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Edmonton Oilers: More MSM Chime in on Puljujarvi ft. Burke, Rishaug, Seravalli, Dreger, etc.

I thought my previous post on the mainstream media’s comments on Jesse Puljujarvi was a lot. Yesterday I woke up to TWICE as much and now I’m going to bring that to you but I think today I’ll just post the most debatable points that the pundits made. I’ll save you (and me) some time.

Before I do that I just want to touch on Jesse and let you know what I’m thinking with regards to his situation at this very moment.

You’re not going to find a bigger supporter for Jesse Puljujarvi who doesn’t live in Canada or Finland than myself (and maybe another, I think she knows who she is) but I can see that this young man is struggling. He’s struggling with his teammates, his coaches, and a game he very dearly loves and that he’s SO so good at playing. I do not believe that he has the right support structure in Edmonton for him right now though.

As far as I know, he’s rooming with the Koskinens and if that is indeed true, it is a good place for him because he needs the camaraderie of a fellow countryman. Someone with whom he can relate to. Mikko Koskinen was also a touted young prospect that didn’t pan out at the pace he was expected but I’m not 100% certain that even big Mikko alone can help Jesse.

He needs the support of the Oilers leadership core. He needs Connor to go to bat for him. He needs Milan to sit beside him on the bench and offer words of encouragement or let him know where he could’ve done something better. Leon should be offering to set some time aside to work on some things with Jesse after practice and make an effort to work towards developing a potentially deadly partnership. Could Darnell take him out on the town and show some off-ice togetherness?

It’s so very apparent that the coach wants nothing to do with him and that he’s exhausted efforts in an attempt to communicate with Pulju and that makes me feel disappointed.

But on the other hand, it’s also incumbent on Jesse to take the first steps in asking for help. He’s a timid fellow which is fine but he still has to make that effort to go to his leadership group or his coaches and ask them to show him what he needs to do to make things easier for all and then work on those things.

I want the best for Jesse and I want the best for the Edmonton Oilers. That said, there’s something I’ve learned over my years following the team and that is that players will come and go and not to get too attached no matter how much you like the player. If Jesse or Leon or God forbid, Connor gets traded I will feel down but I’ll also feel relieved for him and I’ll wish him good luck on his new team. The same way I did with Nail Yakupov (or maybe the same way you did watching Ryan Smyth or Taylor Hall) and others who I’ve enjoyed watching play for the Oilers.

But if the Oilers were to meet an ex-Oiler that I really liked during his time in Edmonton in the playoffs or the Stanley Cup final, I’ll be cheering for the Oilers. No questions asked.

Let’s see what the pundits had to say about Pulju yesterday. I think you’ll be very interested in Brian Burke’s comments.

FRANK SERAVALLI (TSN)

That sound you hear is me banging my head off the desk repeatedly for the next hour trying to sort through this because I’ve said and I’ve been on record for time and time again with you (Lowetide) last week, Jesse Puljujarvi needs to play more not less. He needs to have more consistent shifts with upper echelon talent instead of playing with guys like Ryan Strome for most of the game.

This is not a guy you can just throw in there (the top-6) for spot duty with the big boys. You need to have him play, that’s the only way his game is going to become remotely more polished.

DARREN DREGER (TSN)

I get the feeling that they’re just trying to exhaust every scenario with Puljujarvi because I think that there’s been enough in his play to show them that there’s a really good player that’s just waiting to break out of this guy. They can’t coax it out of him on a consistent basis.

The question I always ask, and I’ve asked it of the Edmonton Oilers – not recently, but perhaps in the off-season – is at what point do you get where you go, ‘Alright, we’ve seen enough to know that maybe he’s not going to be the player that we hoped he would be when he landed in our lap on the draft floor.’

Well, that’s not an indictment on the player or the organization – sometimes that stuff just happens, so at what point are you better to use him as a tradeable asset? And at least in the off-season, the message that I got back was – they wouldn’t even discuss it with me. It was like, ‘We’re not trading Puljujarvi.’ They just didn’t want that narrative out there at any point.

