Since we’re going to discuss lines and pairings all summer long, I thought it might be an idea to have a starting point. NHLEdge has clocked times for each NHL player, and it’s not perfect but it’s something. Below are the numbers for the forwards, top skating speed (KPH) from 2024-25 regular season games (Frederic playoffs):
- Mattias Janmark 39.20 (99th percentile)
- Connor McDavid 38.57 (98th percentile)
- Matt Savoie 37.36 (92nd)
- Leon Draisaitl 37.34 (92nd)
- Curtis Lazar 37.24 (90th)
- Kasperi Kapanen 37.16 (87th)
- Zach Hyman 37.14 (87th)
- Vasily Podkolzin 37 (84th)
- Trent Frederic 35.94 (81st-playoff numbers)
- Ryan Nugent-Hopkins 36.55 (71st)
- Adam Henrique 36.44 (69th)
- Andrew Mangiapane 36.27 (64th)
- Max Jones 35.74 (below 50th)
Fairly clear the Oilers are going to be faster, considering Jeff Skinner (35.35 kph) and Corey Perry (33.9 kph) were feature wingers at points last season. Viktor Arvidsson (37.19 kph) had speed to burn but spent the winter with the Climax Blues band rolling around his mind (couldn’t get it right).
Based on these numbers, the fast train april wine playoff wingers for 2025-26 might be Zach Hyman, Matt Savoie (right wing) and Vasily Podkolzin with one of Trent Frederic, Andrew Mangiapane or the Nuge on the port side. We’ll see. Miles to go, but one more wrinkle to ponder.
On the Lowdown today, Bagged Milk will drop by to talk free agency and what comes next, we’ll chat lines and pairings with you on the text line and discuss CFL and MLB. Lowdown, noon to 2pm, Sports 1440.
Looking at the distance to empty gauge makes me think of the biggest man/husband move ever. Me; “You know honey if you leave the tank below 1/4 tank its hard on the fuel pump”. Two weeks later I get a text from my wife with a picture of the dash displaying fuel empty with all 3 kids loaded up in the car lol. This after I went to hockey the night before with the car and drove past 3 gas stations on the way home.
Islanders only have $1.4 in cap space and Maxim Tsyplakov is looking mighty tempting to offer sheet. Only having to give up a third.
let the down votes rain. I just don’t think KK can keep going to McD & Drai on the same line at the first hint of trouble.
I would be happy if he let’s those two figure out their best wingers and let’s them play on separate lines. They can have their cake on the PP.
I don’t think too many will down-vote you for that, seems to be the general consensus that they have to each drive their own line. KK is definitely not the first coach to have this problem, though he arguably has better horses to work with than either Hitch or McLellan.
Whatever the lineup he settles on, I hope KK gives each of them at least 15-20 games to see if they work before bringing out the blender. There was 0 consistency last year, and I don’t think it helped us that much once injuries hit.
The first GA in Game 6 showed 97-29 and Perry all breaking the moment Ekholm had possession. Ekblad and two forwards were in the area longer than the Oilers F’s (McDavid was approach centre ice). That imo is coaching. Messy for early in a game when everything was under control. coaching staff needs to be more patient for offense, and of course the players, too.
Which, to me, makes McDavids non committal comments infuriating.
Part of the problem I think was wingers. The coaches didn’t seem to think they could get the job done, Connor and Leon alone didn’t have enough help. It obviously doesn’t work what they have been doing, it’s on Stan to provide enough to run a normal top 6, somehow
They need to be able to compete as an entire team to take the next step, it’s not often the final has a weak team in it like when the Habs made it
LT
Distance to empty. 13 km
are you pulling a Kramer ?
People will say LT and that other guy went farther below the slash than anyone ever dreamed!
So we lose Kane-Skinner-Perry-Brown-Arvidsson. In are Frederic-Magpie-Savoie-Tomosek-Kappy-Lazar. If I squint hard enough I do see 70 plus goals from this ragtag group.
Those 5 players had, 50 Regular season goals and 27 in the playoffs
I’d suggest these predictions aren’t considered too homer or unrealistic.
