There’s lots of talk about Kris Knoblauch recently, fans upset at various deployments and perceived missteps. It happens all the time, second-guessing coaches is a popular sport among Oilers fans. It doesn’t have the appeal of questioning the sanity of the general manager, but fans like to get in there and work over the coach when things are askew.
The Athletic article today is about Vasily Podkolzin and his outer marker with the Edmonton Oilers. It is here.
A conversation
Why isn’t he playing Jeff Skinner with one of the glimmer twins? This year, Knoblauch is trying (among other things) to reduce SA-60 and GA-60 plus HDSC-60 at five-on-five. Through 22 games, the team sits at 25.7SA, 2.5GA, 9.2 HDSC-A, compared to 26.8SA, 2.3GA and 10.1 HDSC-A last season. The high-danger chances are down, but the GA results are a little worse so far. The coach is trying to reduce mistakes, and Skinner has been ‘also in photo’ or worse (the dreaded ‘not in photo, nor in the area code’ has also been a result) and Knoblauch prefers other options.
The Oilers aren’t scoring! Play Skinner! Knoblauch isn’t a severe coach in fading minutes, nor in rewarding them. Craig MacTavish was the most extreme in this regard, I recall he didn’t trust Jani Rita so played a defenseman as a forward on his line to make sure there were no goals, and MacT also played Toby Petersen on the power play. The Skinner fade is less eyebrow raising.
So you wouldn’t play Skinner? Personally, I’d play the hell out of him, I’d use the power-play to get him going. Skinner is a proven scorer, the Oilers need him.
So, why are you defending Knoblauch? Because I also believe the Oilers have to tighten up in areas like HDSC-A. It’s vital. The team needs to be on the offensive more often, and the roster has the talent to do it. I think Knoblauch is trying to find things that work with this group, but the truth is he’s just going to have to wait until everyone adjusts to the new players, and everyone is healthy. Until then, it’s muddle through.
Was it a mistake to lose Holloway and Broberg? Long term, I think it was good for the organization.
Please let us know when you’re smoking the drapes. It helps the reader. Edmonton management has been fiddling with prospects and their progress for a long time and it’s silly. Evan Bouchard and Ryan McLeod were the examples before Broberg and Holloway, so hopefully this bite in the ass means management will treat their own prospects with more respect. That’s the hope.
You were the one saying Broberg would be great! No, I said play the man and let him tell us what he is. Oilers didn’t do it with either man, and now we’ll see in St. Louis. The entry deal isn’t meant for slow-playing talent to the NHL, it’s meant for developing that talent and bringing it along at pace. Edmonton handled it poorly. I hope the club learns from the mistake.
The goaltending is the issue. I can’t agree. Stuart Skinner started slowly and has been inconsistent, but took the team to Game 7 of the SCF a year ago. Knoblauch mentioned the other day that the team needs to be better at not allowing chances from high-danger areas. The goalie should be able to assume coverage in specific spots, but the team has a tendency to wander at times. Need to cut that out.
Getting a goalie is the priority! And a good one! Okay, I can get behind a goalie upgrade, let’s check in on options. Among stoppers who have played 500+ minutes at five-on-five, former Oilers Cam Talbot and Anthony Stolarz lead the way. The key to their success? Not playing for the Oilers.
You’re full asshat today! Make sure to criticize Darnell Nurse today. In November (eight games), he is 4-2 goals and 54 percent expected goals at five-on-five. I’m sure you’ll find something, though.
Back to Knoblauch. When do they fire him? It would be unwise to fire Knoblauch. Silly idea. The only reason Bowman would fire him would be to hire Joel Quenneville and that isn’t a good enough reason. Knoblauch, like Skinner, guided this team to G7 of the SCF. The club is within shouting distance of first place in the Pacific. Stay the course.