And look, 10 games from now, 15, 20 – whatever the timeline is in this regular season – we might be signing a completely different tune because he’s playing with that consistency that everybody is searching for. (source)

RYAN RISHAUG (TSN)

Not only is he not creating offensively and having positive things happen for him offensively on a given night but he’s starting to make mistakes and do things that are costly and the Oilers are at a pivotal point in their season where they can’t be developing a player on the fly in the games against this kind of competition. 

There are two conversations here, two different focal lengths. How do you feel about Jesse Puljujarvi being scratched tonight and that (above) would be the answer to that question. Completely different conversation, how do you feel about Jesse Puljujarvi’s development and the way the organization has handled it from draft day to this point?

Rishaug on Accountability

I think coddling him to the point to where when his play dips to unusable status, I think you need to hit him with a natural concequence and I think you need to let him get right back on his horse and see how it goes. 

If it comes to the point to where they’re considering doing it again, send him to the American Hockey League. Enough is enough. 

Rishaug on Expectations

The organization expected this player to develop quicker and you can tell by the way they handled him. Straight to the NHL out of the draft then they realized it might be a little early, sent him down, then after some success brought him back and then last season they did their best to believe he was a full-time NHL player and for tiny little portions here and there he was. Still poured in 12 goals last season but the base has not been built in Puljujarvi’s game and the coach does not trust him enough to use him enough to justify having him here.

A Reasonable Comparison?

We’ve seen this with other players, I mean Adrian Kempe is a good example. 16 goals in 81 games last season, drafted a few years ago and 1 goal in 9 games this year. Down to the minors he goes. Drafted as an offensive player to be an offensive player and hasn’t been and so down to the minors he goes and this might just be where it lands. Let’s see where Puljujarvi rebounds.

BRIAN BURKE (SPORTSNET/HNIC)

Remember Henrik Sedin? He didn’t put up any meaningful numbers until his fourth year after he was drafted. Remember Daniel Sedin? Same thing. Remember Markus Naslund? So you gotta be careful. 

And I can tell you, it’s very fashionable to criticize the Edmonton Oilers and say Puljujarvi is a bad pick. We all had him there. We all loved him. We all think he’s going to be a player.

I’m telling you, the Calgary Flames had those guys in the exact same spots or close to, within one or two. We had Puljujarvi, we loved him, absolutely loved him. So did every other team. So if the Edmonton Oilers blew that pick, a lot of other teams would’ve done the same thing. Peter Chiarelli got offers for that pick so teams could leapfrog Edmonton and take Puljujarvi. 

Burke on Trading Young Players

You’d better not be too impatient because the best trade Pat Quinn ever made, he made a ton of great trades, was when he got Markus Naslund from Pittsburgh for Alex Stojanov.

LOUIE DeBRUSK (SPORTSNET)

This is a young man who’s still trying to find his own way and if I was speaking to my own son I’d say control the things you can control, don’t worry about the things you can’t. 

Right now I think there’s some expectation there from Jesse’s perspective where he’s thinking he has to do more and in reality I think he has to do less in the sense of basic down the game. 

I would tell him to be the hardest working guy on the line each and every night. Go out there and make it known that you are the guy that is working the hardest on the ice. 

DeBrusk on Mindsets and Consistency

When you’re a dominant player like Puljujarvi was in his younger years, big physical specimen, bigger than most of the guys he was playing against. He could manhandle, drive through, he was like a bulldozer going through the middle of the ice. I saw so many highlight reel videos of him just kinda dangling through people, blowing past guys getting off that wrist shot and getting a goal. Different animal here in the NHL and he’s still finding that out but he has it in his ability to do it because we saw that speed. It’s a matter of doing it consistently. 

Here’s the other thing, when you have that mindset as a top-rated guy it’s sometimes hard to go back to the ‘Let’s put the work boots back on and drind this out’ type of an attitude. 

