This is a Vollman Sledgehammer from 2013, listing rfas. RFA’s will be the subject of today’s conversation, but this is destined to be a big week in Edmonton. Please read this.
I can’t see Stan Bowman waiting much longer to make the Darnell Nurse trade if there’s a legit offer. Dealing Nurse before free agency allows the Oilers to wheel right away and I suspect that’s what they’ll do. I think the Oilers should do the opposite, but doubt it goes down that way. Here’s a look at the RFAs and decisions that have to be made today.
Qualifying
LW Colton Dach is a no-brainer. He owns the fourth-line LW job, but I think he might land higher, at least at times, under new coach Mike Babcock. He pounds opponents and has a good motor, and I think there might be more offense under the hood than his first 86 NHL games (7-13-20) imply. Bowman picked up a material young player at the deadline.
LD Spencer Stastney can defend, and penalty kill, plus his boots (84th percentile max speed) are fine. I suspect he’s destined to be the No. 7 D opening night, but those chaps play quite often during a season.
LW Roby Jarventie is a player I would qualiy and attempt to bring back for another year. If he signed it, I would look at him as a legit NHL option. He’s a good player.
RC Owen Michaels is a fascinating part of the Oilers future. He has a range of skills, is projected as a center who can PK, and I do think he could play some NHL games next season. Underrated name entering training camp.
Not qualifying
Josh Bloom and Matvey Petrov are down the line, I’d expect. Petrov has ability, but I don’t think he’ll ever unlock it enough to play on a skill line in the AHL. Too bad, because he’s an amazing PK man. Seriously.
On the Lowdown today, our feature guest is Jason Gregor and we’ll talk Nurse, Oilers RFA and UFA, World Cup, Elks and more. Noon to 2pm, Sports 1440 and You Tube.
A look at the draft:
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7401245/2026/06/28/edmonton-oilers-nhl-draft-2026-prospects/
https://puckpedia.com/players/search?q=5d5f9
Full list of RFA’s who weren’t qualified and are set to go be unrestricted tomorrow.
If anyone thinks hockey fans are anywhere near as fanatic as soccer is delusional.
If Morocco would have lost how would you like to take a 12 hour commercial plane ride with that one crazy Moroccan fan? The one with his eyes bulging out of his head after Morocco failed to win it on that 5th shot that hit the post.
Soccer fans have killed people due to their fanaticism. Not something to be proud of.
Madness.
4 elimination games couldn’t be any more nail biting this is shaping up for the record books.
Two games decided in stoppage time and two by penalty kicks – crazy.
I’d stand pat on Nurse. He’s a big part of this team and has lots of good hockey left.
The contract will never look as bad as it did this past year. Tell the fans to park the pitchforks. Give Babcock an opportunity to coach him. I’d also remind the public that the contract is on the club and management, as they twice had the chance to lock him up long term and chose to bridge him.
Yes he has his struggles, yes the cap hit is uncomfortable, but damn the torpedoes I’d see this through with him on the roster.
p.s. This post should essentially guarantee a trade within 24 hrs.
I hope Babcock can find the magic wand as Nurse has all the tools and like you said it’s not his fault his agent played Holland
Nah. Trade him and minimize the retention.
Murphy is better at the dirty defensive work and Walman is better at the “make and take” a pass of the defensive work.
There’s no reason to have an ineffective third pair defender at nearly 10% of cap.
The Panthers acquire goalie Akira Schmid from Vegas for a 2028th 3rd.
YOU SCOOPED SCOOP!
Oilers Daily
@oilersdailyy
Frank Seravalli said on Oilers Now that the most likely acquisition for the Oilers in the next 72 hours is Blue Jackets G Elvis Merzlikins.
Thoughts?
Would that mean Jarry is going back to his old division. Elvis is in his final year Jarry has 2 years at roughly the same money. If the Oilers are targeting Elvis why didn’t they get him last trade deadline. This sounds like a plan C move.
Buyout window closes shortly. Would save $2.8 this year but $1.4 on the books next year.
Who does Canada line-up against better Morocco or the Dutch?
Oof.
Imo, I’d say the Netherlands.
Both will pose a threat offensively and try to control the game. I’d say Canada and Marsh’s counter attack might be better served against a more ‘typical’ or ‘traditional’ Dutch back end…. But they’re good defensively haha.
No right answer in my mind.
Playing the Dutch or Morocco is a whole new level than Qatar or even the Swiss. Marsch always has his team pushing and pushing I’m actually surprised how many shots we have generated so far. Both these teams will be like the Berlin Wall. I do think we are due for some ball luck. If Alphonso wants to get more minutes it would be wise for Marsch to get that in writing with a witness present.
Ugh, choose your poison.
Hoping tonight’s match goes as long as GER/PAR, and they wear each other out.
I know it sounds cheesy but a yellow card to someone that already has one preferably one of their best defenders
Come on Bowman we all know it’s going to cost Howard to get rid of the over 9 million that a debatable top 4 D-man is siphoning from the Oil tank. Pull the trigger Bowman and get Tippett back while you’re at it.