Freddy – 14
Maggie – 19
Savoie – 12
Kappy- 5
Hopefully there’s a winger signed at the trade deadline to help this group in the playoffs.
Without a doubt there’s less in known quantities of scoring, as shown by cumulative 5v5 G60 and P60 (2022-2025).
Those are some serious losses. Are we sure we couldn’t afford Brown?
I suspect there’s zero chance Jeff Skinner returns…but for what he’ll get this coming year, he’d be a pretty good depth pickup.
Grier is a smart GM. Picking up veteran Dmen on one year deals to cash at the deadline.
I really hope they let Sam Oreilly percolate this year. I’m willing to bet he’s gonna look very good at camp
Let’s over-ripen his ass. He will look great centring Holloway’s line.
I hate over-ripening, and I have my seat on the O’Reilly hype train, but he absolutely should go back to London this year.
Agreed. I was just kidding.
Hyman will likely not be ready to start the season. O’Reilly can be given nine games.
I think this is likely and prudent.
Some burnt out drinker bought the percolator at Kenny’s garage sale for 18 dollars.
The Carolina Overrateds sure make me laugh.
$8.5M for the 25 goal guy who doesn’t play full seasons and has one productive playoff.
Nope.
But it’s how they stay where they are
And they can stay right there winning a whole lot of nothing for as long as they’d like.
he’ll be great in regular season. Don’t see how this helps them with the rats
I will continue to reap the benefit of drafting Carolina players in fantasy hockey unopposed and finishing in the money.
I get they can’t make it out of the ECF, but man that team are money for me. They always fly under the radar in preseason predictions due to being small market so nobody else thinks to draft from them. Even playoffs they’re worth loading up on as they go a few rounds.
Let’s be fair and honest about the player.
5x 25 goal seasons, 6 if you prorate 2020.
All of these are minimum 300 minutes played.
2024-2025
65th in the league with 2.08 pp/60 5v5. Just head of Barkov, Nylander, Jack Hughes, Scheifele and Guentzel. All while playing significantly less per game that each.
2023-2024
Tied for 13th in the league with 2.6 pp/60 5v5 with Marner. Ahead of such notable players as in Draisaitl, Hyman, Johnston, Forsberg, Guentzel and Barkov. While only playing more minutes than Barkov 5v5.
2022-2023
17th in the league with 2.7 pp/ 60 5v5. Ahead of such notable players as Mcdavid, Verhaeghe, Matthews, Crosby and Nylander. While playing significantly less minutes.
Over the past 5 seasons Ehlers ranks 31st in goals per 60. Ahead of Crosby, Panarin, Timo Meier, and Jack Hughes.
Over the past 5 seasons Ehlers ranks 24th in points per 60. Ahead of Hintz, Ovechkin, Eichel, Guentzel, Kyle Connor, Aho, Stone, Tage Thompson.
At $8.5 cap hit, he is now on the same contract as Scheifele, Forsberg, Zibanejad, Dubois, Horvat, and within $500k ahead of Hintz, Johnston, Stutzle, Brady Tkatchuk, Hertl, Kyrou, Thomas, Raymond, Miller and Jack Hughes.
He is far from overpaid based on every comparable, 5v5 rankings in points, goals and assists.
LT, did you mean 36.94 for Trent Frederic instead of 35.94?
If it is the latter, that really isn’t impressive.
Frederic hit 36.65 kph both during the regular season and the playoffs in 23/24 and did so consistently the years before.. Can’t explain his drop off the first half of the regular season in 24/25 with Boston (35.5) but certainly the number for the playoffs would have been affected by the high ankle sprain.
I always felt a bit bad for the Flyers-Bruins fans after we thumped in the final twice back in the mid 80’s early 90’s Now that I’m on the recieving end it sucks. Bowman better get creative and do something with our below average tandem in net that’s costing us Cups.
