Clifford doesn’t watch all of the hockey games with me. If the score gets out of hand, Clifford loses interest and goes in search of things he loves (Clifford loves love, I’ve never seen a dog in my life more grateful for head pats, pets, scratches and hugs) that are in the house or backyard. Clifford doesn’t think the Oilers should make a trade for a goalie (Jordan Binnington) today. I’m inclined to agree.
The good thing about this season is the Edmonton Oilers are a long way from being a true Stanley Cup contender. I doubt anyone truly believes the club is one goalie (Jordan Binnington) away from the promised land. There’s a certain comfort in that, because Oilers fans know all about team building and how to do it right. And wrong.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN NOVEMBER
- At home to: Chicago (Expected 1-0) Actual 1-0
- Road: Blues, Stars (Expected 1-1-0) Actual 0-1-1
- At home to: Avalanche, Blue Jackets (1-0-1) Actual 1-1-0
- On the road to: Flyers, Blue Jackets, Hurricanes (1-2-0) Actual 2-1-0
- On the road to: Sabres, Capitals, Lightning, Panthers (1-2-1) Actual 1-2-1
- At home to: Stars (1-0-0) 0-1-0
- On the road to: Kraken (0-0-1)
- Expected Record: 6-5-3, 15 points in 14 games
- Actual Record 5-6-2, 12 points in 13 games
- Season Record: 10-10-5, 25 points in 25 games
The Oilers are through a truly awful part of the schedule, and a 3-2 loss counts the same as last night’s debacle. The problem for this group is the debacles are more common than normal, and I think we can point to myriad issues. The goaltending isn’t good enough, the defensive awareness is often poor, coverage gaps are made worse by the strange gapping between defense and forwards that sees the F’s slow to respond because they’re on another continent. Overplaying the elites, bad line changes, injuries and waiting on so many bets to turn the corner are all a drag on results.
I get the plan, I understand the plan, I know the plan doesn’t work overnight. All of that said, this group doesn’t appear to be the answer and something has to give. What, pray tell, will that look like?
- Clattenburg-Tomasek-Janmark played 9:07, 3-1 shots, 1-0 goals, 98 X; 2-0 HDSC
- Savoie-McDavid-Roslovic played 6:57, 5-3 shots, 1-1 goals, 46 X; 3-2 HDSC
- Draisaitl-McDavid-Hyman played 5:28, 3-3 shots, 39 X; 0-1 HDSC
Connor Clattenburg scored! Love it. What a great accomplishment for this young man. He made the NHL in his rookie pro season and now has a goal (in his second game). I will tell you the numbers did not imply this story line and Rick Pracey and his staff deserve kudos. The OHL, man. It’s the real thing.
I didn’t like much else, there were coverage gaps, bad line changes (Trent Frederic got himself benched, it appears) and the Glimmer Twins looked like ordinary people. The Dallas Stars ran their show, ate their lunch, kicked sand in their face and took their girl. You can’t slice it any other way this morning. That was a humbling.
- Nurse-Regula 17:10, 9-12 shots, 0-2 goals, 45 X; 4-8 HDSC
- Ekholm-Bouchard 14:55, 5-5 shots, 1-2 goals, 39 X; 2-2 HDSC
- Kulak-Emberson 12:46, 4-4 shots, 2-1 goals, 64 X; 3-2 HDSC
Ekholm-Bouchard were on the ice for five GA including all game states. Turrible. I like the pairing, though, and Bouchard has recovered nicely in November. I don’t really have much good to say here, and won’t quote the goalie numbers because more misery seems a little over the top.
There’s also no good reason to pursue a veteran goalie with term who isn’t clearly capable of leading this team to Stanley. Adding Jordan Binnington is a dangerous play in my opinion. I’m onboard with making a deal for a goaltender, and admit they are voodoo and I don’t have the answer. If Bowman is dealing for Binnington, he better be right. This isn’t the clear difference maker he’s looking for.
I find the idea of management believing Binnington to be the answer frustrating. After watching years of Peter Chiarelli and Ken Holland bleeding talent for less than 100 cents on the dollar, Stan Bowman appeared to be an upgrade. A trade that brings Binnington to Edmonton for (say) Stuart Skinner and Brett Kulak (plus a little retention by St. Louis, God knows how much that will cost the Oilers) is once again compromising the future without enough improvement today.
Perhaps I’m missing something. Maybe the analytics folks have identified something in Binnington’s game that will unleash the fury. He can handle the puck well, but stopping it (especially this season) has been an issue. I do agree a goalie change must be made. Don’t do it, Stan. These are not the goalies you’re looking for.
On the Lowdown today, we’ll be joined by Kevin McCurdy and give you plenty of chance to vent about last night’s game. Noon to 2pm, Sports 1440 and You Tube.
New for The Athletic: Why do Evan Bouchard’s issues always crop up early for the Edmonton Oilers?
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6834757/2025/11/26/oilers-evan-bouchard-stats-standings-2025/
Love it!
In the midst of disappointment, reason to remain interested and curious.
I’m just glad the oilers didn’t sign skinner to a long term $7.5million contract after one good season…
Two marketing adjustments that might help.
1. Team should make a 4th jersey and call themselves the edmonton no fight club.
2. Dead center ice from hash marks to goaline should now be referred to as the voldemort. At practice, calling game, during interviews or by any analysts.
New guy at practice: “Like what about that area?”
Everyone just has this panic look towards them and someone says ” 1st rule of no fight club is we never dare talk about “it” that should not be named.”
At least then it would sort of make sense when you pay to go to a game what you should likely expect. Like it would sort of be amusing in a saddistic way?
All kidding aside:
That’s got to be a rough feeling dressing room right about now. Just run ragged and getting booed out of own rink. I hope they come together in there and come out of this stromger for it. If you are going to suck and do shitty travel -> better early than late in season.
Both Friedman and Stauffer saying they don’t see Binnington making sense. They both say Jarry makes a lot of sense.
Ah, because the Oilers can never have too many token Oil Kings.
Will they be giving up a 1st and a 2nd for him too?
(BTW, not trying to attack you. Just a little salty about the Oilers seeming to stay true to form and thinking inside the box.)
It might be generous to think that the Oilers even have a box
Well stated Taylsie! Say hi to your dad Kevin, I was a has fan back in ’93!
The 93 Habs definitely had a box!
This is the type of box that came to mind.
https://youtu.be/Rt0spqQtMKg?si=NWoEH5OhoZBSzpmx
Just for once could you guys stop thinking inside that box with a dickhead !!
Jarry would make MUCH more sense than Binnington.
Binnington makes zero sense – I wouldn’t trade Skinner straight up for him – far from a locked in upgrade and a big cap commitment for next season – no way.
At least Jarry is having a good season – Binnigston has been one of the worst goalies in the league.
I confess that I was excited by the summer time, predraft rumour started by Billy Steph. The breakdown was Nurse for Jarry and Pittsburgh’s 1st round pick. The deal hinged on the fact that Dubas was the GM of Nurse’s junior team. The rumour was, of course, balderdash.
I’ve always believed the group with NMC’s are here for Stanley. So, I doubt Nurse would approve any deal.
I think your belief is imminently sensible. Even Vegas (and Lou) would have problems getting out of this situation.
Especially this season given he and his wife are expecting their 3rd child. (They announced this on their Instagram pages the end of Sept).
Mark Stone coming off IR against Ottawa tonight.
The Knights just got better.
Jared McCann also activated in Seattle.
I wish health and success to them, and less than Oilers
And Nuge about to be activated off IR and then Walman will be back.
Pointless troll post – nothing else.
Both Stone and McCann playing tonight.
Who knows when those guys will be back.