It seems Bowman won’t even retain on Nurse, there is all about zero chance he’s attaching Howard to move him.
Even if he did, it wouldn’t come close to getting Owen Tippett.
Debatable top 4? Don’t be dishonest.
Bobby Brink not qualified by the Wild.
I don’t think he’s a good fit for the Oilers as I’m not sure he’s much larger than Yamamoto but a notable name for me. Maybe he’s more notable for me as I was somewhat following him when he was Carter Savoie’s teammate in Denver and I was following Carter.
That seems crazy. Unless im missing something the GM of the year did this:
Nov 2024 – traded a haul for Jiricek
Daemon Hunt, a 2025 1st round pick, 2026 3rd round pick, 2026 4th round pick, and 2027 2nd round pick
for former 6th overall pick Adam Jiricek
March 2026
Adam Jiricek for Bobby Brink
This seemed like a decent trade for Brink on a cheap contract at 24. 1.5M for a pretty good offensive player. Was 2.1 points/60 at 5v5 last year, 1.35 this year.
how do they not qualify him at 1.5M? Could they have traded him instead of letting him go UFA? Or qualified and then traded?
Talk about bleeding assets.
I think they were concerned about the arb award….
Michael Russo
@RussoHockey
Wild said they were qualifying Brink a half hour before deadline, but in the end did not. They’re hoping to still sign him for less than what his going rate would be as RFA (north of $3.5M). As of this moment tho, he becomes a UFA Wednesday x.com/puckpedia/stat…
Ah i see. I guess risky because other teams will be able to talk to him too. That will be interesting.
He’s a Minnesota boy.
Guerin gambling he will want to stay close to home.
Today marks my first day as the Managing Editor of Sports for SportsCage.com. I’m grateful for the opportunity to oversee their already excellent coverage.
I’ll continue to be based in Edmonton, but I’m thrilled to have strong ties to Saskatchewan once again.
https://x.com/dnbsports/status/2071624968400720107?s=61
You might want to attribute this tweet to the actual author, Daniel Nugent-Bowman.
Give him a break, it’s not like he was allegedly in media for his whole career and would know better.
You might want to click on the link provided that does actually that.
Is this internet thing hard for you?
It’s clearly hard for you cause you still can’t figure it out, or how to properly give people credit for your copy and paste.
You spend all day re-tweeting other peoples headlines, and you can’t even do it right.
I feel sad for you.
Looking forward to your unbiased coverage of the NHL in your new role!
You should come out of retirement and mentor these young whippersnappers.
Beyond help.
Agreed, you are beyond help.
Congrats
*oh congrats nugent-bowman.
This is pretty odd way to post this…you just lost the 1st thumbs up i’ve given you in quite awhile (i usually don’t bother either way unless exeptionally either terible or awesome.
Following the World Cup, aside from the bizarre refereeing in every sport it seems, it seems that the utter dedication to sport is not the same. Players train harder now, but they don’t have the same gamesmanship or ability to make things happen in the same way as top players used to. Probably smart phones and media. At some point they probably figure it out
Old guys like that stay in the top because nobody has stepped up to dethrone them
The disallowed goal by the Germans must have been part of the reparations they’re still paying since WW1. This is why technology is not always right when 8 out of 10 times that’s a good goal.
Max Wanner was non-tendered by the Bruins; looks like things didn’t work out for him there, but he was showing some promise during his time in Bakersfield. If Dineen is moving on, I wonder, if he’d be a good pickup on an AHL deal?
I think it would be a good idea. We don’t have many like him, he is like a poor man’s Vinny Desharnais from what I recall. Seemed like a good leader too.
As good an idea as getting back with an ex. Tear the rear view mirror off and eyes forward
We can’t easily see that, but the team has the resources to
Fair enough. I don’t think we will but Keith Gretzky may have been a big fan
Nurse’s jerseys on the clearance rack right next to Skinner’s at the Oilers store btw.
So as far as they’re concerned, he’s gone.
Bowman needs to call in a marker besides Chicago. Maybe he should take up fishing. Uruguay team officials are making the players find there on way home after not advancing. Maybe Bowman needs to quit being all buddy buddy and go to the Trouba treatment on Nurse.
That’s why Uruguay is Uruguay
They have 2 World Cup wins in a country 13 times smaller than Canada. I’ve met-worked and drank with people from all over the globe. Yet I’ve never met anyone from Uruguay which means they’re either a communist country or nobody wants to leave.
I spent in month in uruguay. Outside parillada (same as argentino bbq) worst paletes ever.
They are really big on hot dogs for some odd reason.
Also have this disgusting sandwiche called the “canadiense” there’s some story about a candian chef inventing it like often most expensive item on menus. It is horrible. Like at beat legendary canadian gourmet was a cook in the prison system or at a summer camp.