That could be better, but there is more to it I think. The first two games the goals scored Oilers-Panthers were 8-8, second two 10-6, last two 10-3. What they have tried doesn’t work, as Connor referenced with ‘banging our heads against a wall’
I think they have to change up something, well a few tactical changes. Their style of play with these players can’t get past aggressive basic hockey, and they aren’t changing the core and neither are the Panthers. Maybe Mr. Curlock will look into that, Knobby hopefully is
Stanley Cups are damn hard to win in a 32 cap parody league. It takes a special goalie to win the final game of the season. We almost did it twice with Murray Bannerman like goaltending but let’s face it Florida scored at will when they wanted to. It takes a special netminder to shut the front door in a final and neither Skinner or Pickard have it in them.
A special goalie? Like Darcy Kuemper? Aidan Hill?
That’s right I wouldn’t bet against either one of these goalies getting Cup #2 would you?
I agree it could be better. However, how many times last season did the Oilers make back ups look like Vezina candidates? Lots, all of the comments about getting goalied after
They aren’t a very good finishing team. They made Bob’s job easier because they couldn’t generate enough true HQ chances, yes partly because they weren’t given much space. In a lot of the play they couldn’t make that space either. Leon gets lots of goals, but everyone knows where most come from and the Panthers have been able to stifle that a lot
The Oilers gave up a lot of very dangerous chances with their constant coverage and exiting issues that lead to big breakdowns. Florida jumped on them and their guys finished their chances, I think they were running on a lot of good fortune that isn’t likely to repeat
The goalies are always better when the team plays better, that’s a big part of it too. There isn’t a goalie today that can do what some of us remember from a long time ago, not since Price fizzled out
Skinner was brutal after Ekholm sent that floater into Bouchard knees and Bouchard didn’t shut the turnover down sending a hall of famer with a ring in on that breakaway.
Stanley Cup winning goaltenders make breakaway saves. Bowman needs to fix this less than average Netminding before McDavid says SeeYa.
The biggest change was in GF over GA
One solution is to have wingers play on their offwing. This guy found that defensively that those who did play on their offwing were not worse off, and as a bonus their shooter percentages increased.
If you look at the Tuch example he comes aggressively into the half wall to receive the pass, which allows for an easier outlet to the inside and negates the pinch essentially as a pressure release valve.
Only problem is almost nobody plays on the offwing except Russians and Czechs, but I don’t think they need to clone Podkolzin or Tomasek as I think there’s a few other Oilers who can do the same. So maybe when the brain stops working or players lose composure, this can be a viable strategy other than a weak side rim which I can’t remember if that was used.
I’ve wondered before why we don’t see more NA players play off wing because of the shooting advantage. I may be wrong but it seems easier when you are set up in the O zone to be able to go to the middle and get a good shot off from your off wing. If you aren’t it’s back up the wall or down to the goal line, and your shooting angle is worse
Ehlers to Carolina for $8.5M x 6. I’m not sure that’s going to get them over the hump, but maybe Florida is a bit more tired when they get to the SCF next year.
Yes, hopefully some teams in the east are working on strategies to beat Florida. Or at least soften them up
I’m curious about what next year’s Habs will do vs the Sunshine State. Last year, regular season, they were impressive against both Rats and TB.
Ehlers is essentially “more of the same” in Carolina.
2nd/3rd tier offensive players.
They have long been looking for a “superstar” – they tried with Rantanen and it didn’t work.
Ehlers is not that – good player of course.
I hope KK uses the preseason wisely, namely for Mangi and Savoie. I would advocate they not play on the same line, as they seem similar is some ways. Doubt Savoie is ready for top line minutes.
Mangi-McD-Hym
Nuge-Drai-Savoie (similar line as Yamamoto)
Nuge-McD-Hym
Podz-Drai-Mangi
Mangi-McD-Hym
Podz-Drai-Savoie
Freddy-Nuge-Henrique
I’m sure the coach will be playing with his lines all season.
I hope they have a good mix now and can stay with lines most of the time. I think it would improve forward defensive performance and hopefully offense as they would get better reading off each other
Timing is critical trying to break down a collapsing D especially if they apply a lot of pressure and doing that is needed. Leon being 5th and Connor 9th in 5v5 points as it was needs to change for a team built like they are and will be
If KK could get some line stability, it would help the team gel and get through tougher situations like a cheating, fast, tough Florida line-up. Their lines were always consistent from what I could tell.
