The Edmonton Oilers will work on the power play today, having spent time in the offensive (forecheck) and defensive (retrieval) zones in previous days.
Tomorrow, the club gets to work with the Winnipeg Jets in town. We’ll likely see a younger lineup on both sides, as we did one year ago in Game One.
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 Athletic, we are celebrating our 2-year anniversary this week. To mark the occasion, you can get 40% off subscriptions until Sept. 19 here.
- New Lowetide: Handicapping Oilers prospect progress: The development of Ethan Bear, Caleb Jones and William Lagesson
- Daniel Nugent-Bowman: Eight key questions for the Oilers to solve at training camp
- Jonathan Willis: Predicting the winners of the Oilers’ top-six and top-nine forward jobs out of camp
- Daniel Nugent-Bowman: In, out or on the bubble: Breaking down positional battles at Oilers camp
- New Lowetide: Evan Bouchard and the Calder Trophy: The Oilers’ pursuit of the elusive rookie award
- Daniel Nugent-Bowman: Alex Chiasson prepares to return to scoring form for Edmonton Oilers
- Jonathan Willis: Kyle Brodziak defied the odds, and then the Oilers, to carve out a significant NHL career
- Lowetide: Can Mikko Koskinen and Mike Smith stop enough pucks for the Oilers?
- Lowetide: Shutdown success by Darnell Nurse and Adam Larsson is a key for the Oilers in 2019-20.
- Daniel Nugent-Bowman: Even if he’s unsure about his return, Oilers’ Connor McDavid looks and sounds like his old self
- Lowetide: RE 19-20: How can the Oilers’ bottom six close the gap in goal differential?
- Daniel Nugent-Bowman: Kailer Yamamoto and Tyler Benson address respective highs and lows as Oilers rookie camp begins
- Jonathan Willis: Riley Sheahan is a prudent signing by the Oilers in more ways than one
- Jonathan Willis: Oilers’ defensive hopes will rest on the new shutdown pair of Darnell Nurse and Adam Larsson
- Daniel Nugent-Bowman: With Evan Bouchard as the headliner, here are the players to watch at Oilers rookie camp
- Lowetide: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and the configuration of the Oilers second line
- Lowetide: Connor McDavid’s 2019-20: Pushing for 50 goals while Dave Tippett loads up the Oilers’ top line
- Lowetide: Estimating reasonable expectations for the 2019-20 Edmonton Oilers: A difficult journey
- Jonathan Willis: How much money will Darnell Nurse make on his next NHL contract?
- Corey Pronman: Oilers No. 9 farm system.
- Lowetide: Oilers coach Dave Tippett might have to take drastic action in order to find a second outscoring line in 2019-20
- Lowetide: Oilers top 20 prospects summer 2019.
ONE YEAR AGO
Game One was against Calgary, the NHL summary is here and the NTS numbers here. My rundown of the game is here. I wanted to highlight some of the performances, and as I re-post the summary from a year ago, it’s good to note all of these men are one year older.
RD Evan Bouchard. 1-0-1, +3 24:31. Three shots, five shot attempts, one takeaway. I was very impressed in all areas. His goal was the results of heady play, a quick release and good instincts. He made several quality outlet passes, slowed the play often with calm feet. Went 8-7 Corsi for 5-on-5 with Ryan Stanton, a mostly effective pairing (some wobble from both men down low). Corsi for 5-on-5: 50 percent.
LC Ryan McLeod. 0-2-2, +1 22:21. Oh my! Two takeaways, 6-10 on the dot and two incredible assists. I can’t remember the last second-round pick who was squeezing out sparks in his first training camp like this guy. You have to think he’s going to get at least one more game. Goodness what an early run. Went 10-12 with Benson and 8-13 with Yamamoto, line was 2-1 in goal differential. Corsi for 5-on-5: 47.06 percent.
L Tyler Benson. 0-2-2, +1 17:56. Two shots, two blocked shots. Did you see the passes? Music! Benson was noticeable all night with the puck on his stick and battled hard to get it back when not having possession. One of three forwards (McLeod, Yamamoto) who played over four power-play minutes. Went 10-12 with McLeod and 8-12 with Yamamoto, they were impressive all night. Benson is a game rooster on both sides of the puck. Corsi for 5-on-5: 45.83 percent.