If you want to play with better players make sure you’re playing harder than those guys are playing and everybody will want to play with you. 

LOWETIDE (TSN 1260)

The organization has handled this player poorly. Puljujarvi has far too much skill to give up on, or trade for 10 cents on the dollar. His game has been broken. It might be time to repair and rebuild in Bakersfield. This time next year the Oilers won’t be able to send him to the AHL without waivers. For Oilers fans, the blame game (player, coach, general manager) is less important than unlocking Puljujarvi’s considerable talent while he is an Edmonton Oilers winger. What is best for his development should be the only consideration. (paywall source)

What do you think after reading this group of hockey analysts’ opinions on Jesse Puljujarvi? Let us know in the comments and also tell us what you’d do with him?

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Edmonton Oilers: What the MSM had to say about Jesse Puljujarvi Yesterday (Ferraro, Simpson, Stauffer, Lowetide, etc)


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It seemed like everyone was talking about Jesse Puljujarvi yesterday on Oilers talk radio or in the blogosphere. I counted 7 different personalities commenting on him and I’m going to share what each of them said for you and then you can decide if you believe they are talking out of their aces or what they’re telling us holds water.

If I missed anybody please let me know! Buckle up because this is a long-form post this morning.

**I started writing this post early in the morning Edmonton time (late night Taipei time) and now that I’ve awoken here in Taipei I can see there’s a shite ton of posts on this with much more opinion. But I’ll be honest, I’ve not got the time to go through all of that. So I hope what I’ve presented to you is of value and if possible, I’ll put out a part 2 if the messages have changed. – BLH**

Merriam-Webster defines the word nuance as “a subtle distinction or variation”.

“EARN”

“CURRENCY”

What the f*ck is Bob talking about? How in the world is Puljujarvi supposed to “earn currency” on the 3rd line and the 2nd PP unit when neither line really gets enough TOI to make a noticeable impact on the game? Maybe someone will tell us below.

Here’s what the several different pundits had to say about Jesse Puljujarvi yesterday on Oilers talk radio or the blogs.

BOB STAUFFER (OILERS NOW)

Everybody’s just gotta relax here. But I personally don’t believe that Puljujarvi should be on the 1st unit PP and based on his play over the last three of four games, there’s no way you can play him with McDavid and frankly, I think the best spot for him is to play him with Strome and Lucic on the 3rd line. Give him matchups against 3rd defense pairings, give him 2nd unit PP time. 

He has to learn the nuances of the North American game.

There’s something there with the player but it’s not happening so far and for those of you who have revisionist history that say “Well, the Oilers took him too high.” Guys were ready to block slapshots in the nude when Puljujarvi fell to Edmonton at four. The Oilers had him ranked 3rd on their board. They did not have PL Dubois ranked in their top-4 because they had Sergachev ranked 4th and they thought they were going to get Sergachev at the draft. You can argue they should’ve had Tkachuk ranked higher. Fine. I personally like Tkachuk, I understood the concerns with him. His skating was a little bit of a concern, the fact that he was playing with a broken ankle in the Memorial Cup that year, I liked a lot about what Matthew Tkachuk brings.

But in terms of Puljujarvi, I don’t think he should be handed front-line opportunity and I still think the Oilers need to be patient.

The only way I’d consider trading him is if you got another really good young prospect back. Would you trade him for Anthony Mantha from Detroit who’s minus 12 in 9 games this year and has got one goal? He’s 24. He scored 24 goals last year. Would you do a deal like that?

CRAIG SIMPSON (HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA)

I go back and I’ve said it I think many times to you (Stauffer) and about different players, I’m a firm believer in taking responsibility as the player and you can sit in an armchair and say he’s not getting this chance and he’s not getting that chance.

You have a chance everyday, everyday at practise, every single game, to show that you’re ready to play and make an impact and the difficulty of becoming a really good everyday NHL player is that consistency factor. Can you do it night-in and night-out? it doesn’t always mean that it’s scoring goals and I’ve said to you (Stauffer) before and I heard you talking about Hemsky and I’ve relayed a number of stories talking about helping him as a rookie trying to understand what we’re trying to get out of you as a player.