Whatever the combinations are, since it looks like we’re keeping Henrique, I hope they split the riches well enough that the 3rd line has some offensive punch. Henrique needs to be more of a threat to score than the 12 goals he had all of last year.
Can Henrique score 15-20? His career prior to last year indicates that he can.
Can Frederic score 15? Cause he’s getting paid to score 15.
Can their RW partner score 12-15? That would be nice.
I would like to see the 3rd line be able to contribute offensively. Rather than just outscore by not giving up goals.
Has Maxim Berezkin signed with the KHL? Is there a possibility he would come to the Edmonton this fall?
Yes. It will have to be next year.
Sharks claiming Leddy and clearing $4MM for the Blues is annoying.
The Blues might be very good next season. Oilers really helped them out with a free #3 LD and #1 LW.
That was very smart work by the blues and very poor job getting caught with their pants down by the Oilers. They must have thought offer sheets were not a realistic problem,
TSN speculating that the Blues cleared Leddy’s contract to pursue Byram.
Holloway may be headed the other way.
Why has nobody pointed this out before?
Don’t fret the twice daily updates on Hollywood and Broberg will resume once they break training camp.
I realize it’s repeated ad nauseam, but it might just cost the Oilers a cup…
The only players that cost them a cup were on the ice in the finals. Some were Panthers, some were Oilers. Some Oilers deserved it more than some Panthers and vice versa. But this organization just sent the team to back to back finals. You can’t really ask more than that from a franchise, after which it’s a matter of execution. And there were Oilers wearing letters who didn’t execute as well as their players wearing letters.
So it’s great that we have an active GM (finally) that has a plan from everything he has said. A team has to be engaged in being better while looking ahead, or you fall behind and also get offer sheets. We just have to hope he reads the tea leaves correctly about current needs and future players
Unlike Holland not seeming to get Connor, and not thinking about the many years ahead with him and Leon, Bowman has said he gets the whole picture
You got an expensive way of describing free.
Does that mean Krug is back? probably
Krug is probably done. He will almost certainly be on LTIR again this year and for the rest of his contract.
Waiving Leddy was mostly because they signed Suter. $4 million in, $4 million out. They still have Krug’s LTIR available participate in the Byram hunt.
Leddy was surplus. Kessel would have to clear waivers this year. Tucker earned his 3rd pair spot last year, and they believe Mailloux is going to play. They gave up a lot in Bolduc to get Mailloux, but they drafted a RW in the first round this year, and they may start 20-year old centre Dvorsky (after a 20-goal 19-year old season in the AHL) at wing
Blues D.
Fowler Parayko
Broberg Faulk
Tucker Mailloux
Kessel
Binnington Hofer
Buchnevich Thomas Snuggerud
Holloway Schenn Kyrou
Neighbours Suter Bjugstad
Toropchenko Sundqvist Walker
Joseph Texier
If they actually acquired Byram, they might waive Faulk, who has two years left.
Why are some talking the Calder for Matt Savoie??? He has not made the team yet! I am optimistic but lets keep expectations rational. If he starts on the 3rd line that would be great for him.
I personally have not even thought about the Calder but, barring a horrid camp, he’s a lock for the team and Bowman already said he expects him on the team and implied top 6 opportunity.
From watching him in Bako all season my opinion is that he is NHL ready and a legit complimentary winger for a skilled and smart center such as Drai. We are a ways away but they very well could mesh right away. I don’t know about the Calder but 50 points is not unreasonable to hope for (and he could pop).
I see no reason why he couldn’t be the same thing for a smart center in McDavid.
I’m sure he could do well with Drai but, as we know, McDavid and Drai play different games as centers and I think Savoie’s skill-set would mesh very well with Drai’s “slow the game down” smart passes to soft areas, give and go’s, etc.
He’s gonna get a very long look. But whenever you expect and need a prospect to pop is when you get disappointed
If he has chemistry with Leon he’s scoring 20 plus.
