Rollin’ Down the Highway

by Lowetide

Things are starting to happen now, the rookie camp roster was released yesterday, and another European winger is a person of interest. In the next seven days we’ll get the training camp roster and perhaps there will be a few surprises.

The mornings are cooler now, night time too. Leaves are turning, hockey is arriving right on time. It’s my favourite time of year, memories of chilly days, leaves burning in the backyard and skates cutting ice. I could spend a lifetime watching tape-to-tape passes, have, as a matter of fact. God I love this game.

THE ATHLETIC!

The Athletic Edmonton features a fabulous cluster of stories (some linked below, some on the site). Great perspective from a ridiculous group of writers and analysts. Proud to be part of the group, take advantage of the incredible Labor Day Weekend offer here!

  • **New Lowetide: Estimating reasonable expectations for the 2019-20 Edmonton Oilers: A difficult journey
  • New Jonathan Willis: How much money will Darnell Nurse make on his next NHL contract?
  • New Lowetide: Ken Holland’s measured summer leaves Oilers outside playoffs.
  • New Jonathan Willis: Can Mikko Koskinen be a quality starter for Oilers in 2019-20?
  • New Lowetide: The 2019-20 Oilers and value contracts: A period of transition
  • New Corey Pronman: Oilers No. 9 farm system.
  • New Jonathan Willis: Jesse Puljujarvi signs one-year deal in Finland, dashing hopes he would return to the Oilers
  • Lowetide: Jay Woodcroft joins Claude Julien and Todd Nelson as key coaches in Oilers prospect development
  • Lowetide: Is Riley Sheahan an ideal fit for the Oilers as their No. 3 centre?
  • Lowetide: Oilers coach Dave Tippett might have to take drastic action in order to find a second outscoring line in 2019-20
  • Lowetide: Oilers end summer still shy on first-shot scoring wingers
  • Lowetide: Connor McDavid and optimal line chemistry: The Oilers need to abandon enforcer fixation and add a skill winger
  • Lowetide: Jesse Puljujarvi’s biggest hurdles: Bad timing and the indifference of the Oilers.
  • Lowetide: Projecting the Oilers 2019-20 Opening Night Lineup
  • Daniel Nugent-Bowman: Q&A: Dave Tippett on rounding out his coaching staff, fixing Oilers’ special teams and using Connor McDavid
  • Daniel Nugent-Bowman: What the 2021-22 Oilers might look like after their steady build toward contender status
  • Lowetide: Joel Persson is ideally situated to win an opening night roster spot with the Oilers
  • Jonathan Willis: Projecting the Oilers’ opening night lineup, line combinations and more.
  • Lowetide: Oilers’ acquisition of James Neal could add badly needed scoring to the top two lines.
  • Daniel Nugent-Bowman: Ken Holland puts his stamp on the Oilers with first big move in Lucic-Neal trade
  • Jonathan Willis: Ken Holland ends an ugly situation for the Oilers by trading Milan Lucic for James Neal
  • Lowetide: Oilers top 20 prospects summer 2019.

Burdasov is a big winger with a terrific (left) wrist shot, he spiked in the KHL this past season. He also had a pile of pims (114) and 19 goals, plus 156 shots in 50 games. His NHLE from last year (82, 23-15-38) is comparable to Joakim Nygard’s NHLE (82, 19-13-32).

2019 ROOKIE CAMP

Goalies (3): Stuart Skinner, Olivier Rodrigue, Dylan Wells. Two pro goalies and Rodrigue will go back for his final season of junior.

Left Defense (4): Jaxon Bellamy, Ethan Cap, Brendan De Jong, Dmitri Samorukov. Samorukov is the only player under contract to the Oilers, and one of the most valuable assets in the system.

Right Defense (3): Evan Bouchard, Logan Day, Vincent Desharnais. Bouchard is the impact prospect at this camp and there’s a chance he’ll stay in Edmonton all winter long. Day and Desharnais were both looking for an NHL contract this spring, and it went to the undrafted Day.

Center (4): Cameron Hebig, Steve Iacobellis, Cooper Marody, Ryan McLeod. Marody has a real chance to play for the Oilers this season, and McLeod’s speed is going to get him NHL chances, although maybe not this year. Hebig had a strong start in Bakersfield and faded, this will be an important year for him. Iacobellis is a talented player.

Left Wing (5): Tyler Benson, Liam Keeler, Beau Starrett, Jakub Stukel, Nolan Vesey. Benson is a feature player in this camp and will probably enjoy playing in front of Edmonton fans (he was hurt damned near every fall as a junior). Starrett is an interesting player on an AHL deal.

