Tag Archives: Seth Jones

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

In Search of a Right Hand Man

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Jeff-Petry

The Edmonton Oilers have one, count it, ONE right-handed defenseman under contract going into this summer and the trade options are becoming fewer and fewer as we get closer to the draft. Justin Faulk and Tyson Barrie have been pulled off of the shelf, Travis Hamonic wants to stay in Brooklyn now, Sami Vatanen just signed a new deal with Anaheim that makes him the highest paid blueliner on their team. So what are the Oilers left with?

DO NOT TOUCH WITH CHARA’S STICK

  • Dan Girardi (NYR) – Bad contract and the arrow are pointing south.
  • Cody Franson (BUF) – What happened to this guy? Looked to be developing into something of a beast.
  • Tom Gilbert (MTL) – Need I explain why?
  • Dennis Wideman (CGY) – The refs have been pretty inconsistent in Oilers games… Better not though.

UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENTS

  • Jason Demers – 6’1″ 200lb – He’s the best of the bunch and will be no.1 UFA target on a lot of lists. Would you pay north of $5M per year for this two-way defender?
  • Luke Schenn – 6’2″ 230lb – Would offer a definite physical element and his age is preferable but his skating and mobility isn’t.
  • Zach Redmond – 6’2″ 205lb – Redmond is climbing the ranks on UFA lists everywhere. He seems to be a lesser version of Demers. Could possibly fill a third pairing role well.
  • Roman Polak – 6’0″ 230lb – Nooooo. Unless Nurse needs a sparring partner. Completely exposed in the Finals by Pittsburgh’s speed and relentless forechecking.
  • Dan Boyle – 5’11” 194lb – At 40 years old, is this the kind of player the Oilers should be targeting? I can’t see it.
  • Brian Campbell – 5’10” 192lb – He’s three years younger than Boyle but I’m not sure if he’d like to spend his twilight years playing in Edmonton. I’ve read Chicago and Florida are his preferred destinations. I don’t blame him either.

OFFER SHEETS

  • Tyson Barrie (COL) – A top point producing dman with an edge.
  • Hampus Lindholm (ANH) – Tracking to be a top pairing dman.
  • Rasmus Ristolainen (BUF) – Incredible size and offense. Bad possession numbers.
  • Radko Gudas (PHI) – A freight train on ice. Can play over the line but has some offense.
  • Jacob Trouba (WPG) – Mean MF’er. Has trailed off since being stuck behind Big Buff and Tyler Myers.
  • Connor Murphy (ARI) – Quiet and effective two-way defender.
  • Seth Jones (CLB) – Smooth skater whose offense is a tad better than his defense at this point.

I don’t go into what each brings to the rink because you’re already aware of that but players like Barrie, Lindholm, Ristolainen, Jones, and Trouba would need to be signed in the $7M plus per year range in order to have a chance and at that point the compensation would be a 1st, 2nd, and a 3rd round pick. For a team whose pipeline isn’t a point of pride, I’m not sure if the offer sheet route is the best way to go.

With that being said, Radko Gudas intrigues me a lot and Philly has some nice pieces coming up through their system, most notably, Ivan Provorov. Sam Morin is towering beast of a dman and Travis Sanheim is another. I do wonder if a deal could be made here with the Flyers to acquire Gudas’ rights.

LITTLE KNOWN TRADE TARGETS

  • Josh Manson (ANH) – Dave’s son is a bit better technically than him but I don’t think he’ll even be starring in the NHL’s Hardest Shot Competition anyday. Not that it isn’t hard, I just don’t think offense is his game. Shut down defense is where he carves his niche.
  • Dougie Hamilton (CGY) – Think Calgary would move him to get to no.4?
  • Matt Dumba (MIN) – I can’t see him being worth the price. He looked lost at the World’s.
  • Anton Stralman (TB) – Would Tampa be willing to move Stralman for cap flexibility in order to be able to sign Hedman, Kucherov, Johnson, etc?
  • Kevin Bieksa (ANH) – If the Ducks do sign Hampus Lindholm, that defense is going to be very expensive. Might they be willing to eat some salary to rid themselves of Bieksa?

What do you think? What route would you like to see the Oilers take? 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

The Golden Scenario

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I was listening to Lowetide’s most recent Point/Counter-Point with Matthew Iwanyk today and the topic du jour was what to do with the 4th overall pick? The same old same olds were covered, ie: trade up, trade down, trade out to get a dman but Lowetide brought up a scenario to which Iwanyk called it “The Golden Scenario” and it went like this:

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  • Trade Jordan Eberle to the Islanders for Travis Hamonic
  • Sign Jason Demers
  • Trade down to the 7-9 range and pick one of Juolevi, Sergachev, or Chychrun, plus get a good forward prospect to replenish the cupboards in Bakersfield.

