Slepy freed to to the first line with Maroon out.

Maroon is back out – thank goodness – give me my futures…..

That was a heck of a tip.

No save Cam?

OriginalPouzar:
Game Night – Another story to be told.

Oilers are one of only a couple of teams to beat the Knights twice this year and they have the chance to make it three times tonight.

I look for a bounce-back game from Tablot – one of the storylines I’m looking at over the last few months is to see if Talbot can get part of his game back – gain some confidence down the stretch.

Here is looking for Slep to get a push up the lineup.

Here is hoping that our defence can somehow learn how to make a quick and efficient transition pass up the ice – assuming no Larsson and both Russell and Davidson on their off-sides, I don’t see it happening.

Go Oilers!

So far the story to be told is that the team will not play any better and Talbot will not have a bounce back game.

That was NOT a highly entertaining period……

It would be a massive mistake to commit any mediumm to long term cap to a “veteran” winger, whether it be Maroon, Grabner, Max P., Hoffman or otherwise.

The best course of action, in my opinion, for the medium to long term success of this team is to find a way to dispose of one of the $4M plus contracts on the left D side that isn’t Klefbom (or Nurse) and use that cap space to acquire a legit 1st or 2nd pairing RD that can move the puck.

Hopefully find a ONE YEAR stop gap winger to play in the top 6 to bridge the gap until there is some prospect graduation.

Hopefully there is some way to ensure that disposed of LHD contract is Kris Russell as I’d much rather keep Sekera (who is materially better than Russell in all aspects of the game) – it may have to be a buyout.

It may be a painful year next year with more middling wingers in the top 6 (until our prospects graduate) but it will be worth it for the longer term success of the team.

Management: Do not commit cap with term to the top 6 – we cannot afford that unless the Lucic contract is off the books. We have to bet on prospects providing extreme value on their ELCs

russ99: Can’t believe how many fans are willing to sit still for more losing seasons just to push favored styles of hockey, keep favorites, dump players decided upon as worthless before they played a game for us, and perpetrate the failed 80s Oilers redo rebuild strategy for god knows how many years.

It has nothing to do with keeping favorites and everything to do with trying to build a team to contend for and win the Stanley Cup.

I could easily just say “I can’t believe how many fans want management to try and fix all the apparent holes in the off-season which is an impossible task and will lead to panic moves and even more cap issues in the future:.

have my opinions on what is missing on the team and we simply do not have the cap space to acquire a 1st/2nd pairing RHD (which is the biggest need in my opinion) as well as add some scoring on the wings up front. We don’t have the cap space to do both without having to dispose of an important piece of the core in Klefbom or Nuge. That isn’t about “favorites” that’s about players that I think can help the team win in the future. This team has one advantage right now, its center depth, and I do not think its a good idea to disable the one advantage to commit cap space with term for a top 6 winger. I would rather try and fill the top 6 winger spot internally with extreme value contracts allowing cap space to be spend elsewhere.

We need extreme value contracts in order to build a contender.

Given the foregoing, my opinion is that we cannot commit cap space with term to an established top 6 winger – we don’t have the cap space for it and I think the cap space needs to be spent on the right side of the D – we need to fill that hole and help the transition game. Because of this, there could very well be a hole or two at the top 6 wing and I’m willing to leave the hole for a year (and miss the playoffs because of it) and fix it, in time, with extreme value contracts from graduating prospects.

Its not about “not caring” about missing the playoffs next year its about being realistic, in my opinion, about how many holes can be filled in one off-season with limited cap space without creating other holes. I feel that not committing to a top 6 winger with term is the best course of action to build towards a championship in the medium term even though it may contribute to another tough season next year.

More short term pain for longer term gain.

In my opinion.

I don’t “like it” but I think its the situation we are in unless we can get rid of the Lucic and Russell contracts.

JimmyV1965:
If this team finds cap space miraculously and spends it on another expensive UFA, I’m going to lose my shit.

I think we are the only two in the community that do not want to see a material top 6 winger brought in this off-season.

Bobcaygeon: I think there’s interest in Lucic, Chairelli might have to eat half that salary but ifa 33 yr old Phaneuf can get traded and there is intrest in Maroon then a 28 yr old Lucic has to have some value to a team.

Eating $3M and then needing to replace what Lucic does bring likely makes it even more expensive….