I had an exchange with an Oilers fan yesterday involving Xavier Bourgault. One of the sentences suggested Bourgault “can’t put up points at the AHL level” and today I would like to address that statement.
THE ATHLETIC!
- New Lowetide: Oilers winger Connor Brown and the question of his optimal usage
- Lowetide: Edmonton Oilers forward Dylan Holloway’s injury highlights concern over offensive potential
- Lowetide: What Oilers management must reckon with in roster construction
- DNB: Edmonton Oilers’ transition of power happening in real-time and the stakes couldn’t be higher
- Lowetide: Are the Oilers suddenly able to develop their own goalies?
- Lowetide: Do the Edmonton Oilers have enough value contracts this season?
- DNB: Edmonton Oilers’ crisis shifts to embarrassment after loss to the Sharks
- Lowetide: What if the Edmonton Oilers end up in the 2024 NHL Draft Lottery?
- Lowetide: 6 ways the Edmonton Oilers can improve in November
- Lowetide: Oilers already leaning on a push from the AHL. Who could be next?
- Lowetide: Can Connor McDavid come from behind to win another Art Ross Trophy?
- Lowetide: Will Edmonton Oilers redeem themselves after baffling October?
BOURGAULT’S SEASON
At the start of the year, Bourgault played on a line with Lane Pederson and Sam Gagner. It was unusual, partly because all three men were RH and that’s kind of rare for a trio. Bourgault was 1-3-4 in five games (and 3-0 goals at even strength while he was on the ice) but has just one point and a pile of minuses since.
Why? Pederson got hurt, Gagner got the call to the NHL and the Condors don’t have much depth. Add in some poor outings for Jack Campbell and it looks a mess.
It doesn’t mean Bourgault is useless, it means he can’t drive play offensively in the AHL with linemates like Drake Cagguila, Greg McKegg, Dino Kambeitz, Brad Malone and Seth Griffith.
You can write off a prospect, but I think it’s worth drilling down to see what is actually happening. I also think Bourgault has some things to recommend him. He’s a better two-way player than we thought he would be and he’s a demon on the forecheck. Here are recent Oilers forward prospects after 10 games in their second AHL season:
- Ryan McLeod 4-4-8
- Dylan Holloway 6-2-8
- Tyler Benson 0-7-7
- Tyler Pitlick 2-5-7
- Kailer Yamamoto 4-2-6
- Xavier Bourgault 1-4-5
- Jesse Puljujarvi 1-4-5
- Cooper Marody 2-3-5
- Raphael Lavoie 0-3-3
I don’t think any of these players should have been written off based on the first 10 games of sophomore seasons. I think Bourgault is fine, he needs a healthy Pederson to get some points and this is a pivotal season. I don’t think making a call on any prospect 10 games into their second pro season is wise, even the injury prone ones.
It’s Friday, and that means the double whammy of Steve Lansky and Tyler Yaremchuk on the Lowdown. We’ll talk about the Oilers road trip, Connor Brown’s role and tee up the Grey Cup this weekend. You can reach me in the comments section, @Lowetide on twitter, or text us 1.833.401.1440 directly.
Summarizing!
Lachance had an aPPle, but Stonehouse and Mazura went without soup.
Day fought the Knight-men and turned aside 26 of 30 shots in a 7-4 win. Friendship for everyone!
Tyler Benson
7-1-5-6
for Henderson Silver Knights
I don’t think Benson’s ability to rack up assists at the AHL level is in question.
I’m glad that he’s having some continued success – hope he get earn himself back on to an NHL contract some day.
Alex Debrincat
NHL
17 gp- 11 goals + 6 assists = 17 points
Detroit Red Wings
In the AHL every team has three legit “heavies”, and numerous solid veterans who feed on young lighter yutes like Bourgault.
It’s hard to be consistent. And can be hard for some who have only played skill roles.
And is a light player
Day indeed gets the crease tonight.
