The Edmonton Oilers need ‘a hero to rise from these streets’ and I can’t decide if it’s Mark Messier or Glen Sather. I know they don’t have a Messier, who the hell does? So, it falls to Stan Bowman to find the truth and the way.
I don’t see a need to fire Evan Bouchard into the sun. In fact, he’s one of my ‘foundation pieces’ for this organization moving forward. I don’t see a need to send Stuart Skinner to the left coast. In fact, his value deal for next season makes him a rock n’ rolla for the 2025-26 team. Trading Skinner today, based on his season, won’t fetch much.
What would Glen Sather do? I suspect he would bring in another goaltender to run in tandem with Skinner. I don’t believe he would pay a dear price and do believe the goalie chosen by Slats would help calm the waters. I don’t believe Sather would pursue an expensive option, because the asset cost is something the organization cannot afford at this time.
I think he would find a fast and furious solution for the top six, and that’s either Matthew Savoie (from the Eberle-Yamamoto family) or an outside add. I think he would find a solution for the problem that is currently driving me to something close to madness.
What is that? McDavid without Draisaitl at five-on-five is 40 percent. McDavid without Draisaitl at five-on-five is 40 percent.
Sather would address that by midnight. Seriously. Either the captain needs a week off, the Oilers need to find a first-shot scorer or invent Bob Gainey.
Nothing else matters until that’s taken care of, in my opinion.
I would not trade Evan Bouchard, now or ever. I would not trade Stuart Skinner until the end of his current contract.
Sather? He might trade Bouchard if he didn’t think he could sign him (offer sheet worry) and he would trade for an extra goalie. I think he’d also find someone like a healthy Trent Frederic and ‘re-imagine’ him as a two-way winger with enough skill to run with the lead pack. That’s what I think Glen Sather would do now, today.
The Lowdown hits at noon today, and we’ll talk much about the way forward. Guests are Steve Lansky, Tyler Yaremchuk and Declan Krueger will have Declanations. We’re on Sports 1440, 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, it’s available post-show on apple and spotify, and we tweet it out on X.
New for The Athletic: Why it’s important to sign Ty Emberson
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6164046/2025/02/28/oilers-ty-emberson-contractr-rfa/
I have read some articles lately speculating that Kane could be traded this deadline, as his no trade clause expires tonight – in the event the team and Kane can’t agree on when he is ready to return and it becomes a hindrance to deadline deals. I sense this will not be an issue, but if it becomes necessary to trade him to facilitate other deals, how will that affect our Cap room? Can he be traded while he is still on the LTIR list? How much room does it leave us from the move? Is his LTIR prorated over the time before and after the trade, for example? How much relief does Edmonton get in such a scenario and how much does it affect the recieving team’s Cap as well? In my mind, I am confused if this is a big complication versus the normal trade of a player NOT on LTIR? Am I overthinking this, or is there an additional issue here?
What do you think?
Personally, I think he stays on LTIR until the end of the regular season, adjusted for any comditioning stint the rules allow.
Players on LTIR can be traded (acquiring team need to be able to fit them on their roster, at least for a split second).
Trading Kane would put the Oilers close to $5MM under the normal cap – they would have $5MM of space with the ability to only have to account for the cap hit left for this season on an acquired player.
I like the idea of another goalie to push Skinner. Who ?
Would still trade for Frederic ( as long is a it short term injury).
McDavid has some issues for sure . I think he has to work it out unless he has a nagging injury. Then sit him.
Put Savoie back with Drai. Arvidson hopefully gets traded if they can actually move him.
Not sure they can, but the guy has had all year to turn it around. It is not happening. He doesn’t even kill penalties.
I actually think they win tomorrow
Arvidsson was playing very well before he stuck that foot out for the block shot. He hasn’t been the same since.
Vejmelka looks like the best option available (if he is indeed available).
It feels like when the Oilers lose, they look really, REALLY bad. An old, slow, small, team that exposes it’s goalies to an inordinate number of high-danger scoring chances from the most dangerous parts of the ice.
Longest losing streaks of the last few SC champions:
FLA ’24: 4 games
LV ’23: 4 games
COL ’22: 4 games
TB ’21: 3 games
TB ’20: 4 games
STL ’19: 3 games
WSH ’18: 3 games
PIT ’17: 4 games
PIT ’16: 5 games
CHI ’15: 4 games
LA ’14: 5 games
“Good teams don’t go on long losing streaks” isn’t a revolutionary observation but the Oilers need to get back in the win column…
Connor needs his Tikk and Kuri. Physical distraction who can finish and defensive conscience who can finish. No problem Stan
Kane and Savoie? Easy peasy. 😄
The blender is a way to force players to play the system. Players don’t like it they say. Also makes them play tight for fear of making a mistake. Connor is tight as a snare drum right now
The Oilers need to remember that playing the game can be fun and that it’s okay to loosen up.