Why are some talking the Calder for any Oiler, ever? The universe has declared it will never happen.
The Hockey Canada predicted Olympics Team is ridiculous. Old guys way past their prime hanging on Old Glory, and no Bouchard or other young guys? The narrative around Bouchard around other teams’ fans (and even Edmonton fans) is all over the place. He definitely deserves to be there!
Isn’t it simply TSN’s current opinion and meaningless?
That would be why I said predicted, yes, and mentioned the narrative around the league (which includes media networks).
I really hope all of the NHL teams refuse to pick up Rodrigues or luostarinen. Dont let the Panthers get cap compliant without at least giving up Lundell
Not a chance teams aren’t happy to trade for either of those players.
The Oilers are a team in the NHL
26 years old, $3 million per for the next two seasons and he’s fresh off 19 points in 23 games in the playoffs from the 3rd line. GM’s would crawl through broken glass to trade for a guy like that.
CapWages has the Panthers $4.5 million over the salary cap, but this is for a 25 man roster. If they trade Rodrigues (hopefully for as little as possible) and move Studnicka and Nolan Foote to the minors, they will be $50k under for a 22 man roster. Could see them go to a 21 man roster for a bit more flexibility.
All of the above excludes RFA Mackie Samoskevich who had 31 points (just one less than Rodrigues in 10 fewer games). I’d like to see an offer sheet for $1.5 million which would give the Panthers zero compensation. But more likely, Samoskevich gets traded as well.
Unfortunately Samoskevich is ineligible for an offer sheet.
You’re right. For an RFA to be eligible for an offer sheet, they must have played 80 NHL games and Samoskevich has played 79. Those sneaky Panthers must have healthy scratched him late in the season.
Why yes, they did. He was rested on April 14th against the Rangers. I’m not kidding, the official reason he didn’t play is listed as “rest”.
Not a chance.
Don’t the Sharks still need to reach the floor?
Jeff Skinner only played 5 games in the playoffs so not really important to replace his lack of speed since they already did that for most of the playoffs. Possibly a factor in why he never meshed.
Not mentioned were the losses of Brown and Kane, who are or have been capable of high speed. Hard to say if Kane will get back to his pre-injuries max of 37 kph. He only hit 35.2 kph in the playoffs. Brown hit over 37 kph in last year’s playoffs but maxed out at 36.5 kph this season. But he gets in that range quick and often.
This team had the second fastest forward group in the league last season after Colorado. They are getting somewhat younger, but the speed mix is not changing that much.
120 regular season points out the door with Perry,Brown,Skinner,Arvidsson & Klingberg’s departures. I like the Mangiapane signing and believe he can get back to his usual 40 point production but unless Savoie & Philp co-win the Calder this looks like trouble to me especially with Nuge and Hyman’s dips and subsequent significant injuries. Frederic, Podz,Kap & Janmark are going to NEED to chip in much more than last year or this team is headed for a painful winter.
Oilers should be trying to extend Podkolzin now before the counting stats start matching the fancy stats.
Stauff expects Walman and Podz extensions this off season.
anything under 7×7 I’m very happy with Walman. Hope they get Pod for 4 years at 2 per.
Who are your comps for Walman at $7M x 7?
Yeah this is gonna be a tough season for this crew. Gonna need goalering to hold up, health on D, all of the forward bets to pan out and Mcdavid to play like the best player in the world.
Hope we are working on some good extension on Walman, Ekholm, and Kulak because they gonna get expensive if they hit free agency.
Connor Mcdavid can float all boats if he gets back to his *normal*. I did not see the 65 goal scorer Mcdavid at all last year. Maybe once. Not sure what is up with him. Might be the most gifted shooter in the league and probably tied with Leo, but refuses to shoot. I believe this is extending into the PP also. Like, get the puck. To the net. Too many times last season and playoffs included, he tries passing through the other team turning the puck over. This has to stop. Get the puck to the net and cause chaos. (This goes double on the PP). Passing into the net only works like 3% of the time. That’s an awful lot of turnovers. Also, although he backchecks like a demon most nights, I wish he would recognize the danger man more often. After saying all this, it sounds like I am running Mcdavid out of town. Not at all, like Bouchard, too many turnovers are costing wins. Just get the puck to the net man!