What would you add? I’m fine with the goaltending, like the top four blue when Ekholm-Bouchard and Nurse-Kulak are running together, and believe the new forwards (Skinner, Viktor Arvidsson) and the hurt forwards (Zach Hyman, Evander Kane) have something to give. So, I would add a LH defenseman, and if he can play either side that works even better. I’d stay the course otherwise, keeping my powder dry until the deadline.
At noon today on the Lowdown, we’ll talk Oilers and the Pacific Division race. We’ll also talk about the massive free-agent signing of LHP Blake Snell by the Los Angeles Dodgers. Bruce McCurdy from the Cult of Hockey will join us, and Declan Krueger will have Dunkin’ with Declan talking NBA. I’m at Lowetide on twitter, in the comments section here and on the Sports 1440 text line at 1.833.401.1440 directly. We can be heard at sports1440.ca; iHeartRadio; Radioplayer Canada, we tweet out the show after it’s done and you can catch us on Apple and Spotify.
New for The Athletic: What’s Edmonton Oilers winger Vasily Podkolzin’s ceiling?
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5948634/2024/11/27/oilers-vasily-podkolzin-stats/
Since I read about the flames upcoming string of games against non-playoff teams, 1 point out of 4 (and were less than 3 minutes away from zero points).
I love the annual “strength of schedule will have the Oilers opposition separate” post – it almost always means good things for the Oilers ahead!
4-1-1 in their last their last 6 games. 13 points in their last 10.
Columbus and Pittsburgh to close out the month.
0-1-1 in their last two with loses to Ottawa and Detroit.
Dallas got blown out by Chicago.
Canucks lose to Pittsburgh.
Why don’t the Stanley Cup contending Canucks and Stars simply beat these non-playoff teams sitting at the bottom of the league?
Are they stupid?
Summarizing!
It was Redemption Night for both Day and Clattenburg.
Day stopped 20 shots in a 3-2 shootout win.
Clattenburg scored his 5th of the season and was named 3rd star.
I will always root for Taylor Hall (unless he is playing against the Oil)
Agreed. I’d also be fine with a reunion.
The most controversial posts are the ones written in disappearing ink. Oh Irony, you magnificent bastard.
Seems that way. lol
It is a bit quiet now so I will post this. If you are a NFL fan and have some interest in the Detroit Lions, here is a great read on Jared Goff and how he was discarded by the Rams and rose to his current status today in Detroit.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5948798/2024/11/27/jared-goff-detroit-lions-mvp-dan-campbell-thanksgiving/
The Rams did win a Super Bowl. It is a credit to Campbell for not prejudging Goff, and for Goff to make the most of a new opportunity.
All it takes is one bad playoff game for a Detroit team that is cursed.
It appears the new coach bump is of benefit to Dylan Holloway.
His 2 goals so far tonight, both short handed have him tie his career high in goals and his 12 points are a new high.
St Loo is where the Oil were a few years ago. Insufficient depth so players are slotted higher than they should be on the depth chart. It’s a good place for a player like Holloway looking for more opportunity to fully establish himself in the league.
It’s also a good sign that the Oil have sufficient depth at F. Holloway had far more competition in Edmonton to get Top 6 mins. It’s a good place for the Oilers to be. We’ve seen both sides of this and being a deep team is a much better fan experience imo.
Holloway (and the Blues in general) were doing everything but score prior to the coaching change.
Holloway, four points in two games so far under Monty.
It appears they want to make the wildcard race interesting.
Only 1 point out albeit with a couple of more games played.
And I am sure in 50 games time, that may interest other fringe teams like Calgary or Seattle. Yawn…
@jprutherford
“There’s a whole lot more offense in this room than what we’ve shown this year.” – Brayden Schenn Can Jim Montgomery unlock the Blues goal-scoring ability? His history says yes.” #stlblues
What do you mean by ‘doing everything but score’?
By every metric available the Blues have been a junk team and near the bottom of the league. They are 26th or worse in CF%, FF%, SF%, GF%, xGF%, SCF%, HDCF%.
Their 23rd place in the standings flatters them.
