The top-20 prospects list dropped at The Athletic this morning. It was a wild and crazy ride through the prospect pool. Every selection was difficult. It was shades of grey with zero black and white. The most prominent item in the word bubble? Fringe.
THE ATHLETIC!
- New Lowetide: Edmonton Oilers top 20 prospects ranking, winter 2023
- Lowetide: Oilers begin rise from the depths during a stunning November
- DNB: Is it time the Edmonton Oilers expected more from Ryan McLeod?
- Lowetide: Oilers’ Darnell Nurse impressive in all areas after coaching change
- Lowetide: Oilers’ Philip Broberg reaches crossroads as NHL defenceman
- DNB: Four reasons why the Oilers are very much in the Western Conference playoff race
- Lowetide: How is the Edmonton Oilers top 20 prospects list shaping up?
- Lowetide: Can the Oilers find roster solutions on the NHL fringes?
- DNB: Oilers must address goaltending situation before it’s too late
- Lowetide: Why the Oilers making a productive goalie trade is an expensive proposition
- DNB: Who is new Edmonton Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch? These 3 traits define his approach
- Lowetide: What Oilers management must reckon with in roster construction
- Lowetide: Can Connor McDavid come from behind to win another Art Ross Trophy?
CONDORS LAST NIGHT
A wild game for the Bakersfield Condors last night. Xavier Bourgault scored a goal and may be coming out of his slump. Jack Campbell did not have a good night and that’s the major issue for management. Folks, it’s a problem. I’d like to see them add a goalie, a RH blue and a two-way winger. The goalie cost might make the rest impossible.
I do like the defensemen on this Bakersfield squad. I included pretty much all of them on the top 20 because it isn’t clear to me who will emerge. We know from the rule of Petry-Chorney-Wild that just one of Dineen-Gleason-Hoefenmayer is likely to play 200+ games, and I have zero idea which one. As always, we need to be aware that it’s possible none of them work out.
The best of the Condors are Bourgault, Raphael Lavoie, Max Wanner, Matvey Petrov and Olivier Rodrigue. I’m sure of it.
I think the reccent winning streak allows the Oilers to run Skinner-Pickard for a time. I don’t think Campbell is ready and I do think Olivier Rodrigue is pushing and may earn a start earlier than expected. The Oilers are developing goalies. It’s the most ridiculous thing one can imagination but we are here.
I know the poor start has left us with little wiggle room, but.
What would it hurt to call Rodrigue up and give him a game? If he gives up a softy or two and we lose, well that would align with about half our games so far so what the hell? If he’s hot, give him a chance.
Can’t catch lightning in a bottle if you never step outside.
I haven’t watched LA this year, probably because I hate them with the power of a thousand suns. But I’m watching their game against the Avs right now and they look….daunting. Hopefully it’s a testament to the Avs being weaker than we’re used to.
It isn’t.
The Kings have been steamrolling pretty much everyone.
Tonight they outshot Colorado 23-5 in the third period.
You likely noticed how they roll four lines relentlessly no matter the game state.
Of note, Quinton Byfield, now just 21, is turning into an absolute beast.
“they roll 4 lines”
yet they played their 4th line less than Avs did
Adjust for PK.
I wouldn’t have looked, but since you suggested it..
leadfarmer is correct the Kings 4th line (AndersonDolan-Lewis-Kaliyev) played less than the Avs 4th line (Drouin-Johansen-Tatar), even at 5v5.
I must say I’m surprised to see 2C Ryan Johansen playing 4th line minutes. On the Kings side, at least 2C PLD is playing 3rd line (#8 forward) minutes.
Drouin – Johansen – Tatar is their 2nd line
Cogliano – Olofsson- Kiviranta is their 4th line
https://www.capfriendly.com/depth-charts/avalanche
Not sure why Bednar backed off the 2nd line…perhaps not playing well.
Worth noting that the MacKinnon line all played over 21 minutes while Kopitar played only 19:01 which included almost a minute and a half of PK which the Avs top line doesn’t play.
Balance
Yet ‘2nd line’ players Johansen and Tatar are playing less per game (5v5) than Holloway and Gagner are for the Oilers.
Seems that balance doesn’t mean what you think it means.
Remember when they were just as hot as this after the deadline last season, then they bowed out of round one with barely a whimper?
Means zero this season.
I remember when the Kings led the Oilers 2 games to 1, and by 3 goals to zero in Game 4. Not my definition of “barely a whimper”.
