The Edmonton Oilers have been shy in signing European free agents this spring, running counter to the Josh Samanski, David Tomasek, Atro Leppanen, Viljami Marjala watershed of one year ago. Thomas Cibulka was signed early this spring, and then yesterday Stan Bowman inked Aku Raty to a deal.
Raty is a righty winger who appears to be a substantial offensive player. He scored 20-37-57 in 51 Liiga games in 2025-26, age 24. He is 6.0, 189 and reportedly has good wheels although NHL Edge clocked him slow in his one NHL game.
Raty led his Liiga team in scoring and in plus minus. There are no famous names on Karpat, just miles and miles of syllables. He was productive on the power play. Chase B at The Hockey Writers did a nice piece on him (here) that I recommend.
He is skilled, the scouting reports say he has good speed and he is young. I’m going to guess he doesn’t show up well as a two-way type, because if he did these offensive numbers would have allowed him more of a look when he was playing for the Tucson Roadrunners age 22 back in 2023-24. He went 15-29-44 in 55 games, that’s a solid set of AHL rookie boxcars. He faded in Tucson (it gets ferverishly hot in late winter and early spring) and was back home in Finland this past season.
I’m going to suggest he’s closer to Viljami Marjala than Josh Samanski in both style and NHL potential. I think there’s a player here, maybe a tweener but he’s young and a reasonable bet. We don’t know what we don’t know about his ability to stay on the good side of the puck and be a real wile coyote/roadrunner (interruptus puckikist) but those things will reveal themelves in the light of day.
On the Lowdown today, we’ll talk to Steven Ellis (Associate editor and prospect analyst for Daily Faceoff) about the 2026 draft and some of the players Edmonton might be looking at when the team picks in the second round. Noon to 2pm, Sports 1440 and You Tube.
Imagine spending all season derailing an Oilers blog by talking about how the Avs would win the cup, only for them to get swept.
Imagine being able to click that little icon beside that person’s name and never have to see a comment from them ever again. 😀
So the epic sleeping giant that beat out the hapless Oilers by two whole points and who won two less games, slayed the grossly overrated Avalanche in a sweep. Turns out employing a bunch of 35 year olds is a bad idea. Bednar should be fired.
The season series was 3-0-1 Oilers and they wouldn’t have lost to these posers.
Injuries suck and so did the goaltenders.
This is why I was so optimistic all season.
it’s obvious how paper tigery the West is.
An offseason of rest and no international play is to our benefit. Connor needed a break.
Bouchard is so damn good.
All that talk about the deepest centre depth in the league.
All that talk about the brilliant goaltending solution.
All that talk of adding Kadri.
And they whimper out in 4 straight.
Another victim of the HH curse.
The kiss of death’s ugly old lips are undefeated. Borgnine Rappletree would have had a stellar career.
h e a v i l y f a v o u r e d
Bednar lucked out once and will coast on it like Cassidy.
Looks like the Avs did what the Oilers have done. I don’t know how many are injured, but Makar being down has sewered them
This playoff for Oilers involved all 4 Cs hurt, which is a lot. But still they mostly won when the top 3 rolled over everyone. That’s basically putting all eggs in one or two baskets. I thought the Avs were 4 lines and 3 pairs deep? Apparently not
Av’s, deepest centre depth in the league, by far.
Gregor on his show said Hes “pretty confident….certain that Laviolette has been interviewed” by the Oilers
suggests if the Knights win tonight and have a week off maybe we get permission on Cassidy. If they start the finals and we still don’t have permission, maybe we hire someone not named Cassidy.
makes sense to me.
Samanski finished with 2G/7P and +1 in 7 games for Germany who didn’t make the quarters.
Nice to see him among the top offensive players on the team.
He should go in to the summer rest and training feeling so good about his last 12 months and knowing he has a spot on the NHL roster in October.
Samanski was leading the Condors in 5 on 5 points when he was called up (not Hutson and, of course, Howard spend the first third in the NHL), he has some offensive chops and I think he can chip in more and help produce more from the 4th line – he cheated for defence in the NHL last season and should be more comfortable in his 2nd year (of course, defence remaining primary).