Right Wing (4): Raphael Lavoie, Kirill Maksimov, Ostap Safin, Kailer Yamamoto. These are four impressive talents, each of them with enough skill to reach the NHL (imo). Lavoie is the exciting new arrival, Maksimov is the hotshot junior and the other two just want to be healthy this season. Impressive group of talent.

That third item is worth a conversation. I remember well JP’s first training camp performance and McLellan’s quote “We may as well cut to the chase, Jesse has some work to do. We’d like to think he can pull through and play on our team but based off tonight’s game—while he has lots of talent, he has to learn time and space at the NHL level. A couple of times he looked dangerous but he has to have the puck a lot more.” Source

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BornInAGretzkyJersey

Looks like BroLund is a pairing today. Seen them out on the PK and 4-on-4 so far. Broberg quiet so far in the second, Broberg had a nice clear on an early PK.

BornInAGretzkyJersey

Berglund beat wide in halfway through the first on a knuckle puck goal.

Only caught the highlight from the intermission, so I missed the context that OP provided.

Justthestatsman

OriginalPouzar:
I get home from the gym and turn the game on – 5 seconds later, Brogerg makes a nice stretch pass up the middle.Play is broken up, and goes the other way – rush down Berglund’s side, a weak backhand from the outside is taken and the goalie Koskinen’s it – B an B are -1 with no culpability.

i like how you’ve made “Koskinen” into a verb. Very descriptive!

OriginalPouzar

Skelefftea all over Grenoble in the first. Saw the last 12 minutes and the only time Grenoble touched the puck was the weak goal mentioned above. Lots of pressure, shots and PP time but just couldn’t convert.

Broberg with some PP2 time in the period. Looked OK but didn’t stand out.

Professor Q

OriginalPouzar:
I get home from the gym and turn the game on – 5 seconds later, Brogerg makes a nice stretch pass up the middle.Play is broken up, and goes the other way – rush down Berglund’s side, a weak backhand from the outside is taken and the goalie Koskinen’s it – B an B are -1 with no culpability.

It also looks like Skellefteå has changed their goalie already?

OriginalPouzar

I get home from the gym and turn the game on – 5 seconds later, Brogerg makes a nice stretch pass up the middle. Play is broken up, and goes the other way – rush down Berglund’s side, a weak backhand from the outside is taken and the goalie Koskinen’s it – B an B are -1 with no culpability.

Professor Q

Munny:
Not sure about Marleau… isn’t he just about ready for the Big Sleep?

Bowling the nine-pins in the mountains, eh?

BornInAGretzkyJersey

OriginalPouzar,

Thanks for the reminder… for those interested, I found a stream at:
on hockey dot tv

Karpat v SC Bern is at 10am mountain as well.

OriginalPouzar

Berglund and Broberg paired today – game at 8am mountain.

Munny

I have to relate this story because it is just snapshot perfect of how insane the world our politicians have created truly is:

A Dutch financier who manages a pension fund had recently started to build large cash positions. One day he was called by a pension regulator at the central bank and reminded of a rule that says funds should not hold too much cash because it’s risky; they should instead buy more long-dated bonds.

His retort was that most eurozone long bonds had negative yields and so he was sure to lose money.

It doesn’t matter,” came the regulator’s reply: “A rule is a rule, and you must apply it.”

Thus, to “reduce” risk the manager had to buy assets that were 100% sure to lose the pensioners money.

[Source: Charles Gave]

I wonder how those who will want to collect their pensions over the next 20 years will feel? Assuming there’s one left to collect.

And probably no one should feel bad for widows or orphans or the handicapped or really anyone on fixed income… Fuck those guys ( I mean if we’re to sincerely follow our wonderful leaders—please remember to vote ladies and gentleman, because democracy is so cool).

The lengths our governments will go to just to keep spending beyond their (ie our) means is disgusting.

Munny

Not sure about Marleau… isn’t he just about ready for the Big Sleep?

rickithebear

Holland stated he likes current D.
14-15 to 15-16
Manning #1 1.46 evga/60 14-15 to 15-16
Larsson #2 1.54 evga/60 14-15 to 15-16
Benning top 40 HD dman
Russell #1 Closed corsi dman

Playfair stated some Dmen are in need of learning the suttlties of generating offence without risking Defence
Nurse Rover
Klefbom Rover

Holland Stated that Lagesson AHL, Persson SHL deserved a shot at a position.
Persson
That is the 7 current roster Dmen

Sekera said Lagesson was a NHL player.
The only AHL dman he called that.
Lagesson #8 dman

In a Second comment after Lagesson, Persson.
Holland mentioned “Jones, Bouchard, Am I forgetting …… Bear.”

rickithebear

Jaxon Bellamy
4th ranked player in Qmjhl draft.
Picked #16 in Qmjhl draft.
Watching video of his lane coverage length.
Press of Blue
Transition passing.
His nasty nasty physical def of HD area.