R Kailer Yamamoto. 2-1-3, +1 17:39. Three shots, seven shot attempts. One hit, one takeaway, one giveaway.He was exactly as we remember him from a year ago, dangerous with the puck on his stick and opportunistic. Great stealth back checker, he’s a turnover machine. It takes zero imagination to know why the Oilers like him. Impressive player. Went 8-13 with McLeod, 8-12 with Benson. If I had a vote, he would have been player of the game. Corsi for 5-on-5: 36.36 percent.
OILERS PROSPECTS SCORING
Jesse Puljujarvi (SML) 4, 2-2-4. Fans should be thrilled at JP’s quick start, a massive season in the Sm-Liiga will no doubt increase his trade value. Many are ripping the Finnish league in terms of quality, I’d remind you Rob Vollman’s NHLE for the AHL (.47) and the SML (.43) are basically the same. Vollman’s 2017 numbers are here. The rankings are KHL, SHL, AHL, Sm-Liiga, NLA, NCHC.
Maxim Denezhkin (MHL) 2, 1-0-1
Philip Broberg (SHL) 1, 0-0-0. The reports (and the visual above) are encouraging, but it’s early days. How much can he improve from where he is now? That’s the question. Based on his skating, the answer might be a lot.
Filip Berglund (SHL) 1, 0-0-0
Markus Niemelainen (SML) 2, 0-0-0
Ilya Konovalov (KHL) 2, 5.34 .859. MacT’s got him on the bench after two poor outings. Team plays tomorrow.
TODAY
There will be some hockey in our town today, Oilers plan to have some form of a game at the community rink (which is very nice if you haven’t been) at noon. Doors open 11:30, I will tell you the rink fills up quickly so be there early.
We may see some cuts today, likely junior players like Raphael Lavoie and Olivier Rodrigue. Maybe some AHL types (Nolan Vesey, Beau Starrett, Anthony Peluso, Luke Esposito, Vincent Desharnais, Jake Kulevich) also get optioned.
The big item to look for in the next 24-30 hours will be lines, pairings and goaltenders for the Monday game against Winnipeg. My guess is that the team has specific players they’ll want to have a long look at, plus the kids who have earned a game but are likely ticketed for Bakersfield.
It’s an important week for Tyler Benson, Cooper Marody, Kailer Yamamoto, Caleb Jones, Ethan Bear, William Lagesson as well. These men want to perform well in the early games and earn the right to hang around until late. Watch especially who these men are lined up beside, that’s a tell now and certainly as preseason rolls along.
The fun is about to begin! Can’t wait.
PREVAILING WISDOM
As camp enters, Tyler Benson and Evan Bouchard are regarded as possibles for the NHL roster. We are hearing less buzz this year about Kailer Yamamoto. I have a theory.
I think the Oilers under Chiarelli and McLellan were very high on Yamamoto, so strong on him the organization pushed him past Jesse Puljujarvi. Yamamoto made the team twice before his 20th birthday.
Now? He’ll turn 21 in a couple of weeks and the team is slow playing his recovery from wrist surgery. I think it’s wise, but also believe the organization wants to see Yamamoto dominate the AHL before he sees the Oilers lineup again. I have Yamamoto’s chances of making the Oilers at 10 percent (Benson 55, Bouchard 46) and honestly believe he’ll get sent down earlier than most expect. It’s going to be a prove it season for the young winger. Edmonton needs him badly, but when they bring him to the roster next time, management must be sure.
Are pre season games being televised?
Does anybody know which station on the west coast? Thanks
I didn’t say anything that runs counter to that.
Connolly’s agent specifically said Florida was the only team to offer the extra year. And they didn’t circle around and give other teams a chance to counter that deal. They agreed to the contract. Holland didn’t get a chance to boost his offer.
If you ignore corsi, I don’t see what’s so bad about Russell.
He’s played top four minutes essentially his whole time in Edmonton.
He plays roughly the same competition as the other top four guys and gets the worst zone starts besides Larsson.
