The Edmonton Oilers are once again taking the slow route to the final roster. This is unwise. In the last two season openers, the team has been flattened by teams who are focused on beating the Stanley Cup finalists.
Is it worth giving players another game? Maybe. Josh Samanski has looked good, and maybe the team wants to showcase someone for a trade. However, the team is burning daylight. Jake Walman is delayed playing due to injury, and he may not play until opening night. That’s a common theme for the Oilers in the season opener, and the results are often poor.
I think the coaching staff would be wise to get a wiggle on. There are two preseason games remaining, and plenty of questions. The team has the No. 1 line nailed down, but the second line is up in the air. I’m not convinced Ryan Nugent-Hopkins can push the river offensively, but he might be able to play opponents at par given the right linemates. Who are the right linemates?
Vasily Podkolzin returns this week and that will help the depth chart. I have a feeling we’re going to see the top two lines populated by veterans, Matt Savoie on the third line and Ike Howard in the minors. That isn’t a bad thing, but if that’s the plan, Howard could use time in Bakersfield to gain confidence. He’s looking better this last week, but that doesn’t mean a month in the AHL would be a bad idea.
Goalie Connor Ungar. Defenseman Atro Leppanen (he doesn’t need waivers but has looked very good), Riley Stillman, Cam Dineen, and forwards Josh Samanski and Quinn Hutson. That’s six men who could be sent away. The Oilers should do it today.
The camp this fall has been a memorable one for me. After years of yelling about a lack of talent bubbling up, Stan Bowman has done a wise thing: replace the lost draft picks and traded prospects with European veterans who are legit (and look to be an upgrade on Nygard-Haas) and marbled in some early 20’s real prospects like Samanski, Hutson, Damien Carfagna and others. It’s an encouraging turn.
Michael Russo
@RussoHockey
Kaprizov structure is truly one of a kind, per sources. He’s getting 20% of $95.5M cap in salary/signing bonuses ($19.1M) his 1st 4 years
He has $1 million salaries in each of the 8 years.
July 1 signing bonuses: 2026: $18.1M; 2027: $18.1M; 2028: $18.1M; 2029: $18.1M; 2030: $16M; 2031: $14.2M; 2032: $12.7M; 2033:$12.7M
Full no-move clause (Contract not yet registered/approved by NHL)
Yuck.
@PuckPedia
Interesting to note that in the next CBA, the league minimum salary will likely be above $1M in 2030-2031 & beyond, so Kaprizov would get a raise to the new minimum and have his contract automatically adjusted upwards.
Oilers are super sick says coach. All the young guys still around will play tomorrow and they will be re-calling some of the guys sent to Bako for tomorrow.
Walman (not illness) will not play tomorrow and likely won’t play Friday.
Pickard starts tomorrow and Skinner on Friday.
That Kaprizov contract is batsh!t insane. He’s making $3M more than Drai, $4M more than Matthews, $4.5M more than Mackinnon.
Each of those guys took ~5% more than the previous record. Kaprizov took over 20% more than the previous record.
And damn, does it ever screw us over. There’s no way McDavid takes less than a guy who has averaged 40G 44A over the last four seasons. He might even think that to be in the same neighbourhood as Kaprizov is an insult. And you can understand why.
Kaprizov got paid $3M more than he deserved because Minny was desperate not to lose a star.
Maybe that’s about to be true for us too…..
Kaprizov has no bearing on McD in my opinion. McD can get what he wants, from us or elsewhere. He could get 20.8 before Kaprizov if he wanted, somewhere.
But if McD is looking for max dollar than winning is not his top priority, money is. Which is fine, his choice, but how can a team pay 20% to one player and be competitive? Your mileage may vary.
McD is letting other FAs sign huge, then he’s gonna sneak in and sign 9.7.
Leadfarmer beat me to the idea, as I saw when scrolling down.