Eriksson-Ek light is coming along.
Cathal Kelly with an article at the Globe and Mail titled ““Avalanche’s extra-long season sees them run out of gas ahead of hockey’s finish line”.
Kelly comments on how many games this season that the Av’s stars have played.
Multiply that by 3 for the Oilers. Fatigue and burn-out is real, even for professional athletes.
Excerpt From
“Avalanche’s extra-long season sees them run out of gas ahead of hockey’s finish line”
Cathal Kelly
The Globe and Mail
https://apple.news/Ab1EF4MDaSwKdaI1nDy9LHw
Hanifan, Theodore, Andersson, Eichel, Marner, Stone, Hertl
MacKinnon, Makar, Toews, Necas, Nelson, Lekkonen, Landeskog
Seems pretty similar to me for Olympic participation.
For analytics lovers there’s an article at SN about Landeskog using data tracking to keep healthy with his bionic knee. Vancouver company, the Oilers should absolutely be all over it
I have the documentary A Clean Sheet: Gabe Landeskog on my “to watch” list this summer. Hoping that will be part of it.
Pagnotta saying Dickinson should get north of 5M, his comparables having 3 times the points and goals basically, Dickies bottom end 3rd line production. Just because it’s a weak market
He doesn’t understand the cap. The only teams that are doing that are cap floor teams that are going nowhere, him wanting to get somewhere at 30 YO. The only arrow in his agent’s quiver is he was 2nd highest in TOI against top players. I’m on holidays on a phone so won’t look at his points when he last signed, but I can’t see him getting a raise, and he might decide 4M is enough to stay in Edmonton and forego 500K or whatever amount
You are mistaken about the cap acting as a drag.
The jump in the cap this offseason is unprecedented and will spike even more in a year.
For example, both Anaheim and San Jose have more than $40 million in free cap to play with and can basically sign anyone they want.
Neither needs Dickinson but they could easily sign him for more than $5 million without batting an eyelash.
And they are NOT cap floor teams going nowhere.
That cap environment, as always happens, will inflate salaries league wide.
Anaheim has Mintuykov, and Zellweiger coming off entry level deals this year. Carlson and Gauthier are coming off entry level deals next year, both will get a double digit bump in salary. That cap space will help them at the trade deadline this year, but if they have any sense they’re not going to go all in on free agents this year.
Sure they have work to do but they also have enormous flexibility.
They are reportedly shopping McTavish and they have too many young D so Zellwegger might also be moved.
Sucks to be them.
This. Cap jumps are quickly eaten by salary inflation, and cap inefficient contracts remain the same. As many wise folks here have said in a salary capped league the real battle is cap efficiency. See D Nurse. Fine enough player, hurts the team bcs he can’t earn that cap hit
I believe Van added a 2nd for Chi to take his contract back in 2022. He has had a couple 30 point seasons and is still relatively young at 30. I would do like 4M x 3 i think.
On the Oilers $3.25 x 3, or 4 tops
4M for a 3C doing something hard is not a bad spend
I bet Colorado ownership does not fire its coach if they lose in the conference finals because of injuries to its stars. How many coaches have they had in the last 10 years 2 coaches ? The oilers have had what 5 or 6 .The difference seems to be that the avalanche ownership lets the pros do the job they were hired to do.
I have think it’s that they don’t blame the coach for obvious mitigating factors. After the Cup the team lost too much to stay that good. Bednar lead them to the PT. Knoblauch had a team in disarray all season, couldn’t stabilize, and had the two best players obviously not happy. Many were constantly questioning what the coaches were doing, it was strange. Big difference
Way less pressure to win in Colorado than the city of the greatest team ever assembled.
There is actually more pressure to win in a city like Denver.
The population is just over 750K but there is far more competition for the sports dollar. (Colorado is slighly more populous than Alberta)
However…
The Avalanche, Denver Broncos, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Rockies and Colorado Rapids of MLS all play in Metro Denver.
Luckily for several of the teams, they are financially backed by multi billionaire Stan Kroenke along with the Walton family of Walmart fame.
More like over 3 million.
Metro.
City is as stated.
You sure post some dumb shit, like trying to convince us that the sports market is only Denver and not metro Denver.
