This edition of the Edmonton Oilers needs some magic. The team’s prospect pool will produce Matt Savoie, and the trade for Ike Howard gives the team something close to a plug-and-play winger. The team needs more, something along the lines of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘saviour to rise from these streets’ in the months to come.
I’ve been thinking all summer about the 1980 training camp. The Oilers at that time were loaded with young talent, and would send three fab rookies (Jari Kurri, Glenn Anderson and Paul Coffey) straight to the show that October.
Those men, added to the 1979 NHL freshman (Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Kevin Lowe) gave the team an historic heart of the order. The group of youth was so strong, Glen Sather could afford to trade one of my all-time favourites (Risto Siltanen) in an effort to add veteran leadership.
What was so special about the 1980 training camp, aside from Kurri, Anderson and Coffey, were the cuts made by the organization. Among the group headed to the minors that fall were Charlie Huddy and Andy Moog. Those two men would occupy important spots (Huddy was a RH defender who shot left, Moog a starting goaltender) on the Oilers in the future, and in fact both men played during the 1980-81 regular season. Moog was a star in the playoffs, spring 1981.
We can’t point to a possible Huddy or Moog on the Bakersfield Condors roster this fall, but we couldn’t point to Huddy and Moog in September 1980, either.
The Bakersfield team is going to have some impressive resumes, from Samuel Jonsson to Atro Leppänen to Quinn Hutson. I don’t know if any of the men headed for Bakersfield has an NHL future. I do know the Oilers badly need a Huddy and a Moog.
On the Lowdown today, we’ll have Steve Lansky and Tyler Yaremchuk, along with heavy Oilers, Jays, Elks and NFL talk. We’re on noon to 2pm, Sports 1440. I also want to tell you about the YouTube channel that will broadcast the Lowdown beginning on Tuesday. I’m excited for you to see my impressive wardrobe, mostly band t-shirts and such. 🙂 Have a great weekend, hope you can tune in today.
The context behind Connor McDavid’s contract negotiations with the Oilers
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6581646/2025/08/29/connor-mcdavid-oilers-contract-negotiations-context/
hello
Hello.
The 1980-1981 season is a super intriguing analogy in that we do not know which players might emerge, and the current Oilers would certainly be stronger than last year, if there are new unexpected contributors. I am a little skeptical on Jonsson and whether he has the agility and athleticism required, until we see more from him this year. I am curious how Samanski will develop over time, and am most interested to watch Regula/Tomasek/Jarventie in training camp. Excited for the new upcoming season and thanks for sharing this topic LT.
Carter Hart will be the Andy Moog
Bring on the rookies Ssvoie-Howard-Tomasek-Regula with Jarventie coming up first injury.
I see a couple of rumours that the Hyman injury may heal slower than expected which basically says to me that our new PP guru is going to get Howard in a shooting lane set-up. Only a few folks naive didn’t see this coming. As long as Bownan is right about Howard’s readiness not only is this kid getting gifted line 1 he’s also getting PP 1. I know many folks doubt this kids gift to score and want to see him marinate in the AHL but I’m not one of them. 20 plus for Howard (Patrick Sharp) Booook It……,,.,
Healing is right on track – of course, we’ve never been told what “the track” is….
His quote to NHL.com yesterday:
Yesterday he told Paige Martin, he was looking forward to getting at it when he’s in Edmonton.
Trust me it takes longer to heal the older you get. I can’t see management rushing Hyman back unless of course we are 2-9-2 and Howard-Savoie have Tobias Rieder hands.
With the injury timeline to Hyman they needed a first liner for Connor ASAP Bowman had no money and no draft capital but might of pulled a rabbit out of his hat. Sounds like Nuge is banged up as well looks like Howard will see PP 1 time. Also the Goalie situation is going to start heating up next week, buckle up.
I haven’t read/seen anything about Nuge being banged up still other than a troll comment on Oilers Nation.
The injury timeline of Hyman around the regular season didn’t create the need to acquire a top line winger externally – that doesn’t work for cap teams unless the injury is long term.
If Hyman is out for a handful of games, it will be interesting to see how Knob deploys….
I don’t see Howard as the obvious choice for Hyman’s role. It would require a significant change in strategy to add another shooter.
Not sure who to recommend for the net front with Kane, Perry and possible Hyman all gone. Throw Henrique in front? Podz?
I would think the new man Frederic might get a push as front net presence maybe they go with Leon down low. It’s a new PP coach maybe he’s seeing some sort of open seams with a different look. Once they took away the Leon-Bouchard shot our PP has looked stale it’s not penetrating the opponent like it used.
