Raphael Lavoie didn’t get much power-play as an AHL rookie, and Dylan Holloway received a helluva lot more of it in 2021-22 with the Bakersfield Condors. It doesn’t matter now, Holloway is in St. Louis and Lavoie could be on the waiver wire later today.
It’s clear the organization doesn’t see him as a pure offensive option, and with RW populated with Zach Hyman and Viktor Arvidsson (and Connor Brown and Corey Perry), Lavoie’s role would be strictly checking line and penalty kill.
Those are not his skills.
Compare that situation with the skill set of Noah Philp, who possesses a perfect skill match for Oilers needs. I don’t think this will be a tough decision.
You might say “well they don’t have that many prospects” but Lavoie isn’t going to see time in any role on this team. I cheer like hell for all these kids, it’s one of my favourite things about sports, but there’s a reality here.
The Condors who will be Oilers one day are Max Wanner, Jayden Grubbe, Matthew Savoie and maybe Olivier Rodrigue.
The Oilers probably waive Lavoie and Rodrigue today and then make a decision on Philp. Josh Brown versus Travis Dermott also needs an ending. I would run this lineup opening night:
Note: This is what I would do. I am fully aware the Oilers are in the mood to accrue. I think this gives the team the best chance to win Game 1, and that’s more important than accruing cap space. As the season rolls, they can tweak as needed to ensure room at the deadline.
OK, this is the official:
Edmonton Oilers@EdmontonOilers
The #Oilers have loaned forward Noah Philp to the @Condors
while also placing goaltender Olivier Rodrigue, defenceman Josh Brown & forwards Raphael Lavoie & Drake Caggiula on waivers.
Its not surprising that they are going with 12 healthy forwards to start the season and will try to bank as much accrued cap space as possible until injuries require call-ups cratering the ability.
Pleasantly surprised that they are actually waiving Josh Brown – good on management.
That likely means that Dermott will be signed before the season starts – the versatility of Dermott and the likely $200K-$225K cap savings will be great.
I think there is some risk with Lavoie but today is the last day for teams to waive players for opening roster submissions tomorrow – there will be a ton of similar type players on waivers – he likely clears.
From Brar:
Potentially relevant to Josh Brown.
Good to see Pickard back on the ice also.
Tony Brar @TonyBrarOTV
Three days away from the opener. Oilers lines & pairings at practice this morning:
RNH – McDavid – Hyman
Skinner – Draisaitl – Arvidsson
Janmark – Henrique – Brown
Podkolzin – Ryan – Perry
Ekholm – Bouchard
Nurse – Emberson
Kulak – Stecher
Dermott
Skinner
Pickard
Right, also relevant to Philp.
Edmonton Oilers
@EdmontonOilers
The #Oilers have loaned forward Noah Philp to the @Condors
while also placing goaltender Olivier Rodrigue, defenceman Josh Brown & forwards Raphael Lavoie & Drake Caggiula on waivers.
https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/1842973107385954304/eBkc3Gow?format=jpg&name=900×900
From nhl.com
11:00 AM · Oct 6, 2024
·11.6K
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The waivers are not a surprise, I’m not sure anyone thought Caggiula was going to stay and as mentioned Lavoie didn’t have a role.
Josh Brown lost a job, and now we wait for Dermott’s signing or a waiver claim.
I think sending Noah Philp down is a bad call, and doubt the team runs the fourth line as currently constructed for long.
What is the update on Jarventie? Where is he at, how does he look?
Interesting tweet by Matty.
This would be like Jarventie and he’d had a cap hit pro rated to the number of games on the NHL roster last season – probably around $100K.
I’d wondered about that possibility as well. We should find out very soon what they’ve decided.
Cam Wright is still really interesting to me. More common in baseball to use this terminology, but, he really looks like a hockey player out there.
Late bloomers do come along. He looked better than a lot of the others out there.
I think georgesx nailed it yesterday. The biggest risk to the Oilers early season is residual fatigue, mental and physical, from last year (and even the last few years). Last year was so high/low. The team was running on adrenaline for months. Hard to replenish and recharge in a short offseason. Especially with a veteran team.
I would like to remind folks that historically this has been a discussion blog. Not a fan blog. Meaning there is room for opinions and I enjoy this.
Results don’t have to drive or validate your opinion. I think it is best to voice before results.
Jumping on the team when they are down and pumping their tires when they up is results based, emotional perspective.
I enjoy predictive foresight rather than reactive criticism.
I prefer supportive when they are down and looking to get better when they are up.
I doubt posters here are “trying to be right” or “I told you so” wishing the team ill will. It is just sharing worries, opinions, perspectives, and they won’t all be the same.
