I spent some time yesterday looking through old Oilers projected lineups (nerd!) and arrived at this one after a time. Peter Chiarelli spent plenty of treasure looking for ‘tough guys who can play with McDavid’ and never quite hit the nail on the head.

What he did accomplish is acquiring ‘tough guys who could no longer play with McDavid because they were in their erosion years’ and we see this above.

So, when Ken Holland arrived (signaled above by the presence of Joakim Nygard) the money was spent and the engine was in pieces on the garage floor. He did attempt add a big skill winger at his first trade deadline (Andreas Athanasiou) but the trade didn’t work and the Oilers were back to being a team with zero big men with skill (aside from Leon) in their prime.

So, the Oilers visited cities and towns with Zack Kassian and Alex Chiasson on skill lines and opponents were pleased. This is the period where the team also used very young wingers (Kailer Yamamoto, Jesse Puljujarvi) who had the issues of youth. Not an optimal situation for the team, old tough guys and youngsters skating with the Glimmer Twins.

Now, when Holland found some walking around money, he added skilled men like Zach Hyman to the group. Music!

In January 2022, Holland signed suddenly free-agent Evander Kane, who scored at a 32-goal pace after arriving midway through the season. He played one half a season the following year, again on a 30-goal pace, and popped 24 in 2023-24. The problem for Edmonton is Kane faded as a five-on-five outscorer as injuries hit.

In his three Oilers seasons, his goal percentage at five-on-five went 64, 45 and 49. It is not clear he can play successfully on a skill line, which is a damn shame. If he can, that’s a big addition to the team. As it stands, there’s no guarantee Kane will play in the early games of the postseason.

Stan Bowman has worked around the edges, bringing in Max Jones and Trent Frederic. Both players are physical, no one on the roster can bring what Evander Kane delivers.

However, in the case of Frederic, he’s a big man who can agitate and hit hard. He has scored 18 goals and 40 assists in a season. He might score more often with (say) Draisaitl at five-on-five. He is 27. He has some time before the cliff. I hope the club signs Frederic before July 1. He can help and he has productive seasons ahead. Signing a deal for three or four seasons is the play here.

A busy show, because there’s lots happening. Noon today, Sports 1440. We will chat with Rachel Doerrie, CTO of Betalytics and Host of Puck Social about the Oilers playoff roster and about Alex Ovechkin’s record breaking goal. Jason Gregor will pop in to discuss Calvin Pickard versus Stuart Skinner, Ovie and the Vlad Guerrero contract. 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.