He’s +10 in terms of penalties drawn vs penalties taken.
He’s -6 in three seasons at even strength.
Doesn’t really seem like a guy that is sinking the squad.
Why would he be a late second rounder in a re-draft?
There are two players drafted after him that have more than 10 NHL games and only a couple handful that have any NHL games.
Those drafted after him aren’t anywhere further ahead vis-a-vis Yamamoto.
He likely goes about where he was drafted in a re-draft.
No, that is just not right.
I never suggested Perreault to create cap savings – in fact, I responded to that trade suggestion saying, sure, I guess I do it (as I think Perrault can help the Oilers) but it doesn’t accomplish what needs to be done – a clean disposition of this contract for next off-season. I said I would make the trade, as it could make the current team better without negative cap implications for next season but I would do it on the premise that Perreault is moved next off-season.
As long as that contract they pick up doesn’t have term and isn’t on the books for 2020/21.
The key is to open up $4M in cap space and I don’t like the $1M retained. I’d rather give a low pick or a middling prospect (Rasanen, McPhee, etc.).
Cap hit will still be $4M even after the bonus is paid, well, unless the Oilers retain which is not a good option.
Don’t forget about the buyout proof structure of the contract – Chia went 0 for 4.
Also, the trade protection isn’t gone this off season, the NTC just becomes more limited – he has to submit a 15 team trade list.
Not true at all.
This is correct as far as my recollection of that interview.
The key point of the disclosure was that Florida offered more term and Connelly / the Agent accepted without affording Edmonton a chance to counter offer.
+1 Nobody hates Yamo. To use the word hate is pure hyperbole.
In a redraft he’d be a late 2nd rounder.
It will be very interesting to see how Bouch and Bear compare…
What part of my comment was incorrect? I never speculated on what the Oilers offered, I said we don’t know how much of a premium (if any) they would have had to pay over Florida’s offer to get him to sign.
This is incorrect, see my previous post.
Connelly’s agent said that Florida & Edmonton offered the same dollars,
If I cared to search 630 ched archives, I would post a link
Stauffer had Connelly’s agent on his show for a candid interview about 3 weeks ago.
Good guest, nice peek into the world of free agency & player contract negotiations with GM’s.
Said the Oilers were right there, Ken Holland only offered 3 years & Florida offered 4.
According to some posters on this site the Oilers dodged a bullet because Alex Chaisson is 1/2 the price & is just as good of a top 6 winger.
Not me
We have no way of knowing. I said at the time (prior to him signing with Florida) that I would go as high as 4 x $4M.
How much more money do you think the Oilers would have had to offer Connolly to get him to sign here?
4 per season? 4.5?
No it doesn’t mean he was seriously in the game. And it doesn’t mean he wasn’t. As you nicely pointed out, we can’t know. Agreed that no FA improvements were made to the top 6.
The only one we know of for sure was Connolly. Yeah, maybe he tried to lowball all these guys, doesn’t mean he was seriously in the game. We don’t know, but the net result was ZERO new Oilers who can reasonably be expected to hold down a top-6 job.
For The Athletic: Preseason 2019-20: The Oilers’ journey to respectability begins
https://theathletic.com/1212510/2019/09/16/preseason-2019-20-the-oilers-journey-to-respectability-begins/
I’m sure you’ll see it fair to acknowledge we also can not verify that Holland didn’t offer these players competitive offers. That Holland ‘decided to shop elsewhere’ is a bit of speculation tacked on the end of an otherwise reasonable argument.
Yes – first exhibition game – can’t wait.
Tip mentioned Benson and Bouchard are in.
I hope to see all three Swedes to get a sense of their games a bit better.
Go Oiler!
I disagree with this, I think there were several good candidates for the Oilers top-6 available this summer within this price range and Holland wasn’t able to land any of them.
