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Oilers Trades: Real, Rumored, and Speculated

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This week the Oilers trade talk has been a real treat to experience. We’ve had deals that were never made, deals that are being made up, and an actual trade. The common denominator in all of them, Oilers fans have been given another reason to bitch and moan about Peter Chiarelli.

I mean isn’t it amazing, if you go to the sponsored Oilers blogs like Oilersnation, The Oilers Rig, Copper and Blue, or Oil on Whyte, it’s all FIRE CHIARELLI! Get rid of McLellan!

I get why they do it apart from clicks for the sites but it’s really a shame. I thought re-hashing the Larsson trade every month was bad but this is getting ridiculous (and unoriginal).

Rant over.

 

The Speculated Trade

Ray Ferraro threw a trade idea out into the wind this week that sparked the fires of discontent amongst Oilers fans. A deal centered upon two stars, Max Pacioretty and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

“What if there’s a deal to be made between Edmonton and Montreal that involves Nugent-Hopkins, and Pacioretty is in it? And there are some other pieces to equal the way that works. Edmonton gets a shooter. Gee, that would look pretty good on McDavid’s side. Montreal gets a centre. Gee that would look pretty good in that centre spot.”

Over at the Athletic, Jonathan Willis also jumped on the “trade Nuge” bandwagon this week and his reason was that all of his numbers are basically the same as they’ve always been but the difference being this year he’s riding a shooting percentage that is 40% better than his career average. Sort of the opposite of what usually happens to an Oiler before he’s traded.

My thoughts: If there’s a year to trade RNH, it’s this one unless the Oilers go on a ridiculous tear and are in a playoff spot come trade deadline. His value couldn’t get any higher and the Oilers still need a top 4 right-handed PP specialist on defense. Someone who can transition the puck a helluva lot faster than what the Oilers dmen are doing now. They could also use a proper right-handed 3rd line centre who is a marvel on the PK too and if they acquired both of those pieces in a trade for RNH, what’s the problem?

On the other hand, if the Oilers are looking for a LW who can score, why not simply move RNH to McDavid’s left wing and be done with it. Internal solution utilized!

The Real Trade

Al Montoya from the Montreal Canadiens to the Oilers for a 5th round pick which may turn into a 4th rounder if the former 6th overall pick plays more than 7 games.

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My thoughts: I like it but the folks in the Oilers Twittersphere who think they’re smarterthan everyone else hate it because they think that the Oilers could’ve grabbed a backup off of the waiver wire, even Montoya had they waited for Montreal to activate him off of the IR. The problem with that line of thinking is we don’t know what the price was for those backups and the Oilers defense could be held just as responsible for the poor goaltending performances earlier in the year.

Another thought out there was that 3rd string goalies can be had anything for a 4th round pick but I don’t subscribe to that. If that was the case, we would’ve seen some of these goalies like Pickard, Hutchinson, Hammond, Lindgren, or Sparks with new homes.

Todd McLellan said that they’re worried about Brossoit getting reps but somebody is going to have to be sacrificed for LB to get some games in. I’m guessing Brossoit hits waivers (gets claimed… wouldn’t that be fun fodder for the Chia-haters?), clears, goes down and then Eddie Pasquale goes to the ECHL or is traded/loaned. Nick Ellis, who’s had better AHL stats than Brossoit since taking over in Bakersfield is getting a raw deal here and I feel bad for him.

The Rumored Deal

What did Peter Chiarelli do to Darren Dreger? Geez.

Yesterday on Dustin Nielsen’s show Dreger dropped this massive bombshell that the Oilers had a deal with the Ottawa Senators that would’ve seen Taylor Hall traded for Cody Ceci but Sens ownership needed to approve it, was nowhere to be found, and subsequently Adam Larsson was traded for instead.

Taylor Hall was rumored to be traded for a lot of different dmen before he was actually traded. PK Subban was one, Dougie Hamilton was one, and Kevin Shattenkirk was another. So don’t get your speedos in a bunch by second-guessing Chiarelli’s player evaluation abilities.

We know GMs talk all of the time and they hash out potential deals on a weekly basis and then tweak them up if need be. Sometimes they sit on a trade for months before pulling the trigger.

The timing couldn’t get any better eh? Dreger had been sitting on this little tidbit of information for nearly two years before throwing it out into the world right when the Oilers mired in a 4-game losing streak and the heat couldn’t get any hotter on Peter Chiarelli?

