Tag Archives: Pierre-Luc Dubois

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(1/23/2021) – BLH’s NHL Rumors: Dubois/Laine Trade Reactions and Fallout

BLH provides you with the latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation featuring some reactions to the Pierre-Luc Dubois/Patrik Laine trade from hockey Twitter from the likes of Pierre LeBrun, Darren Dreger, David Pagnotta, and more!

The Oilers have a bit of a mind-bender brewing on the right side of their defense and a couple of big contracts set to expire there with some high-end prospects almost ready to take over. What is Ken Holland set to do?

TSN’s Frank Seravalli says that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins might not be in the Oilers’ plans going forward. Read all about it right here.

Craig Button absolutely tore the Oilers a new a$$hole on TSN 1260 recently. Click this link and read what he said!

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NHL Rumors and Speculation

  • Irfaan Gaffar (Sportsnet?): “So Pierre Luc-Dubois would have to quarantine for 14-days upon arrival in Canada. Earliest he could play would be after Super Bowl. Laine only 7-day quarantine upon arrival in Columbus. Roslovic is in Columbus already.”
  • Pierre LeBrun (TSN): “The Jackets and Jets were both in unenviable positions with star players who wanted out. From the get-go Wpg and CBJ getting together on this seemed destined but the CBJ spoke to a pile of teams before circling back in the end to Winnipeg. Like 15-20 teams to varying degrees.”
  • David Pagnotta (The Fourth Period): “Became clear fairly quick the Ducks, Habs and Flames weren’t going to best Winnipeg’s offer. This is a great deal for the Blue Jackets given the circumstances.”
  • Darren Dreger (TSN): “Some perspective. PLD is an excellent addition to the Jets. Roslovic made it clear he was never playing for Winnipeg again. Laine didn’t see a future with the Jets beyond this season. This is asset management. 20+ teams expressed interest in Dubois.”
  • Ross Joy (CrossingBroad.com): “Laine and Roslovic were discussed in a deal with the Flyers prior to the season, but Winnipeg wanted Provorov, Konecny, and more.”
  • Aaron Portzline (The Athletic): The Blue Jackets had to make this trade for two reasons according to Portzline,
    • “First, the Jackets were off to a sluggish 1-2-2 start, and it appeared as though the Dubois drama was casting a pall over the club. Second, the reputations of the Blue Jackets’ franchise and the city of Columbus were taking a beating with yet another player desiring to leave Columbus.”
  • Ken Campbell (The Hockey News): “So we have three players here, none of whom wanted to be where they were and were traded for each other to teams that are not exactly preferred destinations for players. This should be interesting.”
  • Grant McCagg: “Columbus holding out for, and somehow getting, Laine…tells me Jarmo was only going to accept a deal that involved Suzuki or KK and a top prospect. Glad it was the Jets that overpaid.”

BLH’s Thoughts: The trade makes sense on one level given that every player involved didn’t want to be where they were. In some twist of fate, Dubois, who wanted to play in a bigger market goes to one of the smallest (albeit one of the loudest), and Laine will now play for John Tortorella…

In very short order Columbus is going to have to re-sign Seth Jones, Zach Werenski, and Patrik Laine to long-term contracts and each player is going to command close to $9M or $10M a year on said new deals… Is there a goalie in there that will need a new deal too? Jarmo Kekalainen has made a really decent trade here if he can sort the money out down the line. 

Winnipeg now has a very good 1-2 center combination with Dubois and Scheifele and they’ve got Cole Perfetti coming too. Did the Jets not need help on defense more though?

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Bob McKenzie on Jesse Puljujarvi Being Sent to the AHL for a Second Consecutive Season

Below is a clip from Bob McKenzie’s Bobcast (his bi-monthly podcast) and in it he’s asked a question about the Oilers’ Jesse Puljujarvi and the Blue Jackets’ Pierre-Luc Dubois.

As we know, Columbus passed over Puljujarvi to select Dubois 3rd overall in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft and this was a YUGE shock to many in the hockey world for the obvious reasons, Puljujarvi is from Finland, Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen is also from Finland… But as it was told after the draft, Columbus was after a big centre and thus Dubois became a member of the Columbus organization.