No wonder nearly everyone has you on ignore.
I have a distaste for metros that pretend they are not one city. If I don’t see cows in between and constant houses it’s not a new city it’s a subdivision, area, or whatever. Vancouver is only 500K. Ok, but no cows
You forgot the biggest rival for dollars in the Denver area in monster truck pulling competitions
Not even close ding dong.
Sure but is McKinnon, Landeskog or Makar signing some 2 year show me contract, no.
McDavid left at least 12 million dollars on the table when he signed that two year deal.
The show me thing is the front horse but last consideration for CM. If things aren’t going right he may want to try something else, hopefully he does that in a way that lets the team recoup enough
The Oilers have had so much more success vis-a-vis expectations over the last 5-7 years than the Avs. The Avs are lauded as this amazingly run franchise and are the top contender year after year after year, however, they have fallen short of expectations every single year except for one – yes, it was a cup year, and that buys a lot of something, but this org has continuously fallen short. They’ve been past the 2nd round twice now (this year being the 2nd) in the Bednar/MacKinnon era – in the Sakic era.
On the other hand, the Oilers lose 3 games in a row in November and the entire org is under pressure.
The pressure, from day 1 of camp, shit from day 7 of the off-season, through to the last game in Edmonton is 15X hire than the Avs – they can fall short and survive – that doesn’t fly in Oil Country, right?
Colorado has won 2 Stanley Cups since 2001 including 1 only 4 seasons ago.
The Oilers haven’t won any since 1990.
The nominal average would be one 1 win every 32 seasons bit Colorado has 2 while the Oilers have zero.
Much more success is a huge reach when finishing second is meaningless.
What is the sweet eff does 2001 have to do with anything I’m talking about.
I spoke about playoff success in the last 5-7 years and performance during the Bednar/MacKinnon and Sakic management era.
The 2001 cup has about as much relevance as the 1984 cup.
I agree its a tough crowd these oiler fans but with the few poor gm decisions the injuries the new players and the built in tiredness Kris started out behind the 8 ball . I’m sure he will do well if he goes to a more stable organization.
I do have an issue with the stars speaking out though They are players being paid millions to play hockey not play gm so focus on your job . I don’t care if your name is McDavid you keep your comments behind closed doors. I have to wonder who in the organization has made them think they have that license? Daryl? Even Gretzky would not do that Not classy at all of McDavid or Dri How would they have felt if Kris had called them out in public for their junior B back checking skills
I myself don’t like the blame game and hanging people out to dry myself. The amount of microphones in a players face who are forced into interviews is 10 fold today than it was 40 years ago. I’m sure some of these players regret some of the comments they make especially so soon after a loss.
Apparently Laviolette is talking to the Kings. What if they get Laviolette and Cassidy isnt made available? What is our next best option? Im guessing we would hire Berube.
tough call for management here whether to wait it out or just try and get Laviolette.
I presume Laviolette is talking to Vancouver and Toronto as well. All the teams are going through their processes.
Another team hiring Laviolette would provide more fodder for the Knight to end up releasing Cassidy – there are likely legal limits to Nevada law on enforceability of the clause and, if there is no job available for Cassidy (TO doesn’t want him, Van is hiring Maholtra, (1) the league will likely become more forceable with Vegas and (2) the enforceability of the clause vis-a-vis Edmonton because more open to challenge (he would not only be giving up the extra money over the $4.5MM the Oilers would be offering but also for 3-5 years on a contract probably).
Great points. I agree the more jobs get filled up the more pressure will be on VGK to let him go. I think there are good options as backups too but won’t be what Bowman reportedly wants. Nelson is still my guy if they can’t get Cassidy or Laviolette.
I would hire Gallant before Berube
Woodcroft will get a head coach job. I’d be ok with him but likely too much history for the Edmonton market to handle.
Woody like KK is a good coach, not sure about the fit
Yeah I would hire a lot of people before Berube
Yep all they need is a 2-3 year bounce that Gallant will provide keeping Connor-Leon in Edmonton where they belong. Plus Gallant has a bone to pick with our main rivals.