It’s not about cheating and trying to score goals, it’s about how you have to play to have success to stay in the lineup, to play bigger minutes and the goals will come on the heels of that. 

I’ve just said watching Jesse in the American League, I just found at some point you have to take that responsibility of being hard everyday and being an impactful player and being impactful doesn’t mean scoring a goal. 

Being impactful means playing with that energy and drive every game, getting in on the forecheck and you turn pucks over. Can you make some plays? Can you forecheck hard and play a couple consecutive shifts in the offensive zone?

All of those little things will build up that currency you’re talking about for Puljujarvi and I’m a firm believer when you start on a consistent basis playing that way everyday, the goals will come and the offense will come on the heels of that but I think a lot of times guys expect the offense to be there without putting in that work

JASON GREGOR (TSN 1260)

Part 1:

I’ve said this all along. I wouldn’t even have Puljujarvi in the NHL. So that to me is on the organization not on Puljujarvi. I’m not upset at Puljujarvi as a player. At all. Do I think he’s NHL ready? No, I don’t. Do I think that’s a bad thing? Not at all. Because the majority of 20-year olds in the world aren’t ready. They’re just not. 

We saw a no.3 pick, Dylan Strome, play in the minors last year, why can’t an Oilers 20-year-old play there? It’s not Siberia. It’s not the end of the world if he plays there and if you’re Jesse Puljujarvi, sure it would suck at first to go down to the minors, I get it. 

He wants to be playing, he wants to be scoring. You can’t tell me it’s fun and you can’t tell me his confidence is where it should be at this stage of his career. It just isn’t. He’s not making many plays. 

So, me personally, I’d send him down there and I’d play him on the top line and I’d play him a ton. I’d play him on the PP, I’d play him on the PK, and if he makes mistakes, I’d put him right back out there because it’s the American League and that’s what it’s for. It’s for developing players. And you have a full-on strategy and you sit down with Jay Woodcroft and you say, “Jay, we’re playing him this many minutes a night because he needs to get his confidence back and it might take some time. Deal with it.”

Part 2:

It’s never about a coach liking or not. Everybody has different things that they look for. I think there’s a lot of fans who love Jesse Puljujarvi, they like his attitude, they like that he hitches rides from Oilers fans, and he’s just a down-to-Earth good kid. What’s not to like? I totally get it. 

But you want him to develop. You want him to be an NHL player who could be a difference maker for you in the future. Could be a complimentary top-6 forward. Probably that’s the minimum you’d like from Jesse Puljujarvi. 

Is he showing anything right now that says he’s close now? What’s wrong with a stint in the American League?

I think the organization has to get over this stigma that they have with the, “Oh geez, we can’t send anybody down there…” And the thing is they already sent him down. He’s been down there for parts of the last two seasons. So he’ll survive. He’s not gonna wilt at all. He could do it. I totally think he could do it. 

Because if it continues and when Ty Rattie and Caggiula and those guys get healthy, I don’t want Jesse Puljujarvi playing on the 4th line. And if the other guys are doing more then they deserve to play because the no.1 important thing for the Edmonton Oilers this year as an organization is to win games. That’s the no.1 important thing and at the same time you have to figure out how to develop your players. 

Easy Solution. Play the guys that give you the best chance to win here and if you can develop Puljujarvi and he gains his confidence and he can give you a better chance to win next year, that’s what I want. Because right now, the way he’s played, he’s not doing enough to really impact games. 

There are ways to help the team win without getting points and you’re not seeing a lot of that from Puljujarvi. A) He’s not playing a ton of minutes. He’s not doing a lot and he’s a young player. 

So I would definitely give him a stint in the American League and I wouldn’t look at it as a negative. I’d sit down and have a mature conversation with him and say “Jesse, we need to get your confidence up. We know your confidence isn’t high. We think you’ve got a lot of pieces that could make you an NHL player but you gotta be playing and you’ve got to be playing a lot. We want you to be on the PK.”