Pointless response.
So go discuss it on a Vegas and Krkin fan discussion. Good grief you are dense
Not a peep out of the Oilers. It’s to quiet something is brewing is the below average Skinner experiment mercifully over?
Are you expecting a “state of the union” or something?
This team is too talented to be .500 if they’re going to give up they might as well trade Connor and do a rebuild on the fly starting with better Goaltending.
If you think about it the other way, instead of of a massive damage move like Campbell, they have said any improvement ‘that makes sense’ is always on the table
Who said anything about giving up?
What does that have to be do with my response? or your original comment I responded to?
Just another random statement….
The as is approach you’re always peddling isn’t working. Mediocrity might cut it in Calgary but it doesn’t in the City Of Champions.
random statement.
The team is too talented to be .500, but that’s not the goalies’ fault. I’m not excusing the goaltending this season because an amazing save once in a while would really help, but you keep making comments that place the majority of the blame on Skinner.
As per Friedman’s 32 Thoughts:
“It’s 100 per cent true the Oilers are sieve-like defensively: at even-strength, they are 25th in shots against from the slot on the cycle, 29th from the slot overall and 30th from the slot against the rush (Sportlogiq). You need prime Dominik Hasek against those numbers, and captain Connor McDavid did the right thing by saying how bad they were in front of Skinner.”
Put league average defending in front of Skinner (and Pickard) and see what happens. My bet is we see at least league average goaltending. However, the defence hasn’t been helped much by the offensive issues.
Per Jonathan Willis’ The Corsi Knight:
A good offence reduces the need to defend. A timely goal for can eliminate the need to defend or the need for a timely save.
Summarizing!
Fischer picked up not one, not five, but two assists in a rare Notre Dame win (now 4-8-1).
Prospecting takes a break until Freya’s Day.
Goalies are voodoo. Trade for cheap journeyman tweeners, especially from teams with established starters, and see if one of them sticks.
Mackenzie Blackwood had four consecutive bad years, followed by a couple decent months in San Jose, when Colorado picked him up. He was barely a tweener, and it worked out.
A big part of player success is fit, especially with goalies. You don’t know the fit until you try it. Look around for AHL goalies.
Ville Husso? Cayden Primeau? Kaapo Kahkonen? Justus Annunen? Samuel Ersson? Offer Pickard to these teams (he went 8-2 in the playoffs!), and maybe it ends up as a win-win. Or a fifth-round pick.
I’m surprised that teams don’t do this more often.
Pickard being ‘good in the room’ may be a problem. Switch him with another of these goalies and make the room uncomfortable for a bit.
How did Blackwood work out? He lost in the playoffs, outplayed by Oettinger, and is currently the backup in Colorado.
Blackwood has missed most of the season due to injury. He is 3-0-1, so he is undefeated.
He is usually the alpha dog, but he a Wedgewood have a long history of supporting each other over the last several years..
There is also still 75% of the season left to play….
Hasn’t Blackwood had availability issues most of his career?
Colorado had a few other issues last season.
Blackwood was not a major problem.
.892 save percentage in the playoffs (Blackwood) looks like a problem if .889 (Skinner) is a problem. If Skinner gave up one less goal in last season’s playoffs, his save percentage would have been .892.
Ya, LT, maybe I’m missing something on Binnington when you talk track record. Do you not put more stock into goals saved above expected when the team is crap? If so, Binnington was apparently top 10 from 23-25. But he should be similarly considered a buy low candidate. His value relative to contract is definitely lower than Skinner right now, and any trade should reflect that. There was talk that Edmonton was asking for a D back as well (not kicking in one of their own, as you proposed). I would do a
Binnington (with half retained salary) and D for Skinner is what I would do. It’s a bet
I’ve been clear about my reasons. Struggling goalie, $6 million cap NEXT year and of course you have to make the money work and that means assets. Bowman needs to acquire a goalie, but try to get someone younger, who can grow with the group and become a foundation piece. I don’t see Binnington for Skinner with St. Louis retaining as a deal the Blues would make, and now you’re piling assets one on another again. Might as well have kept Ken Holland. No sir. I think Bowman should pass on this opportunity.
Accidentally replied to the wrong post.
That’s fair. It would not be the only move I make, and as mentioned, it is not a deal I would make without specific points (eg no additional assets given up, salary retained by StL), but it is a bet that Binnington can do better than one of these goalies. Both Oilers goalies in the NHL need to be replaced.
Skinner is a UFA. He has no value except for money going out.
The Blues do not have to trade Binnington, nor Faulk, nor Schenn. They can wait for needy contenders to pay up.
Dumping Binnington’s negative value contract for term has value.
STL has no cap issues so has little motivation to make a move.
They also have $25 million in free cap space in the offseason with only contracts for Holloway and Broberg to worry about.
Both are RFAs with arbitration rights.
Binnington is not a negative value contract, particularly since Buffalo took their number 3, Colton Ellis, off the them on waivers just before the season began (who has a winning record in Buffalo).
St. Louis could extend Binnington this summer at a lower number to end his career while transitioning slowly to Hofer as #1.
Binnington could have a long career in St. Louis in a 50/50 1A/1B with Hofer.
He could be the new homegrown Jake Allen.
You don’t know what Binnington would be willing to sign, if anything, in July. Given he’s one of the worst goalies in the league statistically, he may not want to sign coming off this season.
And, yes, when a player is greatly underperforming their cap hit, and there is term, and they are in to their 30s, that would be a negative value contract.
How is it that Yesavage can move up like 5 leagues in a year, but Samuel Jonsson will likely stay in Fort Wayne all year?
Yes find young bets, yes consider the AHL pool (although neither goalie seems like the savior), but slow playing Jonsson is still a choice. Especially because he is currently blocked by 2 AHL goalies that management will not bring up for a cup of coffee when their season is in the crapper.
For the record, I still think the season is salvageable.
Many Oilers fans are parking themselves in 1 of 2 camps – either believing that the system is broken and can be fixed (me), or that the core of a team that has made it to B2B finals has suddenly deteriorated, simultaneously.
As much as I hate Frederic and his contract (may go down as worst in Oilers history), he’s not the reason considering his play time has been minimal in recent weeks.
I also have no time for the overplaying McDrai argument. Were the 2 over fatigued by the time it was 4-0? 6-1?
Fix the system, then maybe you have time to fix the goaltending
There’s only so many chairs at the dance when it comes to Goalies. I would consider Jonsson as a project. Ingram is more of a ? But he’s definitely at the age (28) with it being last year of contract where he’s not a project. If Jonsson continues to light it up then he’s being blocked by Tomkins and Ingram.
1) Progression to MLB and progression to NHL are not equatable.
2) Samuel Jonsson has played 6 games and as far as I know, no-one in the org has said anything about him “staying in Fort Wayne all year”.
3) Samuel Jonsson is currently hurt.
Tomkins 2 year contract is up this year. Jonsson is a huge longshot of long shots. There’s literally a 100 Goalies in the same boat as Samuel but if he plays extremely well you have to move him up the ladder or he just fades away maybe to resurface in 6-7 years for another franchise. We all know Goaltending is 90% crapshoot but you do not pass up on a possible top 10 projected franchise Goalie falling in your lap unless the player you are taking is somebody you had eyed up like O’Reilly was.
Tomkins is signed this year and next as we just signed him in July. He’s 31 and knows he’s the AHL guy so I don’t think he’d block any of the three younger guys but I also think if one gets called up to the AHL, they’ll have to outplay him or go back down.
1) Tomkins is signed for next year
2) Jonsson is far from a lock to make it but he’s a solid prospect with a real chance
3) Yes, of course, he should progress – against its been SIX GAMES and he’s hurt – your demands for immediate results from everything are the most unreasonable requirements I’ve even read in sports.