Now, last night Jesse Puljujarvi got his first point of the year for the Bakersfield Condors and PL Dubois scored his first NHL goal for Columbus but there are already some CBJ fans out there taking this opportunity to get on Puljujarvi’s case… Savages they are!

https://twitter.com/307x/status/916686596732223488

I can’t really say who’ll be the better player between Dubois and Puljujarvi. I like the Finn if I’m being honest. I think that Dubois looks a bit like RJ Umberger and there’s nothing wrong with that because he had a great career but Umberger never really appealed to me as a player. On the other hand, I have different fingers… No! I mean, On the other hand, Puljujarvi’s skating, attention to the defensive side of the puck, his shot, it’s all very distinctly his and I can’t really put a comparison to him. Maybe Sasha Barkov?…

On the other hand, I have different fingers… (A little Steven Wright for you there)

No! I mean, On the other hand, Puljujarvi’s skating, attention to the defensive side of the puck, his shot, it’s all very distinctly his and I can’t really put a comparison to him. Maybe Sasha Barkov?… Long term, he’ll be the better player IF he can gain the trust of the coaching staff and add to that some perfect English (I’m being sarcastic with the language comment FYI).

Anyways, Please take a listen, it’s only about two and a half minutes and then carry on below to get my thoughts on the subject. Just a warning, this is audio only. The visuals are basically random Oilers pics I have on the computer and t-shirts from our Teepublic Shop.

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McKenzie says he was expecting Puljujarvi to come over and be an everyday player for the Oilers and was surprised when he wasn’t.

I had a feeling that Puljujarvi would take some time as when I’d done my research on him for the draft I thought that the spotlight really shone on him during the Karpat/Tappara playoff series where he and Laine when head-to-head. Ultimately, Laine’s team won and moved on.

Also, a lot of what I was seeing last season during Puljujarvi’s time with the Oilers reminded me of Leon Draisaitl’s first year and also with how Kailer Yamamoto is dealing with the new aspects of the NHL. That said, Pulju can play in the NHL just due to his massive frame and he has a team that’ll take care of him on the ice whereas Yamamoto isn’t quite there yet physically and Draisaitl came in at the tail-end of the DoD when nobody was sticking up for each other.

But if you’d have watched the World Juniors that year you would’ve thought that the Oilers were getting the next Teemu Selanne because he was destroying his peers but little do you know, that’s what he does. Once Puljujarvi is on the same page as everybody else, it’s go time. Watch this year as he plays in the AHL. He’s going to be a PPG or more player.

“Here’s the bottom line with 19-year-olds in the National Hockey League, It’s a marathon, not a sprint.” – Bob McKenzie

McKenzie goes on to say that the real testament regarding these players ultimately comes 2-3 years down the road and that’s when we’ll make the determination.

I’m with him on this one, gone are the days of the Edmonton Oilers feeling the need to rush a teenager into the lineup, right? Or will that continue due to the constraints of having some big tickets on their payroll?… I don’t think so but I’ve also been of the belief that unless a player is as good as Connor McDavid or Auston Matthews, he should be sent back to junior or his European club or NCAA for at least one more year.

Check out Puljujarvi’s assist from last night. What poise and control. The confidence oozed on this play. He’ll be back up in an Oilers jersey sooner than later. Book it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wMS1kHxajg&feature=youtu.be

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Had This Deal Gone Down, Could the Oilers Have Kept Hall?

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When’s the last time the Flames and Oilers hooked up for a trade? Staios? Smid?

I came across a guest post on another website the other day and there was a gentlemen out of Toronto who wrote something very interesting…

So i was talking to someone with direct knowledge of the situation that there was almost a 3 way trade done on day 1 of the draft just before it began.

They had mentioned that there was a trade in the works that would have sent the 3rd overall pick (clb) to calgary for the 6th overall pick + but that the blue jackets did not want to move to the 6th spot.

Enter the oilers 4th overall pick peter chiarelli was in and almost made this trade

blue jackets
ryan nugent-hopkins
4th overall pick (edm)

flames
3rd overall pick (clb)
sonny milano

oilers
6th overall pick (cgy)
dougie hamilton

this was the entire proposed trade i asked him twice to make sure but he said these were all the parts no additions anywhere , he also said this trade was essentially done until the last second when the blue jackets gm jarmo Kekäläinen played his hand a little quick , mentioned he had dubios above puljujarvi and that was the comment that killed the trade. chiarelli pulled out once he realized that he could get puljujarvi with the 4th overall and that stopped all wheels in motion.

That would’ve been a killer I say. Now it’s all hearsay and rumour at this point of course. We’ll never know if this is actually true or not but how would’ve this deal changed the landscape of the Oilers as we know them today?