This is important to know because Flint’s opponent is London, home of the Knight-men.
lol I love reading your stuff Tarkus. Thanks.
The shit sandwich that is this season keeps on giving. Brownlee reporting that Beau Akey is out for the “balance of the season” following surgery to repair a dislocated shoulder. Because of course he is.
https://x.com/Robin_Brownlee/status/1725629217281601641?s=20
Good to know. Bad to hear. Bum shoulder? Yeah, he’s an Oiler alright.
If this is the case, I shan’t track him anymore this season.
Well. If this was in the cards, there’s no better team to have been drafted by.
That is terrible news. He was so fun to watch in the pre-season camps. Has such great potential.
Before Kane’s scoring spree, the Oilers had fully reverted to the perimeter play that made their offense look so anemic (albeit with good fancy stats and shot counts) during the season-opening train wreck. When he scored the 3-2 goal, I yelled out loud to the TV that it would hopefully show the likes of Mcleod that those are the areas you score from. Flying by the slot and ending up back on the boards during offensive zone shifts accomplishes very little. Furthermore, the Kraken actually won the board battles in both zones, so their cycle was actually effective, whereas ours kept fizzling out. We definitely need more functional sandpaper on this team among the skilled players, that’s why Kane and Hyman stand out so much right now. I would give Lavoie a look on a skill line at least to see if he can win some board battles for the smaller, faster guys. Gagner’s feel-good story is just about over.
Could a package including Campbell and Lavoie + pry Josh Anderson? Contract slightly heavier than Campbell’s, same length, but an actual useful player that is essentially what we HOPE Lavoie will become. I’m otherwise not a big Josh Anderson guy, another bad contract for sure, but just thinking of realistic trade targets for the absolutely untradeable Campbell. Perhaps a buyout is the better option but prolongs the pain for sure.
Lavoie would be the cost of trading the league’s worst contract for the league’s second worst contract (Flames contracts excluded).
I’m not sure Josh Anderson is still useful and I do think he has one of the league’s worst contracts.
Anderson may not be the exact answer but might be in the ball park. I do believe that Anderson is a better player than Erne or Hamblin. Maybe trading for a bad player if it moves Campbell is an idea to think about.
My Habs fan loser buddies (heh heh) always complain about Anderson playing the perimeter, with his size and speed. I also think he’s blessed with Foegele hands
Anderson is too terrible, there’s no gain there. Like Campbell, it appears as though he has hit a cliff. Not a steep slope into valley, a Wile E. Coyote ledge that snapped off leading to a 386 foot plummet straight down. Campbell for Anderson straight up? Sure. Totally pointless lateral move for both teams. But either team that adds in anything useful loses.
Kris Knoblauch and Dave Hakstol could be identical twins.
They and Lloyd Braun are triplets
Hmmm. Maybe they are actually AI driven Panasonic robots. Along with Lloyd Braun
I thought the same thing before I saw someone suggest Lloyd Braun. Now I think they are all one time traveller. Lloyd is the youngest version we’ve found, Hakstol the eldest.
Keith Gretzky was on with Stauffer on Monday and was asked about Bourgault and, well, Gretzky was no beaming with compliments in his assessment.
He did praise Bourgault’s development in board battles, in particular on the defensive half boards, but he was fairly blunt that Bourgault needs to continue to find consistency at this level – to impact games from shift to shift as opposed to a couple shifts here or there. He need to continue to show that “commitment to battle consistently” (my words, no KG’s) and continue to be more confidant with the puck from defensive blueline to the opposition goalline – to hold the puck longer and make plays.
From my eye, he is indeed very skilled when he is holding the puck but, i agree with KG on the lack of consistency in his game.
Bourgault will be fine. The guys who drafted him are gone and soon gone, so he’s an orphan. Maybe the Oilers trade him. I think he’ll have a career, a different one than his numbers suggested on draft day.