4 What does Sam O’Reily have to do with anything? You do know this is not a “can’t miss’ blue chip prospect right? He’s a good prospect with a real chance but miles to go. Also, as an aside, your can’t miss 3C has had his offence stagnated and is now a minus player when not surrounded with the deepest group in junior hockey.
Why would they take Bourgault unless somebody really liked him. Wright and Holland lost there jobs on that brain dead pick. Usually good players show early like a Hutson in Montreal draft order means shit. Jesse was a bust it didn’t take long to figure that out or maybe it did for some people.
More random statement that have nothing to do with the conversation.
So weird.
Howard is not L. Hutson – he didn’t shown himself to be instantly dynamic. He will be but he has work to do and he’s currently putting in the work
1) I know that, so that’s why suggesting that moving up several divisions in baseball versus 1 division in hockey would be more equatable. So this point seems an invalid one to start with
2) I said “likely” staying in the ECHL all year, which is likely going to happen.
He has excelled in the second highest Swedish hockey league the season prior, which is said to boast more skill and speed than ECHL. So more than 6 games experience and scouting has consistently rated his attributes as being conducive to future success.
3) the fact that he is currently hurt is irrelevant to the point made – that they are seemingly paralyzed in decision making about moving goalies between the 3 leagues. Either trust one of your AHL options to replace a terrible struggling backup, or consider if one of your lower league guys deserves a look in the AHL to see if he can later make the jump.
Jonathan Quick played in the ECHL (38 games), AHL (19 games) and NHL (3 games) in the 2007-08 season. He was a 21 year-old third round pick (#72 overall) and actually had better numbers in the AHL (.922) than ECHL (.905) and was not good in the NHL (.855).
The difference between Yesavage and Jonsson or Quick is that pitching (and not hitting) in the American League doesn’t really really require a player to do anything differently than they would at any other level. A 95mph fastball is just less likely to be hit at A, AA and AAA than in the MLB. Aside from occasionally fielding the ball, the pitcher can just throw.
For goalies, different leagues (and teams) have different styles, different shooters, different defenceman, etc. So, while it is possible for a Jonsson to move up, it’s not likely that he’ll be great right away (although it’s not impossible). Wallstedt is 23 right now and putting up great numbers but last year he had an .879 in the AHL and an .843 in 2 NHL games.
In the ECHL, the Oilers have Jonsson (21, 6 games, .926), Ungar (23, 5 games, .950) and Day (20, 7 Games, .888). Ungar had been loaned to another AHL team which is interesting because he played 35 games for Fort Wayne last year but now he is back. It would not be surprising to see any or all of the three in the AHL this year. It would require a dumpster fire of a season, a number of injuries or an incredible AHL run for any one of them to play in the NHL this season though and likely not very successfully.
But Quick turned out OK, no? They tested his abilities early and figured it out. It didn’t break him, because struggles at an early age are way less concerning and deflating than waiting until late 20s to get your first chance, only to have the organization become impatient when things are rocky because you are older.
I would imagine scouts and smart people could determine if his strengths and weaknesses would translate, and scouts were seemingly bullish on him early and often.
For that matter, I was looking at Tomkins stats, and prior to this season (where he has kept the team in games despite an unflattering save percentage), he had 4 straight solid ones in SHL/AHL. What is stopping him from getting the call if they are waiting on Ingram? Why are they holding pat and worried about hurt feelings and locker room presence? Just friggin try something different than what is not working!
I can name at least 2 that were worse, probably more. Kinda like that challenge where the guys go around saying how many they can name worse then when it stops that person has to.
Campbell and Lucic were both worse,
based of cap hit and cap % of the total cap.
The worst contract in Oilers history is Nurse, followed by Lucic, then Campbell. Nurse’s contract has cost the Oilers 3 cups in my opinion, given the fact that his level of play is so far below what a 9.25 million dollar player should provide.
Nurse is the reason? He has generally played like a 5-6 million D in the regular season, no so much the playoffs (but bargains elsewhere have usually compensated). Buyouts for Neal(eg Lucic) and Campbell were just as problematic in our ability to upgrade G.
Lucic and Nurse at least had productive seasons.
Frederic has been below replacement level 4th liner since beginning of the contract. And for 8 years 4 million a season, he is on pace to be 4+ million/year sinkhole. That contract is buyout-proof, too, we’d be paying him until 2040. The best we can hope for is that he goes on LTIR for the rest of his career, or the Oilers make it so unpleasant for him that he agrees to terminate his contract. It is the worst contract now and he would have to get a bionic ankle that also makes him give a shit to turn this around
I don’t disagree that the Frederic contract is looking absolutely brutal right now. However, it can only fight for the number 1 contender ranking for worst contract in Oilers history; it will never hold the belt. Nurse’s contract has the longevity (8 years), the dollar amount ($74 million), the NMC, the structure making it buyout proof, and his level of play seems to get worse each season. At this point in time, he’s playing like a third-pairing defenseman who should be getting paid between 2 and 2.5 million (roughly 7 million overpaid, which is something that Frederic’s contract is not capable of achieving). Not to mention the number of areas of the team that can’t be addressed due to Nurse’s contract is greater than the number of things that can’t be addressed due to Frederic’s contract. That’s why Nurse’s contract will likely never be de-throned as the worst contract in Oilers history.
No easy answers.
The team is old, no material trade assets and no cap space.
Coaches need to go but no point if you don’t get a goalie.
I’m still in disbelief Knoblauch threw the entire roster under the bus to protect himself, then the roster responded by not showing up for the next game.
Skinner isn’t the only one that’s lost the room.
Imo grab Binnington while also grabbing a Dipietro or Daws or whatever young goalie they can that’s bubbling under. If the players are going to throw a mutiny over Pickard, call their bluff.
The Oilers lost to a 35 and 36 year old Bob who’s had rough patches himself, lots of track left for Binnington to stand on his head.
Binnington can win he has a Cup and we all seen him in the 4 nations. I think he thrives on the pressure and won’t be shy to rip on Nurse or Bouchard for being so passive on clearing the net front. I get Skinner is a good ol boy but he’s done his positional play sucks he gives the shooters so much of the upper net and everyone knows it. Bowman needs to act before the weekend is over.
Also, if Bowman brings in new goalies especially one with a track record if the other five guys miss assignments out on the ice and the puck goes into the back of the net I believe that will straighten up alot of the blame being tossed around. Skinner isn’t there to be a punching bag anymore regardless of his warts, which he does have several of. I hate his net control altogether, it’s awful.
Binnigtons playoffs save % is higher then Bob or Skinner, it’s a quality bet.
You essentially get 2 Playoff runs of Bennington if Skinner and say kulak are out. I think it’s not really a gamble and it buys Bowman 1.5 to find a replacement Binnington puck handling skills will save goals and actually lead to offence. He’s only 32 and loves the spotlight and I love the fire in his belly. Looking back wouldn’t we want a 32 year-old Mike Smith?
There is still a huge amount of proven talent on this roster. I cannot answer how much proven talent there is on the bench. Well, two Stanley Cup finals! True. But Im not sure how much was already in place and ready to run.
Start with what you can control:
Effort
System
Break Out
Covering your man (god this is awful)
Puck battles
And the list goes on. But doing these things are within this teams control and with that alone they are a playoff team.
Then GM can look at potential upgrades.
If this team, with present skill level, cannot deliver on the things that are within their control, it is on coaches for not designing system, line up, ice time and ultimately accountability.
General manager should not spend assets if the team cannot deliver. Old story, but show him who you are, what you can do, how much you want to get there. Maximize your present roster. Then he will go out and get some help.