Personally I don’t think that Eberle is going to be enough to get Hamonic. That’s me though. I think the premium on defensemen is going to skyrocket this summer and the ask is going to be Nuge. Especially with Frans Nielsen being a UFA this summer and the Islanders not really having anybody in the system to take over Nielsen’s shut-down duties.

If you’re comfortable with signing Demers to a long-term deal over $5M per year, then we’re gold. But that’s going to be a tough contract in 2-3 years when Nurse, Draisaitl, McDavid, etc. start earning big dollars. And with the expansion draft coming as well. Is he a player you’d be comfortable with letting go in said 2-3 seasons if things got crowded as Ethan Bear developed or Caleb Jones?

The teams sitting at 7-9 are (tempting prospects in brackets):

  • Arizona – 7 (Christian Dvorak, Nick Merkley, Brendan Perlini)
  • Buffalo – 8 (…)
  • Montreal – 9 (Mike McCarron, Charles Hudon, Noah Juulsen, Artturi Lehkonen)

The Coyotes are about the only team I’m tempted with by their prospects. But I’m wondering if trading down even further and going for Ryan Suter 2.0 Charlie McAvoy would be the way to go though. The Oilers’ system is devoid of a number of quality RH dmen. Hence why we’re talking about trying to acquire Demers and Hamonic…

  • Colorado – 10 (Chris Bigras, Nicholas Meloche, AHL Co-ROY Mikko Rantanen)
  • New Jersey – 11 (Goalie Mackenzie Blackwood, Reid Boucher, Pavel Zacha, Steven Santini)
  • Ottawa – 12 (Colin White, Thomas Chabot)
  • Carolina – 13 (Sebastien Aho, Roland McKeown, Hadyn Fleury, Alex Nedeljkovic)

Can’t see anyway the Oilers would be getting a Rantanen or a Zacha here, Colin White would probably be a long shot too.

The way I see it, the Oilers are partially in the place they are because they drafted poorly after the first round or they traded their picks. Now if you take the option to draft completely off of the table then what is that doing for the future of the team. I’m of the belief that you MUST draft in the first two rounds every year, successfully albeit, so that the circle of life continues.

So I say trade down and get the McAvoy kid and a prospect like Aho, White, or pay a bit more and get Zacha. Let him (McAvoy) spend another season or two in the NCAA, sign him, send him to Bakersfield for 40 games and then bring him up if he’s developing according to plan.

Another Option

Not many people are talking about the possibility of trading up to grab Columbus’ pick. I think that’s because they believe that the fact that the Blue Jackets’ GM is Finnish and there’s a great Finnish player in Jesse Puljujarvi that will be sitting there at three for him to take but the reality of the situation is that the Blue Jackets have worked themselves into a shit situation with their horrible long-term contracts and are in dire need of some cap relief. Fact of the matter is, their GM won’t be in Columbus long enough to see his prized pick reach his potential. He’d be doing the next GM a huge favour. The only way he can get himself out of this pickle is to find a way to do some major open heart surgery on his roster.

Next season Columbus has $68M committed to 11 fwds, 7 dmen, and 3 goalies. If the salary cap goes to $74M next year they’ll have only $6M available to sign their RFAs, upgrade via free agency AND sign the 3rd overall pick. Not only that but the expansion draft is coming and correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t each team have to protect the players with no-movement clauses? The Blue Jackets have 5 players who are veterans on long-term deals with NMC’s. Scott Hartnell, Fedor Tyutin, David Clarkson, Nick Foligno, and Brandon Dubinsky are all weighing Columbus down.

Edmonton could offer to swap picks, toss in Yakupov AND take on one of those contracts (ideally Hartnell’s because it’s the shortest and he’s been quite productive recently) OR if Columbus said no, then the Oilers could offer-sheet Seth Jones to something like $5.5M for 6 years.

Either way the Oilers could be getting something of huge value to them. How could Columbus even match that without screwing themselves over? Of course the proposal is all predicated upon them not being able to move the veterans mentioned above.

In the end here, how urgent is it for the Oilers to make the playoffs in 2016/17? Is it even a realistic possibility? Who would the Oilers even jump over to make the playoffs? What would happen if they shot themselves in the foot by trading the #4 overall and Eberle, picked up Hamonic and Demers and then got hit by the injury bug again or those players struggled off the bat?

