I’ve been thinking about old Sam Pollock lately. The Montreal Canadiens are rising again, God help us all. The price paid by English Canada for the four Punch Imlach Stanley Cups in the 1960’s still echoes down the canyons of NHL history. Please read this.
Imlach sent away players five at a time to get an aging Andy Bathgate for his Toronto Maple Leafs. Sam Pollock sent away an aging Ralph Backstrom to make sure he could draft Guy Lafleur. Both men won championships, Pollock’s mousetrap was miles better.
If we airlifted Sam Pollock into the general manager’s chair at Rogers Place, he might trade Zach Hyman and Mattias Ekholm this summer, and he would certainly have a chat with every player over 30 under contract.
Pollock would cut the cap, trade for his first-round pick in 2027, and send out an offer sheet. Or two. Pollock would hold daily meetings to find out how the hell things got this way?
And you know what? We saw this coming. On February 17th, 2018, I wrote about this very problem: (source)
Oftentimes in life, the absence of alternatives clears the mind. In this case, the mind boggles while searching for that clarity, because there is no clear path to sustained success. How on earth could a rebuilding team allow the prospect base to get this low? Sam Pollock would never have done such a thing, but he also would never have put himself in this position.
What is the way forward? It’s already underway. Matt Savoie, Josh Samanski, Colton Dach and Ike Howard all played more than 20 games, and Savoie got into all 82 games. Pollock would hire a coach like Bruce Cassidy, find the right goaltender and then work tirelessly to find skilled men who could pass the puck while also being demons on the backcheck.
For all the innovations in hockey since Sam Pollock, the value of a real mean bastard with skill and snarl never goes out of style. The Oilers have one. The best one. Leon. Pollock would make him his Beliveau. He would play the toughs and beat them senseless, with Vasily Podkolzin on left wing and some guy with an odd helmet, no teeth and a stick carved into the shape of a knife he found playing in Corpus Christi in an outlaw league. That guy would score 12 goals and have a 62 percent goal differential at five-on-five. Sound impossible? That’s what Stan Bowman faces today.
Hire Cassidy, then take over the world. Problem is, Sam Pollock no longer exists.
Edmonton Oilers GM Stan Bowman must do the impossible in the next 12 weeks
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7286418/2026/05/18/edmonton-oilers-roster-trades-transactions-2026/
What is the motivation for STL to trade Kyrou for Nurse?
As you mentioned they would need to move out Cam Fowler who was just re-signed to play 2LD at $6.1 million for 3 years.
Why would they?
They are looking for toughness, and Nurse is going to age better than the group in St. Louis now (Broberg aside).
So you’re saying Nurse + Fred for Kyrou + Fowler 😉
Please make this trade happen! I think Kyrou would excel on Drais wing
McDavid’s wing. Move Hyman to the left side.
Theo Lindstein blew up LT’s plan though.
The Blues might do Nurse for Fowler, but both players have full NMC’s.
2024 1st round pick Adam Jiricek and 2nd round pick Lucas Fischer also on the way.
Both big boys.
Toronto has cap and makes sense, not sure what they have to give back though, and if DN passes the stats test
Lots of chatter about the Leafs wanting to move on from Morgan Rielly.
Acquiring Nurse for the same job at $2 million more doesn’t seem realistic.
It was more likely under Tree and Berube
Nurse won’t accept that trade or he would be gone already.
I expect you’re right.
He needs to can the brain trust and then fall on his own sword.
Issac Howard is going to be a substantial player for the Oilers this coming season. He’ll out produce what Savoie did this past season.
I can see Carfagna get a taste depending on what they acquire for D depth.
Darknirse for some games; William Nicholl
If the Oilers want to be successful next year (Stanley Cup contenders) and completely retool the team on the fly, (like Pollock, McCrimmon, Zito or Sather) then the Oilers only have two players they can deal that will bring back a significant return & balance the team & give them space.
Assuming Nurse will not waive.
Assuming the Oilers get one, maybe two UFA”s
If you trade Nurse an assist captain, who wants to play in Edmonton (look south to see what happens when the players don’t want to be in your little prairie town with bad winters).
Who replaces him?
Ekholm is on the decline
Walman is 3rd pair $7.0 AAV????
look at the top 50 paid NHL dman there are a lot of overpaid players teams are looking to be move to a sucker. Maybe you lower the AAV, but you lower the play and it is still expensive.
anyone for
Dunn, Hamilton, Morgan, Trouba, Karlsson, Faulk
aren’t we just going to be complaining about uneven play from anyone in this group.
The rumors are that even though Dobes is the one holding the net currently, he WAS available at the trade deadline. Montreal has Montembeau and Fowler and that was the tandem that was expected to lead them into the playoffs. Fowler is 21 and their goalie of the future.
In a way, the current Montreal trio resembles the 2008-09 roster with Marc Denis, Jaro Halak and a young Carey Price. Halak got squeezed out because he wanted to be the started and MTL wanted to hand the reins to Price.
A modern Pollock would grab Dobes or Wallstedt for a 3rd rounder
Dobes could have been acquired multiple times in the past couple years. You could easily argue he’s still available – but a lot more expensive now.
This sort of goalie is available.
Cossa, Levi, others…get multiple and see who wins.
What are folks thoughts on Berube? I don’t know much about him.
He seems demanding/firey which might be good. Not sure about tactics and integration of analytics.