Holloway is having quite a solid start to the season (0.5 points/game after tonight), but the Blues in general have not been a good or even decent team.
Holloway is good at scoring on non-playoff teams.
Then where did those two (or was it three) goals in the Stanley Cup finals come from? Before 100 NHL games played.
They came from +100 career games played and 20 career goal scorer Holloway.
If 100 games played is your benchmark, you should see how many goals that Jeff Skinner guy scored in his first 100 games.
The Blues biggest issue is their D, past Broberg, is old and not very good.
They have a pipeline of five highly draft D (3 first rounders, 2 2nd rounders) perculating in the system.
They needed a guy who was ready now…and poached him from the Oilers.
Taylor Hall has 2 Goals tonight sounds like message recieved.
That question, as well as LTs view of putting him on the PP to get going, got me thinking. Since Skinner was a JJ add, is Bowman less attached. Will they pivot if it doesn’t seem to be working out by the halfway point of the season. If so, which teams out there could use more scoring, especially on the PP, and I keep circling back to Boston. They’re currently dead last in PP% and 3rd last in goals for in the league. Their LW depth chart is Marchand, Geekie, Frederic, and Beecher. Could use some
On D they’re top 7 are Lindholm McAvoy, Zadorov Carlo, Wotherspoon Peeke and Lohrei.
Is there a world where they part with Carlo and play Zadorov with Lohrei?
Would Skinner + a 2nd be enough? Skinner + Akey? Skinner + 3rd + Kemp?
The other team with low goals for and shy on LW depth is the Islanders. Would Mayfield be a top 4 option with Nurse? Contract is long $3.5M until 29-30. What about Pelech, could he play right side until Ekholm contract expires or he regresses. Contract is $5.75M until 28-29. What would it take to get Pelech if Skinner was included, 2026 1st +?
Skinner, Akey, 1st and 3rd for Marchand.
Marchand is a Bruin for life.
Would be nice but that would chew up all the cap space leaving the D, biggest area of need in my opinion, unaddressed for the playoffs. Kane would also have to be included to make Marchand + top 4D work.
Perhaps you should get off the lettuce
Zadorov. This guy is a battleship in playoffs. Would be awesome except price.
If I recall correctly, Jeff Skinner has a full no movement clause in his contract. Not a good thing for us, makes any trade more difficult.
Skinner wants to win a Cup in his first opportunity in the playoffs. Everyone piling on Skinner will be eating crow come playoff time.
It’s amazing to me how some players become “something different” in the playoffs. I realize the po’s are a whole new season, with much higher consequences and pressures… we just kinda expect the big guns to up their game, but when a player who is less offensive, 3rd / 4th liners usually, suddenly becomes someone beyond their good value contract, and start producing in volume… these are the unlikely heros. I agree with you, and keep hope alive that Jeff slowly gets it back, only to turn up the volume in the po’s.
David Jiricek is 9 months younger than Max Wanner and a 6.04 / 204 is already taller and heavier than Max.
Jiricek has been better than 0.5 ppg in every one of his (now 3) AHL seasons, a league he’s been playing in since he was 18. Transitioning to the NHL is challenging … it’s unimaginable why Columbus hasn’t made that a priority.
Soon to turn 21, Jiricek is on a similar trajectory to Broberg, but you could argue he’s getting there faster and with higher upside.
I would trade Wanner + Savoie for this player alllllll dayyyyy.
Talk about an over payment. If Edmonton can’t get the deal done with a 3rd round pick, then forget it. There’re about six other teams in contention, let one of them get fleeced.
Jiricek projects to be a big, mobile top-4 defenseman for a decade.
He is also right-handed. That is a rare and valuable player.
It’s not like I’m suggesting we trade Taylor Hall for him.
Like I said let some other team overpay for that.
Jason Bukala with a deep dive into Jiricek’s game:
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/scouts-analysis-looking-at-columbus-trade-candidate-david-jiricek/
That’s about what it would take.