I know people seem to really appreciate the whole mindset of the Oilers only focusing on the cup and not celebrating anything less, but I think this is a side effect of that. Side effect being that the Oilers look miserable and joyless. They look like employees stuck in a dead end job just trying to get through the day.
The only time it looked like anyone had any kind of joy recently was Draisaitl being happy that Savoie got his first NHL point. Connor looked elated scoring the golden goal and then quickly went into robot mode and brought that back to the team in the worst way.
“No fun and no f***ups allowed” looks like the team motto right now.
You never stop being a parent, and no matter how much of a star or vet you are, you still need to be lead by your coach. Of course that is more nuanced with a star. But for sure Sather was that for the Oilers, Bowman for many players
Knoblauch did get the team to chill when he came in. We don’t know what goes on behind closed doors, but it doesn’t look like the team is being lead in the right direction mentally at this point. You would think Coffey would have some good advice on being where the team is at and expectations and how to handle it, how to approach another run
The roster needs help, but it’s still a solid team. I looked up the careers of Sullivan and Cassidy they had more experience than KK. Cooper had the same 3 years in the A, but had a more stellar record on his way up. I fear KK has a lot to learn still which is fine, but that’s not ideal for this team and where it’s at in the timeline
What are you saying? The players don’t like the blender, or they don’t like playing the system. Not playing the system is problematic, it’s not a choice, it’s required for team success.
It’s hard to force players to do things and motivate at the same time. It doesn’t seem that the team is in the right mindset
Prospectulia!
An octet occupies the docket of NAmateurs this day.
The Knights of London have been the top-ranked team in Canada 13 weeks running and it’s been almost a month since they punched their playoff ticket. O’Reilly remains at 53 points (in 53 GP) whilst Nicholl has rebounded with goals in three of his last four, putting up 48 points in 53 GP.
For the first time in several weeks, Day-man’s GAA is under 3 at 2.98. The next plateau Day can surmount is the 90.0 SV% mark as he is half a percent shy.
Even though Määttä was skunked his last time out, he remains on a heater with 5 + 4 his last GP.
Notre Dame (Fischer) @ 4 p.m.
Muskegon (Berry) @ 5 p.m.
Vermont (Määttä, Münzenberger) @ 5 p.m.
Flint (Day, Clattenburg) @ 5 p.m.
London (O’Reilly, Nicholl) @ 5 p.m.
All times are two times and are also Dimsdale time.
Perry is 15-3 goals since January 1st.
Bonkers
First-shot scorer? Like a Jeff Skinner?
Still don’t understand the healthy scratch last night. He wasn’t high end but he was involved in scoring chances in the prior game and, to my eye, no egregious mistakes.
Even if there was a mistake or two, its not like the likes of Janmark, Kapanen, Henrique, Arvidsson, Brown, etc. are playing locked down hockey.
I think Knob was going for a re-set of the lines but scratching this kid made no sense to me. Shit, noone wants to see him on the fourth line but even having him at 4C made more sense then Kapanen thereo
I gotta admit I’m losing some (?) confidence in our HC, he is making some curious choices around player usage and line formations. I’ve been a solid supporter of Knobby, but it is wavering rapidly.
He’s a good coach, maybe they need a great coach
It’s the day after he called everyone fragile, then he put players into their conventional sets, so he was clearly challenging the team — he wanted to see them react and not have the responsibility of the response rest with MS, my theory anyway.
I don’t disagree – as I said, I think he was trying to re-set the lines.
At the same time, Kapanen at center is, well, not conventional. Even Matt Savoie would have been a more conventional choice.
Jackson and Bowman veered so far in another direction from the direction I would have taken last summer that I have got nothing.
Skinner and Bouchard are now in the Jeff Petry, Ryan McLeod, Jarrett Stoll, Matt Greene, Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, Joni Pitkanen, Tom Poti, Vinny Desharnais part of their career. (There are more, but there are just too many to remember.)
Broberg and Holloway did not even make it this far. They were Miro Satan’ed.