What I’m curious to see is what happens with 2 days of practice. After each of the last two days where they practiced, they came out flat and played like crap (losing to Dallas and Colorado).
Something is wrong. It doesn’t help that the coach constantly changes lines. The players develop no chemistry and to some degree it let’s them off the hook for poor performance (that’s not me saying it, that’s MacT on Oilers Now).
The overuse of the stretch pass is either being encouraged or is being taken as an excuse. They need to get back to breaking out as a single unit and stop the constant all forwards flying the zone early. They need to have defensive responsibility.
Start there and you’d be amazed at how many other things improve.
Extremely unpopular opinion.
Skinner is the problem
oilers are one of the better teams at disallowing HDSC.
the medium and low scoring chances are going in regularly.
combined with SV% it’s brutally obvious that goaltending is a major issue.
Defence issues are huge, Nurse is a massive problem & what’s worse is he can’t be trade (Unless Management becomes the Vegas Management).
At this point I would sit Nurse, it honestly can’t be any worse at this point.
sadly Ekholm can’t or isn’t able to cover up for Bouchard’s defensive play.
it’s out performing his offensive contribution to the team & dragging Ekholm down in the process.
these are serious problems, regardless of your loyalty to this team.
step back, it’s plainly obvious
who plays if Nurse sits?
Were we watching the same game last night? Almost all of the goals were in high danger scoring situations. I’m not sure what stat site Rishaug uses for his numbers but this morning on the mandate he talked about how the Oilers are 32nd in preventing high danger scoring chances. Me quickly looking at Moneypuck they’re a touch better, but still 29th (only the Islanders, Van and Chicago are worse).
I agree the goalies have been meh at best, and ugh at worst. Low danger unblocked save percentage is pretty putrid, Pickard ranked 61st out of 75 and Skinner ranked 72nd out of 75. Markstrom, Elvis and Patera are the only 3 goalies worse than Stu. Medium danger unblocked save percentage is better for Skinner, he’s 31st out of 75, Pickard is 67th. For high danger chances Pickard is at 63, Skinner is actually also ok, 49 out of 75. Around where Stu is for High danger save percentage you have:
46 Vejmelka
47 Oettinger
48 Saros
49 Skinner
50 Bob
51 Shesterkin
52 Freddie A
53 Ullmark
54 DeSmith
55 Talbot
So, if Stu could stop letting in the easy shots I’d say he’s actually not in terrible company. The upgrade in goal for me would be to Pickard whether that’s finding an A goalie to make Stu a B, or a better backup to spell Stu when he has “one of those nights”.
Overall though, I’m in the camp of thinking the D is the bigger issue at the moment. Which is kind of hilarious given who we have on the blue line. Bring back Coffey I guess, or hope that once we have more time at home that the systems can be worked on to stop them letting guys stand in front completely unmarked and whack pucks home.
It’s once in a blue moon when Skinner isn’t allowing a easy goal, the Oilers do not have the cap space to make Skinner the backup.
Skinner is having “one of those nights” all the time. He makes some good saves, yet is constantly doing so in a way that leaves him completely out of position.
He’s always falling forward on his face, often loses the net behind, hell the other game he somehow had his back to the players bench as the puck was going in.
It’s best for all parties to move on and look elsewhere for the team and the tender.
For me until the Oilers learn to play consistent hockey as a full time thing barring the odd game, as opposed to finding it for 20 and then wobbling again, stats are hard to apply to them
Stats are aggregate, and what the Oilers do are spectacular break downs that cost games but don’t really effect the numbers. You can allow 8 HDSCA, but if 4 of them are players uncontested in prime scoring areas, doesn’t matter. It would be better to allow more and make it harder on the guy trying to score. Would help the goalies
I don’t think Stu suits the Oilers, but at the same time, the way they break down would destabilize most goalies. And apparently has ours this year
I’m with you on all of this.
I also agree that maybe Skinner isn’t the guy, but if there’s a way to make the cap work where another goalie is brought in I’d much rather see him stick around than Pickard as he’s (to use an OPism) materially better. Of course if finding a guy (and him being available) that can stop almost all of the high danger chances is possible then we should go and get him even if it means losing Stu. However I still think there’s a bit of an onus on the defence and forwards to stop the 10 bell chances from happening in the first place.
That said I hate all of the options being bandied about as “THE ANSWER”. Saros, Binnington, etc. no thank you.
For Devil’s Lettuce, we certainly don’t have the cap space to bring one of those lads in, never mind the fact we’d likely be sewering the cap for years with an eroding goalie. We’re already stuck paying Campbell’s buyout until the summer of 2030, let’s not add another.
There’s a great thread lower down started by Ryan and continued by €√¥£€^$, that lays out some nice parameters for the goalie search and also a good target.
We wouldn’t be scrambling like a chicken with its head cutoff if Bowman gets a Dipiertro-Dawes-Silvoes 2 plus months ago all 3 could of been had for the same price as Ingram yet Bowman decides to go on a walkabout instead.
Agree with most everything here. Some of what ails the D is the forwards not playing in their own zone and cheating for offense. The coach constantly changing lines exacerbates things (ok – do I fly early or the other wing – since we’re both playing too high in the zone and not supporting the puck).
Its fair to question what the analytics group is telling the coaching staff.
“These are not the goalies you are looking for.”
Equals the price of admission LOL
Something someone said about stretch passing made me wonder if this is a consequence of removing the two line offside. I think the stretch pass once in a while creates exciting plays, but if it is the constant, becomes too predictable and easy to defend against.
I believe it was in the 2nd, three stretch pass attempts and three times in row it was picked off and dumped back in by Dallas.
Painful to watch.
Make that 4, not 3.
If management wants to make a move to potentially spark the team to salvage the season, a trade is not the option. We have no cap space and no assets other than Howard and Savoie which will be huge mistakes.
If a big move is to be made, the move is firing the coach and hoping that a new coach bump plus a new system gets it done.
Howard as a sweetner may get you a competent Goalie. Howard is waisting away in Bakersfield most of his playing mates some younger are doing well in the NHL. It looks like K.K can handle only 1 rookie top 9 but Savoie isn’t producing send him down bring up Howard in Savoie’s spot. Keep Clattenburg up for his tenacious forecheck
Send KK down and bring Howard up. Problem solved.
Anybody outside of the Edmonton area knows our Goaltending is probably the worst in the league. Watch other teams stay in games and get the loser point because of Goaltending. I believe Bowman wanted to make a move this offseason but got conned in by the knew and improved slimmed down Skinner. He was even talking Olympics. I would be surprised if he’s still in the league as a back-up 2 years from now
Howard is developing his game at the pro level in Bakersfield so that he has the potential to reach his ceiling and be an impactful player at the NHL level for years.
Savie has nothing left to learn at the AHL level.
Howard, being a rookie pro and adjusted to pro hockey, definitely does.
Howard is developing in real time at the AHL level and the Oilers will be better for it, in due course.
Well the Savoie numbers are underwhelming he has 3 Goals playing with skill and minutes. Give Clattenburg half as many minutes and a week and he’ll have as many Goals as Savoie. I do hope Savoie pops but his board battles may look alright yet he loses them. I think he needs more marination time and bring up Howard in a featured role.
There’s surely a point where you look down at the grinding wheel and realize you are just making toothpicks out of what’s left of the hilt of this axe here right?
I had a seed of a Blackberry stuck in my tooth today it was driving me bonkers. I tried getting it out with my nail-credit card-needle from a tree. As I was getting my Coffee I told the girl of my plight in life and she magically had a toothpick for me ending my misery instantly. Sometimes all it takes is a toothpick to better your life.