Or was this a veiled shot at Sens GM Pierre Dorion?

Either way, what was Dreger’s motivation to do this? I can’t see any scenario where saying this would benefit anybody but himself or TSN’s radio numbers. He did mention it whilst talking about Edmonton and Ottawa not being good trade partners but still, I do not believe it was mentioned without ill intent aka it was a dick move.

Last Night’s Game

Fack! Was that a fun game to watch or what?!

The win versus the Ducks has their record versus teams in the Pacific to 4-1-0. They’ve outscored their division rivals 23-12 in that time but do you know what the fun part about the rest of the year is?

21 out of the remaining 41 games remaining in the season for the Oilers are against Pacific Division teams… And if you’re worried about that home PK (obligatory statistical preface: #smallsamplesize), the Oilers PK at home versus the Pacific, 85.7% and an added bonus is that their PP is 37.5%.

Peter Chiarelli said that he was going to build a team that would compete in the Pacific and despite how you feel about his handling of assets, you have to agree that he’s a man of his word.

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Beer League Hero, Edmonton Oilers, NHL

BLH’s 2016/17 NHL Predictions

The 2016/17 NHL season is right on our doorstep and what better time to make predictions that hours before the puck drops! I just want to keep this short and sweet because I need to get over this jet lag thing and you’ve probably already read a million prediction blogs so far… Bon appetite!

PS: I hate jet lag…

AWARDS

Hart: Connor McDavid (EDM)
*Homer pick* – This is THE homer pick isn’t it?

Art Ross: Pat Kane (CHI)
*Homer pick* – McDavid… Of course!

Maurice Richard: Steven Stamkos (TB)
*Homer pick* – Eberle… Cause you know he’s the only other guy scoring for Edmonton, right?

Vezina: Braden Holtby (WAS)
*Homer pick* – Can you do a homer pick here? Talbot I guess…

Norris: PK Subban (NSH)
*Homer pick* – Adam Larsson because we all know shut down dmen with Norris’ these days 🙂

Calder: Auston Matthews (TOR)
*Homer pick* – Drake Caggiula because he’s looked a sh*t ton better than Puljujarvi so far.

STANDINGS

Atlantic Metropolitan Central Pacific
Tampa Bay Washington Nashville San Jose
Florida Pittsburgh Dallas Anaheim
Boston Philadelphia St.Louis Los Angeles
Detroit* Carolina* Chicago* Edmonton*
Montreal N.Y. Rangers Minnesota Calgary
Ottawa Columbus Colorado Arizona
Buffalo N.Y. Islanders Winnipeg Vancouver
Toronto New Jersey 🙂

STANLEY CUP FINALISTS

Eastern Conference Finals: Tampa Bay vs. Washington

Western Conference Finals: Dallas vs. San Jose

Stanley Cup Finals: Tampa Bay vs. San Jose

Winner: Tampa Bay

Conn Smythe: Victor Hedman (TB)

There you have it. Nothing fancy.Just the raw predictions from BLH’s crystal keg. And in typical Oilers fashion, a coach they could’ve hired takes his team to the Cup finals and wins it all. Thanks a lot Craig and Kevin!

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

Don’t Believe the Hype

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“THEY’RE TAKING CALLS OUT ON ALL THREE OF THE BIG BOYS. THEY’RE TAKING CALLS ON HALL” – Bob Stauffer, June 23rd Episode of Oilers Now

Lord tunderin’ Jebus! What in Sam’s living hell happened yesterday? PK Subban happened, that’s what. We’ve all been Subbanated. So instead of this draft being about Matthews and Laine, it’s going to be about where PK Subban is going, isn’t it? I’ll get into mythoughts on the Habs no.1 dman a little later. For now I want to talk about what Bob Stauffer was saying on yesterday’s Oilers Now.

 

DENNIS WIDEMAN

  • For the 2nd day in a row Stauffer talked about a Lauri Korpikoski/Dennis Wideman deal.
    • Wideman has had a couple of good seasons in the past and I guess that and the fact that he’s a right-handed shooter qualifies him to be a potential target for the Oilers.
    • Chiarelli did say he could go the “stop-gap” route on the short-term but geez, does anybody actually think that Wideman would be anything more than Nikita Niktin 2.0?
  • BS introduced us to the high-end, middle-end, low-end of what the Oilers could do with the hole on the right side of the defence.
    • High-End: PK Subban
    • Middle-End: Tyson Barrie/Travis Hamonic
    • Low-End: Dennis Wideman
      • Personally if the Oilers come to the point to where they’re picking off the low-end, I’d prefer they stick with what they have. Play Oesterle or Davidson on the RS and wait it out.