Bérubé is an overrated choice. Binnington is the reason for the Blues turnaround the year they won the Cup, just as Stolarz playing out of his mind made him look like a much better coach in his first year in Toronto.
Is he thought? I don’t think I’ve heard a single person that thinks he’s be a good hire -well Landon Ferarro talked himself in to it on ON Everyday yesterday but that’s about it, right?
Nelson is a name to consider but doesn’t have the prerequisites that Stauff is express they want – his new favourite word “gravitas” and championship pedigree in the NHL.
haha he does love that word!
Agreed. Nelson like many may not have enough yet to do the job. It’s more a leadership thing with superstars than anything
Run with Knoblauch.
Malkin 1 X $5.5 million in Pittsburgh
Looks like the Penguins running the old gang back for one more season.
Crosby, Malkin, Karlsson contracts all expire next offseason.
Might as well. Standing pat gives as good chance as any next season
Father Time clearing out their roster.
After next season, only a handful of players returning and $87 million in cap space.
Yup no point making waves at this point given the contracts
Somewhat expected – still a massive value contract for what he produces when healthy.
It has bonus for games played of 500k and an extra 1m if they make the playoffs and then 500k for every round won.
potential of 9mil on the contract. wild times.
Yeah, the fine print makes this look like a much less optimal contract than first reported. But he is still a productive player.
Sure, potential $3.5MM in bonuses but it only gets to that amount if they win the cup and I think they’ll take that. Its only $500K and the rest is based on team success.
Also, they only matter cap wise if they vest and are in a cap overage. They had $10MM of left over cap room this year, not sure where they’ll be next year but reasonably likely with some buffer, right?
After the Tort bump wears off on Vegas, do they go back to Cassidy?
This would sound ridiculous in the past, but is it really ridiculous for Vegas?
With this in mind Oilers are still paying a good head coach. I am one that believes a new coach would highly benefit the team, but with caveat that new “coaching” would benefit the team.
If Oilers feel they are under pressure to hire any coach, and do it quickly, I think they should slow down, pump the brakes. Get it right. If you can’t get it right, go back to known quantity you already have – which I believe was their intention all along.
The absolute key: do the Oilers identify WHY Kris was fired, and do they identify the team’s strategy going forward and how the available coaches meet that strategy.
If this is “We fired Kris because the results weren’t there and we need a fresh voice” then we are all F’ed
Agree it cannot just be result driven, as the poor habits were present in wins and losses. Also, performance is clouded by McDavid and Draisaitl. How much effect did they have vs coach?
A great coach always seems to be the guy who gets more done with less. He maximizes.
For this decision I would rely heavily on the man inside the room. In our case his name is Paul Coffey and he was specifically placed there after Knoblauchs coaching group stumbled miserably out the gate.
The coach needed is not a defensive coach. This team is not a defensive team.
Its a fast break team. They have to keep this identity and build in the defensive awareness and dial up the risk tolerance
Its also not a team. It is top heavy, overly dependent on individuals. Next job is to balance it out.
Some folks need to watch what they wish for. Any team with Connor and Leon playing trap hockey is a waste. Enough of this pipe dream of trying to win 2-1. The goals for came down substantially over Woody’s strategy at its peak. We need a coach that plays to the players strengths I’ll take a 6-4 win over a boring 2-1 trap game.
I like how Curlock put it, try to win 2-1 and end up winning 4-1 or 5-2
There hasn’t been a defensive coach that has won much since maybe Berube, and that was obviously an outlier. Before that you have to go to the dead puck era. Well maybe the Caps qualify but they still had Ovi and Carlson. The trick is the right balance and tailoring to your players
That they felt they needed to bring Coffey back shows that they had little confidence in the coaching staff. This team was not as good as the teams who made the finals the last two years, but not as bad as how they played over most of the season.
Its not just that the results weren’t there its that the results weren’t there because the team as a whole underperformed, as a group and, in many cases, at the individual level and it seems from this outside view that the process and approach had much to do with that.
No doubt Knob is a good coach with positive attributes but he was not able to guide this team, or any individuals, to play with a consistent structure and approach. From deployment, to transition approach to natural zone structure to rush defence, nothing was good enough – lots on the coach.