I have a buddy that lives in Columbia half a year. He keeps trying to get me to go he loves it there except you need an iron gut.
Columbia is amazing!
Colombia will leave you speechless with how beautiful the women are. It’s bonkers there.
The “Trouba Route” is not available to the Oilers – that route was, once his NMC transitioned to a NTC, they threatened to waive him so he lost all control if any team wanted to claim him – that’s not available to the Oilers.
P.S. the players on Uruguay did not “have to find their own way home” but were forced to fly commercial and not the previously planned private flight.
I don’t know if you realize this but they take football a lot more serious than we take Hockey. Taking a commercial flight would not only be humiliating but you never know on a 12 hour flight if some drunken fan is going to undone on you.
OK, but that doesn’t really have anything to do wth the incorrect statement and the correction.
Trouba has been in the league for 14 years arguably 6 of his best years in New York. What I’m getting at is the Rangers brass didn’t shrug their shoulders and say golly gee Trouba wants to stay. The Rangers played the same game that Vegas-Panthers-Lightning are playing meanwhile we keep sucking hind tit.
The Rangers did nothing different than the Oilers. They weren’t able to get him to waive his NMC and had to wait until it expired. The Oilers have actually got Nurse to waive his for a few teams.
I would also suggest that the Oilers have been materially better managed than the Rangers who are abysmal.
Hold up.
Which defenestrated Skinner? Stu or Jeff?
Asking for a friend.
This would be the goaltender.
Anyone else getting white box with blue text in weird places in the comments sections for the past few days? Today’s say ‘Oiler Prospects Analysis’ and ‘NHL News Updates’.
What’s this all about?
If you look under the hood in your WordPress profile, there is a toggle for something called
Enable Elementor AI functionality
That said, some of those white boxes still appear occasionally.
Alas, I am not seeing this option in my WordPress profile
it certainly seems like we got AI on top of our AI
okay, I toggled this off (it was on), and all that stuff still appears.
For anyone wondering, it’s on the page that comes up after you have to sign in once a week, the one with all the colour options.
Make sure you scroll way way, way, down to hit ‘Update Profile’
I thought it worked for me. Then I came back in a bit later and it didn’t solve the issue even though the box is unchecked.
It seems to work on my desktop but not on my phone
Yamo gets a new deal in Utah (via Pagnotta)
That’s a nice deal for Utah
Yamo has recovered from injuries and is now a serviceable middle-6 RW.
Under $2M is a steal for this player.
Have to be impressed with his resurgence – he came back from the all but dead!
Per Mike Griffith, Hamblin has only been offered an AHL deal and he is looking elsewhere.
Cam Dineen also looking elsewhere.
Not having Hamblin back will suck a bit for the org, in my opinion.
It’s an interesting choice given how few C’s are currently signed for the AHL team. I think we’re gonna see some signings soon.
I would have thought they’d want Hamblin back even with the likelihood he spends the entire year in the AHL again. The Condors are generally decimated with injuries and call-ups during the season and he’s been a hurt of the team and I presume very good with the younger prospects. He’s also able to be “deep depth” at the NHL level and could be trusted for a call up and give 8 low event minutes usually.
I doubt its a money thing – shit, the NHL portion of a 2-way contract can be less than an AHL deal and the owner has never been shy of paying huge money for those playing in the AHL.
Obviously a bunch of contracts to come but the Oilers only have 36 out of 50.
You need centers in the AHL, so the Oilers must feel they are covered. I count Marjala, Owen Michaels, and Willam Nicholl.
There’s no way the Oilers call that good enough. Which means Samanski might be in Bakersfield this winter.
I don’t think there is a chance Samanski is in Bako this season – really?
A few guys that have finished a full pro season included in development camp, namely Akey and Clattenburg but also Stonehouse (who is an ECHL player and not a real prospect).
I do wonder if there will be any additional focus on on-ice stuff given the changes to training camp and only 4 exhibition games so really no chance for any of these guys (but for Akey and Clattenburg) to really get a game.
Anyone see UFO back in the day? Belladonna-Doctor-Doctor were my favorites.
I’m proud of you. Michael Schenker was the man back in the day.
McCauley-Schenker song “Anytime” Is a classic glam tune.
The first thing I do as coach is shorten the shifts of everybody. A 4 year-old could see that Batman and Robin were completely drained by the 10 minute mark of the 3rd. Would it kill Connor if Babcock started a different line to begin the game and different periods. Oilers became way too predictable under K.K. Will Babcock style and strategy be a thing of the past or will Babcock get these players playing hard. The Babcock Red Wing teams had a lot of skilled talent with also being one of the hardest skating teams in the league. Like Sutter always says the team with the puck usually wins.
One problem the Oilers kept running into is that they play their best three Cs for 2 mins every PP. The shift after the PP, it was either Henrique or Samanski which means that they weren’t running a scoring line and didn’t really have the option to.