He shows the same at rookie camp.
He would be our second best HD def prospect behind Lagesson.

Reja

Jethro Tull: Oh for Fox Creek.

Fox Angeles

Jethro Tull

SVR: 13-23-63-13w5

Oh for Fox Creek.

OriginalPouzar

Skelefftea game tomorrow is at 8 mountain I believe – steamed on the Champions League website.

SVR

Rebillled:
Scungilli Slushy,

LSD?

13-23-63-13w5

Rebillled
Scungilli Slushy

Rebillled:
My nickname was Klinger in the army.

If Berbatov wants $900,000 lets give him 4.5 mil.

Just kidding! #hollanddays

I was never in the army.

But my nickname is Optimus Prime.

For myself. Which is incorrect English. Unless you are an alien bot. And have kids…

Rebillled

My nickname was Klinger in the army.

If Berbatov wants $900,000 lets give him 4.5 mil.

Just kidding! #hollanddays

Scungilli Slushy

If Marleau is into the Connor thing there should be interest.

But under 1M and willing to play 4th line.

I feel, from the surface with no context inside, that he is one of the most impactful players, in his prime, since he’s played.

Quiet and deadly. Like Nuge.Those are playoff players, battle to the end when it counts. Nobody notices that they are getting yoeman’s done

But that is what wins in the end, the second tier gutting it out.

RedArmy

Holland could do two things to greatly improve this team:

1- Sign Lindberg
2- JP to Carolina for Wallmark

Draisaitl mcdavid Kassian
Benson nuge Neal
Granlund lindberg chaisson
Kharia wallmark gagner
Nygard. Archibald

OriginalPouzar

ptspndr: I look at thesecond and third pairing right D being a four way fight between Benning, Persson, Bouchard and Bear. The lowetide community seems to see Jones as a possibility as well. It will be fun to see how it plays out.

I can’t imagine a scenario where Benning does not have one of those two spots.

defmn

OriginalPouzar: For a 35 plus contract (shit, if there was a threshold for a 40 plus contract….), anything longer than 1 year has to be a non-starter, right?

One year max for sure.

Harpers Hair

OriginalPouzar: For a 35 plus contract (shit, if there was a threshold for a 40 plus contract….), anything longer than 1 year has to be a non-starter, right?

No need to sign him to anything longer than a year.
Give him a one year contract at league minimum and some bonuses and Bob’s your uncle.
You can easily demote some of the dross to the AHL to make the contract fit.

pts2pndr

OriginalPouzar: You may be right, Bouchard may be better than Bear.I would suggest there are certain areas where each is better at this point but we will soon fine out.

Either way, Bouchard is such an important prospect and there are so many options that I think the organization HAS to to the risk-adverse approach and we all know what that is.

I think the Bear’s competition for October 2 is Joel Persson.

I look at the second and third pairing right D being a four way fight between Benning, Persson, Bouchard and Bear. The lowetide community seems to see Jones as a possibility as well. It will be fun to see how it plays out.

Jethro Tull

dinger:
Holland has spent a good portion of the summer trying to get faster without stressing the cap why would he want a 40 year old who had trouble keeping up last season. Additionally it is extremely hard to parachute a leader into an existing locker room without causing turmoil and a fracturing of loyalties and trust.As said earlier this fan base has to learn to stop desiring shiny things just because they might be or once were top quality players. IMHO

Dinger? That was my nickname in the Army.

OriginalPouzar

defmn: Have to agree. Marleau can still skate. The only questions really are term, money and will he sign with Edmonton.

He would immediately be Edmonton’s 2nd best winger and then only because we keep calling Draisaitl a winger.

For a 35 plus contract (shit, if there was a threshold for a 40 plus contract….), anything longer than 1 year has to be a non-starter, right?

OriginalPouzar

ptspndr: Reality is Bouchard could very well be better than Bear at this time. I believe that he should still be afforded some AHL time to fine tune his defensive skills and to get acclimated to playing against men. I do believe that Bear is a bonafide NHL prospect but am not sure his skating will allow him to be a top four D. That being said I do believe him deserving of a shot on the big team.