When you try to force things to happen, they rarely happen the way you want them too or they do happen with some undesired side-effects in tow… I reckon we just have to enjoy the process. The process isn’t fun to go through but when it is complete, everyone (mostly) is happy they went through it.

What do you think? Would you prefer to go the route that Lowetide and Iwanyk talked about or trade up to #3 overall and screw over the Blue Jackets? Let me know in the comments below!

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

How Much Does a Right-Handed Defenseman Go For Anyway…

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So, at this point of the year, we’re left wondering with these two questions.  First, what is a quality Top-6 NHL winger worth, and second, what is the going price for a quality Top-4 right-handed defenseman.

In an effort to answer these burning questions while I wait for the snow to melt so I can start golfing, because, well, that’s what us Oilers fans do in the spring, here’s my best guess.

To do this, we can essentially just look at the deals for defensemen, there’s really only been 8 deals involving high-end right-handed defensemen in recent history, and here’s how they break down:

  • Jason Demers, originally a 7th round pick, had played parts of 6 seasons with the San Jose Sharks when he was dealt to the Dallas Stars for a 3rd round pick and Brenden Dillon. At that point of his career, he could safely be considered a 4/5 defenseman who has flourished in Dallas with more opportunity;
    • He was dealt for a defenseman who was younger and considered to have more upside at the time, and who was 6’3 225lbs.
  • Kevin Shattenkirk, in his first season with the Avalanche, was dealt along with a 2nd round pick and Chris Stewart, at the time considered a Top-6 NHL power forward, for Erik Johnson, a first round pick, and a depth forward;
    • Once again, we have defensemen going both ways in this deal as a balance, and both were considered quality young defensemen with high upside;
  • Matt Niskanen was dealt, along with James Neal, to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Alex Goligoski, who at the time was considered a potentially premier offensive defenseman;
    • Again, we see a defenseman for a defenseman swap, with the better defensemen resulting in the inclusion of a scoring winger;
  • Tyler Myers, along with pending UFA winger Drew Stafford, a pair of prospects and a first round pick to the Winnipeg Jets for Evander Kane and Zack Bogosian;
    • Once again we see scoring forwards to balance the deal in favour of who gets the better defenseman, but again there are defensemen moving in the deal;

Now, to look at the deals where no other defensemen were involved:

  • Brent Burns for Devin Setoguchi and a first. Now, it has to be noted here, Burns was as much a winger as a defenseman at this time, and therefore was dealt for another winger with an included draft pick;
  • Dustin Byfuglien (along with Ben Eager, Brent Sopel and Akim Aliu) for a 1st, 2nd, and a selection of depth forwards. Once again, Byfuglien was considered as much a power forward, and therefore his price was more along the lines of a scoring forward;
  • Seth Jones for Ryan Johansen. This was the most recent move, where a larger 1st line center was moved for a player who, although having potential, was a 2nd pairing right-hand defenseman on his team;
  • Johnny Boychuk for two 2nds and a conditional 3rd. It has to be noted that the Islanders caught Boston in a bad cap situation and was able to take advantage of it due to their cap space. This deal, although fans scream for the Oilers to make a similar one, was lighting in a bottle and is unlikely to be duplicated;
  • Dougie Hamilton was dealt for a 1st and two 2nd round picks when he didn’t sign his RFA deal;

So, to summarize, we can discount the Boychuk deal as a rarity, and we can consider the Burns and Byfuglien deals to essential be for forwards (at the time).  That leaves us with the various deals where they are essentially Best Defensemen in the Deal for Scoring Forward and Lesser Defenseman, and then the deal of a 2nd pairing with potential Defenseman for a Top-3 Center.  This shows us how much value is generally placed on a right-handed defenseman, and we can expect one of our younger left-handed defenseman will be going alongside any winger we deal to obtain such a right-handed defenseman.

Now, one can debate the quality of players such as Jordan Eberle, Nail Yakupov or Taylor Hall, but as becomes clear, no one deals a quality right-handed defenseman for a winger unless a secondary defenseman was included.  Goligoski for Niskanen and Neal are an example of this.  The only real exception would be the Burns scenario, which would still place a rough price of approximately Jordan Eberle and our first round pick to make that deal happen.  Essentially, any deal the Oilers do will probably have to include one of Oesterle, Davidson or even Klefbom along with a winger to get that quality right-side defenseman, or else our first-round pick plus a winger.  The only exception would be if the Oilers chose to deal Nugent-Hopkins, who may at best on his own fetch a right-handed defenseman with “potential”.