I hope they either add someone that can play 2C for the post-PP shift at the minimum or they go with a full PP1/PP2 split to balance the load.
Hopefully Babcock rectifies this Connor and Leon aren’t pimply kids that can play 23-24 minutes 82 games. We need to roll 4 lines with every line having an identity. No more blender after 1 period no more submitting to the Panthers. No more allowing nobodies free runs at Leon-Connor-Bouchard. Bowman is trying to build a big skilled team Anaheim is doing the same but they allowed everyone and their dog free runs at Gudas that won’t happen in Florida.
I like your writing style. Great for a sports blog
I’m still not sure where all these runs at Connor, Drai and Bouch are in reference. Leon hurt his knee on a clean and normal course bump from a small player – shit happens sometimes.
The rest, I do think we’ll see the bench run differently in many regards.
Connor had to drop the gloves in Dallas. The Leon injury was dirty a 4th liner took a run at him. Bouchard has had how many concussions? If you’ve noticed Florida is loading up for a war meanwhile Bowman hasn’t received that memo. We were out muscled by a bunch of kids in Anaheim. It’s good thing Gudas wasn’t playing the series would been over in 4 straight.
McDavid didn’t have to do anything.
That was not a dirty run at Leon – if that was a dirty run, any physical contract is a dirty run.
Potentially one NHL concussion for Bouchard, which we aren’ sure about – and one in the Worlds – not sure what that has to do with the Oilers.
I’m still cheering for kuzmenko if price is decent and term is short. Like if left withiut dance partner and takes show me contract RW with mcdavid and PP1 sniper role.
Oilers have revealed their development camp roster.
All five recent draftees shall attend, as well as a troika of women from NCAA hockey.
Camp runs tomorrow thru Thursday.
Would be nice if the team signed Johnny Hicks and his NCAA success translates into the second coming of CuJo.
I’d be happy with that.
He put up some sparkling numbers for sure, but he’s listed at 5’10”, 157 lbs.
He makes Connor Ungar look positively Brobdingnagian.
Anaheim Ducks
@AnaheimDucks
TRADE: We have acquired the rights to AJ Greer from the Florida Panthers in exchange for the rights to Radko Gudas.
Pierre LeBrun
@PierreVLeBrun
Both pending UFAs. Gudas was really liked in Florida before he left. No brainer.
Greer should get an offer from Anaheim later today.
Florida gets another dink back.
So does Anaheim
Yeah…he’s no shrinking violet.
The Panthers would have no problem beating Carolina. The Panthers are built like the Broad Street Bullies. They had a good regular season team with Huberdeau but they were physically pushed around in Playoffs. The GM then pivots to skill-muscle-filthiest. The Panthers are going to be back in the final again this year. Oilers have been sleeping at the wheel instead of getting 3-4 Perry’s they get some nice looking figure skaters.
The BSB had their moment. And then skill and speed prevailed.
I’m betting we’ll see the pattern repeat.
Carolina had an easy time of it. I do think the lightning would have beat them. The Panthers and Lightning are darn good teams those 2 will beat up on each other but I do think they handle Carolina who’s a good team but I do not see dynasty in them. The Habs are close they just need a Bennett or two. Gallagher has Marchand genes in him for 3 million a healthy Gallagher will do well in Vancouver.
I’m not so confident that TBL or FLA have much left. CAR, however, I’m very interested in how they go. Younger. Harder working. Faster.
As I said, re BSB, they couldn’t match faster, more skilled competition, once they’d peaked and once their not so subtle formula was broken.
Ps. I’m very happy for the swamp creatures to beat up on each other; I think the Habs-TBL series showed there’s a limit to that way of playing when facing a younger, faster, more talented, and more disciplined team, even when they’re inexperienced.
Hey LT. Kaliyev not qualified by Ottawa. 40 goals in the AHL last year. 25 now. Worth a shot ??
Doesn’t he skate like he is in a swamp?
Rumoured to have attitude issues…doesn’t like to check.
As anticipated, the have issued qualifying offers to defenceman Spencer Stastney as well as forwards Colton Dach, Roby Jarventie & Owen Michaels.
Sail on Matvey Petrov!
Come on back Jarventie!
Unless he’s actually going to get a real opportunity why go back to Bakersfield to be buried in the minors. I don’t like Babcock but I also didn’t like the way K.K dealt with the younger players. I don’t think he gave clear instructions for the younger players. Jarventie-Howard-Samanski even Savoie for most of the season looked lost on what and where to go. Maybe a hardass like Babcock will get his players playing to their strengths and for the love of Pete do some actual line matching instead of the stupid blender that rarely worked.
The more info comes out on the Nurse situation the more I think we should just keep him this year. It’s clear that we’d be able to get a small bidding war going for him with more teams available to trade with next year.
Of course, as others have stated, he could have a bounce back year this season under the new staff and that could further improve value either to the team or to the market.
We’re about to find out either how badly he wants to leave(expanding his list) or how badly the team wants to move him(not extraction value in a trade).