Oilers have projected 42 mil cap space next year.
so let’s say 11 mil go to Ekholm and Walman
15 mil go to Mcdavid and 1 mil for a backup G that leaves them with 15 mil for spending money
and the following year Nurses NMC becomes a 10 team NTC
There’s a lot of potential for roster improvements with the proper GM
Walman will be at least $7 million, and it will be hard to force a pay cut on Ekholm (unless he falls off a cliff this year, but we do not want that since that means no Cup), so he will be $6 million. McDavid will get $17, duration TDB.
So one is down to $10 million, of which a starting goaltender will take at least half of that.
Ekholm they were talking 4.5 mil per. And Walman will probably get just under 7. So to make math easier I just said 11. You want to call it call it 12 go for it.
Ek needs to take less. In my opinion.
And I’m willing to bet a Woodguy that Mcdavid won’t sign for 17 mil
Not every player has his identity tied up in who gets paid the most. Besides Kaprizov according to PP has earned 38.43M and Connor 92.78M. I doubt Connor is worried about it, and is more concerned about his legacy
Given the rising cap…a good backup goaltender will be a minimum of $2 million.
3C and 3LD will also need attention.
If Tomasek can fill the 3C position, I would imagine his cap hit will jump significantly from the current $1.2 million.
Perhaps the Kulak replacement comes internally at low cost.
Full Oilers practice today – Escott notes no Philp or Tomasek- presumably banged up/maintenance/sick and not being re-assigned (waived in the case of Philp) – today’s waiver placements should be out soon.
Only Tompkins on waivers for the Oilers today.
He was actually waived yesterday, and cleared.
According to this he was waived today. It was early though because I think I saw it this morning or early afternoon and I’m in NS. 22 NHL players placed on waivers for Sept. 30
Puckpedia had him on waivers yesterday afternoon
Ok, yes I see that now per Puckpedia, but I don’t see that he cleared. Was he waived after the daily deadline yesterday? Anyway, hopefully he clears if he hasn’t already.
Agreed, good having a veteran tender in Bako
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Connor Ungar is already on the Condors, I believe.
Given where we are, I think a bunch of these guys play in Seattle tomorrow and then most of the opening lineup on Friday for the finale.
Coach has said he’s playing Leppanen again and we do need to see Regula against a good Seattle lineup, hopefully.
The rest don’t need to play another game unless there are some vets that only want to play 1 more – likely.
I do hope K.K starts Pickard in the home opener as he’s outplayed Skinner.The apologetics will say the usual standard fluff excuses for him that it’s only preseason then they’ll use it’s only regular season then comes the adapting to a new coach.
I think the plan is to give them each one of the remaining 2 games. For your wish to be granted, let’s hope Picks gets more high danger shots tossed at him compared to the 3 he’s currently faced in the pre-season games so far.
Lowetide said: “The Edmonton Oilers are once again taking the slow route to the final roster. This is unwise. In the last two season openers, the team has been flattened by teams who are focused on beating the Stanley Cup finalists.”
I mentioned a few days ago that I would like to see the Oilers start as they mean to go. And the Oilers coaching staff seems resistant to doing this. I don’t understand why the Oilers are so allergic to using the pre-season to prepare the team for game 1 of the season. And it’s not just the current coaching staff… it feels like the last time we had lines and pairings figured out to start the season, McT was the head coach.
And speaking of coaching, I know Coach K’s team has made it to the finals two years in a row. But attributing much of the organization’s success to the coach doesn’t feel true. I think Coach K has been *adequate*, but it’s the fact that McDavid and Draisatl (and Bouchard and others) have simply been too good to be denied (so I am assigning substantial praise to Holland and Bowman for bringing in some helpful players).