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Edmonton Oilers, Kris Hansen

BLH Edmonton Oilers Weekly Recap January 10th-16th

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The Edmonton Oilers finished 1-1-2 in the last four games, with four points in the last four. On paper, that doesn’t look great, and it isn’t. However, all four of those games were one goal affairs.

The problem right now with the Edmonton Oilers is the lack of goal scoring which is mind boggling considering how much skill the Oilers have. That said, they’ve looked competitive in those games. Some of those games were heartbreakers, like the Arizona game where the Oilers blew a 3-1 lead and lost in overtime, or San Jose where they fell in the shootout.

Against the Panthers, the Oilers were the better team but didn’t get a point. That’s life.

That said, there’s only four more games left until McDavid returns, including a three game road trip.

The Edmonton Oilers Three Stars:

3. Jordan Eberle: Jordan Eberle, while pointless in three of those four games, did post three assists against Arizona. Eberle has started to look more productive, especially compared to last month where he was not very noticeable. He’s shown recently that he has chemistry with Leon Draisaitl, although last night he ended up back with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Benoit Pouliot.

2. Andrej Sekera: Sekera, like I said last week, is the number one defenceman of the Edmonton Oilers and it’s not really close. He’s been quietly outstanding. He’s leading the d-corps in minutes played, with the lowest amount being 20:54 against Arizona. He played whopping 27:25 against Calgary last night. Continuing with last night there was a fantastic play where he stayed with (I believe) Johnny Gaudreau and as Gaudreau was about to shoot, Sekera went down, blocked the shot, recovered the puck and moved it out. It was a simple but effective way of play from Sekera and deserves some more recognition.

1. Cam Talbot: This Week, Talbot played in three games, including the shootout win against Calgary. In those three games, he had a combined 0.933 save percentage. In his last five games, Talbot is rocking a 0.931 save percentage. Talbot has been outstanding these last few weeks, which is a far cry to when people were giving up on him back in November. He’s a starting goalie, it’s established now. The real question is: what type of starting goalie is Cam Talbot? It’s a really good question because there’s still a limited sample size. Personally, I don’t think he’s as bad as he was in November, nor as good as he was in December. It’s a happy medium. I had Talbot finishing the year around 0.920 for save percentage and right now he’s 28th with a respectable 0.914%

There’s a lot for Talbot because this morning it was announced that Talbot was signed to a 3 year extension, for around 4.17 million.

It’s a good contract, seems pricey at first glance but Jonathan Willis at Oilersnation.com writes that Talbot is actually 24th in Starting Goalie Salary. It’s not a bad deal although I’m a bit nervous about a NMC for the first two years and a modified no trade clause for the third.

Edmonton Oilers News and Rumors 

Connor McDavid turned 19 this week on Wednesday! However, it wasn’t the greatest birthday as McDavid was announced that he will not be returning until after the All Star Break.  It’s too bad because I know I miss seeing 97 on the ice, but makes sense from an Oilers perspective, where the organization has been notorious for rushing players back too soon.

Also announced was that Oscar Klefbom would be out until after the break. Jason Gregor of Oilersnation revealed that Klefbom is fighting a Staph infection

Finally, Mark Spector revealed the Oilers were in on Seth Jones and offered Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Personally, I wanted to see that deal, but I completely understand the pros and cons to that potential deal. At the end of the day, it didn’t happen.

Around the League:

We had a three way trade: to Montreal John Scott and Victor Bartley. To Arizona: Jarred Tinordi. To Nashville: Stefan Elliot.

Former Edmonton Oiler, David Perron, was traded (along with Adam Clendening) to Anaheim for Carl Hagelin.  

Jonathan Drouin is apparently closed to be moved from Tampa Bay. St. Louis and Anaheim are among teams heavily pursuing. 

Alex Ovechkin was honored for his 500th goal by the Washington Capitals (video to follow)

 

Highlights

Oilers and Flames Highlights from last night’s game

Whalermaniacs song. Yikes

 

Ovechkin’s 500 goal tribute featured a star studded cast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MAzuCIN7xc

 

Alexei Emelin had the hit of the year so far last night on Paul Stastny

 

 

The Week Ahead

The Oilers wrap up before the All Star break with a back to back in the state of Florida: The Panthers on Monday and the Lightning on Tuesday.

The Oilers visit the Stars on Thursday and host the Predators on Saturday.

That’s the week that was. Follow me on Twitter ! Have a great week Oilers fans.

Edmonton Oilers, Kris Hansen

BLH Edmonton Oilers Weekly Recap Jan 3rd-Jan 9th

 

The Oilers should be 2-0-0 this week after two games.