Because look at Jesse Puljujarvi, look at his stick length and everything. Wouldn’t he be a good penalty killer? He could be a guy who could be in your top-6, your PP and your PK. Why not? Let him try it in the American League. 

Part 3:

Puljujarvi is a player who doesn’t look confident making plays. He doesn’t look confident thinking the game. He’s also only 20 years of age. I don’t expect him to be ready. 

So, for me, I think the Edmonton Oilers got to wake up, grab a clue, and send him to the minors. Shane Doan went down his third year after playing two full seasons in the NHL and Puljujarvi has been 10 games in the AHL last year, 39 the year before. Wouldn’t be the worst thing for him. 

Yeah it sucks for your ego short-term but I’ll tell you, if you could talk to Jesse Puljujarvi as a 30 year old and if that meant that going down to the minors for 40 games when he was 20 allowing him to have a ten year NHL career making millions of dollars. He would gladly take it. 

RAY FERRARO (TSN)

When I watch Puljujarvi, I see some really good things and then I see some and he looks like a timid kid. 

Why don’t they send him down? There’s a couple of reasons I can think, one is cover your ass a little bit. You’ve got another high draft pick and it looks like a failure when the other three guys ahead of him in the draft are already playing in the NHL and they’re producing. Maybe that’s some of it. Some of it maybe that they feel like they can keep a close eye on his development while he plays sporadically in Edmonton.

I know as a skilled player or a player that was supposed to produce, it’s really difficult to have the confidence to make a play when you know that if you make a mistake you’re going to lose your spot, you’re going to lose your ice, you’re going to sit for five or six minutes. So you make the safe play all the time.

When I watch Puljujarvi, I think he’s just trying to survive. He’s not trying to produce. I mean he’s trying to score but he’s not trying to produce, he’s trying to survive. 

You mentioned 40 games, I think that’s a mistake. If you’re going to send him (to the AHL), commit to sending him. We’ll see you when we see you. You’re going to tell us when you’re ready by being in the American League and being too good for that league.

LOWETIDE (TSN 1260)

I don’t think anybody wants Jesse Puljujarvi to fail. I don’t think Todd McLellan does, I don’t think Peter Chiarelli does, I don’t think any fan wants Jesse Puljujarvi to fail. In fact, I think most people would be delighted because of the strength of his personality and the type of player he could be, to see him succeed. 

And I think he will, I just don’t know if it’s going to be in Edmonton. 

Last night was a microcosm of Jesse Puljujarvi’s career in Edmonton. He starts on the 2nd line and he ends on the 4th line, which was a disaster. The line itself was giving up goals left, right, and center. 

The two right wings in trouble today are Zack Kassian and Jesse Puljujarvi and I’m not ever going to give up on this guy and you have to be patient.

BRUCE McCURDY (THE CULT OF HOCKEY)

He’s really fighting it and you know he scored one point on the year and mind you it was a very important tying goal in the 3rd period in Winnipeg that ultimately laid the table for a two point win for the Oilers in a game they were trailing but he’s had a lot of things go wrong. He’s taken some bad penalties, some questionable line changes, some of his defensive coverage has been a little suspect and he’s playing like a player, frankly, without a lot of confidence.I don’t think he’s got a lot of confidence from his coach at this point either and that can be a concern.

KURT LEAVINS (THE CULT OF HOCKEY)

I like Jesse Puljujarvi lots. But some sure look at the kid through rose-coloured glasses. He is making a lot of rookie mistakes that are causing problems. Late Saturday, the club needed to maintain the pressure on a Nashville team that had played the night but Puljujarvi took a lazy hooking penalty. Against Boston it was that blind pass up the middle. Poor work along the wall against Winnipeg cost his club zone time (but he finished strong). In Boston, we saw bad line changes. Look: Players of Puljujarvi’s maturity will make mistakes. But when it happens to other players (and it absolutely does), I hear calls for benchings. (source)

Leavins also dedicated an entire post to Jesse Puljujarvi here. A very balanced point-of-view in my opinion.