Watch the kid get packaged off to Montreal for a goalie and he’ll turn out as a fine two way player.
I think this recent criticism publicly of Bourgault could be targeted for just this result. Oilers RARELY go public on downbeat takes on prospects.
Was reading somewhere that Holland’s lad was at the last two Habs games. It’ll look good on Edmonton if he bites them in the rump. But it’s a new regime, nothing unexpected with the dump and flush method.
Hmmm, perhaps, although I do think Keith Gretzky is generally fairly honest in his spots on Oilers Now. He’s not shy of providing criticism on air. Heck, he said the Phil Kemp “looks ugly on the ice” while praising him yesterday.
Why does coaching and investing in quality at C matter?
Waiver claim Amadio, a RC, making 762.5K, is playing 2C for the champs
The 3/4 C can play major minutes, so they can do that. And they have Stone to babysit him
and Brett Howden is playing 1C. and he has Eichel to babysit him.
Should be a real nice boost to the forward group to have Connor Brown back in the lineup for tomorrow. Thought they might give him a few games before putting him back in the top six but, truth be told, he’s an upgrade over Sam in the top 6 and Sam is an upgrade over Erne (or Lavoie) in the bottom six.
Lets Go!
But he’s a complete bust! Waive him before game 10!
I kid, I kid. But we are a funny bunch with rose coloured glasses at times…
Hope he is up to speed.
Prospectland!
Just a quartet of NA amateurs this day.
Flint begins a 3-in-3: one may surmise that Day will get two of the starts.
Stonehouse was stoned by the opposition on Humpday. Will redemption be his?
Stateside, Lachance and Mazura will do that hockey thing they do.
Boston University (Lachance) @ 5 p.m.
St. Lawrence (Mazura) @ 5 p.m.
Flint (Day) @ 5 p.m.
Ottawa (Stonehouse) @ 5 p.m.
All times are the same time and are also Chigwell time.
Tarkus is such an f’ing beauty….
New generations Shane Doan moment. Everyone wanting Wallstadt so brain trust decides to pass on him
Still time for Wallstadt to bust!
Sure. But he’s tracking to be a starting goalie and Bourgeault a role player
I attended that one & only Edmonton draft, will never forget that moment.
A young St. Albert boy was right there as well. Jarome Iginla.
Picking Steve Kelly was as easy as 1-2-3.
As in Steve Kelly: 1 goal, 2 assists, 3 points in 27 GP for the Oilers.
That seems to be Holland’s MO. Big super fast guys. ‘What do you mean he isn’t very good at hockey?’
Wallstedt is tracking very well so far.
I wasn’t happy with the Bourgault pick and its likely Jeff Jackson agrees since he turfed the head of amateur scouting responsible. Hopefully Bourgault can develop into a solid NHLer, but he doesn’t look a guy who will ever put up big points. Time will tell and we hope for the best.
The issue was Wyatt Johnston was taking right behind him and is an absolute stud for Dallas, kudos to their scouts, that’s a homerun pick!!!!
Yeah, that was a great pick by Dallas. Part of the reason Dallas is able to transition from their old core to their new one so smoothly.
Johnston didn’t play his draft season. Bourgault looks like the more offensive player in juniors. Maybe Dallas takes XB if the Oilers hadn’t
Still I would always lean to the bigger player if skating was equal and talent was similar, which WJ is. Gotta love a big RS C
WJ is also 7 months younger
Yeah their ability to scout forwards has been top notch
I’ll cheer for Bourgault all the way. Full stop.
But that doesn’t change the fact that his selection likely cost this team Stanley Cups and it was obvious in real time to many of us.
Wallstedt was expected to go around #10 which is rarified air for a goalie in the last 15 years. As good a goalie prospect as we’ve seen in that time. He didn’t get picked and the Detroit picked Cossa and all of a sudden the stars aligned. No one between 15-20 needed a goalie. It was teams like NYR, Winnipeg and that sort so Othmann and Lucius went.