How to find an NHL goalie?
Here is my high-level checklist. Hat tip to JP from Boston who used to debate me endlessly on the nuances of this topic. This checklist applies to the non-elite goalie tier, mostly.
Stan, you can send me the cheque via Lowetide.
Goalie Evaluation Heuristics
You won’t tick every box. The key is to minimize contract risk and never fall in love. Always be willing to upgrade. Fade goalies with injury histories. Don’t bet on journeymen for multiple years after 30. You always want to get a goalie’s best years under contract, not their worst.
You don’t just want to acquire a specific goalie name. Your goal is to capture the slice of their best years.
You want a 2015-2018 slice of John Gibson’s career arc, not the 2020-2025 slice.
Now a 2015-20-18 slice of John Gibson is about as good of goaltending as you can get in the modern era, and it’s no longer available. The idea is just to capture the best slice of any goalies career arc.
I have been studying this since 2020, I look at the records of 26 YO 3rd or 4th string goaltenders at both the AHL & NHL levels, even in small NHL sample sizes have meaning and provide insight, IMO.
Of note of the goaltender who have “popped” in 2025, both Wedgewood & Blackwood have been on my radar for a few years. Blackwood, though, being the superior of the 2.
Forsberg, Lankinen & Lindgren were others who showed up very well and I predicted their future success and mention them here.
This season, although he is still not 26 and I had mentioned him here before training camp, Nico Daws is THE goaltender of interest to me.
Lets get Nico Daws!!
The only other goalie I circled was Ken Appleby. He was absolutely buried in the NJ & NYI systems. Now at 30, he is on an AHL deal playing in the ECHL in the Leafs organization.
Watch him make a splash next year.
This is good Ryan
Reading the OilersNation article that Pretendergast linked to below got me thinking. Would Oilers management actually think calling up Ingram now is a good idea? He hasn’t gotten up to speed yet in the AHL, although it sounds like he’s been better the last couple of starts, and coming off some mental health issues, seems like playing behind this team would not be the best fit.
Agreed. Mental health (ability to forget the last goal, not take it or fans’ goalie-blaming personally, bounce back) may be the biggest thing to consider, somewhere high in the mix of qualities @Ryan listed above.
I don’t think it’s coincidence that of the last four NHL goalies in the Oilers recent history, two have taken time away from the game to (hopefully) rebuild their mental health (Campbell, Ingram). I’m wondering how common this is?
There has to be different way of dealing w goalies in tough situations. Watching the World Series I was impressed with how “relieving” the pitcher was not an occasion for shaming or blaming, but pretty much an inevitability. The pitcher, relieved by the Manager, w on-field players coming to support the transition. Fans clapping to acknowledge a tough job, done. Not always well-done, but done under difficult circumstances.
Imagine how the mental health of young goalies (and the teams they play behind) might be improved if coaches, players, and fans stopped the shaming/blaming?
ps. Lest we forget, Bob had a terrible week last week. Awful numbers v Canucks and v Oilers. Is anyone suggesting Bob is a terrible goalie?
While I’m not saying that Ingram is ready, on-ice or off-ice, to be recalled, his noted mental healthy issues aren’t really related to on-ice confidence issues. Its more debilitating OCD, social anxiety, etc.
Thanks. From what I’ve read about Ingram, I believe you’re right.
That said, it’s my experience in listening to men in various kinds of recovery, that what you do for work and how you do your work has an impact on your mental health, and vice versa. They’re inextricably bound up with each other. In other words, if your goalie has “underlying” (pre-hockey, off-ice) mental or emotional health issues (OCD, confidence/self-esteem, marriage/family issues, death/grief, etc) they will affect play, which quite likely will affect underlying mental and emotional health issues.
The voodoo in “goalies are voodoo” may lie, at least in part, in our reluctance in sport culture (and especially goalie culture) to accept that this is a profoundly stressful position that many “sane” people would refuse to play. Those who do take up the challenge deserve a lot of credit, to my mind. But instead, the goalie is one of the first to be shamed/blamed for team failures. The “voodoo” of shaming isn’t so hard to understand. It’s destructive to all aspects of a man’s/player’s performance. I’m suggesting we start treating goalies differently.
Why were people eager for Bowman to be hired again? I recall reading a lot of posts celebrating the hire because it was sticking it to the “woke mob” but other than that, not a whole lot is coming to mind.
I don’t recall there being too much excitement. And many noting that he did a lot of not-very-good GM’ing in Chicago.
I remember the same.
The “woke mob” comments were about eliminating a reason not to hire him. Take that out of the equation. Then why hire Bowman? Well there many comments for and against, but I don’t remember much celebrating.
Bowman so far is miles better than the lot before. He didn’t hamstring himself last season, that was Jackson, and Holland, who couldn’t sign his best two prospects. He got Walman who wasn’t on the market. Pod who has been an excellent cheap pick up. He didn’t hire Knoblauch but re upped him. I think most GMs would have, I would have gone a different direction. He can make hockey trades, not just be the guy who got shook down to get a player he wanted
Because he’s won three Cups, he knows what is going on and has spoken to it. He is giving players the chance to play their way out of the too much hockey funk and team wide slow start (outside of a couple of players), but Bob has made it known there’s a limit
It’s too early to pin things on him, if those at ice level can’t get it together we’ll see what he’s made of
I don’t recall any excitement from – any- camp
Dale Tallon built the core of the Hawks cup teams
Drai and Connor aren’t 22 anymore. Need to manage at bats. 19 min a night and off to the showers
why can we see this but not the Coach he should be leaning on the fresh Wingers Roslovic-Savoie-Howard- give these players a role I betcha Howard was role less. There’s a reason why Clattenburg was effective the last 2 games he’s smart he knows his role and he gets his linemates involved. It will not surprise me if Clattenburg has a letter on his jersey within 5 years. It’s too bad we didn’t have him the last 2 Cup Finals. I hope he plays against Seattle and levels Marchment who’s been getting away with crap against us for years.
One thing maybe Bowman could have addressed, maybe no one to get, is they are short on good enough bottom 6 centres. Being able to play C and being good at it in KK’s systems are two different things. Maybe Nuge will go there but they never leave him. With that they could hopefully not have to run them ragged
I hated Mangiapane when he was with the Flames he was a relentless checker that had a good release and the smarts to find the soft areas. He’s not that old appears healthy yet disconnected. We all seen Clattenburg crash the net on many occasions last night and was rewarded. Frederic-Mangiapane-Savoie etc need to get back to basics and get some ugly goals. Connor-Leon can’t wipe everyone’s ass all the time. Start rolling 4 lines and make the players accountable. A 2 week trip to Bakersfield is in order if your selfish or floating.
Time to send Tomasek down, recall Hutson, and bench Frederic if nothing else.
Forgot they gave Mangiapane an NTC. The next GM and leadership group desperately needs to value flexibility for a change.
They will need to send down Tomasek and another to make room for Nuge and Kap.
Tomasek likely goes down but no-one is coming up.
Noah Philp is on LTIR. Lazar is on IR or considered day to day as is Nuge, Walman, Kapanen. I would think they might want to keep Klat up & maybe waive Lazar?
Dont you get it we’ve all been told it’s Clattenburg going down. There is no room for discussion on this player. Frankly his enthusiasm hard hitting and crashing of the net sickens me.
Unless they put Lazar on LTIR then someone else needs to go (in addition to Tomasek) to active both Kap and Nuge. Can’t waive Lazar when he’s hurt.