Jackson’s moves now realized as horrible. Keeping Henrique & Brown, signing Arvi & Skinner, all over the hill players that don’t like the greasy areas. Kapi low risk but also not paying dividends. Losing Hollo & Bro was terrible. One of Desharnais Foegle Macleod had to go but JJ didn’t tweak roster he did a small overhaul that’s no paying dividends.
And yet there are still posters on here defending the moves.
Fascinating stuff.
Are you saying you now like Desharnais, he of too slow, can’t pivot, can’t pass?
Everytime I hear Desharnais I think of that beauty OT goal against San Jose in the playoffs. 2017 I think ?
I would have kept Desharnais. I said so at the time. Skill set filled what the Oilers need during the regular season. And he can kill a damn penalty.
Desharnais and McLeod would help keep the locker room light during the dog days. They always came to work with a smile on their face.
Always wait for a losing streak for Godot to claim he was right all along.
Like clockwork
What about that PK? That needed some exercising, and the group made sure they got lots of practice.
As the PK, so the team.
Things are looking up for this bunch. They are a good team, from the crease through to the red line.
PS. Thanks LT, for asking your FLA guest yesterday (on the radio) about how FLA fans are handling Bob’s less than .900 year. I had to laugh. “Music,” as you say. Music indeed.
Friedman says he has a theory regarding Kane which is that Kane wants to come during the season to prove to the Oilers that he can help them in the playoffs. Sounded like pure internal think and not from any inside information but that’s Friedman’s theory.
I’m not really sure about that. I mean, for me, I don’t think Kane playing 2-3 games at the end of the season is going to prove anything to Knob. I would think, if Kane is cleared and ready to go for game 1 of the playoffs, he’s in the lineup, no questions asked. Sure, maybe he’s on the 3rd line, but maybe not. I don’t think his lineup spot for the beginning of the playoffs would be contingent on a 2-3-4 game end of season performance.
Also, I find it tough to believe this is as adversarial a process as this would be. Kane is in Edmonton (generally), he’s using the facilities, skating on the ice. I presume he’s using the Oilers team doctors and trainers and I would expect Kane and his agency have been in conversation with Bowman and Knob and they have a plan as a group.
Now, that’s my pure thinking, based on nothing except it makes sense to me and I’ve seen no evidence to the contrary.
I cannot see Kane putting himself ahead of the team unless he wants to be traded. From everything I’ve heard about Kane is that he genuinely likes it in Edmonton, likes the team and has even bought a house. He doesn’t need to play games in the regular season, he’s allowed to practice with the team ahead of the playoffs, he may even want a conditioning stint in Bako. Friedman & Serevalli have been talking, that’s what they do. But it’s just a lot of talk.
Leon Draisaitl 37 games 2 goals 7 assists 9 points
Six months later:
Leon Draisaitl 72 games 19 goals 31 assists 52 points.
===========================================
Markus Naslund 14 games 2 goals 2 assists 4 points
Six months later
Markus Naslund 66 games 19 goals 33 assist 52 points
===========================================
Jake Neighbours 43 games 6 goals 4 assists 10 points
Six months later
Jake Neighbours 77 games 27 goals 11 assists 38 points
============================================
Nazim Kadri 21 games 5 goals 2 assists 7 points
Six months later
Nazin Kadri 48 games 18 goals 26 assists 44 points
==============================================
Jordan Kyrou 28 games 4 goals 5 assists 9 points
Six months later
Jordan Kyrou 55 games 14 goals 21 points 35 points
==============================================
Dylan Strome 20 games 3 goals 3 assist 6 points
Six months later
Dylan Strome 58 games 17 goals 34 assists 51 points
=================================================
Tage Thompson 38 games 6 goals 8 assists 14 points
Six months later
Tage Thompson 78 games 38 goals 30 assists 68 points
=============================================
Your very first example proves your statement wrong.
Draisaitl produced 9 points in his first taste then went back to the WHL.
The on his second taste put up 52 points.
There was no two years of putting up 9 points for Draisaitl.
2 years didn’t make it past the noodle hey. And going back to Naslund days? Thanks for the quote man.
Noted Tage Thompson is the rule not the exception now.
Good gravy
Skinner would not be Sather’s starting goalie, he may not trade Skinner but he’d definitely have a top tier tender between the pipes.
I wonder how much the long break for the 4 Nations hurts or helps teams. They were on a roll I thought before the time off. On the other hand, all the teams have the break too, so maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe those teams who have a bit of momentum going feel it more?
maybe just an idle thought
I did think they played better overall last night, despite the loss.