You may be right, Bouchard may be better than Bear. I would suggest there are certain areas where each is better at this point but we will soon fine out.

Either way, Bouchard is such an important prospect and there are so many options that I think the organization HAS to to the risk-adverse approach and we all know what that is.

I think the Bear’s competition for October 2 is Joel Persson.

defmn

Harpers Hair: Marleau has no trouble keeping up.
The Leafs have a bounty of scoring wingers and moved him to third line minutes last season where he still managed 16 goals and 37 points. He played second line minutes the season before and scored 27 goals and 47 points.
Put him on the Oilers second line with RNH and you can expect he will outproduce any other option.

Have to agree. Marleau can still skate. The only questions really are term, money and will he sign with Edmonton.

He would immediately be Edmonton’s 2nd best winger and then only because we keep calling Draisaitl a winger. 😉

Harpers Hair

dinger:
Holland has spent a good portion of the summer trying to get faster without stressing the cap why would he want a 40 year old who had trouble keeping up last season. Additionally it is extremely hard to parachute a leader into an existing locker room without causing turmoil and a fracturing of loyalties and trust.As said earlier this fan base has to learn to stop desiring shiny things just because they might be or once were top quality players. IMHO

Marleau has no trouble keeping up.
The Leafs have a bounty of scoring wingers and moved him to third line minutes last season where he still managed 16 goals and 37 points. He played second line minutes the season before and scored 27 goals and 47 points.
Put him on the Oilers second line with RNH and you can expect he will outproduce any other option.

pts2pndr

GordieHoweHatTrick: “Ideally”, if Bear can hold his own at 3RD (i.e., if he is in there instead of Persson), Bouch can spend more time in Bakersfield developing his D aspects where it will be easier than developing them in the NHL. Then “when Bouch is sufficiently baked”, he can be brought up for an extended NHL trial and if necessary, go back down to A or a stretch to fine-tune as necessary.
Bear can provide injury cover (assuming Bouch is the better RHD of the two).

Reality is Bouchard could very well be better than Bear at this time. I believe that he should still be afforded some AHL time to fine tune his defensive skills and to get acclimated to playing against men. I do believe that Bear is a bonafide NHL prospect but am not sure his skating will allow him to be a top four D. That being said I do believe him deserving of a shot on the big team.

Yukon Jerk

Professor Q: Are there any…*cough*…easily available viewings of the Euro leagues? If I were to try to get into them, that is.

It seems even Watford and some other good teams have started out not as hot as they have before. Sheffield is doing well thus far, though!

I don’t have many allegiances though. I love Man City’s colours and started watching just as they were bought I think, Leicester because of Schmeichel, Borussia Dortmund due to being not Bayern-Munich (and I like Hazard), although now that Davies is on BM I can’t hate them as much. Copenhagen due to family ties. I find it much too difficult to choose!

Alphonso scored again today, amazing!
I’ve been a Liverpool supporter for 20 years, I loved Robbie Fowler. (Still the greatest goal celebration of all time!).
I was a center midfielder back in the day so naturally Stevie Gerrard was my hero.
When you say “easy viewings” are you referring to a free link?
I wish I knew of one, I have not been able to watch my club this year whatsoever.
Fuck DAZN, I hope they die like Setanta

Scungilli Slushy

godot10: That post makes me feel like Jack Torrance banging away on a typewriter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opIyFDOtSzQ

Ha!

Scungilli Slushy

Professor Q: Touche!

I have done it a million times and coming across my comments and thought that isn’t really the thing.

Scungilli Slushy

OriginalPouzar:
Love the prep that the coaches are putting in to get ready for this season.

We know how much tape Tippett has watched of the team last year and the Condors and, now, Playfair has indicated that he’s (1) studied the top ten PKs in the league from last year and (2) watched 20 games of each d-man from last year and prepared training videos for them all.

I’m going to assume this isn’t all that unusual and most coaches are very prepared these days but its good to hear/read/know that our coaches, who have been out of coaching for a few years, are up to speed and working hard.

The thing to me is the model it shows to the players.

On a team that has been disorganized on the ice for years, it’s a message to come prepared and that there is a plan. I believe it will give confidence to the players coming into camp and also with the acquisitions made some fears. Get it done or back of the bus.

Scungilli Slushy

Oil2Oilers:
BornInAGretzkyJersey,

But do you see Bear getting more development opportunities the the new shiny object Bouchard? I don’t that’s why I see a better future for him with a different club.

Bear by his own admission took a while to get the plot around training.