Jiricek is a much more valued prospect than Savoie who is having an underwhelming start to his pro career.
I’m not sure Wanner (who is having a regression year compares to last year – struggling moving the puck) is enough of an add to get it done – Wanner has much less value around the league than he does to Edmonton fans, I would think.
Including Wanner in a deal for Jiricek would continue the atrocious asset management of prospects by Oilers management.
They are roughly equivalent prospects in a position were one needs more than one prospect. Adding Jiricek is fine. Swapping Wanner out for him is misquided.
Considering the Oilers are already have Bouchard, Wanner’s skillset is a better match for the Oilers than Jiricek’s.
The higher pedigree (as with Reinhart) is meaningless at this point.
Jiricek and Wanner are not close to equivalent prospects.
I read a lot about Jiricek and it said he defended well. Bukala’s piece showed chaos. Could be coaching. The Oilers need full size competent mean D. We know this because playoffs, and forwards too
I would too, but Columbus has set a higher price per Servalli on ON Monday.
This is why you don’t acquire him, his expectations are already Narnia level conversation.
Rasmus Ristolainen 2.0
Do you have any evidence that they haven’t?
He had the worse +/- on the Cleveland Monsters of the last couple of seasons (before this one).
Not to say he isn’t still a great prospect, but I expect that +/- is part of the story and related to Columbus not making his transition more of a priority.
Wonder if Bowman is making a call about Marchand being available.
Anthony Stolarz has been impressive for the Leafs. The difference is he’s actually been allowed to get some minutes in Toronto. Now Woll is back from injury, I guess he’s going to be the # 1. But it sure must be nice to have Stolarz to fall back on. If he was in Edmonton, he would be the #1. So what, if Stu Skinner took them to game seven of the SCF. Stolarz would be eating his lunch.
I remember him and Mika were the tallest tandem in history. He only played a handful of games and l believe he had injury problems. He was never given a real chance which has me thinking why did they trade him for Talbot. I guess he was never in their plans and the acquisition happened just to dump Talbot.
I don’t get the chatter about getting a LHD who can play the right side. They have that right now in Kulak, plus Nurse and Ekholm on the left side. The right side has Bouch, and a committee of Emberson (who is coming along, but that’s it right now), Stetcher, and Dermott.
Targeting a LHD makes zero sense to me. Go get a righty that can bump Kulak down to third pair to shelter Emberson.
The plan in the playoffs cannot be to dress 5 lefties and Bouchard, so don’t paint yourself into that corner.
In one word. DEPTH.
Nurse & Kulak form a solid 2nd pair. A LHD to play with Emberson would be the cat’s ass, if he can also play on his off side that’s bonus.
Oilers can acquire a LHD better or equal to Kulak for much less then it will cost for a top 4 RHD.
I think cost and availability.
PS it would be 4 lefties with Bouchard & Emberson as the righties.
Assuming everyone stays healthy.
I know that injuries to Pederson ,Hamblin, and Jarventie factor into this, but at what point do we get concerned about the lack of scoring that Chaulk is getting out of the Bako bunch? They have a total of 5 games in which they scored more than 2 goals for so far this season. This team needs to foster an environment where the team’s prospects can cultivate their offense at the pro level and I haven’t really seen it.
Lack of talent may be an issue.
When your leading scorer in the AHL is a soon to be 32 year old and is 44th in league scoring and your second leading scorer who is the organization’s top prospect is tied for 106th, its not surprising the team is struggling.
To be fair the Coach has nothing to work with. Our previous G.M walked into a organization that had a dozen or more prospects in the Kitchen. Peter left a full baseball line-up especially on D for Holland to work with. Holland burned through the prospects like a drunken sailor on leave. To be fair Holland who was win at all cost came within 2 goals of the Cup. It’s a good thing someone hinted (instructed) in Hollands ear to fire the reverse engineer Woody before things spiralled out of control in the hard ass Edmonton market.
The PP has been abysmal.