JS fell to them. A true gift horse and they looked it in the mouth for someone that can’t yet drive offense in the AHL.
The ripple effect is that instead of finding a 1a/b stopgap to work with Skinner they target a “true #1” through free agency with money and term which leads to the Campbell signing. The entire McDavid window now relies on Skinner being a legit #1 as we have no backup, no prospect that matters and no money to fix the problem again.
How open does our window look now with Skinner and JS making pennies freeing up 4 million to trade with Cecil’s 4 million for an 8 million dollar legit 1RD or a 6 million dollar one plus a winger who can play now, unlike Bourgault.
Who is JS? Jesper Wallstedt?
Jolivier Srodrigue
Surprised that you’re so down on Rodrigue.
He has a strong chance to be as good as Skinner.
I guess I wonder when we see the tipping point. Wallstedt is having a strong season, .932 in the AHL, so maybe this is the year. Meanwhile, Olivier Rodrigue is a year older and sits at .942 in the same league.
I’m not arguing the Wallstedt selection being wise, I’m arguing there is a tremendous amount of upset over something that has yet to happen. Are we SURE Wallstedt is a difference maker?
This is a good point LT. There’s much consternation over the Bourgault pick and yes Wallstedt could very well end up being the better player. But as I see now he’s still at 0 NHL games played. And I would reckon the Oilers still would have given Campbell 5mil even with Jesper in the system. His timeline doesn’t work for our window.
To suggest not having him in our system is costing us cups is a stretch.
I think the implication is that the Oilers had already decided going into the draft that they were going to sign an expensive UFA goalie, so despite Wallstedt being incredible value at the slot they were drafting, they decided to pass and pick a winger instead, feeling secure that they already had Skinner and Rodrigue percolating in the system.
I doubt their draft list had Bourgault rated higher than Wallstedt (and if they did, then Wright deserved to be fired). So they went off their own draft board, instead of picking the best prospect available.
IIRC LT had Bourgault ahead of Wallstadt.
Bourgault’s junior offense was top notch even if his first 70 pro games have been unspectacular.
I had Bourgault 14, Wallstedt 19
https://lowetide.ca/2021/07/23/here-comes-the-sun-2021-draft-edition/
You shouldn’t count out Rodrigue 3 games.
but find one scout that has him ranked above Wallstedt
That’s all I’m saying. If you weren’t an Oiler fan you’d have no idea who Olivier Rodrigue is. He might be in the top 50 no NHL goalies in the world.
And near the top of that list is Jesper Wallstedt as he was since before he was drafted.
It’s true. Wallstedt is universally regarded as the top goalie prospect in hockey. That has value. His two AHL seasons have seen him grow from .908 to .932 SP and that’s a quality leap.
Rodrigue was .912 a year ago, and .942 this season. I don’t know if he’ll have an NHL career. He doesn’t have the draft pedigree of Wallstedt.
I think he’s worth keeping track of, though.
Wallstedt playing well in the NHL will be a welcome sight imo. I think those who are angry at that draft-day trade will have a right to trumpet it if Wallstedt delivers a .914SP as a rookie in 50 games.
Like Stuart Skinner did.
But that isn’t the way we do things around here. We count arrows. There is no one in hockey who considers these prospects to be remotely in the same weight class.
So can I say definitively that Wallstedt is a better NHL goalie than Rodrigue? No I suppose not.
Is it possible Phil Kemp turns out to be a better defenseman than David Jiricek? I guess so. But I’m not sure that’s where I’d want to plant my flag.
We’ve seen behind the curtain now and there isn’t one Oiler U-23 that is tracking to be a needle mover. Holloway, Bourgault, Lavoie, Savoie, Broberg, Akey, Rodrigue. It’s all varying degrees of Bs and Cs. But every team has a dozen of these guys.
Kemp must really be a weak skater. Not sure why we haven’t seen him up much. Especially with Vinny struggling
And if so why draft him?