  • Is it safe to assume that the team would’ve still gone and signed Lucic? I say yes.
  • Bob Stauffer has intimated that the Oilers had Mikhail Sergachev at the no.4 spot behind Puljujarvi. I’ll say they would’ve taken him at no.6 but they would’ve had their choice or Juolevi or Tkachuk as well.
  • Who would slot in at 3C? Caggiula? A free agent? Not sure they’d have had the cash to bring in anybody significant.

Here’s how the roster might’ve looked had the deal gone down.

Lucic-McDavid-Yakupov
Hall-Draisaitl-Eberle
Pouliot-XXX-Kassian
Maroon-Letestu-Pakarinen
Hendricks, Lander

Klefbom-Hamilton
Sekera-Fayne
Nurse-Davidson
Reinhart

Talbot
Gustavsson

Down Nugent-Hopkins but up on defence with Dougie Hamilton. We know that the Oilers did in fact talk to the Blue Jackets GM and the Flames GM at the draft (Stauffer has mentioned this on his show as well) and we also know that Chiarelli was trying to get Hamilton out of Boston at last year’s draft.

Walter Foddis had this to say when comparing Larsson to Hamilton:

That’s a tough one. Hamilton is better offensively, whereas Larsson is better defensively. Looking  at some metrics, Hamilton’s eGF% vs top-end competition is better than Larsson’s, especially against top-pairing D-men. Hamilton’s eGF% vs top-pairing Dmen was 47.3% & Larsson’s was 39.5%.

Overall, Larsson’s CA RelTM is -4 and Hamilton’s +2, which suggest Larsson is stronger defensivelly. That is, Larsson’s NJD allowed 6 fewer shot attempts/60 minutes than Hamilton’s Flames.

The opposite is true for offense, though. Hamilton’s Flames generated 11 more shot attempts per 60 minutes than Larsson’s NJD.

So although Larsson appears be stronger defensively, Hamilton’s offensive game more than compensates for this deficiency.

Comparing them on the WoodMoney metric would be interesting.

Would the Oilers still be looking for that PP QB? Chiarelli did say that the Hall deal was going down regardless but I have to call bullsh*t on that if Hamilton could’ve been acquired…

I don’t like the idea of the Oilers having poor depth at centre but one would have to think that had this scenario gone down as such that the Oilers would’ve traded one of the left-wings (Pouliot most likely) for a serviceable third line center.

What are your thoughts on this rumor? Would you have rather had Hall, Lucic, Hamilton and Sergachev, or Nugent-Hopkins, Lucic, Larsson, and Puljujarvi? Which grouping would’ve made the Oilers a better team?

Let me know in the comments below!

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

D-Day 2016: Subban and Dubois

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It’s here folks! I hope you brought your popcorn and soda because she’s going to be a barnburner! Will the Edmonton Oilers use their pick to make Matthew Tkachuk an Edmonton Oiler or will it be Pierre-LLuc Dubois? Will they trade down and pick up a defenseman like PK Subban? Is anybody safe on the Edmonton Oilers roster apart from Connor McDavid? Let’s talk about it.

PK SUBBAN

A few quotes from some reputable writers who cover the Oilers online talking about these Subban rumours:

“If Peter Chiarelli pulls this off, every male Edmontonian will own a moustache like the one you see in the photo.” – Lowetide

“Whatever the case, a deal bringing Subban to Edmonton would be the biggest trade involving the Oilers since the Pronger transactions. It would instantly revitalize the club’s blue line, and as long as such a trade didn’t include Taylor Hall it’s hard to imagine a plausible scenario where the Oilers would be worse off as a team in the aftermath. It’s even possible to imagine a deal built on Hall-for-Subban which works from an Edmonton perspective, and that’s really saying something.”  – Jonathan Willis

“The Oilers aren’t getting Subban, who has a cap hit of $9 million for six more seasons. His no-move clause kicks in July 1 which has kick-started the trade rumours, but Bergevin knows Subban and goalie Carey Price are 1 and 1a in terms of importance.” – Jim Matheson

“This feels like the Dany Heatley rumours so many years ago when everyone was in a frenzy but ultimately let down. Maybe I’m foolishly optimistic, but I firmly believe that Subban will be traded. I believe the talk from the TSN guys. I feel like there is far too much smoke for something not to happen.” – Kris Hansen

“Edmonton lacks either a No. 1 or 2 blue-liner, so this is something Chiarelli can’t afford to pass up. Especially when one assumes the Oilers might not have another Top 5 draft pick to peddle for years to come.” – Mark Spector

So there you have it. Coming some major contributors to the Oilogosphere to boot. Consensus seems to be that the Oilers must act on this and do it while they have a draft pick in the top 5 because those days are coming to an end and the Oilers’ first rounders won’t have this much value again… Hopefully.