I believe McDavid and Drai would have made the finals with any number of different coaches over the past two seasons. I also believe that with a different coach, we may have won a cup by now. If the Oilers had had Maurice behind the bench, I think the Oilers would have won both cups. /end rant
I agree. It is easy to attribute their success to a lot of things, but really it’s been because of their top 3 players. Their first Cup run those guys were breaking playoff records. Their second after a wobbly start they went pretty well through some good teams
When they struggled with the Panthers the rest of the roster couldn’t make up the difference. They are as deep as they’ve been in ages, but there is a way to go, to move past just getting some better players, to building a team top to bottom. The team to me lacked the right balance and a strong enough identity outside of having three league top players. This is where the coaches need to find progress this season, engage everyone and get them to their best games
Bowman has made good progress, and found players that are making significant contributions like Walman and Pod, he will do more
I am hoping McDavid signs a one year deal for $17 million before the start of the season.
I think the Oilers roster is in too much flux for him to sign long term. His best chance to win is with Draisaitl, but Bowman has to manage a large roster revamp next summer with all the UFA’s.
I think he doesn’t want to sign a contract before other players sign at a higher cap hit as a favor to the nhlpa. I call baloney on all this talk that Mcdavid doesn’t know what he wants to do. He is a very calm and calculated individual,
Kaprizov signed for 17 mil. Eichel will sign next probably for 14-15 and then Mcdavid will come in at under 15
Ha. I had that same thought!
It does not seem fathomable that Kaprizov and McDavid can sign an extension in the same season that kicks in for the same season with Kaprizov having a hire AAV but, at the same time, its not totally illogical.
The term of the contract will materially change the AAV on a deal like this. A reason why a long term deal for McDavid probably didn’t make sense is the AAV would need to hit the max to price in where the cap is going – that is what Kaprizov got.
A short term deal in the 1-2-3 year range allows the AAV to be lower as a new contract would price in cap increases.
McDavid can still reasonably come in at $15MM on a 2-year deal as wild as it sounds.
COULD – might not.
I don’t care what or how long he signs I just want him to sign before game one. If he’s not interested in signing and he wants to try free agency then Bowman needs to make difficult decisions but nonetheless they need to be done so our franchise continues to stay in the top tier.
If he isn’t signed by Game 1, Bowman must begin the process of shipping the captain out and all the messy steps that go with it.
McDavid has a no-movement clause, he won’t be shipped out unless he wants to be shipped out. McDavid and his agent completely control this process.
There is a large delta between (a) not being signed before game 1 and (b) not interested in signing and saying he want to try free agency.
McDavid has indicated that he is fully committed to winning with the Oilers this season – its highly likely there is no chance he will agree to be traded.
I also remain highly confident he will sign with the Oilers.
Everything he’s said has been cryptic. I’m calling it as I see it he’s using the Marner playbook the Seinfeld episode its not you it’s me break-up fluff. If McDavid leaves without us getting anything in return half the fans will turn on him and they have every right to-do so as paying customers. So far McDavid has won zilch if he sneaks out the same way Marner left his legacy will take a major hit as Oilers fans are the most loyal&passionate in the league. If they believe a player is pulling a fast one on them they can be absolutely ruthless.
It depends, does he want Stanley cups or does he want the most money. If he wants the most money he significantly decreases the chance of getting a cup
As he stated himself, he wants to win, first and foremost, but he also wants to get what he’s earned – he’s spent his entire life committed and focused to get where he is.
He is trying to determine the “right balance” as a primary consideration (perhaps only consideration).
He has every ability to sign an 8 year deal for the max or even yearly 1-year deals as each year’s new max, if he was only concerned about money.
Its not as simple as you lay out.
Any answer that doesn’t have Draistaitl centering his own line is an incorrect answer.
Knoblauch wanted to see which new forwards could stand on their own two feet without help from McDavid or Draisaitl.
The risk with this strategy is another poor start to the season because the lineup is still in flux.
Knoblauch has shown some facility for quickly finding combinations that work from a group of forwards that he has confidence in.
The glass might be half full, but it also might be half empty. We find out next week.
I’m with you on this Godot.
I do think there’s a real (at least non-zero) possibility that the season does indeed start with McD and Drai on separate lines. Pod coming back this week and Drai’s repeated mentions of how he likes playing with him might mean we end up seeing:
Nuge-McD-Frederic
Pod-Drai-XXX (I’m guessing Howard for now based on the way things have been deployed).