Trying to become a pro athlete is a very fast train. Missing stops along the way derails almost all players that have the natural skill and talent.

Connor said the other day he thinks the difference is work, not native ability.

I wish the best for all of these young players . I also remain astonished that so many that get so far along the track lack the drive to reach their life long goal.

To hear of another skilled player that couldn’t learn to skate at an NHL level may eventually push me over the edge.

Soccer players that can’t run, makes the same amount of sense to me these days. Slow receivers in football, quarterbacks with weak arms. Kinda critical to success. All things that can be developed, unlike physical talent for a sport.

Or like having a high IQ, you can’t change it much but you can work at your weaknesses and overcome them, there won’t be Nobel awards coming typically, but success can be in the picture.

Professor Q

Scungilli Slushy: If we’re being picky we should say left shot or right shot. Who knows if they are left or right handed?

Touché!

dinger

Holland has spent a good portion of the summer trying to get faster without stressing the cap why would he want a 40 year old who had trouble keeping up last season. Additionally it is extremely hard to parachute a leader into an existing locker room without causing turmoil and a fracturing of loyalties and trust. As said earlier this fan base has to learn to stop desiring shiny things just because they might be or once were top quality players. IMHO

godot10

Scungilli Slushy: Sometimes I hate phones

godot10: Blaming others is so #ThoroughlyMediocreCoach.

godot10: Blaming others is so #ThoroughlyMediocreCoach.

godot10: Blaming others is so #ThoroughlyMediocreCoach.

Hi Godot, I’m ‘waiting ‘ for you to adopt my position on McLellan, bwa ha ha!

That post makes me feel like Jack Torrance banging away on a typewriter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opIyFDOtSzQ

OriginalPouzar

ProfessorQ: If he’s 28 he’d be an UFA and past ELC, non?

Just took a look and anyone 25 or older when they sign their first NHL contract are not subject to ELC parameters.

So, I don’t know what Bob is talking about regarding bonuses and them effecting the cap. He could have signing bonuses but not performance bonuses – a deal structured with heavy signing bonuses and less salary has zero effect on the cap vis-a-vis all the compensation being in salary.

Scungilli Slushy

godot10: Blaming others is so #ThoroughlyMediocreCoach.

godot10: Blaming others is so #ThoroughlyMediocreCoach.

godot10: Blaming others is so #ThoroughlyMediocreCoach.

Sometimes I hate phones

Hi Godot, I’m ‘waiting ‘ for you to adopt my position on McLellan, bwa ha ha!

Every coach that makes the best league is a good coach in some way, and has technical understanding.

To me the difference is people skills. It’s like anything else, there are some folks who combine people skill and deep knowledge of what they do. It’s as rare as the guys who are smallish and can’t skate or one or the other , but are so hockey intelligent it doesn’t matter.

It also seems abundantly clear to me that there was a lot of back pressure on T and P. To win now which was a grave mistake by Katz.

I feel from watching the gore that P just mailed it in. He I believe was pressured to deal problem child Hall who had no cache in the league. Added to that was Ps penchant for heavy which made limited options worse.

McLellan is a decent guy and good coach, but like most people needs support . He’s not Trotz, and I trumpet Barry because he went to the Caps, won them a Chl, went to the Isles and crushed it.

There is no coincidence there, he is flat out brilliant.

I see Tippet being more in that branch of the coaching tree even if he is also from Sask. Less a grumpy ass kicker from the Babcock McLellan branch.

We hope.

Darryl8843

BornInAGretzkyJersey,

We don’t know what was promised but we definitely know what transpired

Darryl8843

godot10,

True but each year he was there PC depleted his talent

Scungilli Slushy

Professor Q:
BornInAGretzkyJersey,

Leon is left-handed, not right-handed.

If we’re being picky we should say left shot or right shot. Who knows if they are left or right handed?

defmn

jp: He’d be highly preferable to Burdasov I think.

No doubt. Anybody looking at the current Oilers line up can see it is missing some pieces. The good news is that there are a lot of unanswered questions regarding RFA signings that can have spillover effects in terms of teams having to make additional moves.

Harpers Hair

jp: He’d be highly preferable to Burdasov I think.

A much better bet than Granlund too.
He can still fly and reportedly provided a lot of veteran leadership with the Leafs.

Harpers Hair
jp

Harpers Hair: Luke Fox at Sportsnet connecting the Oilers with Patrick Marleau.
Might be a very good bet at league minimum for third line centre or winger.

He’d be highly preferable to Burdasov I think.