Savoie and Philp are both struggling to create with not much depth below them.
To my eye, the high danger chances are much less of a problem than allowing uncontested shots. These don’t line up as some of these come out of the high danger areas, and often are on a break with speed or a late trailer not picked up. I’d prefer coach Knoblauch to go back to what he did last year with defensive zone assignments and more of a focus responsibility, we’re playing too much of a boost advanced metrics game, and much of our defensive shortcomings are not showing up on these metrics. Maybe since the offense is well below last year’s output he’s pushing this at the expense of that defensive responsibility and think pushing the metrics would be enough. But we have a shaky goalie at the back with what seems like real confidence issues and he needs mire help back there it’s not enough to “deny entry” and do better in high danger areas.
They were doing just fine with developing Broberg until they weren’t.
He was given some NHL opportunities but real development time in the AHL and was coming along – to the place where he was playing nightly on a pairing with Bouchard early in 2023. About 15 games of apx 14 minutes per night and he was proving to be a legit NHL every day 3rd pairing d-man and was starting to show some of that puck moving/transition skill.
Then, of course, Vinny is called up for the PK and Ekholm is acquired and the development cratered. Broberg didn’t get another game in a 6D set-up until the garbage times games at the end of this past season (except game 1 of 2023/24 when Ekholm was hurt).
I don’t have any issues with how they developed Holloway (except Woody was a bit too quick to move him down the lineup after a mistake). He got plenty of chances in the top 6 and was never able to stick there that long – that continues in St. Louis.
They did so well handling him he was an easy OS target. You can’t treat people this way and do business like it’s normal. If Bouchard negotiations get ugly, we can trace it back to his early handling. How to treat people is a thing.
Everyone is pegging Bouchard for 10mil, no one was pegging Broberg for near 5. Broberg could not beat out the veterans ahead of him who were out performing him. If they would of traded Kulak to please Broberg before he was ready Oilers don’t make the finals last year.
They allowed him to stay in Sweden when he wanted, they gave him 1D development on their farm team when he came over.
He signed for nearly 5 mil knowing a cap strained team isn’t matching it.
It takes two to tango and Broberg has been a 1 fella Mariah Carey show since the moment he first didn’t get what he wanted.
When you have prospects who are ready you need to play them to find out what their realistic outcomes are. Play the high ceiling prospect ahead of the low ceiling player and live with the growing pains. While people like to say the NHL is not a development league, it really still is. Players don’t break into the league fully formed as a rule.
The third pair and/or fourth line are places to break players into the league. Use them and live with the growing pains. The marginal NHL’ers playing those position make mistakes too.
They gave him 1D minutes, assignments, and tasks on their farm team as he needed to get acclimated with the North American rinks and game.
No coach is playing him ahead of the performing veterans on a cup or bust team when he was clearly struggling with the pace and physical play.
He wasn’t better then Ekholm, Nurse, or Kulak. The weren’t moving out Ceci until they absolutely had to, Vinny came in and took the developmental spot on the 3rd pairing due to being able to handle the aspects of the game Broberg was not showing he could handle at the time.
Players don’t break into the league fully formed, it’s also not a good thing to hand them a spot when they’re not beating out those ahead of them. This is a professional sport, you’re not walking into the locker room and convincing them it best to play someone that will weaken their chances at winning. They want to win at all times.
Folks are too use to the decade of darkness where every draft pick automatically gets a roster spot just because. He was given multiple seasons to out perform and make it impossible for whoever is coach to take him out. He never did. I applaud him for coming in fresh during the playoffs and playing well, that player never showed himself at all before that. Maybe the 1D time on the farm team was important and a factor in his playoff performance.
Which player are you referring to?
With Broberg, as I said, they were doing well, until they weren’t, and then specified where it fell apart and the terrible deployment thereafter.
I’m not sure what was wrong with Holloway’s development path – he was given all the opportunities to make the team out of camp and even started seasons in the top 6, was given additional opportunities in the top 6, etc., etc.