From everything I’ve read (heard and read) about Cassidy over the last few week, his top traits are exactly what this team is missing – combine that with Friedman saying the top players “want to be coached harder”, well, bring on Bruce (or Peter as option 2).
I can’t buy that what so many say about the management. The owner didn’t get that rich by letting his billion dollar businesses being run by clods.I’m not a Holland fan but he isn’t stupid, he is organized, I just think his judgment is wrong. The business however did very well
If there is anything wrong it’s that owner may be inserting himself, that may work in regular business but unless the owner is as good as the GM it doesn’t in pro sports. Way more than examples of teams floundering forever because of it
The season was really poor, it’s a relatively short term results business, and Kris had his best expressing unhappiness. It would have been surprising if he kept his job to me. But for sure they have to get this as right as possible this time
Knighttown theory of the week.
In a hard cap word you’re statistically more likely to win a Cup with a balanced roster rather than a top heavy roster even if the team more likely to win a given series is the team with the top end talent. Of course all things being equal meaning; say, two Top 5 ranked teams based on pts %, goal differential and xG differential.
It comes down to health. The Oilers and Avs might be favored to win any series they enter if they’re healthy. But the Canes, Habs, Knights and Panthers are more likely to survive four rounds as even losing an Aho, Suzuki, Reinhart or Stone can be overcome.
Or at the very least, the top heavy team can not waste valuable cap space.
The Canes, Habs & Knights have actually been disgustingly healthy throughout the playoffs. So how do you know how well they’d handle the loss of star players? Vegas now has Stone back and their only injured player is Lauzon and Pietrangelo too. Carolina has no injuries to report & the Habs have Laine out, nothing major. Depth is key and a balanced roster doesn’t hurt. Makes sense to me.
My point is that even if one of the good Canes, say Aho, was hurt they’d still be the Canes because there is enough money and ice time to go around. If MacKinnon or Connor are hurt it’s night/night of course but even a “next level” guy like Hyman is almost too hard to over come with a team so top heavy.
Only having a number one PP unit was rediculous. They are great until an injury occurs and then you go from 33% to pretty much 0% because PP2 doesn’t really exist.
Fireable offense right there.
You need everyone to win. Everyone.
I disagree. In a hard cap world, the team more likely to win is that one that manages the cap more efficiently.
Who was the last team that won the Cup with significant amounts of wasted or inefficient use of cap space?
The Canes are healthy scratching Kotkaniemi, one of the worst contracts in the league. But they can afford to (more than most) because they have an army of quite good and quite affordable players.
Or you could look at it like the last 6 Cup winners had multiple top players the Blues were the outlier that way. They next team before that was the 06 Canes in my opinion
Other than the Pens no other team had a generational player, but that is by definition rare, they did have several top players. This is why to me the thing that puts teams over other than enough health and luck is what the GM and coach do as a team, which they are
Has the GM put enough quality on the roster, and can the coaches get enough out all of the players to be the strongest team? The Oilers could have won at least a Cup with a little more H and L because the elites could have pushed them over. But there was a lot working against them
Well of course every team that wins a Cup is going to have lots of top players. But I think we know top heavy when we see it. Oilers, Leafs, Wild, Avs.
Connor left a lot on the table, is SB does it right they won’t be as cap top heavy as was when the cap was flat
A fine signing – perhaps a Jarventie replacement for the Condors presuming Roby is indeed off to Europe for next season.
He’ll be 25 when the season starts and Marjala was 22 for half of his rookie NA season and, in that regard, as I think age is a huge factor when looking at these signings and evaluating what the numbers mean (i.e. Quinn Hutson vs. Issac Howard, for example), I have him a a legit AHL player and distant bell unless/until he surprises me as Hutson did (who I upped from distant bell to tweener based on AHL play).
Good assessment OP. It do like the type of player- fast forechecker with some hands. SB is looking for outliers, maybe one will pop. Raty is smaller so as said we’ll see if he has enough for the NHL which for me means aggression. He’s a Finn so that’s on his side
I don’t get why they never gave Jarventie a legit opportunity?