I don’t think that the Oilers need more offense. Especially from the back end. What they need are forwards that have NHL scoring ability that also will play the system. The playoffs are a different animal as we saw with Florida not having a great reg season but leading both offense and defense in the playoffs
The team needs to be able to play within their structure and do it with enough energy and intensity. It needs to start at the top. Barkov is a big reason why they can do it. It’s not about hitting more. It’s about countering their hardest opponent effectively. It’s about not letting anything stand in their way antics or refs
Not giving up easy unearned goals, being steady which helps whatever goalie play their best, would make a really big difference to what we saw
You are correct. The Oilers will succeed with physical 2-way forwards. It’s not as important during the regular season, but this will be the recipe for the playoffs.
It’s easy to see why Jeff Skinner failed as an Oiler. We don’t need empty calorie scoring. We need our depth forwards to stifle and check the other team, the way Podkolzin does. I think both Matt Savoie & Andrew Magpie will have success as a 2-way wingers even if the offense doesn’t show.
In retrospect the Oilers should’ve prioritized hanging onto Warren Foegele as he fits the template perfectly.
Yes Bowman likes the speedy possession type game. I think we either see Kulak or Elkholm go bye-bye or possibly both. I do believe Regula makes the team out of Camp and Jarventie by Christmas. Regula won’t make it through the waiver wire like Janmark and Skinner will.
Regula is a Bowman draft pick. No other GM values him as high. Don’t get me wrong, he could impress, but the odds are not in his favour because of a limited previous NHL at bats, a missed entire season of hockey and the NHL is a level he did not achieve as an everyday player on a weak (Chi) team.
He may be the equivalent of Emberson (at best), but he is such a massive question mark we won’t actually know until we actually see what he is. Chances are very high that Josh Brown has a better Camp.
So many much more experienced players have failed auditions in this town, yet we still have high hopes for success. Do not pencil him in. I do not think for a second that another NHL team will spend a roster spot on this player when he inevitably lands on the Waiver Wire.
In fact, I would not be surprised if Luke Prokop shows more good things than Regula in TC (if he is invited), all things considered.
I don’t think the risk is zero but I think its highly unlikely Regula would get claimed.
Any claiming team would need to keep him on their NHL roster.
This is a non-established 25 year old who last played in the NHL in 2022/23 with 4 games and has been a full time AHL player in 2022/23 (aside from the 4) and 2023/24 and then missed all of 2024/25.
I’m sure teams would love him on their AHL affiliate to ramp up and see how he looks, like the Oilers, but that’s not an option.
Alot of players will clear in the first 10 days of October, ALOT.
Pod lead 5v5 points in the finals, that says it all. Janmark and he lead 5v5 GF%
I don’t agree about Foegele. His last two Oiler playoffs were poor. Bruce Curlock pointed out his board play and defensive play lacking a few times. He is a big fast player, sometimes physical, but for me his mental game lacks. To my eye a lot of plays died on his stick
He did have a better playoffs in LA. Maybe as I’ve been going on about it has to do with the Oilers coaches and what they are asking. I’ve read a few times that a benefit of Maurice’s system is that it’s easy and guys can follow it and pick it up quickly
There are some very smart players, but I think the majority aren’t deep game thinkers and too much complexity leads to misreads and slows their play down. Which is why I think they need a couple of basic strategies to use, based on what they are facing. Especially PP. Gulitzan or Nuge said they had a bunch, when the heat and pressure are on I sure don’t see that
They over think and over pass and look for Leon. They don’t screen well or regularly (outside of Perry), or try to set up point shots that can get through. I am not concerned about the reg season results, when they are playing teams like the Panthers, can they keep pressure on to create momentum and take it away from the other guys, and get timely PP goals? It’s been long said the best way to stop shenanigans is a deadly PP. It was anemic in the finals this time a lot, and when Bennett or whatever hooligan took a penalty they couldn’t make them pay often enough to care
Foegele’s success in LA is likely a function of systems and line mates.
His regular season stats were stellar and significantly better than any of his Oilers seasons.
Along with a career high in goals and points, he led all Kings with a +36 and GF% of 67.9
Playing on a 3rd line with Philip Danault and Trevor Moore appears to have been the ticket.
Due to our sub 900 goaltending we are forced to play tight regular season games. Sather must shake his head the way our horses are held back to baby our goalies. Sather went through over 10 goalies in under 2 years before he struck it rich with Moog. Scotty and the kids philosophy is puck moving D high scoring O and better than good goaltending.
Why did we have to play the mighty peak Islanders in the 2nd round. We would of beat every other team and gotten stronger as the playoffs went on. I think the Islanders only lost 1 other game besides the 2 games to us. I still remember how bummed everyone was after the Morrow OT ( of all people ) goal Callighen was having such a great playoff.
They played the Islanders because they finished 14th in the regular season standings. The Oilers were the lowest ranked team left in the second round so they faced the team they deserved based on the rules of the day.
Given Reja’s comment history, I don’t think it was a literal statement
A Huddy behind the bench wouldn’t hurt either.
I would like to add Jarventie who has a very impressive AHL resume with the only real being the lack of games.
I would suggest that Jarventie and Regula are the two player most likely to see NHL games, with impact, in calendar year 2026.