Your probably right but it’s not a sure thing just because you and Louie say so. Bowman is under a lot of heat it’s different kind of heat then what he felt in Chicago. Clattenburg is a nice distraction for the Mob that’s starting to circle. Bowman has always rewarded and called up bottom 6 big forwards thst can skate and are a threat to score by crashing net.
I wonder if Tomasek might opt for a contract termination if he’s in danger of being demoted?
He’s hoping to make the Olympic team and playing in Bakersfield won’t help his chances.
The decisions that SB and his team make in the next 6 weeks could effect the potential of this team for a numebr of years to come.Mess up now because of panic and ………
If only we had a Goalie we could call up from the Minors like so many other teams are able to do?. Bowman knew this very spot were in now with Goaltending woes was a real possibility yet he had no plan B.
No money
Bowman has the dream job he’s being paid a little more than Pete the operator at Scottsford that has seasons tickets with the wife and loves the Oilers. Stan needs to use his experience getting creative and finding a way out of this pickle.
It was reported SB was going to do just that and the players stood up for Cal to stay.
Then they got beat 8-3.
This team is tight you could see it on Leon and Connor face. Something is obviously amiss and I think Godot has the most reasonable take of replacing the D-Coach before making panic moves. Does this come down to backend system problem or is it just a simple case of leaking shots that should be saved.
I think that it’s likely a bit of both. That room must be tense.
The team needs a SHAKE-UP big time.
I think the pressure on Connor is immense especially with the Olympics coming up. Leon tries his best as he has broad shoulders. Nurse-Bouchard are passive and quietly avoid any spotlight. I think Perry helped with the pressure. I do think they should keep Clattenburg up as he’s a nice story for must of us. Some Refs will definitely target Connor but he’s a smart kid and won’t get baited.
Source?
Frank
Thanks, wow the top players going to bat for Pickard, then hanging him out to dry last night is unbelievably bad form
Apparently they wanted to send Picks down in favor of Ingram but the team vetoed the suggestion. Which IMO is ludicrous. Who’s running this team? That could easily be a huge part of the problem facing this organization.
There is plenty of evidence about who is running the team.
There was zero context provided in Seravalli’s comments. I’m guessing Bowman held off because the players were acknowledging how poor they were playing in front of their goalies. That’s a lot different than what some of you are suggesting.
Given what we know about Bowman I see it this way as well. He’s calm, has a defined opinion which he is transparent about, and isn’t sentimental. Maybe not devoted to players yet because he’s new, but he will do what he thinks needs doing is my take – asking guys if they would waive. He is reasonable, so Bob saying it’s 30 games and then they make decisions, some extra time after the ugly trip
Stan Bowman and Jeff Jackson aren’t the answer either. They brought this team as close as it ever will be (most likely) and did so with below average goaltending. The glimmer twins are tired and checked out. So is the whole team. Not sure what fixes it either. Binnington’s numbers would crater even more on this train wreck of a team.
I wouldn’t say checked out but they are definitely tired with the minutes they recieve especially with the 2 in a row short offseasons.
They (Connor and Leon) need to do what they do best. Offense.
Both can be better defensively but thats not why they are in the NHL.
There is plenty of room for other leaders on the team to step forward. Lots of room for a defensive third line center…or an entire line to step up.
Room for a group of trusted penalty killers to emerge. Some shitbirds. Some youthful energy.
I suggest to the coaching staff to tweak the additives in their coffee.
Bowman needs to bring in his own choice there seems to be disconnect between Bowman and K.K. We need a coach and 2 new Goalie bump immediately before we fall to far behind and give up.
They need a coach that won’t put up with all the crap.
I was mad when the Oilers made the 1-for-1 trade. I was mad when the Oilers passed on drafting Debrincat. I was made when the Oilers passed on drafting Wallstedt. I was initially surprised, and then really mad when the Oilers signed Frederic to an 8-year deal.
And I will be so mad if the Oilers trade away major assets for Binnington.
(but I was also happy when the Oilers drafted Yakupov and later on Nurse, and mad when the Oilers passed on Zegras to draft Broberg… so what do I know).
The Oilers should give Charlie Huddy a call and add him to the coaching group. The worst of the road travel is over. There is the Olympic break.
Call Coffey, give him the whole bench.
The whole bench is a whole lotta work. Coffee doesn’t want that I would think. But he wants to be a presence, have a voice, give direction and identify, encouragement.
That’s exactly why you give it to him.
Blaming travel for abysmal performances from the net on put…
Rather we just stick to the ‘ flu’ excuse.
That was bad watching. OP mentioned yesterday first game back from a narsty road trip, he nailed it, but I didn’t expect that
I haven’t lost the faith with Stan yet, no GM bats 1000. He hasn’t bled out, and if one recalls the talk around Connor signing was to build out for the future, not fade away. If Gord willing Connor can play out what his career should be, like Syd
Yes Perry and Kane etc had their contributions, but aren’t a part of the future as they and the others were into their 30’s. They also had 2 cracks at a cup, and couldn’t get there
I don’t think the story has been written yet for Frederic and Mangi. I might be wrong but expect them to get to their style of play, which is why Bowman got them, even if they don’t quite score the same as they have. But who is on the team these days?
I think mangi like Arvidsson before is just a bad fit and will be moved in the summer
I think Frederic was just a very bad bet that shocked everyone like the nurse contract before it
If it truly is a bad fit, who is this on?
The players for not adapting to Oilers style? Or Oilers for playing such a weird perimeter possession game others cannot figure out?
I sure hope you’re right… Frederic sure seems like a 4th liner / replacement level who’s going to be eating up close to $4M of cap for the next 7+ seasons. :\
I really don’t know how alarm bells aren’t ringing after this.
They should have been ringing after Colorado.
Or Buffalo.
But now this…
I get not making a panic trade. And that RNH and Kapanen should provide a boost.
But every facet of this team’s game, from the net-out, just isn’t good enough.
Unlike the last 3 years, there is no push back after a bad goal.
The underlying numbers say this is a bottom-10 team both offensively and defensively.
Knob claims to have not tweaked the system, but I see a defense that gives up the blue-line like it’s Halloween candy, a neutral zone trap that fools nobody, stretch passes to no-man’s-land, and a team that only forechecks 2 forwards and can’t generate offensive zone pressure.
Something is seriously wrong with this team.
At worst, they should be a playoff team.
At worst.
Right now, they look lottery bound.
The Panthers broke this team. They are hearing the ghosts of their forecheck
On an optimistic front I would argue that the Panthers broke the coach. Replace all of the coaching staff, and I think the Oilers would start to play better.
That’s a good narrative, but the Panthers didn’t make Bowman sign Mangiapane and Frederic.
They also didn’t prevent Bowman from finding a more reliable option than Pickard during the summer or claiming Dipietro from waivers.
Pickard is a 33 year-old journeyman goalie. Running another season of him, after a playoff lower body injury, was not an analytically informed strategy.
However, it might have paved the road for McFarlane to sell them on the merits of stretch hockey during his interview.
^^^ This, so much this.
This team has putrid goaltending. Groundhog Day statement.
This years team, though is not good.
Non McDrai is getting killed as is some of our D
Someone already mentioned Regula
Kulak
GF 11 / GA 24
Even Ekholm has slid
GF 19 / GA 24
Cap hell.
There are no fixes this year. I think a Binnington trade could set us back even further depending on the price.
Do pray tell, what is the plan? I’m not sure many fans “get the plan”.
The plan is to marble youth (value contracts) in with the veterans, allowing for less turnover and the opportunity for good surprises as the season wears along. It had to be done, especially after the Holloway-Broberg turnpike.
Is that what they are doing though? And if so, it would be a tough argument to make that this is the reason for the Oilers poor play and poor record.
It was brutal at the time to me that they didn’t match Broberg.