I understand why Broberg wanted over due to development reasons but I don’t think Holloway had the same issues and I don’t think he had any plans on going anywhere until a massive contract was offered to him.
————–
On Bouchard, none of us liked what happened during the Covid year where he spent alot of the time watching, not playing. Lets not forget, they spoke to Bouch and his agent about that ahead of time. That was the season with Covid-restrictions and, given the border issues and quarantines and all that, the Oilers really didn’t have access to players in Bako. They spoke to Bouch and gave him the choice of going to the AHL and playing (but not really being a call-up option due to logistics) or spending quite a bit of time on the taxi-squad given a very NHL established set of RD ahead of him. No injures was wild.
On Bouchard, there may not have been alternatives to his development due to Covid but the Oilers did have the opportunity to sign him to a more substantial contract.
At one extreme you have Quinn Hughes signing a 6 year deal @ $7.85 million (2 more seasons to go after this one) and at the other end is Noah Dobson who was signed to a 3 year deal @ $4 million marginally more than Bouchard.
The Oilers decided to spend elsewhere and kicked the can down the road rather than show confidence in the player’s future and now they will have to pay the piper.
Career earnings are what matters and Hughes stands at $31,350 million while Bouchard sits at $10,575 million.
I don’t think anyone would question that Hughes is a superior player but that’s a massive gap and it would not surprise me if Bouchard plays hardball this offseason.
Given the state of the Oilers D and the lack of any significant prospects or other assets to acquire a replacement, Bouchard has the team over a barrel.
I wanted 8×8 outta entry. Agreed there’s no real leverage but he’s a star so would’ve happened anyway.
I expect Dahlin as the comparable. 1 year later puts Bouch over 11 on an 8 year deal.
Hughes next contract will be a whopper. Hope they dont have immediate buyers remorse like with Petey.
Agreed. Holloway was given ample opportunity to establish himself, especially with injuries to Kane mounting and Foegele being his only real competition. Drai’s linemates were a bunch of mid.
The NHL is a results league and he didn’t result. I don’t think there should be much disappointment other than asset cost (1st rounder) not being maximized which has nothing to do with Dyl.
Broberg wanted out, and made sure the whole league knew. You can’t act like that to an employer and expect business like it’s normal.
Bouchard can blame Oiler management all he wants for Covid, but looking at where the team was (contention/salary structure) through his tenure, and where he sits now, I don’t believe his early handling is in any way a negative on present day contract negotiations.
Sure. I would encourage the Oilers to find out WHY he wanted out and to fix that.
? You believe that they didn’t know Broberg was unhappy?
Ken Holland trades one of his LD, and forces his coach to play Broberg as #2LD. There. He’s happy and you fixed it.
Broberg had to wait…sucks, but the price you pay being drafted to a deep, contending team.
Prospectness!
As the temperature has dropped in November, so has Day’s performance. After fashioning sparkling October numbers of 1.87 GAA and 93.4 SV% (9 GP), post-Halloween has seen him put up a ghastly 4.54 GAA and 84.1 SV% (9 GP).
Injuries and a suspension have limited Cap’n Clattenburg to just 14 of Flint’s 23 GP. He has 4+5 thus far.
They and the rest of the Birds of Fire take to the ice at 5 p.m. Lomond time.
Finally a game at the time close to where I work! (I’m 30 minutes outside of Lomond currently)
Loch Lomond?
Say hi to Nessie!
Loch or Slough Lomond, yes. Nessie hissed back at my wave (that is one large, feathered sea monster).
Granted he was a lesser prospect than Bro and DH, but the way the Oilers treated Lavoie suggests management hasn’t learned that lesson. We’ll see if things are different going forward
We have a new Sheriff in town and looking at the Chicago model vs Detroit model one is draft, develop and play. The other is pay or play older vets as well as kicking the can down the road on contracts. I didn’t like the Bowman hire but what he’s done so far is a thumbs up from me. The losing of Broberg&Holloway to Hollands buddy is not on Bowman. I do think he’ll shore up the inconsistent Goaltending and he’ll find a top 4 D-man before the real season begins.