If they’re making a move just for cap space then they have plans for the money.
I have no idea what that would be for..
He must not realllly want to leave or he’d give them more than 3 teams
Still can’t believe we didn’t take a D early in this draft. How many of our current D prospects have top 4 potential? I would say Barnett and Fischer maybe, i dont know much about Cibulka but Hes 175 pounds.
Akey (does not appear to be trending well)
Barnett (trending well but a 5th round pick)
Carfagna
Fischer (trending well i think)
Leppanen (not sure hes really a prospect and is third pair at best)
Cibulka (just signed out of Europe)
we haven’t taken a D before the 5th round since 2023 (Beau Akey). Our top 4 D includes a 36 year old, a 33 year old, and a 30 year old).
We have just signed a ton of forward prospects out of Europe and actually have somewhat passable forward prospects, including one that sounds exactly like Rudolphs in Samanski. our D prospect depth is abysmal and we have an aging D core. Teams are always finding good D in the second round.
Again I am a Pracey fan and liked most of the picks this weekend but not sure what they are thinking here.
Rudy is 6’4″ & 205 as an 18 year old. I’m curious to see what he’ll look like when he’s Samanski’s age.
Brek Liske was sitting right there.
So I’ve heard..
You’ll hear it again
I know nothing about this Liske kid – so I took a minute to look him up. His regular season stats don’t exactly jump off the page, and he’s pretty average in size. He had a nice run in the playoffs, but that’s a pretty small sample size to be man-crushing on him so hard.
Rudolfs seem very raw … not sure if that’s a good thing or not.
Going to be interesting seeing how this shakes out in 5-10 years from now.
So were 50 other comparable prospects including the one the Oilers drafted – any of them could end up better than any of the others.
David Pagnotta
@TheFourthPeriod
As I mentioned on DFO Live earlier this hour, some talk the Oilers & Sharks recently re-engaged in Nurse trade discussions. Ducks & Flyers still in talks. SJ, like Ana, would need his blessing.
Sunny california be a nice landing spot and likely easy at end to sign 1 year contracts cap depending on where he is slotted seems like a decent way to go if it were me.
Perhaps Darnell doesn’t think its a nice landing spot?
Maybe he wants to go to the eastern seaboard with much lighter travel, where he can sleep in his own bad and see his kids after many road games?
Perhaps.
Perhaps colonrl mustard did it in the library with a candle stick.
Did what is the first question I personally would be inclined to ask…but the answer given back likely not what one might assume. Something something about milton bradley conspiracy premise/arses/candlesticks (feel free to choose your own smarmy punch line akin to “sure there bud…who knows indeed”)
Just was thinking of being on a exciting building momentum team paired with high end talent young RHD really valued veteran presence in less pressure conditions might be nice role (with the heir apparent top forward in house and a solid bet to rise into challenger before retirement…like a 1 move only until.retired option for sake of his kids formative years…best hedge bet IMO)
It really is frustrating to see the Oilers continually on the sidelines in the first round of the draft. Particularly at a time when the club badly needs affordable prospects bubbling up in the pipeline.
In a market where sellouts are a given, it really is puzzling how this org gave into the pressure to continually sell it’s future to win now.
If they’d simply committed to continually building the team through the draft after Leon and Connor arrived, it’s not hard to imagine a very deep and cap efficient team by this point.
Is Grier building that better mousetrap in San José?
Do you know the way, in San José? It looks like patience…
Grier was hired only 4 years ago.
He had a massive amount of legacy contracts on his cap sheet to dump to start the process.
He moved, Timo Meier, Tomas Hertl, Brent Burns, Erik Karlsson, ME Vlasic among others and now has only Logan Couture’s SELTIR left.
Considering the heavy lifting he had to do, 4 years is not all that long.
I’m watching, now. And I’m wondering: How long before impatience starts to show up?
I don’t think he will blink.
With the massive haul of high end talent he just procured at the draft, he can afford to let it grow organically.
I am curious to see how he handles Couture’s remaining year of $8 million on SELTIR.
He could try and trade it to a cap strapped team, buy it out for $ 4 million with $2 million the following season or just let it ride.
A trio of vets, Barclay Goodrow ($3.6M), Dmitri Orlov ($6.5 million) and Adam Gaudette ($2 million) also come off the cap next offseason just in time for Celebrini to get paid.
I would guess the goal for the upcoming season is just to make the playoffs and hit the go pedal when Celebrini plays on the first season of his extension.
By then, he will have FOUR high 1st round picks, all under 25, as well as college star Eric Pohlkamp on D and his first line of Stenberg – Celebrini – Smith will be an absolute terror.
Terrors such as the all mighty Rafferty, Rathbone, Colbourne, a bazillion Canucks prospects and NO ONE can ever forget the LA Kings and all the crazy depth at centre they have bubbling up, under and sideways?
“If they’d simply committed to continually building the team through the draft after Leon and Connor arrived, it’s not hard to imagine a very deep and cap efficient team by this point.”