I just cannot trust Stan Bowman anymore… he passed on keeping Broberg for 2 years because he didn’t see enough of Broberg to justify a 2 year extension. But then after watching Frederic underperform through the playoffs, Stan reached the conclusion “I need to resign this guy to an 8 year extension”??!
At this point I’d selfishly like the GM to wave the white flag on the season, sell at the deadline and then retool with $20M in cap space this Summer. I doubt the owner and Bowman agree with me, though.
I’m in. I think this team makes the postseason even so, so why not.
Such a decision isn’t needed now though. Just ride it out and don’t make any trades. If this turns around then great. If not, sell further into the season to retool for next season.
If this happens I believe Connor will be traded in the offseason to a team of his choosing. This could end up working the best for both parties if Connor is leaving the following year anyhow.
I’d be getting a look at Ingram before bringing in anyone else.
If I’m interpreting the tie breaker correctly, by points percentage, the Oilers would be drafting 6th overall if season ended today. And with our history of luck at the draft lottery, who knows? Maybe we snag McKenna and then get right back to contending next year. Might be a reason to keep Skinner and Pickard around for a little while longer
I don’t think we have our 1st rounder. Didn’t we trade it to San Jose
It’s lotto protected. So we can keep it if we pick tip 12
Top 12
Top 9 protected.
I think it’s top-12 protected unless the Oilers trade away the 2027 1st round pick.
Betting on Pickard, as a 33-year-old journeyman goalie who suffered a lower body injury during the playoffs was very on-brand for the Oilers.
We know they have Parkatti. Does anyone talk to him.
This
Skinner and Kulak are both UFA’s. Binnington has one year left after this year. No way St. Louis trades Binnington for two pending UFA’s.
Something significant would have to be added. The Blues really do not need more draft picks.
The Blues and Oilers are not a really good match trade wise. I think it would have to be a three way deal.
D always have value. Maybe blues want to offer kulak a contract. Or they can trade him at the trade deadline. I would expect a 2nd rounder plus anywhere between a C type prospect to another 2nd rounder if he plays well
This is a perfect match as St. Louis is tanking and what better Goalie than Skinner. St.Louis then get out from Jordan 6 million salary next year. The Blues have Hofer as their #1 next year
This excludes the important fact that Binnington sucks and is not value for his contract.
Despite having McDavid and Drai…..we are once again being laughed at from around the league.
Travis Yost
@travisyost
Edmonton, in absolute salary cap hell and in dire need of a goaltender trade, have Trent Frederic on an eight year, $31m contract.
Year one, he’s given them two points in 25-games. And Edmonton’s being out-scored 13-to-6 (-7) with him on.
Absolutely shambolic from Bowman.
Mangiapane has been a disaster too.
25 gp: 4-4-8. +/-: -18.
Good… Bowman should absolutely get beat up by the media for signing that 8 year deal.
This should be viewed as a cap dump by St louis getting out from under a bad contract on a goaltender who runs hot and cold and is aging out. If you can offload trent frederic and stuart skinner for binnington without anything else it might not be as catastrophic as you would think.
i do not like the idea of tieing up cap next year but the cap will rise.
if it means unloading the albatross contract of trent frederic its probably for the best.
however i suspect that there is more cost involved.
Doesn’t Fred have a NMC?
The internet is reporting a full NMC for years 1-4 of the deal… then he needs to provide a 10 team trade list.
If the Oilers choose to sit him for the next 60 days I’m sure he’d waive.
He might like a trade to his home town St. Louis.
Knowing the Oilers, knowing how changes in schedule tempo seem to completely throw their game off, I honestly expected a repeat of the Colorado game and was completely unsurprised. Sometimes I think predicting the results for this team has more to do with analysing the schedule patterns than analysing match-ups (I’m making a project out of that theory).
The next 8 games are the first extended “normal” stretch of the season for the team. The boys are getting some rest at home and some opportunities for practice. When I was looking at the schedule, the goal of the road trip was to survive; if there is ever to be one, this is where we’ll see the start of a rally. If we don’t see some consistent signs of life by the end of Oilers@Habs on December 14, I might just be ready to call if for the year.
Bob said the internal was game 30 and then they decide what they are going to do, the Sabres again
They usually go flat first game back from a long road trip. I had the Dallas game as a loss I didn’t even watch . This shouldn’t be surprising in the least. A loss is a loss whether it’s 1-0 or 8-3.
So I subscribe to the “Clifford model” of viewing Oiler games this year. At 3-0 I tuned out and followed game by checking in here. I think it is reasonable to make some excuses for brutal schedule but my god this team is currently a mess. Goaltending, defensive play, lack of physicality, systems, coaching issues take your pick. Seems like way too many obstacles to overcome to see this team as a contender. It would appear that Stan has a much bigger job ahead of him than he thought
The Oilers need 2 big mean D men to play with Bouchard and with Nurse . THATS A FACT.
The top 4 D and all the good teams have big guys on each pairing that clear guys out and make it miserable for guys in front. Oilers don’t have anyone on this D core like that period. No One!
Both these goalies are not good or consistent. Pickard is not a legite backup anymore and Skinner cannot move side to side well enough to be a legite starting goaltender on a regular basis.
Now for the Biggy. This coach shows no emotion and in my honest opinion this has completely rubbed off on this team most nights this year. The D coach needs to be replaced sooner than later. They won’t fire the head coach, but the D coach needs to go.
As for what they can do, That is the #1 thing. Sean Bell made a great point on the post game show last night on trading. No team is going to do the Oilers any favours period. They will ask for the moon for anything in a trade period. Dealing from weakness does this team no favours.
They can recall some heart from the A. , but who? Bring up Brown. Why not , he can’t be any worse than Regula or Emberson right now, who are both terrible.
Hey Clattenburg was the best Oiler last night. At least he showed some freaking emotion.
This team is obviously Broken and broken quite bad.
No clue how they right the ship. But it is at this point going to have to be done internally at this point. So the 1st thing they have to do is to force Coffey to comeback and run the D again until he can recommend and find a coach to replace himself. Either that or fire Mark Stuart today and hire someone else. The teams needs a shakeup to wake them up. That would be the 1st thing to do.
Why not give Coffey the whole bench?
Regula now 0-11 on-ice. Might be time for both he and Philp to be excluded from lineup discussions soon. This is not to put the blame on them as there are obviously massive problems with the team as a whole, but I don’t get the sense they’re a part of the solution.
What’s been overlooked is how most of these games are starting. Almost every game now the shot clock is like 3-2 after 10 minutes. You can tell the Oilers are talking about sticking with their system and not forcing things. But in turn they are creating nothing and since we’re more likely to have a breakdown or a weak goalie goal, we often fall behind and don’t have the patience to stick with it.
As the coach of the local U15AAA team i met a few years back with the head coach of a local (Halifax) U-Sports team. We spent a couple hours chatting about zone vs man defense. It was on my mind because this would have been around the time the Oilers got ripped apart by Vegas in the divisional finals. They kept pulling our (man-to-man) defense out high and floating pucks into the space just vacated resulting in our (covering) forwards getting overwhelmed. IIRC, Woody spent the summer converting to a zone…it fell flat on it’s face and he was fired. Coach K came in but mostly stayed with the Zone concept and the rest is history.
Really quickly, the strength of zone (and we see it against the Oilers constantly) is that there are layers of defense you need to get through to get to the middle of the ice. This is why it’s by far the best system to use against the Oilers…Connor and Leon are man-to-man defense killers. Carolina can do it well because Slavin is among the best man defenders.
The strength of man to man is that when effective it can reduce in-zone time if our players “beat” their players. You need size and speed to play man effectively.