Lavoie is in a different organization completely stinking up the place.
11gp 1g 1a -9
Guessing (at least for now), he ain’t the player we thought he was.
Agree, he has had a terrible start to the year and likely is a tweener at best. That being said, he was one of the Oilers top prospects at one time and is an example of them mismanaging their prospects like Lowetide is alluding to in the comment I quoted
He was a top prospect in a relatively bare cupboard whose play has shown everyone exactly what he is. The Oilers aren’t to blame here.
So only top prospects should be treated with respect and everyone else can be treated like garbage? Sends a poor message to later drafted players and free agents imo
First off, I didn’t say, nor anything remotely close.
Second, there is zero evidence that Lavoie wasn’t treated with respect or that he was treated like garbage.
As previously discussed, they did not mismanage this asset – the asset had zero value, not a single NHL team believed he was worthy of a spot on their NHL roster for free at league min.
The Oilers made the same determination as 31 other teams and determined it was worth risking losing him on waivers as keeping him on the NHL roster was not feasible.
Sunk costs are sunk – make the next right decision and don’t make bad decisions trying to salvage prior costs.
You seriously want to hash this out again? Obviously we don’t agree so why not move on. LT wrote about the Oilers “fiddling with prospects progress” and “not treating prospects with respect”. Lavoie is an example of these things regardless of our previous disagreement
You provided your opinion and I provided mine.
Odd thing to post. Did you forget that you started the discussion?
If I’m not mistaken, the Oilers are not giving up a ton of scoring chances and high danger chances vis-a-vis the rest of the league and this holds true for publicly available date (i.e. NST, etc.) as well as the snippets of data we get from non-publicly available sites.
And they are improved in HDSC-A season over season, as is mentioned above.
Great article LT.
Would you have any interest in Jiricek? If yes, what would you ship to the Jackets?
Yes, not certain what the return would be but most assets would be on the table past Savoie and a first. I like his future, not sure he’s 2RH defense yet.
Don’t know much about Jiricek, but if he looks like a potential top 4 dman on the right side, why wouldn’t you include Savoie or the 26 1st?
Do we really think either of them has more value than that?
Looks can be deceiving.
What’s the narrative on Jiricek? He obviously isn’t going to live up to his high draft pick billing so why is he worth a Savoie or a 1st rounder? Maybe a swap for a similarly underachieving prospect.
I think the knock on him is that he is a poor skater. The plus is that he is young, was once highly rated but I’m not sure that he’s a lock as a top 4 D, and certainly not right now.
Its probably both Savoie and a 1st rounder.
I would suggest that Jiricek has much more value right now than Savoie who isn’t underachieving any less than Jiricek given position.
This reminds of Griffen Reinhart, high pick, poor skater. Might be wise to save the limited bullets for an established d-man unless they’re sure, real sure, he’s top 4 ready. We all saw the immediate impact an established dman like Ekholm can have. A 28-32 year old with 2-3 years left on an existing deal is what a 1st or Savoie should be used for, if at all.
I think that’s the type of return it would take.
The question is if the Oilers are willing to move their top trade assets for a player that is not a lock to help now in an impactful way?
I suspect he’s still a wee bit under-cooked… will likely still need some time in the A before he’s ready for the bigs.
I know Rob Brown keeps saying things like “Skinner creates his own offence” but that is not the verbal from those that cover the Sabres.
The verbal this off-season is that Skinner is a complimentary winger that is reliant on his center. When he is with a high skill offensive center, he produces, when he isn’t, he doesn’t.
I understand that playing responsible and “making plays in the defensive zone” is important but its not like many others in the top 6 are locked down in that regard – neither Hyman nor Arvidson are, for example.
Agreed. Also, (I have not checked the numbers) I think Skinner’s defensive play has deteriorated as he has moved down the lineup.