I would prefer not to crown a king before he enters the ring. I don’t think that’s a ridiculous idea. I do understand your point, and he is playing well. I hope Wallstedt has a great career. I don’t trust goalies, though.
These less than ideal 1000 cuts are a problem if Holland was to stay. He can’t get himself out of it from what we’ve seen, even if he did see the issues
Our hope is the new GM sees players better, especially pros, and can trade well. A couple of solid deals, that don’t bleed the team any further, can better things quickly
It’s fine to pay for better players, just not too much, which reduces the overall strength of the organization. Especially paying too much repeatedly. Ideally you have to maintain or increase the overall talent level of the organization, while improving roster weaknesses
The fact that none of the listed players are generating offence in the NHL is a big reason the team isn’t closer to a Stanley run.
It really has been the organization’s Achilles for some time now.
There remains time but the McD/Drais window is closing
It makes one wonder wether trading picks and prospects is the problem or not trading enough picks and prospects is the problem?
Big time.
In particular, JP at #4 overall not hitting stings. Very high pick to miss.
In the two drafts following the McDavid pick, wingers ostensibly taken to augment McDavid and Drai all failed.
The Tyler Benson pick in 2016 , still makes me seethe….
One wonders if in a few years, we will be looking back even deeper to figure out how ….well, I won’t even say it.
We need the Bourg or Holloway or Lavoie to surprise to the upside here.
That is a whole lot of draft picks, including many first rounders, that don’t have a lick of offence at the NHL level. Ouch, every recent Oiler pick has underwhelmed offensively. Again, Jackson was right to clean out the head of amateur scouting.
@Lowetide
Does Bourgault being in your list of recent prospects after 10 games in their second AHL season imply that he is in the potential range of Mcleod and Holloway as an NHL player? Is there any evidence that he may exceed them as an NHL player? The Oilers can sure use some luck with this.
Rather than pick the top 2 players on the list; I bet LT was suggesting Bourgault is in the range of any of the 9.
The outcomes differ greatly and nobody knows.
This is correct. Betting on one over another seems folly to me. I think Ryan McLeod may be the best of the group, and he’s at the top, but for me it’s his range of skills that gives him the edge.
Holloway, McLeod and Bourgault all appear to be shy offensively. I don;t think any of these guys will be consistent 15-15 30pts per season players.
Holloway will easily be that and more.
First step, keep up with NHL speed, he has passed this by a mile.
Touch the puck, get in the play, get involved.
Last step start contributing on the score board. And remember we have multiple discussions lately how it’s not all about offence, as defence is critical as well. Then we forget this and go back to counting points.
I do believe Holloway will get his Hyman, Kane type hatrick from getting into those dirty areas.
I think Bourgault will be better at the NHL level than the AHL.
According to reports, the team believes he lacks consistency. Sounds like Lavoie. He’s learning to be a reliable pro in a league appropriate for that.
Agreed once he arrives, the skill will shine with a little more polish and reliability built in.
LT’s prospect timelines (based on the realities of today’s NHL) and Kenny’s are wildly different and I believe that has caused much consternation on these young pros.
Has there been much consistency in the forward deployment in Bakersfield this year? No. It has been chaotic because of recalls and injury.
Klefbom was better in the NHL than the AHL
I remember when Draisaitl was sent down to the AHL before being recalled to the NHL again, there were a LOT of people saying the Oilers were ruining his development because his 6gp in Bakersfield and 2 points were not good enough to warrant a recall.
Based on what? Not being hostile, just curious what you see that leads you to that conclusion.
Much rather see Brown on McDavids wing than Gagner
Gagner looked bad the other night
I’d rather see Hyman.
Sure , but that line has gelled a bit together. Kane and Hyman work well together
Brown on McD’s wing in practise. Nice
Yamamoto is head and shoulders above the rest of that group in terms of NHL scoring. I’m not sure that’s a refutation of the claim that Bourgault can’t put up points.