Anyway, back to my meeting with the coach. He said he prefers man-to-man as it’s far more aggressive and on-your-toes. He preaches his 7-second rule…when the puck comes in the zone he wants it out safely within 7-seconds.
The weakness with zone is that if you’re beaten to the puck on a dump in it’s essentially “over” and the entire shift can/will be spent in your end. In a zone the center is the problem. He’s the only one that really moves so he’s expected to support the puck wherever it is espcially below the hash marks. But this is super easy to exploit if you get to the puck first as the F1 simply rims the puck to the other side of the ice. The center then has to skate 70 feet across the zone to offer support and the D1 can’t jump it because the C and D2 are still in the corner. Again, a real world example is when Podz gets in on the forecheck and just rims it around the boards to Leon waiting on the wall.
I wonder if bringing in a Rod Brind’amour type expert on man defense might be the only solution to unlock this team. What I see is a team that spends full shifts in their own end and most of them don’t have the patience to wait around for the other team to make a mistake so they end up getting out of position. They don’t have the patience because they know that they (Connor, Leon) waste an entire shift defending the other three lines will do nothing and there goes 7 minutes of the game.
I feel very certain that all of McDavid, Draisaitl, Nurse and Kulak would much prefer to play man defense where they can hunt the puck, try and turn it over and then go have fun playing offense. In the case of 97/29 I think they get impatient. In the case of 25/27 it just takes away their best (only?) strength; speed, physicality and size. Asking Nurse to play rocking chair defense is a disservice. He’d be better served trying to overwhelm his guy and break up these cycles so his team could play offense.
Saying that, guys like Henrique, Nuge, Ekholm, Bouchard are more cerebral than athletic so perhaps zone works better for them.
Honetly, I don’t know.
Too many elite players in this league to play man, I think.
Are there any teams that play man?
it’s a good topic.
I understand most teams play some form of zone, only the Canes and can’t remember who else play man
What I don’t get is why can’t the Oilers look like other teams defensively? I don’t see anyone else consistently leaving their net front wide open, with so many clean unhindered looks at the goal
Why are they always so bad at line changes?
You mentioned that Vegas exploited our man-on-man system by pulling our defense high…
Vegas had a number of set plays that exploited Nurse’s puck chasing habits and leaving the slot open. He was the very reason Woodcroft had to make a change. Vegas targeted his puck-chasing habits relentlessly in 2023.
Vegas built their offense around dragging Nurse out of the middle and attacking the space he vacated. That’s exactly what happens in a pure man-to-man system.
A more aggressive hybrid? Sure. But going back to full man coverage just recreates the same vulnerabilities that got exposed in that series.
Very interesting. I’ve long wondered how well the Oilers’ coaches over the years have tweaked the system they’d like to coach vs. the players the Oilers have. I’ve also wondered how much communication there is between coach and GM in player acquisition and player usage.
I’m not sure having Binnington & Pickard as his backup is the answer. I’d rather Binnington with Skinner as his backup. That would be a stronger tandem.
Agree. Still hate the extra year, but that is a workable argument.
I would much rather this tandem than swapping out Skinner to add Binnington. As Lowetide said, the extra year is not ideal but can be worked with. It would make for adding scoring/strong 2-way player/strong defensive D very difficult.
The goalie duo would be a real fire and ice… Stu being calm, cool, and collected and Binnington being a volcano waiting to erupt on an opponent just looking his way and the poor play in front of him.
Almost 1/3 of the season is gone. Confidence? Leadership? Grit? Coaching? Heart? The will to win at all costs? Lack of Identity? What is the root cause of “all” the issues on the ice???
I mentioned very similar a week ago and said that all eyes are on Bowman. He’s the only one close enough to the problems to truly assess them. The rest of us are in the camp of “we don’t know what we don’t know”.
I really wish the over-rosy standings (that mash OT wins with regulation wins but not losses) would be fixed. This is not a 10-10-5 team, just look at the goal differential. If the standings showed a true picture= RW-RL-T-XP, Oilers would be 5-10-10-5. It would state the obvious, either make a move fast or decide to tank.
Tanking does us no good, we don’t have our 1st pick this year
The 2026 1st round pick is top 12 protected, so they can choose to give up the 2027 1st round pick instead. At this point, unless they suddenly rocket up the rankings, they would be foolish not to defer the transfer of the pick.
Additionally, if the Oilers trade the 2027 pick, the 2026 pick automatically goes to SJ with no conditions. Thankfully, there is still a lot of season left to make the decision.
Oilers 2026 1st round pick is reportedly top-12 protected. The Oilers will be using it to draft next summer at this rate.
Warning: I will make an argument for the Binnington trade.
First, not sure there is such thing as a sure fire goalie that will lead any team to a Stanley. Not in 2025.
This team is losing games between the ears and doing so without that pumping organ in the chest which can sometimes help stupid hockey teams.
In an economic order where everyone is blinded by the false promise of optimization we can lose sense of the emotional and affective. The nerds were right to call out the “saw em good” dinos, but they have not replaced it with a more effective set of qualitative methods to support their advanced stats.
All of which is to say: Yes, Binnington’s numbers this year are bad. But he also had his first kid in 2024 and we know that can sometimes explain poor goalie play. We also see in Binnington a veteran goalie playing deep into his career on a team that isn’t really going anywhere fast. But we know Binnington has the capacity to show up to big games. How many Blues games have mattered recently? A trade to Edmonton could very well light a fire under his famously irritable ass. A Mike Smith, with better pedigree.
My point is: this team is emotionally exhausted and so would any team be. They need something new to play for. This might sound like loser talk, but its the truth. An NHL team hasn’t lost two finals in a row in decades. It deserves some heterodox thinking.
Conclusion: Mix it up. The atmosphere is wrong. Binnington starts with 0s across the board.
Reading through the other comments, I am on-board with this change for all the reasons noted. And if it doesn’t work, we need to reset next year anyhow. Binnington has one more year and St Louis will likely eat some of his salary so it won’t have significant cap implications in 26/27.
Now if we could just get Nurse to consider a move…
I would assume the minute Bowman calls Armstrong for a Binnington trade, Armstrong is laughing silently and then says. “ Well Stan I will tell you what. Sure we will take Stu back to cut some of the $ out to make this deal work . We really don’t want that Sieve, but you are going to have to pay to do this. We will also eat 1/2 the contract to make this work as well. So that leaves a 400,000 difference. Give us one of your plugs on a 875,000 contract. and that will still leave you a little bit of $. But for all that we want Forward Ike Howard, Marsala and your 1st rounder for 2027. “.
Pretty sure it will go something similar to that .
So basically the Oil are going to get stomped in any trade right now
Like 8-3 stomped?
Wishful thinking. Binnington is not the goalie you are looking for, but his cap hit may sabotage next year. This season is lost there are simply too many problems to fix. Make plans to be a contender next year. Play the kids. Wasn’t Clattenburg fun to watch? Put Mangi in the press box and Frederic on LTIR, call it an ankle injury.
Money on the board game for Gully, couple injuries, 1st game back from a long roadtrip.
I expected a loss, what happened last night was unacceptable. As LT said, thankfully those scores count the same in the standings.
Now the report they stood up for Cal and then did ‘that’ to their other goalie. I think its almost time for the inmates to stop running the asylum.
Congrats to Clatt for making it into the guides and records book. He scored where goals are scored!
If you can get a Binni for a reasonable cost you do it
that alone won’t fix it the poor puck play, the lost board battles, the grade A chances, the lack of heart
Binnington has a temper he might let them have it big time if their puck play doesn’t improve.
Has that happened in St. Louis or is Binnington the one to blame for their season’s malaise?