I’ll be damned. That’s a revelation. I’m surprised no one has mentioned that before. Just kidding. Since you’re new here we will cut you some slack.
Understand the concept of present value.
Most futures fail.
Arthur Kaliyev
Take a flyer on this guy? He cant seem to stick anywhere… but can score… This blog knows him well
To me there are hundreds of guys that can score, if they don’t have to play winning NHL hockey
yes he has proven nothing for sure in the NHL at this point… he can score but something seems off if he can’t stick
we are scratching at the bottom barrel though looking for cheap options.
Issac Howard.
— speaking of UFOs (or UAPs as correctly identified) one of my best friends : engineer investment banker really smart guy is one of the foremost experts on UAPs
— I went to a talk that he hosted where the speaker was the guy who famously testified at congress last year about crash sites and stuff that he wasn’t given clearance to speak about.
— My takeaway from the talk is that there is definitely “triple verified” documentation of UAP: meaning visual first hand viewing as well as photos and radar of things government can’t explain.
— Not necessarily “extra-terrestrial sentient beings” but phenomena we don’t have the technology or ability to currently measure.
— Anyway as for those UFAs carry on …
“Not necessarily [NHL players] but phenomena we don’t have the technology or ability to currently measure.”
Sounds like draft picks.
It doesn’t take one very much time researching to see that undoubtedly there are things we don’t understand flying around in our airspace’s(possibly water spaces as well).
Using some sort of science we don’t understand. Defying the laws of conventional physics(quantum?)
Hey Kinger, was the speaker you saw David Grusch? Lue Elizondo?
— it was Grusch. The talk was fascinating
— I’m just not until there is collaboration able to accept that there are “crash sites”
— To be fair Grusch did not come out and say “I have direct first hand knowledge and have seen crash sites”. He was very measured and calculated. We had to sign NDA and not take notes or record.
— I’m more inclined to believe that the intelligence community has done some obfuscating and ops on people to further their own agendas.
— I just can’t believe there is a multi generation government agency that could withhold
— But for sure objects in sky that are verified that we don’t know what the phenomena is
Cool, thanks.
Wait, you had to sign an NDA to listen to him talk? Crazy.
Lue Elizondo, who investigated Gruschs testimony(pre-congress) and many others while he was head of AATIP, came right out and said in his book that there are a couple multi generational agencies that have kept things from the public, congress, house, White House etc.
He calls them ‘Legacy Programs’
— yeah. I’ve read some of that stuff. I’m sure lots of intelligence has been suppressed because illegal unauthorized comprising to actors not wanting to share stuff that our enemies could glean info funding unethical measures militias etc
— I’m just not willing to suspend belief that there is direct UFO alien physical stuff that the government has suppressed for generations untill there is the same “triple verification” that these UAPs have on record.
https://www.explorescu.org/conferences
— But open to be convinced.
Oh for sure! And I specifically never mentioned anything about ‘aliens’. Just trying to stick to facts here, which is there is aerial phenomena that we have no idea the nature of.
I agree with you that we can’t really know whether there are crash sites or not. When the Roswell crash happened, there was a different US military experiment that lost one of their weather balloons and it was found by the US Air Force (or so the story goes) but they couldn’t claim it publicly because they didn’t want the Soviet Union to know they were spying so the guys that found it didn’t realize it was their own side that also made it and lost it. Or like the Cosmos 954 crash in the NWT. Soviet nuclear material is still out there. Had we not known it was coming/was theirs, would we find it and think “this isn’t from Earth”?
Im still waiting to be picked up by the aliens. 39 birthday in 2 more days
Skyler Brind’Amour not qualified.
I recall the angst when he got some NHL games under his dad given Carolina’s staff knows everything better.
Suspect the “current genius franchise” (St. Louis? Anaheim? San Jose? – I forget as it is so hard to keep track) will pick him up in what will undoubtedly be described as an incredible tactical move, gaining a massive asset for no cost and further weaponizing cap space.
General question about GMing (and scouting): in the age of video, (open source analytics), fan blogs, computer models, etc., are there more or less information asymmetries between teams than a decade or two ago?
Unless a team has specific knowledge about its own player (injury, motivation, personal issues), I’d argue that it is pretty easy now for any resourced team to build up a good database of most/all NHL and sub-NHL players.
I’d say less asymmetry unless a team is specifically choosing not to use any analytics. With the NHL Edge stuff that the league has available, I don’t think we have any teams just reading names out of the NHL Guide Book any more.
It’s hard to say though because the most advanced teams aren’t disclosing what they have or what they measure.
Chris Johnston
@reporterchris
The Habs are retaining 50% of Brendan Gallagher’s remaining salary/cap hit in the trade to Vancouver
Earlier the Canucks traded Nils Hoglander to Nashville for a 3rd round pick.
Do you think you’re still a Cub Reporter, Jimmy Olsen?
This just in….