Somehow the Oilers managed to score five goals against Tampa Bay unfortunately three of them were on themselves.

Honestly, I have never seen something like that while watching hockey. Maybe one of the pucks go off the defender and in, sure that happens.

But THREE times? That’s witchcraft right there. It’s a damn shame too because I thought the Oilers outplayed the Lightning in that game.

The Oilers have four games this week, including one tonight against the red hot Florida Panthers, who have won 11 in a row.

Edmonton Oilers Three Stars 

3. Justin Schultz (!?!). Yeah, this one is surprising considering that Justin Schultz is Tom Poti 2.0 in the eyes of Oilers fans. He’s the whipping boy of the team. That said, the whipping boy looked pretty solid these last few games, He’s looked slightly better in his own zone and has rebounded since his awful game against Calgary on the 27th of December. He was solid against the Lightning, earning the second star for the night by having a goal and five shots.

2. Andrej Sekera. Chiarelli’s free agent acquisition is starting to look really good right now. He’s the defacto number one defenceman and it would be debatable that he is still that when Klefbom returns. He’s easily the best defenceman on the Edmonton Oilers right now. He’s the type of player who does everything right, but not flashy. He’s not a physical player, it’s not his game, and that drives people crazy. He scored the lone goal in a snoozer against his former team, The Carolina Hurricanes, in Overtime no less. I was thrilled when we signed Sekera and I’m still happy we have him.

1. Cam Talbot. Remember when people were declaring they were done with him after 12 games played? I do. It was silly to proclaim that. He’s been very good for the Oilers and has taken the number one job from Anders Nilsson. Woodguy55 of becauseoilers.com mentioned this after his game against Carolina:

That’s a starting goalie’s save percentage right there. Ten games isn’t a huge sample size, that’s granted, but it sure is a lot better than saying “I’m done” after twelve games. Talbot is starting yet again against a strong Panthers team and while he took the loss against Tampa Bay, there was no way any of those fluke goals were his fault.

Edmonton Oilers News and Trade Rumors

That’s too bad, but at least we have a date when McDavid will be returning. Not going to lie, I thought McDavid would be back by next week, but then again, I’m no doctor. I understand and fully support Management’s decision on this injury: there have been far too many times where the Oilers would rush players back from injury and it impacted them negatively. It stinks not having McDavid for another month, but we’ve lived without him for two.

Even worse news was the revelation that Oscar Klefbom would not be back until after the all star break. It’s rough news as fans were expecting a huge boost when both players returned.

One big name that is thrown out there is Kevin Shattenkirk. It was reported earlier that his name is receiving calls and the Oilers for sure should be involved there, but I’m wary of his contract status. There are not many options out there for a Right Handed top four defenceman for the Oilers right now, with Seth Jones recently traded and Hamonic injured. You can bet that Chiarelli would be interested.

Jonathan Drouin requested a trade from the Tampa Bay Lightning. It was revealed via his agent, Allan Walsh on Twitter, but the requested dated back to November. Can’t really blame Drouin here: he wasn’t getting any playing time and was recently sent down to the AHL. I don’t think the Oilers will be runners in this race, but St Louis has been mentioned a few times.

Keith Yandle is not talking an extension with the Rangers and that makes him a candidate to be traded. Yandle was acquired last year from the Rangers (with Chris Summers and a 4th round pick) for John Moore, Anthony Duclair and a conditional 1st round pick in 2016 and a second round pick in 2015. It was a heavy price.

Around the League

The biggest trade so far this season took place on Wednesday when Seth Jones was traded to Columbus for Ryan Johansen.  You just don’t see one for one deals of that magnitude in the NHL anymore!

Earlier that same day, the Los Angeles Kings acquired Vincent Lecalvalier and Luke Schenn . Philadelphia received Jordan Weal and a 3rd round pick in return.

Mike Richards signed with the Washington Capitals on Wednesday as well. 

Emerson Etem was traded from the Rangers to the Canucks for Jensen and a 6th round pick in 2016. 

Highlights

Lightning and Oilers game

 

Johansen scored in his first game as a Nashville Predator

 

Here were some of the best radio calls of the week

 

The Week Ahead

The Oilers play four times this week including tonight against the Panthers. They have a two game road trip visiting the Coyotes on Tuesday and the Sharks on Thursday, while hosting the Calgary Flames on Saturday.

Three big divisional games, with no McDavid or Klefbom to save them. It’ll be tough.

That’s the week that was. Follow me on Twitter (I changed my Twitter handle recently) and have a good week!