It took a major effort by Edmonton to come from behind to beat the Kings in both that series and the similar first round meeting the year before. To diminish their performance in those series serves to diminish that of the Oilers.
You are completely correct.
I was using a healthy dose of hyperbole in anticipation of the hyperbole HH typically employs.
It’s quite possible I was doing myself, and the Oilers, a disservice in the process.
They roll 4 lines relentlessly because their coach did something similar with the Oilers. It’s his style.
How has Talbot been? Wasn’t he an Oiler Once?
He’s doing great…playing behind a supremely structured defensive team.
Only Carolina gives up fewer shots.
Their backup is a worry though.
As luck would have it…a Talbot feature article popped earlier today.
https://www.latimes.com/sports/hockey/kings/story/2023-12-03/cam-talbot-putting-on-show-for-kings
5 goals! Plan the parade! Loool
Actually 6 and is now on pace for close to 25 goals and 80 points while running at +17
Not at all bad for a player that just turned 21 and was the youngest player in his draft class.
How is Holloway doing? He was in the same draft class but is almost a full year older.
You’re asking how a #14 overall pick is doing compared to a #2 overall pick?
For someone who doesn’t claim to fanboy over any particular team, you sure are insecure like one.
Had Byfield been a few days younger, he would have been in the following years draft.
Holloway was also able to play in the NCAA for another season while the OHL cancelled the entire year forcing Byfield to play as a barely 18 year old in the AHL.
Byfield has overcome that, a broken ankle and an illness that cost him 20 pounds to play a meaningful role on the first line of one of the best teams in the game.
At 21, he’s thriving…not sure why you can’t give the young man his due.
You have been hyping up players like Byfield for years demanding they get their due, only for them to flame out and for you to pretend like you always thought they would flame out.
You don’t actually care about Byfield’s development, you only care about how he’s playing better this year than the Oilers #14 pick in the same draft.
Why did the Kings draft 3 guys like Byfield, Turcotte, Bjonfot, instead of drafting 3 stars like Dallas did in 2017?
Are they stupid or something?
No Makar will do that
Makar surely is good enough to make a difference.
The regular season provides everyone in a 32 team league to witness diverse wonderful and scintillating team moments. Last season wasn’t Boston supposed to be the greatest team ever thanks to their record, while even the Oilers ended up with a semblance of one of the all time best powerplays?
Which team has booted the LAK in the past 2 seasons?
How many Cups do the San Jose Sharks have?
Kings had the easiest schedule in the league to start the year lol.
A 4-1 game and PLD gets a -1 and plays 13:41… Playing 3rd line minutes and contributing Ryan McLeod levels of offense at $8.5 million per year. Don’t forget he’s the heir to Kopitar’s PPG and top line defense position. Byfield got on a heater once they moved him away from PLD. Everyone light a candle for Kaliyev’s career now that he’s on that line. They are Vancouver Redux regression will be hard and swift. Speaking of which.
PDO regression in the Tocchet system is rearing its head. Vezina Demko getting a little tired from all that rubber and its only the start of December. Thinking Zadorov is going to help is funny, he’s going to get destroyed in their mess of a system.
Colorado is a one line team. Extremely unbalanced, the worst in the Western Conference. No wonder Sakic bailed upstairs to protect his rep as the Nathan Pippen contract was ending. Just imagine if Holland had instilled Drouin-Johansen-Tatar as the 2nd line. No secret why Bednar isn’t playing them, they suck lol. Oiler fans rightly would have tossed him on the Rex Banner catapult. Nobody noticed the embarrassing losses to Zona and the Ducks last week where they gave up 4 each. The crazy goalie bets aren’t looking too hot.
If Jack can’t be dominant in the A I’m not sure why he’d be better in the N
Cpt Pickard has been better. Make it work
Hope they keep poor Jack where he is until at least near the playoffs. Any wise team(Oilers do not quite qualify for this btw) will keep him away until February.
Dumbassed impatient teams do this.
Like a bad poker player a poorly run NHL team will lurch from disaster to disaster punctuated with inevitable occasional good luck.
For one thing, haven’t Oilers management got better things to do than to obsess with this failed to make the grade as an Oilers goalie? If he is to get well, at least give the poor guy a few months to rebuilt his game. Me thinks this is my real opinion.
Excited to see Wanner in the future up with the Oil. Hoping the young forwards in Bako find their scoring touches!!..the Oilers really need one of their young forwards to emerge as a legit NHL frwd. Cheers LT
Wanner being good would be soooo helpful
So big 6 game home stand coming up. Obviously would like to see a sweep but 5-1 or even 4-2 would be positive. First game against Carolina might be a challenge coming off a 5 day break. Hopefully Coach Knobby can make good use of the practice time he has this week. Go Oilers!