Breaking news…
I guess we should just start calling you Scoop?
What a maroon.
It should be noted that every single person here has access to the internet and nobody cares about Brendan Fookin’ Gallagher – except maybe for The Lorax – so just stop with your piddling updates about how every team in the NHL has improved except the Oilers.
Onerous and tiresome little child.
Sad news. I broke up with my girlfriend Lorraine because I was seeing another girl named Claire Lee.
But the good news is that I can see Claire Lee now Lorraine is gone
I thought you didn’t commit to any team and just pretended to be a fan of how teams are run in general (unless one of those teams is the Oilers, of course)?
If Claire Lee could see clearly she may make a different choice.
A digression… Apologies in advance if this pokes old, sore places.
I am fascinated by the history here in Oilerville, and specifically, the hows and whys of failing to build a Cup-winner in the McD era. Fitting then, that my day of hockey reading started with Sean McIndoe’s anniversary piece on the Hall/Larsen trade (10 years ago, today; in The Athletic). Which led me to read about Chiarelli (and discover that some of what his Bruins achieved rested on work done by Interim GM Jeff Gorton, now doing good work in Montreal).
Q: Given Chiarelli’s less-than stellar record with the Bruins, why did the Oilers hire the man who looks, from this distance, to be the guy most responsible for this team not winning a McD era Cup?
Because the Oilers braintrust and ownership has always been about fighting and winning the last war: Chia, Holland (though he had up arrows), Bowman, Coffey, now Babcock (though credit to the progressive hires in Woodcroft, KK).
They’re the ones chasing Lucic after he peaked, instead of thinking innovation and trying to find the next Lucic before he cashes.
Thanks, Smelly
I still love that lucic was drafted with an oiler pick…there’s just some sort of Aesop fable in that tangled web.
Bob Nicholson knew him from Hockey Canada and wanted him and Todd McLellan (hired before ChiaPete) to run the team.
Many of this team’s issues are tied directly to Burger Bob’s disastrous tenure.
Thanks, Jersey
I suppose nobody can know for sure, but I believe Burger Bob and the owner would have made the call. Chia had won the cup in Boston, and if you don’t look any further than that, I guess you could argue he was a great get. Of course, many had reservations at the time and he quickly proved those people right with basically every move he made, starting with the Hall and Reinhardt trades.
And yet, I would still argue he was an improvement on MacT and Tambellini, as he could at least occasionally a real NHL player, unlike the days where our big free agent adds were Ben Eager and Darcy Hordichuk, with the vaunted Jared Smithson as our deadline add at 4C. Shows just how dire things were pre-Macdavid in the heart of the decade of darkness.
Many don’t seem to appreciate what Holland brought to the table, but imo more than anything he brought back a lot of respectability to the front office that had been missing for decades at that point. It’s part of why the hires of JJ and then SB was a bit disappointing, as it felt a bit like DoD decision making was creeping back in (note SB profiles kind of like Chia in that he largely inherited the team he won with, albeit with a better track record of retooling his roster to keep the window of contention open).
Thanks, Finn
There was significant speculation that Gary Bettman and league brass intervened in the Oilers management situation after they won the 2015 draft lottery.
The Oilers won the draft lottery on April 18th.
GM Craig McTavish was fired and replaced by Peter Chiarelli on April 24th.
Many media members and fans widely speculated that league executives were unhappy to see their next generational talent land in a struggling Edmonton market .
Thanks, Fib
It’s clear this org (certainly back then, maybe still) sees success elsewhere and says “we need that”. Two Cup finals trips in three years (one win) for the Bruins means Chiarelli looked awfully shiny to Oilers brass. Regardless of who was actually doing the real work behind the scenes in Boston.
Thanks, Gaz
— the issue for oilers is forever they haven’t done a comprehensive search.
— Lowe was gifted GM role because he bled Oil.
— MacT then gifted role as GM (went from AHL coach to GM).
— I don’t recall much chatter about the search that landed on Tambellini
— Then it was clear they locked in on Chia.
— Then it was clear they locked in on Holland because Hockey Canada connection.
— Then it was clear they locked in on JJ who was locked in on Bowman
— The oilers just don’t do comprehensive and extensive due diligence : they find their guy and they lock it in. It was always Babs (Stauffer talked about him before Cassidy).
Thanks, Kinger. I see the pattern (impatience; chasing past successes). But why? Ownership impatience? League patterns (“everybody else is doing it”)? And specifically, why Chiarelli in 2015, after his poor performance in Boston?
With Chiarelli, a lot of it is an overly simplistic view of his Bruins tenure as GM.
He was hired away from Ottawa as a “rising star”(Ottawa made the 2007 Cup Final and was a top team for a few years at that point) by the Bruins in May of 2006 but he had to sit out until July 8th so that he wouldn’t compromise Ottawa’s draft/free agency so Jeff Gorton ran the draft for BOS. Gorton also traded Raycroft for Rask (great goalies make the GM/Coach look great) and signed Marc Savard. Chia also inherited a suddenly good Tim Thomas (two Vezina winners makes you look double smart).