I agree that he could have seen more NHL games (and more opportunity in the games he did receive) but I think they were very conscious of his injury history and thought he needed a full season in the AHL after not having played really at all for two years – they didn’t adapt to him proving to probably be the most consistent forward in Bako.
He was competing with each of Hutson, Howard, Hamblin, Jones for call-up – the Oilers had lots of options in the range.
As a longtime hockey ref, I think I can safely say that there were two losing teams after last night’s game – the Montreal Canadiens and the “third team”, the stripes.
For “the best officials in the world” to produce a stinker of that magnitude is unbelievable. I’ve been there in a big game (way smaller stakes perhaps, but the game still feels big) and you don’t want to influence the outcome of the game, but you still have a job enforcing the rules of the game. Last night, they failed miserably. Multiple missed calls, and some head-scratching calls (Walker runs Dobes and you end up 4v4? WTH!) from a veteran crew who should know better. I’ve rarely seen cojones defy gravity like they did in Game 3.
But you’re an Oilers fan, why do you care? Because poor officiating impacts every stakeholder in the game, players, coaches, management, fans, bettors, you name it. And we’ve seen our share of crummy officiating over the past number of years in this neck of the woods.
Oh well, at least I had a lot of new content for discussions with my kids, both of whom are up and coming hockey refs. Gotta look on the bright side, Monty Python taught me that.
End rant.
It’s wild how often the response to “call the rules” is “but your team will be penalized too”.
Yes, that is what we want. Either call everything or eliminate the rules and go full on murderball. At least that would be fair.
You say the refs were one of the two losing teams last night, but it sure seems to me like they wanted the Habs to lose.
The zebras are counting last night as a win.
The Canes were the better team the Habs had little spurts now and again. Dobes looks like a young Patrick Roy he needs to perfect his head bobbing technique. Without Dobes always being the better goalie the Habs are on the lynx going back to the Tampa series.
Oilers could use a fine young goaltender like that. Possibly they have one already in the system.
You need a GM-Coach that is willing to take a chance. St.Louis is a smart Coach always go with the hot hand whether they have the pedigree or not. Sather went through 10 goalies in a year and 7/8 before settling on a kid named Andy Moog. I do hope our new Coach will crank up the offence and have a big save Goalie backstopping us. Hopefully Jarry is healthy and gets his shit together.
Outstanding post. I actually gave the league credit for making progress but those two missed calls in overtime gave me flashbacks to 20 years ago. Because they weren’t “missed” calls. They weren’t “bad” calls. Those were officials choosing not to do their jobs and I haven’t seen that in awhile.
All sports did this 20+ years ago and all sports have matured and realized that “not wanting to decide the game” literally is the opposite of what you’re doing when you don’t do your part as an official.
Bball, a foul is a foul.
Football, pass interference in OT of a Super Bowl almost guarantees the win and it’s still called.
But not good old hockey.
Really? you haven’t seen that in a while?
The non-calls against Canes, ugly. The head scratching, painfully obvious non-call against Habs (too many men; not called to “even things up?”), WTF?
They are selling entertainment to a broad audience – NHE. Not how closely a game can be called by the so called rule book. Success is measured in sponsorship dollars.
The LT community won’t like it, but this community is a minority fan clasification
The main rule I want called is roughing every time there is a scrum/fight after the whistle. Call it a few times, and then it only happens when it is necessary, and not as an excuse to injure guys penalty free.
Otherwise I agree with you, the calls last night were poor.
There have been a few comments regarding the apparent increase in injuries this playoff year. I suspect the compressed schedule had something to do with it.
Similarly, parity in the league forces teams to play top end talent over 20 mins a night. When combined, the impact can be significant (particularly for those who went to the Olympics).
I think the players have seen the refs call less stick work which leads to more injuries. Also players block way more shots today than in the past.
I’m not seeing more injuries in this playoff year. Rather, the Oiler injuries in previous years are ignored.
I couldn’t help but notice an egregious turnover by a young fantastic defenseman in Lane Hutson on the GWG last night. Yet there has been little mention of it by the talking heads, could only imagine the hour long podcasts if Bouchard made that play. Remember players who handle the puck the most also make the most mistakes with the puck.
I agree.