Connolly ($3.5M x 4) scored 45 goals at 5v5 in the past 3 seasons (Draisaitl has 54, Nuge 36)
Dzingel ($3.375M x 2) scored 49 goals at 5v5 in the past 3 seasons
Burakovsky ($3.25M x 1) scored 29 in the past 3, just 24 years old (required a trade), RFA next summer
If you’re worried about term (I’m not, not with a player that has proven to be able to score over 3+ years) then there were some bargain veteran players available this summer too:
Perry ($1.5M x 1 + up to $1.75M in performance bonuses) scored 29 goals at 5v5 in the past 3 seasons
Maroon ($900k x 1) scored 48 goals at 5v5 in the past 3 seasons, 24 with Edmonton
Brassard ($1.2M x 1) scored 32 goals at 5v5 in the past 3 seasons
Now, you will no doubt argue that none of these players would sign in Edmonton, but you will of course have no evidence of such claim. We simply cannot verify if any of these players would or would not sign with the Oilers, so such arguments are useless. What we do know is that there were legitimate top-6 goal-scoring options available this summer that were well within the Oilers budget, yet Holland decided to shop elsewhere.
For the record, Neal has scored 37 goals at 5v5 in the past 3 seasons (vs 21 for Lucic) – here’s hoping last year’s 5 goal effort was an aberration.
I missed this post and it’s honestly comical how rapid-fire it is
1) You can’t wait ‘one or two rounds’ on these guys anymore. It would have been dicey to even trade down and expect him there
2) You can tell who closes their eyes when Yamamoto hits the ice based on how they talk about puck battles and retrieval
3) Link me to a crushing hit he’s received, bonus points for if he stayed down longer than a second or missed a shift
4) Johnny Gaudreau played through wrist slashing when it was more prevalent than it is now amd has missed 17 games in 5 NHL seasons
Look: Kailer Yamamoto couldn’t score. That’s it, folks. These canned narratives that get passed around based on our collective cultural cues are wrong as shit oftentimes. You can’t just cobble together a sound take on a player from biographical facts, anecdotes, some highlight-watching and a skimming of the box scores.
I know this happening (an undersized, wicked junior scorer impressing coaching staff enough to break camp in D+1, helped possession and created chances but he literally couldn’t score) is completely counterintuitive, but it’s what happened. Players’ careers exist outside of stereotypes.
Martin St Louis was viewed as too small and didn’t get a sniff until he was 23.
Why can we expect more of these types of slashing injuries to KY? If the injury was from a slash, one assumes it was an injury to a bone. Why would that increase the incidence of these injuries? On a physiological level that makes no sense.
Decidedly shitty take.
Whys the “heavy hockey, don’t get pushed around” such a common trope with Oilers fans? The team that’s drafted Mitch Moroz, Cam Abney and so forth??
What a choice LT, I love this bloody song. It does nothing but make me smile for the movie connotation: Swingers, Vince Vaughn and Favreau strutting in shaddy looking LA as they’re planning to go out and get Johnny his mojo back. He’s all growns up!
Side note: does anyone know if this game will be broadcast on NHL’s game packages?
As have I. We shall see.
I’m not sure I see a connection between a slashing injury and the players height and weight, to be honest. A comment was made about Yamamoto’s injury and the reply was “get used to it”, suggesting the player is injury prone when there’s nothing in his history to support that label.
I think you’re adding 2 and 2 and coming up with 16, just because you dislike the pick.
Sure, but Perreault doesn’t represent any cap savings, you were suggesting trading Perreault to create the cap savings. I’m saying Russell will be easier to move next summer than Perreault will be.
IMO we focus way too much time and energy on secondary players like Sekera. Maybe it was a bad move to buy him out. But it doesn’t really move the needle either way. If we kept him, it wouldn’t improve the team in a meaningful way. If he performs well in Dallas it’s not because he’s some great player we let slip through our fingers. If he succeeds, it’s because he’s on a better team, with a better group of players who make him look better. I like what Holland has done with the bottom six. He’s made a bunch of small bets that won’t hurt the team. What he failed to do is bring in one player who can move the needle. One good player would potentially change the whole dynamic of the top six.
You’re put out by a Plan B? lol.
Because what the above says is that there’s no way Dallas would play him at 2RD unless they had to.