I was wrong. Skinner is 0-3 with Drai and 1-6 with McD although the xGF are much higher.
Coaches have their favorites, or play the game they want them to play, which if you squint I believe is LT’s message today among others.
In my opinion, Knoblauch likes the forecheck and cycle game. It’s why Hyman, and new comers Arvidson and Podkolzin are getting the push. It creates time and space for the centers. Henrique, although his slow start to the season, gets to the puck deep in enemy territory.
Skinner, although has had moments of sound forechecking, needs to do it consistently for the coach to trust him more. So in the meantime, message sent… compliment the heck out of the bottom six.
My observations of Skinner are that he is a volume shooter from all angles. This often results in a ‘one and done’ chance, and the puck changes possession/rims the boards from a poor shot choice. He is then completely out of position to support the back check.
This doesn’t suit the play of Drais or McD who prefer to find the perfect option. Kane has similar tendencies. He has worked from time to time on the top two lines, but more because he creates space.
Maybe the early season struggle broke the courage of the coaches’ conviction that Skinner needed to play with strong centers, and they retreated into the “what worked before” mentality. I know that it is getting late early for the team, but I wish they would run him on top lines for an extended period, including PP as LT said, to see what they have. Otherwise trade him/demote him if he is not going to be an offensive contributor. He takes up a valuable spot when he is in the bottom 6 which should go to Philp.
Don’t disagree with alot of this but do want to note that Philp is struggling quite a bit at the AHL level right now – he’s been non-impactful the last two games and most of the last 10 (with a couple good games thrown in).
It appears to me that Podkolzin has taken J Skinners spot in the top six because of his defensive work and all-around hard work all over the ice. They have goal scorers in the top six but not enough worker bees, which Podz provides. They don’t have enough goalscoring in the bottom six and while Skinner is learning about responsible play just maybe he can score some goals.
Kapanen is another guy who might surprise some people around here. Arvidsson may very well be joining Skinner in the bottom six, if he ever returns from injury.
Fair enough but, last game had Kapanen and Connor Brown in the top 6.
When Hyman returns, he will assume his regular spot beside McDavid no questions asked. I wonder though if the same could be said for Arvidsson? Kapanen may prove to be more effective. It’s not a bad problem, if a problem at all.
Maybe Kapanen proves more effective but Arvidsson’s career success dwarfs that of Kapanen – I know he had a couple of decent games but the Oilers just got him on waivers so its not like he’s been rolling this year above his recent established levels.
My question is where does he go when Kane comes back? Would a third line of Skinner, Henrique, Kane work, I’m not sure it does. With everyone healthy is there a logical place to play Skinner? Does RNH get bumped down? Skinner, Drai, Arvid seemed to be a blackhole early on.
RNH McD Hyman
Kane Drai Arvid
Pod Hen Kap
Jan Ryan Brown
Perry
Kane will have to beat out Podkolzin, which might not be easy. Henrique could center Kane & Arvidsson on the third line, Philp could center Janmark & Brown on the fourth line. While Podz & Kapanen could earn a job with Leon on the second line.
Surprise-Surprise.
Skinner-Ryan-Perry 5th line extras.
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Solid post.
Impossible to really answer that question now given Kane’s return is still months away (I believe) – for all we know Skinner has settled in as 1LW or 2LW with 27 goal by the time Kane is back, right?
Not out of the realm of possibilities but based on how the first 20 games have gone I think it’s fair to say that is unlikely. I don’t see KK changing the PP anytime soon to get him going unless there is an injury because it, itself, needs to get going. There are 40 games left to go by the deadline, he’s currently on pace for 11 goals by then. I know he’s streaky and hope he finds something that rhymes soon.
Sure, however, if we are basing everything on the how the first 20 games have gone, then we are in for a depressing winter as it relates to the Oilers.
A number of things have to improve and perhaps Jeff Skinner finding a way to score at his established rates at 5 on 5 is one.