So while the opinions are different there are similar underlying messages we’re hearing here from former NHL players to pundits alike. There’s something there with Jesse Puljujarvi worth saving and it’s incumbent on the Edmonton Oilers to do the right thing for his long-term development.

I think that Jesse will be scratched for the game versus Washington and I’m completely fine with that. If he’s struggling, give him some time off to watch the game from above. You never know what he might glean from it. Besides, when I was growing up prospects used to get scratched all of the time, it was no big deal. The vets got to play.

That said, the prospects used to come up through the minor system until they were ready to play too…

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According to Jason Gregor Milan Lucic is “Open to a Trade”

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I just heard this and I wanted to comment on it briefly.

On this evening’s Jason Gregor show the host and guest Ryan Rishaug were discussing Bob Stauffer’s tweet from earlier in the day and basically going over which players they thought Stauffer was talking about.

This is exactly what Jason Gregor said on his show but if you want the audio click here.

I’ve heard that he (Lucic) would be open to a trade but obviously he’s going to have to agree to the city.

BAM! Just like that Jason Gregor has opened the floodgates on what will be the Summer of Lucic!

Rishaug went the other way with it though, he said that Lucic should come back and dig in and that he’s got something left to show the team being that it’s only year 3 with the Oilers.

As for Chiarelli, Rishaug also commented that he can’t keep dealing guys after a down year and he has to live with the choices he’s made unless, and this might be something but it might not be, there’s a reason you have to move Lucic.

Is there a non-hockey reason that Lucic might be open to being traded? Stauffer talked about Lucic having to get his life in order off the ice and Milan himself said that 90% of last year was mental…

Now Gregor also mentioned that Stauffer said it would a veteran that would be going out. Singular. A veteran. But in Stauffer’s tweet, he said “a contract with term”…

Those can be two VERY different things. in this case, Milan Lucic is both. A veteran who has a contract with term.

He’s also #18 on the TSN Trade Bait List but Oscar Klefbom is not. I find that odd given how much we’ve heard Klefbom’s name and not Lucic’s.

If Lucic is traded, the return is probably not going to be ideal. A bad contract coming back maybe with shorter term but higher AAV. Maybe a good prospect would have to go with Lucic.

Ryan O’Reilly is a name that Bob Stauffer mentioned this morning on his show as an option. He also talked about the Carolina Hurricanes and Justin Faulk but really played that one down because Faulk had a bad game vs. Edmonton last year (what?)… Stauffer talked about the Montreal Canadiens too and we know that the Habs had interest in Lucic before he signed with Edmonton. Would Weber come back in a deal like that?

I imagine the Loui Eriksson rumors will pop up again sooner or later too because the Canucks would love to have Lucic in their lineup.

What do you think? Would you like the Oilers to suck it up and deal the big man or should they live with the choices they made and keep him in hopes that he bounces back Eberle-style next year?

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Oilers Speculation: What Ryan Rishaug REALLY Said Yesterday…

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Yesterday Ryan Rishaug had quite the impact on Oilers Twitter be it from his announcing of right-handed cannon-wielding Swedish defenseman Joel Persson being “locked up” by the Oilers or his radio hit on The Dustin Neilson Show where he was spitballing like a boss!

https://twitter.com/dellowhockey/status/996808838459338754

This is the tweet we’re going to focus on and it comes from former Oilers employee Tyler Dellow.

Well here is the transcript of the “proposal” section of the Rishaug interview on Dustin Neilson’s show that the tweet is talking about so that some context can be applied.

I will say that after the transcript part things get a bit… Emotional on my part. So you can stick around for that or you can take off after you read the Rishaug section. I may or may not say something I might or might not regret…

We pick up the conversation just as the Joel Persson talk ends…

DN – But in no way this means the end of a search for another right-shot dman do you think?

RR – No, it better not.