Cant the oilers just terminate Campbell and call him bad for the room? Im
sure there were undisclosed incidents that happened there with Perry. I just dont know how the nhl blocks that from happening going forward.
The Kings terminated Mike Richards eons ago and have 5 years more of cap hit after his situation was grieved by the NHLPA.
I suspect Corey Perry will also get paid.
The most they could do is leave Campbell in Bako and pray for mutual termination (as happened with the Red Wings and Zadina). But there’s so much money on the line for him there’s no reason for him to agree.
I have to wonder though -and I’m half serious about this- what the criteria are for mental health issues and LTIR. If you look at the Carey Price situation there seems to be physical, mental and addiction issues.
Lehner is another goalie on LTIR with a massive contract who has a history of mental health issues, although the claim this season is related to shoulder surgery.
A lot of players facing retirement end up on LTIR. Is Campbell headed for retirement? So much isn’t disclosed about LTIR because of medical issues and privacy. You have to wonder what’s possible.
Seems like all they need is Campbell to say he has mental health issues and agree to a termination (which i assume comes with some money). Might not be that easy as players will want to get paid. Just seems the nhl has a bit of a problem on their hands. Not easy to put rules in places. To me Perry shoulda got paid and chicago a buyout hit. Either way the 1.5m cap hit is prob better than pissing away more picks.
They can agree on a termination, sure – doesn’t come with any future compensation to Jack though.
People keep talking about Jack and LTIR for mental healthy reasons. We don’t know what we don’t know with Jack, any player can be suffering without anyone knowing, but having shaky confidence, being hard on yourself for poor play, not being able to recover from a bad goal, etc., etc. – that’s not a sign of “mental health issues”.
I don’t think Jack Campbell is ready to give up on NHL hockey and essentially agree to sit on the sidelines for 3+ years based on the premise of having mental health.
Robin Lehner, who suffers from depression, bipolar and addiction issues is not a comparable.
Forget mental health someone should be asking if he has complications of long Covid. His drop-off began in Toronto after coming back from Covid. LTIR for Long Covid.
I’ve not heard anyone else talk about Campbell and LTIR – so I don’t know what others are saying.
Campbell’s public statements are definitely indicative that there are underlying issues of some type. I would not be ready to say how serious, but he definitely has a form of performance anxiety. And that is real. Everyone can see it. I don’t think he’s suffering that quietly.
Lehner is open about his struggles for certain.
Frankly, I think a lot of it has to do with the position of being a goalie.
The book cannot simply be closed on the Perry situation.
There needs to be more information re: grounds for termination – Ok, maybe not to the general public but the other teams and all the players in the union have a right (and need) to know for precedent.
I have to presume that the NHLPA will grieve this on Perry’s behalf and similar to Kane and Richards there will be some sort of “settlement” with cap implications to Chicago.
As of now, Perry actually owed the Hawks money as, in a contract termination situation, the player only gets comp pro rated to the amount of time he was under contract in the season and Perry got a $2MM signing bonus but never earned 50% of his overall comp.
Summarizing!
The House of Stone tallied twice, including the go-ahead goal in the 3rd in a 6-5 win, giving him 11 on the season. He added a helper and had a team-high 6 SOG. He was named 1st star for his efforts.
Münzenberger and Määttä were held soupless. They shall have to content themselves with unwashed beets instead.
Day got the, er, day* off.
Prospecting takes a break until Wodin’s Day.
*I would have said “Day got himself off”, but that would have conjured mental images of the Pee Wee Herman / movie theatre episode. And nobody needs that bouncing around their cranium.
Do the Oilers need to spend assets on a goalie? If Skinner has recovered to being an average goalie, Pickard can likely be a satisfactory backup. Play Rodrigue often in the A and give him a call up in the Spring to see where he’s at.
Sounds reasonable but, as of now, the organization:
1) doesn’t trust Pickard to play more than the odd game. Once the schedule picks up after the Christmas break, they’ll need a second goalie they can trust 3-4 time per 10 games.
2) is focused on Campbell and trying to find away to justify him back on the NHL roster – Rodrigue is a clear after-thought.
Sigh…..
Sail on, Myles Goodwyn.
