers a legit top four of Klefbom, Larsson, Sekera, and Savard*. It would alleviate the team of Kris Russell’s contract (assuming he agreed to the deal), Todd McLellan wouldn’t have to explain to the media how he feels about Slepy being hurt again, and Bob Stauffer would be able to wax poetically about the “old-school” nature of Josh Anderson on a daily basis. Sonny Milano is a wizard with the puck and looks to be NHL ready too. There’s nothing wrong with having that kind of skill in the bottom 6 (But will he check?). Lastly, it also never hurts to load up on 1st rounders, especially in next year’s draft!

For Columbus, it’d give them the top-two, NO! A no.1 centre that they’ve been on the hunt for since dealing another no.1 centre in Ryan Johansen and it wouldn’t cost them Seth Jones. They’d get an under contract, smooth-skating, shot-blocking genius who can play both sides of the ice in Kris Russell, and a very skilled (and young) RWer in Anton Slepyshev (Although I’m not sure how Blue Jackets fans feel about Russians since Nikita Filatov and Nikolai Zherdev did them in a bad way all those years ago).

Here’s the problem though, there’s no guarantee that the deal would work out for the Oilers (I think it’d work out very well for Columbus as they’d be getting the best player in the deal). Even though Anderson has 7 goals and 3 assists already this season, losing a major contributor to the Oilers offense, like RNH, is would hurt more than help, obviously.

Do the Blue Jackets have another defender that could replace David Savard right now? I’d venture a guess that the answer is no.

Does this do anything to address the Oilers apparent lack of “team speed”? As far as I know, Josh Anderson is more Cam Neely than Mike Gartner and how far off is he from Pat Maroon skillset-wise?

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How would the deal work on a financial level? Not very well… Just off the top of my head (because that’s how I do this blogging thing) the Oilers would be taking back at most $7M dollars back while the Blue Jackets would be adding closer to $11M, a $4M difference thereabouts. Capfriendly says that Columbus has $3.85M of “projected cap space” and $5M of current cap space… Either way, she’d be close for Ol’ Jarmo’s finance division and wouldn’t allow them to do much more.

Maybe the Oilers’d be better off asking for Oliver Bjorkstrand (I’m sure Oilers head scout and former Edmonton Oil Kings GM Bob Green would love this eh? Oh those old Winterhawks/Oil Kings games were something!) instead of Josh Anderson. He’s a natural RWer and he shoots right too (Anderson’s a lefty).

While both teams seem like excellent trade partners, perhaps a deal would best be done in the summer and usually deals of this magnitude do wait for the summer hours. Then again, all the GMs are in one place this week…

I really do not want the Oilers to part with RNH but we have to be realistic too. The long-term plan with Leon and Connor is that they are 1C and 2C. That means the Oilers are going to have to find someone to play RW on McDavid’s line. Someone preferably mid-20s to late-20s in age, NOT a teenager!

There are a lot of people who don’t want Chiarelli to deal Nuge either and they’re POV is completely understandable. Trader Pete does good on the little deals and rather shitty on the big ones depending who you ask. I like Larsson for what it’s worth and I’m happy watching Strome play 3C whilst Leon and Pulju play where Eberle used to play.

But with that said, I hope he takes a page out of Sakic’s book IF he deals RNH and gets a good haul in return because if he doesn’t and he goes for a player that fits rather than a player of equal value, it could cost him his job, especially if the Oilers miss the playoffs or fail to make it to the Western Conference final.

Maybe Lowetide’s suggestion of Frank Vatrano or a player like that would be a better deep dive?

What do you think? Nuge to Columbus HAS been on the burner for a few years…

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