DN – I’m wondering if it does though? I’m wondering if they want to bring this guy in and give him an opportunity and then save their assets and not have to give up anything significant for a proven right-shot dman, you know?

RR – I don’t think so buddy. I think the Oilers are going to be big game hunting for their blueline. I think they’re going to be looking at big names and weighing out those options.

I think Peter Chiarelli being so vocal about having his first round pick in play, where that pick is, is a good pick in a good draft, and I think they’re going to be big game hunting. I don’t know exactly what it looks like, I don’t know how they do it but I don’t think they’re going to be complacent in trying fill this very obvious void.

Now I’ve been saying for a long time, it’s their no.1 need by a mile. I still maintain that and I think they’re going to try and be very aggressive until that need gets filled up. I don’t know if they’re going to be able to get it done but I do believe they feel that it’s a massive need and just figuring out what level to get it done at.

So whattya do? Do yoy get yourself somehow into the Ekman-Larsson play? Do you go in the Erik Karlsson direction? Well probably not necessarily in that direction. Do the Minnesota Wild make a move on Matt Dumba? With the draft that the Buffalo Sabres are about to have, is Rasmus Ristolainen all of a sudden potentially up for grabs?

Could you see the Buffalo Sabres saying, considering the pick they’re going to make at no.1, can they maybe move Ristolainen out and do they maybe look to bring a veteran Swede in to help work the blueline with their new young Swede? Is there potential for a Klefbom swap out to Buffalo maybe along with that pick?

I’m spitballing a lot of stuff here but my over-riding sense in it is that the Oilers will be aggressive in hunting some of the big game to see if they can fill that need on the back-end and if there’s something that makes sense, I think they’ll be aggressive in getting it done. 

Now, if they can’t find something that makes sense, then they probably fall back to their plan B or C options and I’m not really sure what all of those are but I do believe that the Oilers have identified this as a massive need because I’ve sort of been saying for a while that I continue to do this but I’m not sure if they agree but I get the sense that they’re going to be aggressive here. 

The Chia-haters hopped on that Dellow tweet like nobody’s business and imagine 99.9% of the folks that read the tweet didn’t listen to the spot and just jumped right to conclusions…

If you pay attention, Rishaug says over and over that the Oilers are going to be aggressive and at the end he adds, “IF it makes sense”.

Now as a fan, that’s where a lot of people divide. What makes sense to Chiarelli and what makes sense to the armchair GMs are very different things.

You had guys like TSN’s Scott Cullen just lapping that shit up. This guy isn’t even an Oilers supporter but he loves to lay into them…

“Oh woe is me… Please feel sorry for me because of the team I CHOOSE to cheer for.” How hard it must be tough to tweet for these guys when you’re jacking off that massive pity dick (Hat tip to Ryan Reynolds on that one). Clean up must be fun…

The story is so tiresome, isn’t it?

Has anybody even looked into why Ristolainen might be a better fit for the Oilers than Klefbom? Is it possible that a player could get traded for reasons apart from those that lie within the margins of a stats sheet?

But here’s the thing, it’s all for naught because it was Rishaug playing NHL 18 GM mode!!! But everyone just loved it, couldn’t get enough of it.

Not one of these SMRT Twitter characters thought why it would be a bad deal for Buffalo… Nobody said that Buffalo already is fully stocked on the left side BEFORE drafting Dahlin. None of these brainiacs mentioned that Buffalo would be insane to trade their best RH’d defender. A defender that has put up over 120 points in his last three seasons despite being on the worst team in the NHL during that time span.

Noooo. Why would they do that?

Would they mention that Rasmus Ristolainen has 9 FEWER POINTS than Oliver Ekman-Larsson or 21 MORE POINTS than Justin Faulk since the start of the 2015/16 season?

Of course not…

I’m 100% sure that these media guys, as well as the bloggers, are well aware of what the market value is on a player and that’s why they get paid the big bucks to cover the game from the seat of their pants.