At First Glance, the Oilers need to play Harder, Faster. But I will go On Record and say if their Attitude improves and their Power Play really gets going, Stand Back and enjoy the show. And who knows? If they win the Cup, it’ll be like The Whole World’s Goin’ Crazy.
that result is expected. It’s just the Nature of the Beast
Just Between You and Me, Oowatanite that will be.
oooo waaaa taaaa neeee tay I remember thinking it was a village in Uganda.
RIP Myles. He wrote the sound track to my teens. Seen and Heard from the back of roomthrough banks of speakers in high school gyms. That was teen spirit.
Need to save the add for stud RD. Lets find out what Pickard and Rodrigue have to offer before trading for goalie
Best move with Campbell seems to be to leave him in the AHL until the playoffs. Keep the fuller roster until then. Use Pickard and maybe Rodrigue. Not certain how that would affect cap accrued for a deadline move. This seems as though it creates the best roster for EDM.
Coach:
We had a lot of guys that were on the brink of breaking down. Lots of guys that were dealing with issues physically. We needed a few days off.
McDavid in Toronto yesterday and last night for the Hall of Fame gala but on the ice for practice in Edmonton this morning.
Long day, material travel but back with the team ASAP.
Replacing Kulak with Nick Seeler would be a thumbs up for me. Adds some tenacity, while saving close to $2 million in cap space.
https://youtu.be/vYjTiEFF28w?si=E9M0QDZpUMFutkqS
Just replace Kulak with Broberg.
Ninety minutes to kick off against the Philadelphia Mitchells and I’m bouncing off the walls.
My score prediction: 31-24 SF
What are your score predictions?
I barely recognize this team in red white and gold. I thought the 49ers were playing tonight? 🤢
Your prediction was way off (who would have guessed 3 touchdowns), now the Lions have a shot as conference champions.
I am totally okay with being wrong in that direction lol. What a game from Purdy, Deebo and the Niner secondary.
your analysis on the athletic was solid but disappointing. Have any “sure things” i.e. top 6 f, top 4 d, or 1b goalie been drafted in the Holland era in Edmonton?
None.
What is the rush with Jack Campbell?
over the next 6 weeks our back up could play two games;
December 21 – NJD
January 18 – Seattle
The schedule looks like it was designed by a goalie. Let Jack stay where he is, and bring Rodrigues up to practice with the team on December 22.
Jack has until January 17 to string some games together.
When did the NHL start counting the scoring race as 1st, two guys tied for 2nd, so the next guy is 3rd? He should be fourth. And so on. Totally weird and I just noticed.
That’s been their norm for several years.
It makes no sense.
Could this be a push from the NHLPA? During contract negotiations you can say oh so and so isn’t 246th he’s 191st overall. Look at your own website. I cannot think of another rationalization.
We know the organization is really giving Campbell the opportunity to get his game back as they really want him to be able to pair with Skinner – I get that, Campbell being a reasonable 1B is clearly the ideal path forward.
At the same time, its time to play Olivier Rodrigue (well, way past time but now its getting VERY late) – he is waivers eligible next season (credit to Eastern Oil who mentioned it to me in a tweet response – I hadn’t thought about that before).
Nobody is going to waiver-claim a goalie who played fewer than 20 AHL games the season prior.
I see your point. But MTL claimed Montembault the season after he played 13 AHL games.
1B is an overused term. how about solid backup?
Clearly Campbell is number 2. 💩
More than Olivier, I wonder what Sylvain could do for Skinner in the NHL. I feel they both deserve their chance up here.
I believe Syl was a big part of Skinner’s success and I’d like to see that continue.
No Nurse or Kane at practice today. We’ll hear what coach has to say but I presume its maintenance. I think Kane has taken more days off practice than he’s been on the ice the last month.
Kane plays a pretty hard game. I don’t mind if he gets a little bit of rest long as he keeps it up during the games.
The way I see it, is there is no chance for Stanley without excellent goaltending. It is a simple as that.
Delay, test, try-out, negotiate, scout – all good ideas. But everything else will be wasted if we don’t have excellent goaltending.
While finding a solution, don’t wear out the good one we do have.
Rodrigue has as good or better a chance thank Soup to lead the Oilers to a Cup this year.
to get an excellent 2nd goalie might weaken another area
Somehow I don’t think Merzlikens is the most likely target. Likely, but not MOST likely. I wOuld love to see Jenner, but I suspect Boqvist, Bean and/or Tarasov, once he is healthy are the likely. Minor leaguers on both side are possible as well either as themain focus or as an addendum to the more established names.Perhaps it is a winger (Foegele maybe?) for a center?