This made me curious as to Yama’s season:
GP 18
G 3
A 3
TOI 12:11
GF% EV 37.5
ON-ICE SV % .930
No PK
He had 26.5% TOI against elites last season, so they were sheltering him a bit. Hakstol seems to see him as the 11th forward in TOI, 3rd line minutes? I hope Bourg has more game, even if he doesn’t score more.
Bourgeault looked very good in preseason. He played hard at both ends of the ice. I think if recalled he would add more to this team than an Erne does ( albeit not a C man).
He is a talented smart player. I think like so many junior guys he’s going to have to get to man strength. I remember somebody from the team mentioning it, he’s not a big guy naturally
I remember Nuge in his first year, bouncing off any contact and hitting the deck lots. That must have been quite the experience for him, on that team
Bourgault has been, well, up and down this season and continues to get pushed out of games at the AHL level here and there.
He need needs significant more AHL time, probably this entire season.
Also, of note, if he’s called up now, while the Oilers are in to LTIR, his cap hit will be close to $1.2MM as he wasn’t on the roster when the team set its salary and bonus LTIR pools and his performance bonuses would hit the cap.
It is interesting to see the make up of the Condors this year.It seems to be somewhat weak and lacking in depth ..Is this the doing of Gretzky or Holland and Gretzky ? I would not be surprised to see Jackson make changes down there also.
Wallstedt 0.932% in 8 games so far. With Flower and Gus struggling and that $14M burden, it’s only a matter of time before he gets games. New Parise/Barzal/Debrincat.
Could really use a high end goalie prospect right about now. Maybe that’s Rodrigue, we won’t know until they give up on Campbell.
Should give up soon. I am having trouble seeing a path back for Campbell. How can we know he’s turned a corner? By the time he’s solidified his game in the AHL you still have to bet on that translating to the NHL and that would be pretty hard to do, meanwhile just to get there you’ve delayed Rodrigue, likely the better, younger, cheaper goalie, and if you want him back up it means Skinner and Pickard need him up which is a disaster I don’t see on the horizon.
Best for all involved is a long ride out on the pine in the AHL and a summer buy out, short of some Lucic-Neal magic.
what is the path to giving up on Campbell? Contract Buyout the only way? and if so, what is the Cap hit and for how long?
A propos of nothing, the Kings managing to trade Petersen last year was a minor miracle. Cost them a decent D, a prospect and a 2nd to park 2 more years of $5M with Philly, and they had to retain a couple mil of Provorov’s salary over the same time frame.
So roster player, prospect and a 2nd to shed around $3M for two years.
A Campbell buyout’s the only real option. They can’t afford to burn space/roster spot on another Lucic/Neal deal.
It’ very easily one of the worst signings in team history, and very clearly one that was entirely uninformed by analytics beyond top-line SVP (and ignored even that over the last 4 months of his Leafs tenure).
EDIT: And to answer your question https://www.capfriendly.com/buyout-calculator/jack-campbell
They also passed on Samsonov (2015), Hart (2016), Ingram (2016), Oettinger (2017), Knight (2019), and Askarov (2020) before drafting Bourgault and Munzenberger instead of Wallstedt (2021).
Something about the drafting behaviour of two regimes is likely a tell.
Now, PistolPete did move up in two consecutive drafts to snag Skinner then Rodrigue, so perhaps they saw value there and made the move.
I was a fan of using the second first rounder in ’15 to grab Samsonov because there would be time to marinate his development to coincide with the development of the core. That didn’t happen.
In ’16 my sights were set elsewhere (PLD or Turtle at the top end, and Debrincat due to his results with 97, but also post-Connor Otters).
2017-2020 I was heavy on drafting the top goalie in the first round. Any one of those guys would have been franchise altering. I gave up thinking about drafting a goalie in the first round after that. It became clear they either intended to sign or trade for a goalie instead of develop a blue chip prospect.