Perhaps Hutson should be in that group but I take his big NCAA season with trepidation due to age until I see it translate to the AHL to start (I was not that overly impressed in his very short stint last season).
Leppanen is probably the guy with the highest ceiling, I mean, that production in Liiga is massive and, if he can find some structure in the North America game, there is big upside here – I think its more likely that he “doesn’t make it” but, if he does, it could be a big one.
I’m with you on Hutson, I’d be surprised if he gets any NHL games this year
I had a dream that McDavid signed a 1 year contract at league minimum so that the team could spend the savings on trading for a top goalie to try to win the cup, with the understanding he’d make the money back after. It was awesome.
Then I woke up and realized that the spicy taco’s I ate for dinner did bad things to me.
Was Ranford wearing one of those awesome Mexican wrestling masks in the dream?
That would be a way to get Ilya Sorokin on this roster.
I predict that McDavid will sign 7 x $14 million.
That would be shocking but I’ll certainly take it.
There is “taking a discount” to what he could get and there is giving up tens and tens of millions of dollars to what would be reasonable.
I mean how much would that deal be giving up as oppossed to signed 4 years now at 15.5% and another for 3 years at the new 15%? $30MM?
As I mentioned yesterday, Crosby took a massive discount on his 3rd contract. He took $8.7 million when he could have asked for much more. Ray Shero, at the time, said Crosby came to them very soon after the season and told management he wanted to keep his AAV at his lucky number $8.7 million per year and to help out the team. They were thrilled. There was no negotiation other than sculpting the per annual dollar amounts and signing bonuses vs salary.
The noted contract would be for 13.5% of the cap in the year it kicks, in similar to Crosby’s contract but Crosby didn’t sign that contract in the current cap environment – the cap is to rise $10MM between year 1 and 2 of the contract and it would already be down to 12.3% of the cap.
Tens of millions of dollars given up versus signing two 4 year deals at 15% of cap.
On the date Crosby signed his contract, everybody expected the 12/13 season to have a $70 million cap hit. That would have been a 9% increase in the cap in the year before it kicked in, continuing roughly the trend since 2005/06. So Crosby’s contract would have been only12.4% of the cap in the year before it kicked in and expected to drop steadily thereafter.
The only thing that derailed that trend was the owners locking out the players at the start of the season. The issues the owners had with the prior deal weren’t known to the players till the owners presented their offer in mid July, 2 weeks after Crosby signed his deal and 3 weeks after he and Pittsburgh had verbally announced the deal he would sign. He locked in at that lower percent of the cap for 12 years still believing the cap would keep rising at a decent rate just like the players today believe.
Year 1 of Crosby’s contract, after the owners pushed for and received changes in the revenue sharing formula, his 8.7 million was 13.6% of the cap. In year 2, his AAV as a percent of the cap dropped to 12.55% of the cap. And he still had 10 years to go. His cap percents were expected to be lower when he signed it. Crosby left 10s of millions on the table when it was worth more.
To add a little more perspective, in 2017 the Oilers signed a deal with Leon to a deal that was almost equal to what Crosby was making. Crosby had just passed 1,000 points, had been second in scoring over the 2 prior seasons, won the Rocket Richard that year and just collected his second consecutive Conn Smythe. He was only in year 4 of his deal and had just turned 30, the same age Leon is now. Had he only signed for 4 years in 2012, in 2017 he could have have gotten an AAV higher than the $12.5 Connor was given if he wanted it.
If you have tens of millions banked, I don’t think future economic security is at risk, especially given outside income for generational players. It’s about winning. But the Pen’s management whooped it, could be on Connor’s mind
Of course the whooping for me was retiring Malkin and Letang as Pens. Only Sid and restock
Ask yourself this. How badly does Connor really want to win? What drives him?
Why would he take more than Leon, who has had some superior seasons, like last season and why would he make it harder for his team to bring in more talent?
Also, why would he risk taking a short-term contract? He’s had 2 experiences with significant injuries, he knows all about the risks he is subjected to daily the way he plays and with that giant target his back.
This is the way.
There is taking less and there is giving up tens of millions of dollar. This is likely giving up in the $30MM range as opposed to signing two 4 year deals at 15% of the cap.
That is “a” way, not “the” way.
“That is “a” way, not “the” way.“
You are correct.
I am quoting the Mandalorian, because I like to. The meaning likely escapes you, but it reasonates with me. And in the McDavid context it is completely meaningless.
Crosby knew he was potentially leaving tens of millions on the table. Anything else is revisionist history. He wanted to stay with his team and win.
Connor says this but it looks like fluff, we will see when he signs.
The odd poster here will support and argue that whatever contract he signs was the ‘way it had to be done’
In the end he is a free man and its business.
To me this is the tipping point and I can’t shake the feeling when he is traded I will not be anywhere near as sad as I was in 88.
Really hope I am wrong.