I’m not sure how adding Boqvist helps this lineup – even as a clearly more skilled player than, say, Deharnais.
I think they are holding on to Tarasov – he’s their current goalie of the future.
When we call Soupy up this week how long before he falls apart? Does he make it two games?
Why not let Captain Picard take a game or two. I mean 40 sp points difference is quite a bit
2 periods? 2 shots?
LT my wife’s family are from North Battleford and MaidStone. Every year they send us boxes of this candied molasses. It’s hard as a diamond and tastes like liquorice/asphalt. Yesterday I found boxes of it in our storage room downstairs and it showed up in the mail also lol. What are you supposed to do with this stuff? One tiny piece lasts all day in your mouth.
I think you ended with your answer. 🙂
Gift them to someone who raises pigs!
So they got hold of the recipe for Wonka’s Everlasting Gobstopper you say? Interesting
Reminds me of my Irish grandmother who’s home made ginger snaps had so much ginger you felt like your tongue was being cut in half with a pair of scissors.
Purity Factories makes the best ginger snaps I’ve ever had. My grandmother loved them too and didn’t try to improve on them.
For Campbell, the problem isn’t his high water mark. We have always seen his game can be great when everything is at its peak for him. It’s the distance between high and low tide for him that is the issue. Worse than the Bay of Fundy.
I would leave him down for an extended run to see if he has improved his consistency issues. He needs to raise his performance floor and lessen the length of his cold streaks, or he will be traded, or more likely bought out in the summer. I keep running Pickard and possibly Rodrique at some point as the backup.We’ve seen this movie and the ending is awful.
He’s had his whole career to do that. Not sure what ails him but he doesn’t have much time to sort it. If we are still having this conversation a month from now, his time is up.
Can we add Phil Kemp in to the mix?
Truth be told, among the 4 listed above, plus Niemo, I don’t even know who the first recall would be.
It may even be Cam Dineen who has been MUCH better 2-way than I anticipated.
Petrov seemed to have settled in and was starting to impact offensively but he got the scratch for Tulio last night.
Tulio did have a rambunctious first game – took a penalty early throwing a big check that was eons late – earned an assist as well.
Caggiula/Pederson drove the team this weekend.
Savoie had one of his better pro games last night, despite not hitting the scoresheet.
I’ll be heading over to read this shortly, I am excited.
I am intrigued to see where you have Max Wanner ranked, in particular in relation to Beau Akey.
Also the two Russians, neither of which are building on their great development years last season (by number only – I don’t get to see them play, of course).
That was NOT an encouraging performance from Jack Campbell last night.
I do think the organization wanted to recall him this week (I think the Pickard waiver exemption will expire this coming week, 30 days on the roster) but I’m not sure they can do it after a very poor performance last night.
To reduce the roster by a skater for cap reasons to swap Pickard for Campbell when Skinner will have just received 5 days off and a game against the Hawks for Pickard coming up – well, the recall plans likely have to be on delay, at the very least, I think,
Has Pickard not been on the roster for 11 games already? Recalled Nov 8, and Nov 9th’s loss to San Jose was game 12 of the season. Capfriendly has it as 10 games or 30 days (although it’s noted that this is based on precedent because the CBA language is imprecise).
Anyway, assuming Pickard still has exemption, I think the org might look at sending Pickard down and bringing up waiver-exempt Rodrigue to buy time. The team’s spot in the standings makes it a risky proposition, but the kid seems to have earned the opportunity to at least play relief. See what you have!
If you insist on not playing Olivier to give Campbell some reps, at least give the kid some NHL practices this week.
Does bench time count towards the 10 games for goalies? 30 days is December 8th.
I agree about Rodrigue. I don’t see them harm. And his exemption is a god send here.
NHL practices…… and NHL money.
As much as Jack is a nice guy and seems like a good teammate we don’t owe him anything. He is paid to do a job and he isn’t doing it good enough. He is fortunate enough he still gets paid for it while most of us would get fired and the contract terminated. Loyalty only goes so far. I say keep him down there.
I say trade our problem for someone else’s. mutual change of scenery. Gotta be one of those out there. Think one came up in the comments yesterday – goalie for goalie.
Prospectlang!
The OHL’ers and the Vermonters comprise the quartet today.
Again this year, Vermont can’t piss a drop offensively, charting 52nd amongst the 64 NCAA Div-1 squadrons. (Amazingly, Mazura is having a fine season for a St. Lawrence team that’s worse yet at #57.)
Flint (Day) @ noon
Ottawa (Stonehouse) @ noon
Vermont (Münzenberger, Määttä) @ 2 p.m.