Craig Conroy was on Hello Hockey yesterday and was asked about making trades with Edmonton. He started about talking about recently making trades with Vancouver but did throw out talking to Holland last year and “you always need a little more from Edmonton than anywhere else”.
Lavoie has also played a lot of LW as a pro and, while it simply won’t happen, I could success as 3LW on Henrique’s left wing. A solid 2-way vet center on a line with some potential to score and be solid seems like a perfect place for Lavoie’s skill set.
It would also bump Janmark to 4LW where he should be. He’s simply not longer an every day 3rd line player in this league – in my opinion.
This won’t happen and I think it’s exploration was a missed camp opportunity.
I agree with this point. A different league and a different time. The Eskimos moved from from QB to QB between 1970-1990 almost perfectly and they created a dynasty.
Lemmerman to Wilkie to Moon to Allen to Ham to Ray. They seemed understand when an impact player needed to be inserted to the line up.
No Matt Dunigan?
Yikes yes Matty….
Lemmerman to Wilkie to Moon to Dunigan to Allen to Ham to Ray
Janmark had a really good playoffs. I do think they have him too high in the line up for a full season.
IMO Janmark can play a few games higher in the line up. AND he proved he can play an effective 3LW in the playoffs. A 23 years old 6-4 winger that looked good along the boards is the in game flexibility KK should consider.
i don’t see that flexibility with Ryan nor Perry, given they only have 21 healthy players on the roster until Kane is ready to return, this should be considered as they set the roster on Monday.
Part of coaching is putting players that will impact their part of the game every minute they are on the ice. The game is 360 minutes not 60 minutes.
Perry and Ryan are past impacting the game on the ice for all their TOI. AND we don’t have the cap space to platoon them for their last few minutes in the NHL. They are now Sam Gagner ish.
KK best chance at 360 minutes of impact is.
93-97-18
53-29-33
62-19-28
92-48-13
91
14-2
25-48
27-51
74
30
Big numbers guy are you?
A life time of filling out game sheets.😀
Prospectiny!
Akey played his first game in nigh eleven months yesternight, not impacting the scoresheet. He gets a chance to do that thing this afternoon though.
The Vermonters begin their season today. As seniors, Määttä und Münzenberger have one more year left to prove themselves worthy of a contract.
Same deal with Mazura, who was drafted half a decade ago.
Vermont (Määttä, Münzenberger) @ 2 p.m.
St. Lawrence (Mazura) @ 2 p.m.
Barrie (Akey) @ 4 p.m.
Both times, as usual, are Ryley time.
Thank you for the updates as always. I appreciate the trips down memory lane your destinations invoke.
As a thespian, you may or may not be aware of the local significance of yesterday’s time clock reference of Kelsey. It’s a farm community with likely less than 50 residences in the hamlet and surrounding farms that managed to pull off an impressive annual dinner theatre for about 25 years.
The seating capacity of the hall was about 90 and they regularly pulled in over 1000 customers for their February three weekend run. Folks would come from far and wide to see the shenanigans of the local farm folk. Potential playgoers would line up at 7am at the remote ticket headquarters farm hoping to get a ticket to the shows.
They were brilliant at cobbling together the light and sound technology, which isn’t surprising with their farm background.
A first class meal, a door slamming comedy featuring various locals way out of their comfort zone. My favourite may have been the retired school superintendent with a bit of a stout build going all out in a slightly too small hazmat suit. Good times!
@PuckPedia
Swayman #NHLBRUINS 8 year * $8.25M:
Yr 1 $6M Base & 4M Signing Bonus
Yr 2 6M & 4M SB
Yr 3 5.5M & 2M SB
Yr 4 5M & 3M SB
Yr 5 5.5M & 2.5M SB
Yr 6 5.5M & 2.5M SB
Yr 7 5M & 2.5M SB
Yr 8 4.5M & 2.5M SB
Yr 3 to 6: No Move
Yr 7: 10 Approved team trade list
Yr 8: 10 team No Trade List
Covers 2 RFA & 6 UFA years
I will be pleasantly surprised if Brown is on waivers today. Makes sense based on historical performance, recent performance and cap (with Dermott likely to come in at a couple hundred grand cheaper). Listening to Bob and Frank, I’m not convinced this happens.
Drake will also be on waivers today.
I think there is some waivers risk on Lavoie but think it’s super low. He likely clears just like last year and just like all his comparables AHL tweeners have over the last few days.
Outside chance of Ryan on waivers. I don’t see it as he did have a fine camp but I do think they want to accrue some daily cap space until injuries prevent the ability to and only one of Ryan and Philp are on the roster. Could be wrong on that.
That is what should happen. But, because Oilers…………