RIGHT SHOT DMAN RUMOURS

  • BS proposed the following trade ideas:
    • Leon Draisaitl, #4 overall, Fayne and another salary player (Korpikoski) for Subban
      • Why in the hell would Montreal do that? It’d basically boil down to Draisaitl and Dubois for Subban. Surely Fayne and Korpi would move on after the season. He’d get crucified if he made any deal that didn’t involve Hall or RNH.
        • Stauffer rejected any proposals from callers that included Hall and Nugent-Hopkins later on in the show. Was adamant that Draisaitl would need to be the centre-piece.
    • Draisaitl, #4 overall, Yakupov, and Fayne for Subban and Eller
      • Later he added Montreal’s 9th overall pick.
      • Money issues with this one for the Oilers I think.
    • BS proposed the hypothetical: What if the Oilers acquired Travis Hamonic AND Dennis Wideman this summer?
      • Bs said himself that Hamonic’s offense isn’t really there like it would be with Barrie (who he’s still claiming is very much available) but that would be a bit better than what the Oilers currently have now.
        • But for Hamonic, the Isles will want Hall and this is where Chiarelli has to say no.
        • What about Draisaitl for Hamonic? Or that being the base of the deal?
      • BS exclaimed that the Oilers would HAVE to listen of the Isles put together a really good package and talked about Josh Ho-Sang and Michael Dal Colle.
  • A 2-3% chance Subban gets moved proclaimed Stauffer.
    • I don’t see him getting moved. Any trade he makes for multiple pieces will set the Habs back unless a player like Hall is included. And likewise for Edmonton with Hall, they’ll lose any deal because his numbers won’t be able to be re-created in the aggregate.

OTHER MOVES

  • Would Winnipeg consider moving down?
    • Stauffer is under the impression that the Jets need another center and could the Oilers package something with the #4 to get the talks started with the Jets?
    • Bob McKenzie did send out a tweet that said Winnipeg might not be sold on Laine…
      • When Bobby Mac talks, you listen.
  • Florida Panthers’ UFA back-up Al Montoya came up
    • Bs fully expects the Oilers to entertain the idea of them signing a UFA goalie for $1.3M or less.
      • I dig it. Brossoit had some nice highlights but he’s not ready quite yet. One more season or less in Bakersfield and he should be good to go.
  • Does the Keith Yandle signing affect any notion of acquiring Kevin Shattenkirk or Jason Demers?
    • BS reckons the right-shooting defender is going to have to come via trade and doesn’t think that the Oilers can take on another 2nd pairing defenseman who makes $5.5M per year.
  • Tyler Bozak for Mark Faybe
    • BS said TOR is lacking RH’d dmen at the moment, they just game Kadri a bunch of cash and Auston Matthews is coming in but wasn’t sure if they’d take that deal.
    • He liked Bozak’s handedness, the secondary offence he’d bring and his ability on the faceoffs though.
  • Mark McNeill for Jujhar Khaira
    • Just a hypothetical from Stauffer illustrating that whoever acquired McNeill would have to be damned sure he’d make their team because he’s not waiver exempt but Khaira is.

Do you think that the Oilers could realistically add PK Subban AND Travis Hamonic? Or is that a bit too far-fetched at this point given we’re talking about the Oilers dealing Hall, Draisaitl, the 4th overall pick, Yakupov, Nugent-Hopkins, etc. 

MILAN LUCIC

  • Bob said if Milan is coming in, expect a money man on the left-side to go out “And I think you know who that’d be.”
  • $6 per year times six years gets it done in Stauffer’s mind and the scenario where the Oilers are signing Lucic, one of Hall or Pouliot are going and what better way to address the defence than with Hall?
    • So Hall or Leon goes out, Lucic and PK Subban come in. Does that not put what Garth Snow did by adding Johnny Boychuk and Nick Leddy to shame?

What do you think about all of these rumours? Do you believe any of them? Let me know in the comments below!