McDavid led the playoffs in shots by a large margin.
I actually think, until he proves otherwise, Savoie has to be in the way-too-early conversation for Calder. He’s going to get a heck of an opportunity this season of he can grab it early. The only thing going against him will likely be a lack of PP time, but never say never with a new assistant coach and PP strategy, I suppose.
I would be very surprised if he is top 10 in voting
Frederic didn’t play in the regular season at all last year so, in your calculation, every point is an add. Between Savoie and Fred, there could be 80 points (potentially more).
Hyman had a down season production wise and an uptick can reasonably be expected if healthy despite age.
Nuge played some of the best hockey in his career in the playoffs – he may not be regressing.
An extra 20 points from Bouch is not unreasonable.
A guy who has hit 40 points once in his career and another who has 1 assist in 4 games is not reasonable to expect 80 points from. Hyman went back to career average. 27 goals is a reasonable expectation from this player, which he hit last year.
Making the playoffs and being ready for a deep run is all that matters but the Oil have tangibly lost production, which was already fairly minimum (8 goals from Podz with a solid amount of Drai duty is not ‘productive’, as much as I like his style).
They’ll be fine like how the Chiefs keep going deep with practice squadders for receivers but asking more and more from 97 in the early part of the season will hinder the latter like 24 (his words, his production was elite).
I never said expect, I said “could be 80 points”.
Fredric has hit 40 playing 3rd line on the Bruins – definitely reasonable to think he could get 40 playing on the Oilers which will likely come with some top 6 time with Drai/McDavid.
100% I think it is very reasonable that Savoie could get 40 points – shit he could get 50 or 60. Yes, skilled offensive players with pedigree come in to the league as rookies and do that and there is every chance he will get the 1st opportunity to play on Drai’s wing and I’ve stated for months that is a great spot for him (and for Drai).
In the finals those fellas collected 7 points between them, Perry with 4, none at 5v5. The also gonzo Kane had 1 point
I’m more concerned about outscoring and still producing when it’s hardest
That’s true that those points are out the door, but the other side of that is that there is now 4,246:13 of icetime for other players. Who are going to be playing those minutes?
Frederic and Mangiapane are likely to be getting the lion’s share of that time. The average P/60 of the outgoing group is 1.5. The average of Frederic and Mangiapane’s recent seasons is 1.73. That’s a net gain for about half of the available minutes. 10 of the points that are missing were Perry’s PP production. Those are first unit minutes. You have to think those are going to mostly go to Hyman, and his production should be pretty good in that situation. Is expecting 10 more points from Hyman out of the question?
Walman probably takes the extra left over from Klingberg and his P/60 number was above what he would be replacing. In fact, he probably digs into some other D minutes as well which we’re not even considering here.
As for the rest, I have no idea what to expect from Savoie or if his 1.21 P/60 in a 4 game sample is reasonable. Lazar/Philp are more likely to be replacing the Ryan minutes IMO so he wouldn’t be a part of those 4k minutes or 120 points we’re talking about. I would think the bulk of the rest would come from bigger roles to Savoie, Kapanen and Podkolzin. Their combined P/60 is 1.28 for those 3. Plugging that into the remainder gets us to the same place points-wise as last year despite being under the 1.5 of the outgoing forwards
One thing to keep in mind is top speed isn’t where the majority of skating happens. The NHL is a stop-start league, so it’s first steps that play more into if you are getting to the play fast enough, or even better beating your opponent there. Something they didn’t compete with the Panthers at this round
This roster looks like it has the horses. Losing Ryan and Skinner I don’t think hurts. Perry was productive, but it’s hard to carry such a one dimensional player that doesn’t help much everywhere else. Arvi just couldn’t hit it, but he seemed like the right type
To me it seems that they may need to adjust their systems some. The coaches need to get them working as a team, and get them into a rhythm going into playoffs where they can handle whatever and not have many big breakdowns. There are always small ones, but when they cascade you get the killer ones
Their main opponent doesn’t get fazed as easily as they do as it is, and just keeps going at their thing. I think it’s easier for the players that way, they know their job and don’t over think it
Had trouble signing in yesterday to post…
It might be a stretch and I had difficulty finding LT’s actual quote, but it goes something like “the Oilers spent a decade trying to find a Lucic until actually getting the original Lucic”
When I heard of the Mangiapane I drifted to something similar regarding Yamamoto… now we have the “original Mangiapane”.