It was a horrible give away under no pressure however as gazdic and others pointed out he was likely dazed from an early hit.
If that kid is not on Montreal they are not in the conference finals and maybe not in the playoffs.
Interesting watching Dobson in that series. He makes a ton of mistakes offensively and defensively while providing little to the good side.
Maybe not a bad player but certainly not in the Bouchard tier.
Looks like the Oilers hit a home run with that decision
Yep I think the Oilers took Bouchard over Dobson because he was more NHL ready. Dobson had the rare talent but needed more development time.
Interesting comment as Dobson was in the NHL before Bouchard and we see its Bochard that has the more rare talent, by far.
Hutson came out after the game to speak to the press and took full accountability for it. “It sucks that I blew it for him.” “It would be nice to be up 2-1 but we’re not because of me”. I have never seen Bouchard come out and specifically acknowledge and take accountability for a blunder.
Most Bouchard criticism comes not from his giveaways, but from his defensive malfunctions-at-the-junction, or lack of visible effort on defense.
Literally every point in this post is wrong. Yes he’s taken responsibility a million times. And are you honestly posting that Evan Bouchard doesn’t get criticism for turnovers?
This is 100% a narrative and completely false.
Bouchard has absolutely taken accountability and blame for mistakes in media avails and, as for “coming out”, the media choose the players that speak after the game. There has been zero mention of Bouchard ever not coming out when requested, ever.
I think it’s the style Bouchard plays which looks effortless and nonchalant. I don’t know if you’re old enough to remember the point magnet Larry Murphy who was a whipping in several cities because of his style of play.
They did mention it at the time and then during the panel but they played it off as “tough mistake” and “can’t do that” and then moved on. If that was Bouchard there would be zero moving on for months.
I would love to see a Canadian team win the cup this year (or any year… right Gary!?), but as a consolation, it sure would be nice to have Taylor Hall hoist the cup in the next couple of weeks.
Go (former) Oilers!
As long as Vegas loses, I am happy.
Agreed. Montreal is young and will be back. Carolina is a team i am rooting for, Hall, and a few likeable vets and kids. Great team. And a big hell no to Vegas. Anyone but Vegas.
Both the Finnish and Czech leagues are effectively 3rd tier, closer in quality to German league than to the Russian, Swedish or American leagues.
Raty is likely a middle-6 winger in the AHL. He could develop into more, but his value is to push Owen Michaels and Quinn Hughes for playing time.
Nice depth add, sure. GMSB still needs to find more talent who can contribute at the major league level.
Whelp!
I think he’ll post offense, but am doubtful about a complete game. He isn’t Josh Samanski.
Has anyone pointed out his only NHL game was against the Oilers? I feel like someone noticed him.
I think it’s spelled “Rattie” with an emphasis on the “Ty”.
‘member?
I am curious where Colorado goes from here. They are surprising old. The forward group in particular.
MacKinnon is older than Drai and McD.
Wait there… I thought aging curves don’t apply when you have the best centre depth in the league TM 🙂
Makar is 27, MacKinnon is 30. That’s a good age for your best players. Colorado has Necas and Malinsky and Kelly at 27, Drury at 25. They are carrying age, but there is plenty of talent inside the ‘peak’ bin. Not much bubbling under by I am hopeful Ivan Ivan plays a long time because I like his name.
Zakhar Bardakov 25, Gavin Brindley 21 and Danil Gushchin 24 are promising forward prospects.
They also recently signed 2024 second pick goaltender Ilya Nabokov to an ELC. I imagine he will spend next season in the AHL.
The Russians seem more like AHLers than prospects
Since coming over from St. Petersburg, Bardakov, has played 60 NHL games and only 1 in the AHL.
The Russian goaltender is just getting started in North America so very early to make any sort of call.
Gavin Brindley was drafted in the second round in 2023 by Columbus after a stellar career at the NCAA Michigan.
Brindley was the leading scorer for the Spartans at the age of 18 surpassing notable older players like Rutger McGroarty, Frank Nazar and TJ Hughes.
Brindley is only 5’8″ and 175.