That helps with the Nuge looking lost thing and means there’s two functional top 6 lines. Eventually you can have Hyman slide into either the second line, or take Frederic’s place with McD and slide him down the order a bit.
Nuge’s contract was structured so that he could move down and work with the cap – less cap and too much term
He hasn’t been productive enough to stay as 1LW. Connor should have better, more impactful help so he can weather the teams like the Panthers better. Ideally it’s not Drai so they can have two dangerous lines, like the Oilers of yore. It’s a similar situation as well, having the crazy talent world beater followed by a heavy hard nosed centre. Hard to play against that set up
I like all of the players, they are nice guys etc, but I think Connor needs more assertive linemates. I have never enjoyed players that are too vanilla, they are fair weather reg season types. Going deep in the playoffs and winning it all requires the ability to face and better anything they throw at you, and when you have more skill it’s always shenanigans, always has been. Zach if he can return to and keep his level up fits the bill mostly, I would like to see a different look LW
I don’t mean thugs and pugilists, but players with brass that assert and don’t let themselves get beat in the details. Ekholm isn’t violent but he’s that, Pod too. It’s a mindset and I think it mostly has to be who that player is, it’s hard to fake it or try to be that successfully when you aren’t. A couple of poop disturbers is never a bad thing either
Mangiapane fits the bill. As I recall, he’s a poop disturber.
Wonder if Mcdavid will sign now or if he wants an Eichel or Connor to sign first
Kaprizov @$17 million x 8 is nuts.
McDavid’s $17,000,097 AAV will be much more palatable.
It’s less about money & more about winning a cup for McDavid. Kaprizov will never win a cup.
That’s a sobering thought.
Exactly double the Wild’s next most expensive contract with Brock Faber at $8.5 million.
Double the insanity. I understand Kaprizov is the main draw, but what a ridiculous way to handcuff your team. Rising cap or not.
But the thing is…it doesn’t.
With Kaprizov at $17 million, Minnesota has $23 million in free cap space next season.
The only major free agent they have to worry about is goaltender Filip Gustavsson.
TBF to Minny, they did somehow manage to stay competitive for years whilst having a zillion dollars tied up in retention. Managing the cap with Kaprisov at $17 mill and staying in the playoff hunt will be easy compared to that.
Bad contract but necessary decision, The 3 mil overpay keeps the team relevant. Without him they would be back to a floundering franchise with no ability to recruit good talent
That makes sense, the money just boggles my mind is all. Minnesota is a good hockey place, never understood why they never could keep and attract players.
We’ll wait and see if the NHLPA steps in on the McDavid contract
Why exactly would the NHLPA care what McDavid signs for? There is a fixed pool of money. Advocating for the stars to take more of the pool keeps the rank-and-file majority “poor.” The majority would not like that. The NHLPA “stepping in,” ever, is a false narrative. Did they pressure Crosby? Did they pressure anybody? The answer is no.
KK 8 yr ext $17M per. Time for another 97 to sign?
You sound in a panic today LT.
First game of 2023-24: Vancouver 8, Edmonton 1
First game of 2024-25: Winnipeg 6, Edmonton 0
The Oilers lollygag in preseason. Worried their stars are going to get tired, they instead make sure the team is not ready. I don’t think panic means what you think it means.
— I’m an aware “I don’t know what I dont know” fan.
— for what it’s worth I’m bracing for a tumultuous season
— If Connor wasn’t resigning this is how he ought to play it
— if management knows he isn’t resigning this is exactly how they play it : plus I think the lack of significant transactions portends a future where they have an extra 17mm to spend on new players.