Both times, as usual, are Consort time.
Wouldn’t Campbell need to be recalled if he was going to be traded for another goalie on an NHL roster with a similar cap hit?
Yes, if he is being placed on an NHL roster. If he is traded and has to report to an AHL team, no recall is necessary.
Yes, unless the other team also waives. This is what happened last season with Kostin/Samarukov. Both waived to AHL then EDM-STL made the trade.
This December marks two full years of extremely poor play for Campbell. He got COVID at Christmas in 2021 and hasn’t been good since. It’s not a blip. It’s not a slump. It’s not something he’s likely to snap out of.
This is who Campbell is. It’s disappointing for all sides. The big club absolutely can’t spend any more points (or confidence) hoping he magically recovers.
Blow your brains out on Askarov. It’s a risk, but he could be the answer a decade, and his salary fits today.
“The working theory in Edmonton’s front office is, “We’re paying Campbell five million bucks. Surely he can play one out of every four or five games as an NHL backup.”
What an insane philosophy. “We’ve sunk $25M into it so we’ll go along with sub-par goaltending and an inefficient cap structure through the heart of our prime competitive window”. Yeesh!
Source?
My bad. Friedman.
Friedman stated those two quotes?
Is that why they waived him?
They can’t get rid of him. They hoped for some recovery so they could maybe make it until the offseason to buy him out as the cost to move him is just too steep. But looks like he should just get burried until then
How does Askarov help the current team?
Don’t get me wrong, he is a clear higher potential prospect that Rodrigue but, right now, today, he isn’t even superior to Rodrigue.
The current management team has a directive to the AHL affiliate that includes Rodrigue as an after-thought – he can barely get AHL games, let alone NHL games – I don’t see this management thinking a 21 year old goalie is the answer in the here an now.
The COVID info is interesting. The timing of this also aligns with his 30th birthday.
The decline of the neural firing rate is a very real thing and the age curve is most nasty for goalies likely for this reason.
https://hockeyviz.com/fixedImg/careerShooting/campbja92/wrap
Campbell was awful in Toronto before he even came here.
Campbell’s SV% by month his last year in Toronto was:
Oct 7GP .918
Nov 11GP .959
Dec 5GP .909 (Leafs only played 7 games)
Jan 8GP .880
Feb 7GP .894
Mar 2GP .845 (IIRC it was reported he was playing through an injury before being shut down for a month)
Apr 9GP .915
——–
Playoffs 7GP .897
It really wasn’t that bad, even if you give zero leeway for the reported injury. On the year he was 13th in SV% among the 44 goalies who played at least 30 games.
Be interesting if we scout the Bruins vs Columbus today.
I honestly wonder if they have already made a trade offer with Columbus?
Or even if something is already in the works and they are just tuning it up already?
I haven’t watched Campbell-like you have LT ( in Bakersfield) but it sounds pretty much the same as he was here. Very inconsistent. 3 great games and 3 terrible ones.
They really do need another goalie and I don’t think it is Campbell.
Not sure it is Elvis either, but it is obvious they are seriously interested in someone or someone’s in Columbus .
This break was a perfect time to bring players in for lots of practise time before Wed. Do they pull the trigger today on anything to get a guy or guys in for Mon & Tues practise?
It is highly unlikely there is any trade(s) made until the deadline. The team is on a roll and GM’s, especially vet GM’s are of the very entrenched mindset of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
Also, what breathing GM would take on Campbell, unless they are all in, in tanking the season?
All this reporting and trade talk is generated by people who need to fill up their time slots or spaces with something.
It’s the same dance we’ve seen for decades. Nothing to see here unless this team stumbles again.
I disagree, there is a TON of pressure on Jeff Jackson to succeed here…he won’t stand pat….Campbell’s goose is cooked, he’ll be gone by xmas.
Who is going to take him off the Oilers hand? Chicago?
Columbus if we throw in a 2nd and a 5th
I agree, Merzlikins contract at 5.4 for 3 more years is more toxic. I’m not in favour of trading for him and possibly adding assists to make it work. We are not deep enough
I disagree, the Merz buyout looks short term assuming large cap increases in the mid to long term.
Year 1 of buyout is nearly identical $1.1M for JC and only $50k more for Elvis.
Year 2 is the kicker, the JC buyout is $2.3M, only $1.625M for Elivs, a diff of $675k
Year 3 swings the other way, an extra $325k in the Elvis buyout,
Years 4-6 an extra 250k with Elivs.