The Oilers limped into the 4 Nations break. On their hands-and-knees coming out of it.
The unspoken danger with this downturn is the Oilers have not gotten McDavid extended yet.
Everyone assumes that became a foregone conclusion once Draisaitl re-upped, but nothing is an absolute certainty until the ink is dry on the new deal.
If this team struggles to the postseason and then gets manhandled by a deeper team like the Jets, does Connor conclude he’s getting farther away from the prize instead of closer?
My gut tells me Connor is still loyal to the Oil and wants to see this process through until he grabs the brass ring. BUT loyalty can be tenuous. Because of the lack of depth, Connor has to do a TON of heavy lifting for this team to succeed. At what does point does it start to feel like too much?
I do not believe they can extend him until the summer. I think you can only extend 1 year prior to current contract.
It’s a bit of a MAD approach: Connor just has to know that wherever he gets traded if he doesn’t extend here, will be depleted from the haul he would demand.
1) I would be shocked if a McDavid extension was not in place this summer.
2) Connor’s personal play is one of the prime reasons for current struggles – McDavid knows this as well.
3) Any player that is going to take 15% plus of the cap will need to do heavy lifting on his team.
Nuge and Hyman look like they’ve fallen off a cliff.
New nicknames: Thelma & Louise
But Stauffer will say that Hyman was the best FA signing in Oiler history, I guess he was last year! But…..the falling off the age cliff is slow and painful. Ekholm looking terrible since 4 nations, the 2 weeks off would’ve been a better choice for him.
I think the Oilers (Bowman) need to pause and take a breath. This is possibly the toughest road trip of the year. Don’t make ani panicked moves right now. Get home, get some practices in, evaluate the roster, and then make their move(s).
I hate to say this, but I bet even Stuart Skinner is wondering if they need another goalie right now. He NEEDS to make a save or two more a game if they plan on going on a run in the playoffs.
The Oilers are something like 2-9-1 against the top 2 teams in each division this year and have a win % of like 0.38 against playoff teams. The problem is much deeper than just this road trip. They are not competitive against quality teams.
I’m not disagreeing with you.
We are 8/16 against current western playoff teams. We lead the series against van, col, min, tied against la, down 2-1 to veg, down 1-0 wpg, down 1-0 against DAL.
What is really an issue is our stats against the east. We are 2-13 against current playoff teams in the east. So if we get to the final, we will have to steal a series.
Against top 4 in the east: 1-8. With a win against TB.
Against top 4 in the west (we are the 4th, so lets move it to top 5) 3-5. Or against top 3: 1-4.
Again, greater issues out east. Maybe.
I’m havin a hard time imagining how the opponent in the finals is something to strategize over at this point.
Why would we strategize for some unknown opponent in the finals right now? But we do perhaps need to strategize a way to get better by the deadline.
well now; hang on to those rains for me for just one minute.
They got Leon; and he’s the new Messier.
We can all go lookin for a winger for 97, and I do think a good shake is worthy.
Neither Nuge nor Arvi are the solutions.
Now, 97 gets on his horse and tries to puck handle through Mud.
And he’s been able to do it in the past.
The trouble with that approach is it doesn’t give his wingers much to work with.
He literally picks up the puck, gains the zone, has two D on him, and runs out of room.
The onus would be on the wingers to figure out what to do, not 97. If your play driver has to change their game to fit what you’ve given him on his flanks you’ve already lost.
Hyman has understood the assignment. His injuries are causing a big shakeup imo. Nuge has lost half a step. Fix the flanks Stan!
Nuge’s top skating speed this year is higher than any of the previous 3 seasons. His speed bursts are in line with the past. I don’t think we can conclude that he’s lost half a step.
What do the stats show about his first few steps? If his top speed hasn’t decreased then he’s not reacting quick enough since it seems he is too often late to the party.
Fair, I meant the processing speed but wasn’t clear. You don’t gotta be going fast to one time a puck.
I hope Stan does not trade any significant prospects or picks at the deadline. The Oilers cannot afford to give up futures right now.
The Oilers made their bed this summer. Have to hope the vets can turn it around.
The most important items:
-Signing McD
-Ensuring there are upcoming pieces to extend the cup window.
“Either the captain needs a week off”
You could never make him do it but 97 admitted he’s fighting the mental monotony of the season. Especially coming off the 4 Nations high.