— one of their top wingers is recovering from wrist surgery and I’ve seen the play book too often of aging star coming back from injury without a pre season and it doesn’t work out
— one of the replacement wingers hasn’t played pre season and that often doesn’t work out
— they have another winger playing on the super line who has no established track record of being #1 line winger
— the goalie tandem is just shocking to go into year 3 thinking it’s going to be fine : maybe like the hitting coach change for jays really did make a difference this new goalie coach can make a difference for Skinner
— McDrai has never won them a cup and they now have less winger depth than previous years.
— KK isn’t this GMs coach and things seem off : maybe I’m projecting?
— so much meh and hoping for the best with the rest of forward group and rookies and we don’t know if nuge actually can be effective as 3C
— last few years felt pretty confident about the teams chances.
— I don’t know what I dont know : hope for a season like the Jays had because on paper they didn’t look good and look what they did.
— then hope for some deadly acquisitions: bieber varland sir Anthony even France all great gets for jays.
— need some star oilers to have career years and others to exceed reasonable expectations
LFGOILERS!!! But I’m full of trepidation…
The best chance of a performance spike comes from youth and those who are not yet established. So, that’s Savoie, Howard, Philp, Tomasek, Leppanen, Regula and the goalie Bowman picks up in the next few days (probably someone like Ingram, who has cleared waivers).
The coach has to play Savoie and the others who have a chance to be regulars in the playoffs. Play them in the fall and winter, then you know what you have in the spring. To everything there is a season.
— agreed : lots more seems to need to go exceedingly right with more unknowns
— I see what you did there re “the goalie that gets picked up”…
we wait
It seems they get too concerned about things to the point they create unintended consequences
The coaches have to build the entire team up through the season as goal #1. I think Knoblauch needs to be motivational, and energize them, engage the players and show trust in them. Which is why I don’t like the constant micromanaging, switching lines all of the time, D partners except Ek Bouch, reverting to old things that aren’t that good anymore, it loses a lot of the players I think
They don’t feel a role and don’t develop line identities to play to, and they need every single guy playing well as much as possible and pulling on the rope at the same time. Connor pretty much said he thinks things were stale, and he seemed to me to want change and to try new things. he knows they need to keep taking steps forward
Trust the players that are there to do their jobs well, regardless of how they use Connor and Leon. If they aren’t good enough or the right fit Stan can work on that
Yes. And play the kids!
Mangiapane-McDavid-Frederic
Podkolzin-Draisaitl-Savoie
Howard-Nuge-Kapanen
Henrique/Janmark-Philp-Lazar
When Hyman is back move Frederic down to replace Kapanen.
I like that look. Connor and Leon deserve players that are hungrier to score than they’ve had, and who can finish better. Mangi is a pain in the ass, I think a player like Connor needs two wingers that the bad guys also have to worry about, one way or another
The best hockey is about breaking the other team down, using everything you can throw at them. For me they haven’t been good enough at that against teams like Florida, and the Kings have given them a hard time. Chippy tight defensive teams essentially
They also lollygagged the starts to the majority of games they played last year. I would like to see them not have to come from behind every night. I get that some of that is on the goaltenders, but as a team they weren’t ready to play at puck drop most nights.
It’s a quibble Lowetide, but I would say that it’s “The Oilers’ coaching staff lollygags in the preseason”.
Bang on LT!
Yup. When everyone from management to coaches to players say they want a better start, that ‘s what the focus should be on. That means by this time your roster should basically be set and at most you should be tweeking the lines.
Maybe the word is “impatient,” not “panic.” Impatient for the coach to do what seems so obvious to LT?
If I’ve learned anything from watching this coach it’s patience.
Last year LT compared the Oilers penchant for slow starts to that old farm truck -International Harvester, if I remember correctly- that takes a few cranks to get rolling. Might have been a Fargo. I liked the image, but I thought at the time the team is more like one of those 1960s English sports cars: a lot of patient tinkering —and then! Off to another SCF! Not sure an old farm pickup could manage that…
So, I watch the coach and the team, and all that finicky, never-to-quite-fit-expectations talent, fart and backfire their way to their own starting line (could be Oct 8, could a week or two later) before everything clicks.