He’s a no nonsense player’s coach type, apparently not great at tactics. The team has been lacking a coach who can line match and adjust as needed
Depends if they give him the right AC.
Need to start thinking broader when it comes to building what your team needs.
I like the attitude to balance out this team’s personality – but they should also be operating at a high level tactically.
Bowman doing a Pollock, needs to meet with those inside the room like Paul Coffee and a few key individuals.
“who in this group really has some fire in them?”
Frederic plays like a wet noodle. Walman was awful. Is this true? Is the a reason? Is this fixable?
Get rid of the passengers.
“Who outside this group do you just hate to play against? “Some young fast player targets”
Offer sheets, trades, signings, find the next Hyman
Of those he brought in to develop, keep the best, move the rest to get better. Hutson has no chance, cash in. Find a new crop.
Ruthless starts here.
Hutson has no chance?
Hahahaha
Walman has been awful. I’ll take Nurse over Walman all day.
Team has just lived with the worse of the Nurse contract.
If any team needs team toughness, it’s not St Louis. It’s the orange and blue.,
I really hope the Oilers commit to keeping cap space open July 1. Opportunity and flexibility are underrated value in the NHL.
If you save money by say going with Samanski over Dickinson and Kapanen over a more famous scoring winger, it allows you to spend a bit extra now on an RFA offer sheet on a rival like Zellweger in Anaheim with their glut of young LD or Maverick Bourque in Dallas to be your 3RC and all it costs you is a 2nd and say $4.6M cap space which they should hopefully grow into.
The next part is giving the players opportunity – we’ve seen it with Holloway & Broberg, they need to give minutes to young players to actually develop them at the NHL level. That’s what the first 60 games of the year should be.
Savoie-McDavid-Hyman
Howard-Drai-Kapanen
RNH-Bourque-Podz
Dach-Samanski-Hutson
Fred
I’d also move heaven and earth to retain as much as you need to move Fred and Jarry without a sweetner so you can save up $4.5+M and 2 roster spots
I absolutely agree with what you are saying in regards to direction.
However, just look at that line up. It’s a two player team.
Have to agree with both. Think Oil are stuck with few options but to commit to their FAs or accept another ‘off’ year (barring some brilliance in the GM chair)
I respectfully disagree about it being a 2 player team and think us fans need to recalibrate what a good vs elite player is.
Hyman almost made Team Canada this year. Podz, RNH, Savoie, and Bourque are good to great complimentary pieces and all legit middle 6 players. Kapanen has always shown well in the playoffs when it matters. Howard, Dach, and Samanski are the typical young kids that show promise but aren’t guarantees.
If you have 2 truly elite forwards, it’s extremely hard to have a cavalry of great players behind them and really only the Avs this year have done so.
And the Avs aren’t a team of great players, they are a team with a couple of elite players and a coach that has the team playing great – all season. This starts with having the right plan
MacT said this, be careful getting guys off great teams, and don’t fade guys off of bad teams without checking into things. The Avs are floating all boats. MacT also said he wouldn’t trade our top 6 for any other, doesn’t like the bottom 6
If the new coach can get things going in the right direction the roster is good with the 2 holes filled well – 3C 2RD. Maybe Bowman can make some improvements, we’ll see. The UFA market isn’t great, would probably have to be trades, that won’t be easy unless some guys waive. Fred will just like Arvi and Mangi did
A better team than this (this year’s Oilers) almost didn’t make the playoffs and were absolutely dominated by the Ducks.
Colorado will be better
The Ducks will be better
L.A will be better
This team is arguably the same or worse, and significantly smaller.
This team doesn’t make the playoffs.
You can start wondering what team the Oilers are going to trade McDavid & Draisaitl too.
Seems like you wear your grudge like a crown. 😀
Cassidy, Conor (Murphy), Cossa and Kyrou. Is that a cup contender?? no. but improved today and in future. And they can make moves during season.
Chase depressed assets (Kyrou) or surplus (Cossa). No idea on cost of transaction, but these adds fill immediate and future needs.
As for signings, I would rather have Nuge at 3C along with Murphy at 2RD, then Dickanson at 3C and someone else at 2 RD (Walman on off side, or Emberson moving up and old Vinny at 3 RD). We have more internal options to fill 3C then 2 RD.
You have one year of McDavid left, the future starts immediately after the final Stanley Cup game.
Thanks as always LT. I agree Leon should play vs toughs. McD has proven time and time again he can’t.
Thank you for the laugh on this Holiday Monday…
“… and some guy with an odd helmet, no teeth and a stick carved into the shape of a knife he found playing in Corpus Christi in an outlaw league.” Haha!
Day two of painting my son’s room. He insists on helping. He is 5. Wish me luck.
Good luck. It takes forever and it is totally worth it. Enjoy having your little helper. (Things I should have told myself 17 years ago).
Thank you, I’ll heed your advice!
Is this where you are at? McDavid 10 years in and this is your conclusion?
It was my conclusion years ago. I love McDavid but have thought for some time that Draisaitl is the better 200 ft player.
Play McDavid at wing and tell him his job is to score 70.
He’ll get at least 65 playing this way – which is more than enough to take this team to a division title and set them up to win it all.
Leon’s line has been the best line the last 3 years.
Trade and/or move cap to get another C.
I wonder if Katz has a lab somewhere trying to clone Pollock? I worry about the age of the team. It’s time to move some older players and bring in some young and hungry talent. Otherwise we’ll turn into the Pens of the last few years.
…without the rings.