Not certain I’ve done this right, here’s Yamamoto’s NHLEdge 2021 season and last season for comparison:
36.33 (70)
35.36 (Below 50th)
I guess my point is I believe they are similar players but Mangiapane is the elite of the two, something we all hoped Yamamoto would become.
They look to be not only faster/quicker but a bit younger as well.
Savoie, of course, will be in the team and likely to play a solid or even feature role.
Philp and Tomasek are not young but still on the right side of 30.
Then there is the potential to add in some Jarventie in-season. If this young man was able to hockey train this season, I’m convinced that he is NHL ready after a few months of getting back up to speed in Bako – just stay healthy young man.
A similar paragraph could be written about Regula I think but that’s based more on what I’ve heard and read as I haven’t had eyes on him.
Calculated the average age of the playoff team and this current roster from Puckpedia
Playoff roster 30.5 years
Current roster 29 years
1.5 years is a bigger number than it seems
This is a big deal.
Strongly agree, younger and faster is great. I worry about functional grit, especially for the playoffs. Kane and Worm had gamesmanship as well.
Kane’s gamesmanship was great first few rounds, but he unraveled against the Rats. Could only take bad high sticking penalties.
Didn’t realize Max Jones was that “slow” and I expected our recent signing to be a bit higher.
This was my half baked idea last night and not to be taken too seriously.
The Oilers should look at a “loan” at the Trade Deadline, similar to what happens in soccer. For example, if the NYI don’t make the post season….
Edm trades the ’27 1st rnd pick to NYI for Sorokin at the trade deadline. It would have to be more than a verbal agreement, but then at the following draft, the Oilers return Sorokin to the Islanders for a ’27 3rd rnd pick.
The Oilers would be trading a 1st, for 3rd and a couple months of Sorokin. Bettman’s head would explode, and that alone would be worth it!
Max Jones hit 37 kph in 23/24. Small sample size this past season only getting limited minutes in 26 games.
As to the loan idea, the CBA has very clear language that prohibits this type of transaction (unless perhaps if you’re Vegas or a Florida team😄)
That sounds like it’d hurt.
Haha damn the CBA, I thought I was onto something.
I wonder if there is a rule preventing that. It used to exist in a previous CBA with Dean Mcammond from what the internet says in 02-03.
I know you can’t trade a player back to the same team with retention for like a year, not sure if there’s a ‘rental with term’ rule. The new CBA is getting rid of double retention in the same deal so not sure how that will all shake out.
Interesting.
not sure if they get Howard now that it’s all public.
Could really use a physical top 6 F.
I’m behind the times. What are we talking about?
Isaac Howard Forward 21 – TB 1st Rounder that has so far not signed with TB nor plans on it. Was rumoured the Oilers offered a 2027 1st for his rights. TBay GM is being dinkish.
The kid can go UFA in Aug ‘26.
Come on Bill the TBay GM is being arrogant.
Arrogant works quite well.
I tend to look at things through different lenses.
Isn’t the hold up the fact that Howard has to accept a contract from the team trading for him?
I was under the impression that he wasn’t willing to sign with Edmonton.
Is this correct?
Don’t have the links on hand, but have read multiple articles on the situation and there seemed to be a lot of positive chatter concerning a potential contract if a trade could have been consummated. Who knows? Could all be ‘net bs. But it’d be interesting to see if it could be done.
TBay’s GM said there had been positive feedback on potential contracts, but the teams that had that weren’t offering enough in return.