Small, but Scott Wheeler loves him:
“Brindley is a high-end, debatably elite skater who gets through his extensions quickly (including from a standstill), excels on his edges, rounds corners sharply and darts around the ice, hunting pucks and pushing through holes.
He also has quick hands and a natural touch on the puck. He thrives in the small-area game, using light passes and rapid movements to play in and out of coverage.
He has impressed me across levels and events over the years (NCAA, USHL, Five Nations, U18 worlds, two World Juniors, etc.) as a small but highly involved forward who plays the game with energy and pace, making little skill plays between coverage.”
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6826380/2026/03/13/colorado-avalanche-nhl-prospect-rankings-2026/
He was the return on the trade that sent Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood to Ohio.
In fairness, Mackinnon is a month older than Draisaitl, and like 16 months older than McD.
I think Colorado should just maintain the course. Makar and Toews give them 30 minutes a night of probably the best d Pairing in the league. I would look to shore up the Defensive Depth in some way, especially with Burns probably aging out or aging down.
Mackinnon, Necas, Lehkonen, and Nichuskin are strong pieces to build around and they’re all 30 (or younger). Landeskog is 32, but with those years off, might have more in the tank than you’d think, and Nelson/ Kadri are 33 and 34, but still capable pieces if they can fill out the depth chart around them.
The Avs lost because of injuries, and circumstances, I think the wrong thing to do is panic and overthink this. Mackinnon, Makar and Nichuskin are too many injuries to overcome, and at 30 years old, their window is still open for a while. The Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win in sports, because no sport has as many games, at the physicality and injury risk of hockey. The best team doesn’t alway win, it just gives you the best chance, but you can’t win on skill alone, you need luck too, and the Avs didn’t get it this year.
In a lot of ways, I think that it parallels the Oilers and their exit. The Oilers were not at the same caliber as the Avs, and we had too many holes to overcome already. At the same time, we should have, and could have made a deeper run, if we had been luckier. Draisaitl got hurt at a bad time, McDavid, Dickinson and Henrique all got injured within a few games of each other and suddenly our teams greatest strength, was all gone. The Avs will likely be right back where they are this year, if they stay the course and don’t panic. The Oilers need to rehaul some things, because we didn’t have the skill to win the cup, even if there were no injuries and some luck, but its not like all hope is lost.
After the Hawks were acquired I would have not been surprised if the Oilers knocked off the Avs. Each season they were under dogs to the Stars and last year the Knights. The C depth was great which had been lacking and the pairs were balanced and quality when healthy enough. Walman back closer to his game, on third pair, was a big advantage. Injuries suck
Gregor wrote a thing at ON mostly about Nurse, mentioned the Avs and injuries. He’s not sure the Avs would beat Vegas even if healthy. If that’s true, why?
To me this is a big gap in stats analysis and use in hockey. Why are teams getting so banged up, especially our Oilers? If Montreal takes out the Canes and Vegas wins, I by did the two top seeds not win?
Then work with the new coach and design something around what the outcomes say is the best way forward to the Cup. If it’s Cassidy, your half way there because his system and the players he trained is one of the main teams they should be looking at
They can start by lowering the playing time of McDavid and Draisaitl by having them play less time on separate lines and deploying an actual second power play. Oilers are silly to overplay the Glimmer Twins in October-March.
Agreed
I read the same article and IMO Gregor mentioned that he believed if healthy the Oilers would have beaten the Ducks but he wasn’t sure if the Oilers would have beaten Vegas even if healthy.
I’d love to see Vegas & Montreal in the final. Vegas is playing old time hockey and winning. I give Cassidy’s coaching more credit for the success they’re having. Torts is just riding the wave and he knows it..
This is such a great point. Obvious and I missed it.
Im wondering what exactly did Torts do? And Cassidy not do?
When in fact what you state is more likely. Cassidy did a lot ot training and prep. Torts just added a new voice and rolled the lines.
As much as I love see the Avs continuing to fall short of expectations, I am still hanging on to a massive collapse by Vegas, as unlikely as it is.
With that said, the Avs have fallen short of expectations in every single season of the Bednar/MacKinnon era except the one. As much as Sakic and McFarland are lauded, the team has made it past the 2nd round two times in a decade despite contender expectations.