You’ve got
– A supply chain delivering executives that basically acts as a revolving door between elite sports player and sports management, delivering people from a hyper-specific field to a much broader one with, hot take, almost no overlap in skill-set
– An anti-intellectual, chauvinistic, and fraternally nepotistic culture
– Media/press that takes the character/aesthetic of being adversarial, but in turn acts so only towards the players (and now, bizarrely, the team and sport’s social media followers, and therefore on behalf of management and ownership because they (ownership) have a zero-sum relationship with the players! It’s not a checking of the powerful, it’s checking on behalf of them
– An invisible guarantee that once you become a head executive, you basically have a job for life
And so on.
One of the most actively anti-competitive fields there is.
The jobs are rare, hard and fleeting but those last two aren’t dictated on what you’d guess they are.
This makes me sad.
I think Bear makes the team.
Sounds like Persson is going to need an AHL adjustment period at the very least. Bear has already impressed the org this camp, and I think Holland would rather ice a rookie Dman on his natural side than a rookie Dman on his off-side. Job’s hard enough.
Benning will slide up to 2RD. Bear in beside Rusty (the giraffe). Persson getting up to speed in the A for at least 10. Which would put Jones and Willie in Bako so they can get some reps.
It’s either that or keep one of Willie or Jones and run Russell on his off-side.
I don’t think they’ll go that way at the outset though. They may be forced into it at some point, depending on whether Persson can adjust and how quickly.
And to tell you the truth, Bear might be a better option. We’ll get to see, whether or not, I think. Coming out of camp.
Every instance of this dynamic ending up being true has the same root cause, which is that hockey is an entirely insular and has almost ONLY intra-mobility
No he was not. He was not good for us which is why Russel ended up as the second pairing right D. You keep referencing the Sekera of old not the old Sekera slowed by injury.
Goes to show some teams situation is more dire than ours.
For a player that makes 2,6 percent of the cap he sure takes a lot of smack on this blog if he scores 15-20 will he still be a whipping boy all year.
YKOil,
Yeah, you may be right
There might be a team out there, lurking, that will take the whole $4.3M in one gulp
Not many, but all it takes is one
Gerta Rauss,
I think they will get a 2nd or 3rd rounder, or a ‘B’ level prospect, for him. New Jersey is my choice (would be a prospect).
Hollands worst move so far is the Chaison signing. Totally unnecessary. Why did he do this? Everyone here thinks it’s a terrible to bad to meh signing. So, how can we all be so wrong and an experienced GM be so much more right than us? Does this only happen in hockey? I don’t get it.
YKOil,
Frolik for Manning has been mentioned here recently
Flames could bury Manning in the AHL and acquire $3M in cap space with the transaction
At face value there is a significant gap in value, but this late in the season Calgary is going to be hard pressed to find $3M in cap space from any transaction, let alone get any value back in a deal
Frolik for Russell would be ideal but I don’t think there is enough incentive there for Calgary to do that deal
Depending on how the year goes I would be very happy if there is a deal for him at the deadline with the Oilers retaining $1m in salary and picking up a 2019-2020 deal. I believe that deal could materialize. All depends on which teams are in the running for the play-offs and what their rosters look like.
I am fine with Yamamoto. It could come back to bite me in the ass but I would deal him in a second if it was part of a bigger deal that solved an issue AND brought back a good asset.
One year deal for Mangiapane. Not a great deal given how well he played but he is in the show and it is $715,000 and, more importantly, it’s only 1 year so off to arbitration if the Flames low-ball him again.
I repeat, the Flames are in worse Cap trouble than Toronto or even the Oilers. $6.3m let in Cap space with Tkachuk to sign; Frolik, maybe Ryan, is a goner barring some incredibly friendly home-team-discount deal. Treliving must be getting some pretty putrid offers on Frolik.
RIP Ric Ocasek
Let the good times roll
Has to be one team that will take him for 1.5 maybe even the Flames.
I’m on record not liking the Chiassson signing, but Ferland at $3.5 for four years would be an even bigger mistake. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Ferland manages a good season one of the four years.
OilFire,
He definitely sounds like a Canucks fan it’s hard to really hate the Canucks because they’ve never won anything but I’ll never forgive their fan base for booing Team Canada off the ice against the evil commies.