An excellent article by Lazerus at the Athletic about how NHLers embrace ‘The Grind’:
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6159552/2025/02/27/nhl-players-schedule-grind/
Duchene admitted the hardest years for him were his prime. Cause the novelty has worn off after almost 10 years (think flying alot for work, it gets old quick no matter how much you make), and you still have 10 years ahead (if you’re that upper echelon player). Call it the hockey midlife crisis.
All you can really do is work through it. 97 climbed to the top of the mountain and, like Sisyphus, is struggling in February to find the meaning when he’s back at base camp.
Respect to him for saying it. I don’t feel bad considering what he does and how he’s compensated, but everyone is fighting their own battle with the mundane sometimes.
McDavid probably won’t get a single Hart vote this season. Who would have seen that coming?
Definitely makes Leon’s case stronger anyway.
Knoblach needs to be fired, and Skinner should never play goal for the Oilers ever again.
Hey its verdad! Pretty sure the last thing i heard verdad say, lomg ago, was fire holland, and ship out skinner. Isnt it nice when we don’t have to reinvent the wheel?
Someone left the tool shed open…..
“Grrrrr me no like Skinner he poo poo Grrrr”
Well, Leon sure looked like Messier last night, which is probably what you’re alluding to LT.
I think a Donato and Byram add would make things hum pretty good down Thunder Road. Byram would be the expensive addition with picks etc. If the Buffalo deal gets too expensive you can take a run for Ferraro with maybe a little left over for Vladar.
I just don’t see major moves at the deadline. Even presuming they have Kane’s LTIR space, they still only have $5MM (no pro-rating), plus anything off the roster but there also aren’t a ton of assets and there aren’t that many locked in sellers so prices should be high.
First and foremost, this team needs most of the underperforming vets get back to established levels of ability.
McDavid, Bouchard, Hyman, Ekholm, Nuge, Henrique, Arvidsson, S. Skinner.
Even Brown and Janmark.
Has Brown even been in the lineup in the last month? Ghost.
Janmark has been a liability many nights – better last night.
Eff external acquisitions, the incumbents need to be better.
They did play better last night. What I noticed is that the D are too small as a group, especially with Nurse out. I admire plucky, but I want effective, and undersized D not names Makar or Hughes aren’t to me. Kulak can up his game when he wants to, so for any D under 6’3 and 200 lbs it’s him only. Of course can’t fix it now, but Stan could maybe get one more
The Panthers aren’t a tall D, but are quite a bit heavier, and I don’t think they are that good anyway
Up front I have never bought the thing that gets said it seems every fall, that the Oilers have probably the best group of C’s in the league. They normally have two of the best C’s, but who else? Nuge hasn’t been strong at C for years, Henrique is 35 and was never fast, I think it really shows. They don’t have a 4C
They need another good NHL C, and if they can find a winger that can play and score great, but I doubt it – too expensive. Upgrading the bottom 6 C will help the wingers, but it rarely works the other way
And I agree with LT abouts Slats, he’d get a goalie. Spec was talking about in the Tampa game that one of the easy GA completely deflated the team. The occasional weak one happens, but this is every game by both goalies. The mental effect is huge on a team when they don’t trust the goalies, at every level of the game. It’s starting to show openly from the players
I know Pick is a good team guy, but I don’t think he’s that good a goalie, the reason he didn’t play much at the NHL level until Oilers. The stats are mediocre, and after watching hockey as long as I have, I think a lot of fans can see who is a better goalie and who isn’t, just like with skaters. I wasn’t surprised that Montembault was called for the national squad, I’ve watched a few Habs games and he has solid technique, even if the Habs make him look bad some games
Maybe there isn’t a solution Bowman can find this deadline, but it’s too hard on teams to not have management make sure the position is solid. Look at what the Avs just did. It’s torpedoed the Canes Leafs repeatedly in the playoffs, and other teams. Traditionally that has not been an issue for contending Oiler teams or ones that went deep
“Established levels of ability” decline as players age into their 30’s.
Henrique 35
Ekholm 34
Hyman 32
Janmark 32
J. Skinner 32
Nuge 31
Arvidsson 31
Brown 31
While some players are able to defy Father Time for a bit, extensive research into aging curves show most don’t.
Henrique and Arvidsson = $7M of out the door money. Neither has trade protection or is helping the team win. Seems like a good place to start.
Sure, but why would a team trade for either of them, and which teams? What is the expected return?
Do they have any value or negative value?
Does it cost the team more assets to move that money?