Pete’s on it. He’s going after the big guns which shouldn’t be a surprise. He did manage to convince Zdeno Chara to join the Bruins and how he’s on a quest to add a Chara-like defender to the Edmonton Oilers. Hallelujah!

I wonder how much of a coup it would be if the Oilers could obtain PK Subban without having to give up Taylor Hall? The biggest or one of the biggest?

I have warmed up to the idea of trading Leon Draisaitl for help on the blueline but it would still be a hard pill to swallow. It’s been quite a while since the Oilers had a big centre like Leon. But if the Oilers could package him, the #4 overall, Davidson, and Yak for Subban, the #9 overall, and Eller; I think that’s something that would have to be considered.

THE NO.4 OVERALL PICK

I want to point you in the direction of this Youtube clip of the OilersTV boys having a little chat with Pierre-Luc Dubois. He says something VERY interesting in it that could sway some of the votes his way come draft time for the Oilers.

If you didn’t catch it, the journalists were asking him about where he projects himself in the NHL. Of course, if you’ve been reading his reports online you’d know that he’s a left-winger turned centre but he can play the right-wing as well. In fact, if given the choice between left and right wing, he’d prefer to play the right side and shoot from his off side.

Interesting turn of events. The Oilers could very well have an open spot on the right-wing come training camp and Dubois has been mentioned as one of the more NHL-ready prospects. At 6’2″ and over 200 pounds, this Screaming Eagle is a man child whose versatility is hard to ignore.

“If you need someone to check the other team’s top line and be a shut-down forward, he’s a guy who can do that. If you need someone to generate scoring opportunities, he has the skill, speed and hands to do that too. He’s a very all-around player.” – Dan Marr, NHL Director of Central Scouting,at NHL.com

What are your thoughts on Subban and Dubois? Let me know in the comments below!

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Poor Number Four

The Edmonton Oilers hold the 4th overall pick in the upcoming NHL Entry Draft in Buffalo this June. There’s been a lot of banter as to what the Oilers should do with it. Trade it outright, trade down, or select Matthew Tkachuk, Pierre-Luc Dubois, or Olli Juolevi. I’ll tell you what the Oilers shouldn’t do…

Trade the 4th Overall for an NHL player

Apart from the obvious expansion draft exposure to said acquired player, the main reason the Oilers shouldn’t be dealing that pick out for an established NHL player is because the Oilers are finally in a position to develop players on the long-term ala the Detroit Red Wings.

The top 9 is more or less sorted and the defense is on its way. Not quite there mind you but the blue line has some nice pieces coming up that should blossom in the following season or two.

The Oilers could select players like Matthew Tkachuk, Jakob Chychrun or PL Dubois and send them back to junior after they’re drafted and then when their junior careers were up, those players could be sent to the AHL for a season of marinating and learning the pro game. There’s absolutely no need to rush teenagers onto the NHL roster anymore and much more to gain from developing them properly.

Just a side note on Matthew Tkachuk. Yesterday on Lowetide’s show he was talking to NHL draft guru Corey Pronman and he said in so many words that Tkachuk has never been the “Go-To Guy” since coming onto the scene. This past season he was paired up with Mitch Marner and the two previous seasons he was centred by Auston Matthews. So take that for what it is. 

Or let’s say that Edmonton decides to go with a defenceman like Olli Juolevi or Mikhail Sergachev. Well since they are Europeans, they’re eligible to go straight to the AHL after being drafted. See Julius Honka. Not too sure why they would do that given the amount of LH’d shooters already down there but the option is there nevertheless. I imagine somebody like David Musil would be moved if this scenario were to actually play out.

As fans of the Oilers we should know better than to want the Oilers to rush things. They rushed all those 1st overall picks into top 6 roles and that turned out marvellous. This dovetails with yesterday’s post on patience. If the Oilers take their time and do things the right way instead of forcing things, they will be fine. But should they listen to some of the fanbase and move a valuable piece, like the 4th overall pick, for immediate help; that may very well do more damage than good.

 

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