Or, perhaps, the Oilers have an inability to draft and develop elite talent in the net. Skinner notwithstanding, and potentially OR (neither elite — yet), they’ve had a pretty bad track record since Fuhr and Moog, with a Dubnyk sized blip in between.
It’s a fun conversation.
Would make sense part of the mandate when 97 was drafted was to get him talent immediately as per Reinhart trade. No goalie was likely to fit that timeline. The back to back goalies in 17 and 18 is just good business. Feed the pipeline, as we’re seeing, the position is kinda important.
I was on board with Askarov as well but the Oil didn’t pass on him, he was already gone. I don’t know that anyone wanted Wallstedt until he fell into our lap. A goalie projected to go as high as top 5 at 21? Why the heck not? As we’ve seen with Knight, anything can happen in between.
Seemed more a case of being the smartest man in the room instead of saying thank you to the other GM’s. Maybe the JP selection scared them off of taking the gift someone else left, especially after ‘genius’ Yzerman took Cossa.
The track record is indeed brutal but I can’t imagine any of the regimes said ‘we’re the Edmonton Oilers, we can’t develop goalies’. When they’ve spent quality capital on it, the results have been about as good or better than drafting a regular player (Dubnyk 1st, JDD 2nd played NHL games, Skinner 2nd, Rodrigue end of 2nd tbd, Perhonen 62 didn’t work).
The whole blog, math, and the universe was screaming Debrincat, I think that one has caused the most grief here. A 40 goal trigger man for Connor with proven chemistry. How on earth did they pass on that for a guy without a shoulder or kneecaps.
Quite correct. I had mixed up that one.
Regarding the two goalies in ’21, I remember a lot of the discussion being between the two with the emphasis placed on the local product.
I definitely don’t consider JDD a success. Duby would be the low bar for a 1st round pick. Not saying the Org said something like that, it’s just that position has been organizational kryptonite, along with Russians.
Fair, I didn’t call JDD a success, just results being about standard for a player in that range. An early 2nd rounder getting NHL games but not having a full career being about average. Only point was when they pony up on higher draft picks, at least since 2000, it’s been not terrible compared to the graveyard of outside 100 picks that never make it (Keven Bouchard, really?). Whether that’s on merit is tougher to figure out.
The Russian one is baffling but the sample size isn’t exactly huge. Nail being the obvious, Burke had said he wouldn’t have drafted him at any point and it’s well known the org wanted to go a diff direction. That said, Sweden has worked great, keep taking from there ha.
Rodrigue is a .942/2.00 in 3 games and full value for those numbers.
I fully expect Campbell to get the next start on Tuesday and I will be some sort of “not happy” when it happens.
I’m just critical of the lack of results. Drafted goalies that they could call successful picks at this point? Fuhr, Moog, Dubnyk. Maybe Skinner and eventually Rodrigue. That’s a far cry from the goalie factories of NYR, MTL, NSH, even LAK.
Yakupov, definitely. I wouldn’t have drafted him. Nor Ryan Murray. At the time my preferred play on draft day was to trade down to grab Matt Dumba and another asset (I liked his aggressive & offensive style, RHD, and played with RNH). Little did I know, the answer was draft down and grab Vasilevski. Or just draft the man. That would have been full value for the pick and slot.
So many failed draft picks from Russia besides Yakupov, I think this link really sums it up in regards to draft slot and games played (Mikhnov, amirite?):
https://www.eliteprospects.com/draft/nhl-entry-draft/team/61/edmonton-oilers?nation=rus
And historically speaking, we’ve had better success drafting impact players from Finland over Sweden, non? Either way, the Nordic players seem to be a better bet for the team than the Ruskies. Would be nice to turn that around and unlock that aspect of the way they do business.
Its almost as if Hockey were a team game.
Its almost as if Hockey is the most team game.
“Goalie” is a team game?
Its almost as if hockey were a bloody unfair team game.