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

#PackYourShit

Some big decisions are about to be made folks! Will Chia Pete deal off Taylor Hall to fit Milan Lucic into the lineup and get that prized blueliner that we haven’t heard about yet? Might the Toronto Maple Leafs have interest in Nail Yakupov? Does Ryan Nugent-Hopkins get moved to a team like the Minnesota Wild? I want to talk about these things and more…

STAUFFER’S LATEST

Just a few notes from yesterday’s edition of Oilers Now:

  • Watch out for these teams at the draft and this summer:
    • Colorado – looking for a change in organizational philosophy.
    • Chicago
    • Montreal – PK Subban is all the rage!
    • New York Rangers – want to move out salary.
    • New York Islanders – Hamonic. Will he stay or go?
    • Columbus – they’ve got to move some fat contracts and what will they do with #3 overall?
    • Ottawa – Cody Ceci is a name to remember.
    • Minnesota – Stauffer didn’t like Brodin and was iffy on Dumba.
    • New Jersey – Bob wondered about a Yakupov plus a third for Damon Severson.
    • Calgary – Stauffer talked about a possible Wideman for Korpikoski deal
    • Winnipeg – No on the Nurse for Trouba. Wondered why the Jets would want to move Trouba instead of Myers and the Jets are in the market for a centre.
  • Barrie could still be available. Stauffer said that Sakic mentioned the same thing when he was asked about Ryan O’Reilly last year. Burnaby Joe said ROR was a priority for the AVs then 8 days later he was dealt.
  • In regards to the Milan Lucic sweepstakes Bob said to keep an eye on Anaheim, Vancouver and Edmonton.
  • Yakupov’s value is going down because he’s going to have to be protected in the expansion draft whilst the #4 pick overall’s value is going up because that player will not have to be protected.
  • Iiro “The Hero” Pakarinen should be signed to a 1yr 1-way deal in the next couple of weeks for no more than 850k.
  • Stauffer said that he doesn’t think the Oilers will move up in the draft and that Chiarelli would have to be overwhelmed to trade down.
  • It’s Matthew Tkachuck or Mikhail Sergachev for Bob if he had a choice.

CONNOR MCDAVID CALDER SNUB

This is fucked. I don’t know who votes for the rookies of the month but if those are the same guys that get to vote for the Calder Trophy, then that was some fixing that got done there. McDavid was clearly the best 1st year player in the NHL. It’s a god damned joke that Panarin was even considered by the PHWA on a common sense level.

NAIL YAKUPOV

Fack. This makes me want to puke in my mouth a little bit. Yak can’t get any love from the NHL or his own National team… A bloody third rounder?! How about we throw a hearty double bird Dallas Eakins and Craig MacTavish’s way for trying to make Yak a “two-way” player instead of playing to his strengths…

I will say this though. NEVER will an Edmonton Oilers prospect ever don the number 64 again after Yakupov is traded. It’s cursed.

EXPANSION DRAFT PROTECTION LIST

So that got me thinking… Who would I put in the Oilers expansion draft protection list.

  • Taylor Hall
  • Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
  • Jordan Eberle
  • Leon Draisaitl
  • Andrej Sekera
  • Oscar Klefbom
  • **New Guy**
  • Brandon Davidson
  • Cam Talbot.

But here’s the rub, how long will Nuge and Ebs be part of the Oilers team? Especially if a player like Milan Lucic or Troy Brouwer are acquired?

 

TAYLOR HALL

I don’t think we can call what we’re reading on Twitter “rumours” anymore. We’re experiencing a full-fledged game of telephone here. One person says one thing to another and they pass it on down the line and then the person at the end of the line says what they were told… It’s never what the first person said, right?

But with that being said, I mentioned this on Twitter (@beerleagueheroe) earlier in the day, Taylor Hall is a great hockey player. He drives the play for the Oilers, gives the opposition team another superstar to contend with, and he’s a top three left wing in the National Hockey League BUT he’s not THE best. He’s not Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe, Mario Lemieux, or Wayne Gretzky and I think a lot of fans have a tough time thinking about an Edmonton Oilers team that doesn’t have Taylor Hall on it. And they should try because there are actually other good players on the team and the Edmonton Oilers might actually be okay without Hall.

Personally, I’d like to see this team win WITH Taylor Hall because I think he deserves as much. He’s grown on me a bit and the data that has been shown and explained to me by Darcy McLeod (@woodguy) and Alan Hull (@alanhull) has been quite eye opening. But if he does get dealt, I’ll be eager to see how the new players fit in and help the team get to the next level.

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