Now, let’s be clear, I’m not fully in support of the SPECULATED trade proposal from Rishaug because that 10th overall pick is the stumbling point for me. I see the Oilers getting a good player there but I can see the logic behind Rishaug’s idea and we know that when Peter Chiarelli has zeroed in on his target, he’s willing to overpay to get it.

Now, that’s not to say that the Sabres couldn’t add to that to make me feel comfortable about moving that first rounder. I know that Sam Reinhart has been rumored to be on the move and that Sabres GM Jason Botteril is not happy at all with the current roster make-up.

I think another thing to add is that we all know that right-shot defenders and centres (especially righties) cost more than left-shot dmen. Hence the price tag Rishaug brought up.

Nurse/Larsson
Sekera/Ristolainen
Russell/Benning
Persson

I’ll tell you what, I do not mind the look of that because I value this team having a deep and talented back end full of NHL defensemen. And it just so happens the Oilers have an excess of LH’d defenders. That group of dmen (healthy) would rival that of any other team in the Pacific division and it wouldn’t cost the Oilers one of their good young forwards either.

So just as the Chia-haters have formed their judgement of Peter on his tenure as Oilers GM, that being 3 seasons so far, I have done the same with Oscar Klefbom and I’m led to believe that the sexy Swede has troubles staying healthy. This is a problem for me. If you can’t stay healthy, you can perform to your absolute best abilities. Why would I want a player who has this problem? This isn’t Peter Forsberg we’re talking about where we’ve got a player who simply dominates games when he’s healthy but simply has trouble doing so.

Can you remember the last time Oscar Klefbom scored a hat-trick in a game? What about the last time he had a fight or a penalty for that matter…

I would be happy if the Oilers acquired Rasmus Ristolainen but leave the pick out of it. Rishaug above mentioned how often Chiarelli has been saying the #10 is available, I just hope that it’s not burning a hole in his pocket and he does the right thing and keeps it.

Lastly, this PALES in comparison to what my source told me today about the other deals that have been brought up by other GMs to Chiarelli… Good Christ, if I post those, Oilers Twitter really will burn down… All I can say is the Oilers better have Ottawa and Arizona on their “blocked” list if Chiarelli wants to keep his job this summer.

So now that I’ve upset the majority of you, here’s a kickass Oilers YouTube video to watch! Please Subscribe to our channel!

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Oilers’ Benning Not Good Enough In the Spot He’s Been Given Says Rishaug

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The 2017/18 season is upon us and I’m so bloody excited!!! But that hasn’t stopped the media machine from digging into the Oilers.

Take a listen to Ryan Rishaug’s spot on The Jason Gregor Show in the Youtube clip below and let me know what you think?

Highlights include:

  • The Benning comments
  • What price is Edmonton willing to pay to upgrade their defense?
  • Who could fill that spot on defense from within the organization if Matt Benning shows he’s not ready?
  • The reason the Oilers are willing to “tread water” until Andrej Sekera comes back.
  • How two spots in the top 6 on the right side were wide open for the taking and none of the players expected to take it capitalized on that opportunity… Except one.
  • Why Todd McLellan was forced to move Draisaitl back to McDavid’s RW?
  • How Kailer Yamamoto made the team.
  • Why the Oilers aren’t releasing Chris Kelly from his PTO.

Personally, I give it the month of October and if the Oilers’ defense is looking shaky, Chiarelli sorts that out toute suite! Add to that the fact that a team like Vegas needs to move some bodies off of their blueline and we might see something sooner.

One thing working against Edmonton right now is that they’ve only got 4 games in the next 2 weeks… Not really enough time to make a judgment call on the D in such a small time frame, right?

A bigger concern might be that right wing. Seems to be a bit of a circus right now with Yamamoto beating out Puljujarvi, Caggiula, Strome, and Slepyshev for a spot in the top 6… That said, I’m stoked to see the new guys and I’m really curious what kind of answers the Oilers will give us to those questions above…

Let us know in the comments or on Twitter (@beerleagueheroe) your thoughts on what the boys on Gregor’s show have said below.

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