Now, some look at it as Gorton did it independently and some looked at it as “weird how BOS signed Chara away from OTT, Chia’s old team”. Gorton drafted Kessel, Lucic and Marchand in what was one of the best drafts of all-time and then Gorton was fired in June of 2007. Gorton was the GM of the Rangers from 2015 to 2021 and if you look at their draft record, he does not appear to be a magical draft genius.
Back to Chiarelli, he made a couple of good adds (Boychuk, Ference, Horton) but his home run was when the Leaf’s threatened him with a Kessel offer sheet after Kessel refused to sign. This was a disaster for Toronto as they were terrrible the next two years and BOS ended up with the picks for Tyler Seguin (#2 2010) and Dougie Hamilton (#9 2011). He also added a hidden advantage in Gregory Campbell whose father Colin Campbell was/is a VP for the NHL and was/is meddling in the officiating of his son’s games. You may have noticed this as Gregory is currently an assistant GM with the Panthers.
All that to say, Chiarelli’s Bruins won the 2011 Stanley cup five years after he was signed and four of those were without Jeff Gorton. Now, the wheels did come off and Chiarelli made some bad signings & decisions including trading Seguin away in a package centered around Loui Eriksson who was notably not prime-years Seguin. Chiarelli was notably the GM who drafted David Pastrnak 25th in 2014 and that pick immediately paid off but Boston missed the playoffs in 2015 and Chiarelli paid the price.
From the outside looking in, it’s easy to spin the narrative one wants to see. EDM had Mactavish as GM and in two years he took the 24th ranked team down to the 28th ranked team, and they unexpectedly won the McDavid lottery. They wanted a flashy new GM and lo and behold, a cup-winning GM had just become available on April 15th who they hired on April 24th in about the same fashion as we ended up with Mike Babcock.
The only qualification they really cared about was “someone that has won before” while leaving aside that nobody had done that yet (although Rutherford was about to in 2016). It’s the exact same mentality as “We need Babcock, he’s won”. They hired Chiarelli because there really aren’t a lot of cup-winning GMs that don’t have jobs but winning a cup does not require a good GM if he has a great goalie.
Thanks, Du! Lots of context. Appreciated.
I also appreciate the note about goalies and perception of GM success (maybe the same can be said about perception of coaching success?).
Marco D’Amico
@mndamico
·
@RLavoieTVA
the Montreal Canadiens have traded Joshua Roy to the Utah Mammoth.
Fascinating!!!!
How would anyone ever know this if it weren’t for you and your SCOOPS!???
Do you think he has one of those old-timey hats with the “PRESS” tag on the brim?
Scoops, our roving reporter!
Satiar Shah
@SatiarShah
This saves the Habs a bit of cash because a buyout would cost two thirds of his salary instead of just paying half of it.
This is good work by the Canucks who can now flip Gallagher at the deadline if he plays decently at 25% of his salary if they retain.
As much as I’d love a resolution to the Nurse situation as quickly as possible, I do think having it happen later into July might do more good in protecting us from ourselves on July 1.
Also, some crazy July 1st contracts might make Nurse’s deal look more palatable.
Stastney/Emberson were 8-5 goals and 56% expected goals last season.
They were actually 2-2 versus elites and 2-0 versus mid.
I am confirmable with that 3rd pairing and with the entire HEALTHY group of:
Ekholm/Bouchard
Walman/Murphy
Stastney/Emberson
The issue, of course, is real lack of depth unless they add and, of course, the likelihood if injury to that top 2 LD and no-one we feel comfortable moving up.
Adding a D to push Stasney to 7D is fine, even prudent – would Regula get claimed – I DO think that kid can play in the NHL.
I think Carfagna may be able to play this year but that’s a 2nd half of the year bet.
Whatever happened to Dineen?
He came up for a few games in 2024-25, played 17+ mins a game and didn’t get embarrassed or scored on, made some nice plays under duress, then disappeared.
I recall you mentioned he seemed to regress in BAK but in what capacity, consistency or flat out ability with a higher level of internal competition?
Dineen played his 2-year contract and is a UFA.
He was better in the AHL 2-years ago than last year – I don’t consider him an NHL option except for dip depth, 9D/10D.
I keep looking at those pairings and thinking of trying Ekholm and Murphy. That would be a big, tough pairing to play against and Ekholm can pass as well.
Sure, maybe – that likely leaves Walman/Bouchard – that would be a high event pairing but Bouchard floats all boats and he’ll work with anyone (he turned Kulak in to a top pairing d-man for 150 minutes in the 2025 playoffs).
Ekholm/Bouchard were still a massive top end first pairing last season, Ekholm:
Played all 82 games
Had 41 points
Was 12th among d-men in 5 on 5 points
Played 36% TOI vs. elites
Was 56% goal share (and 56% expected goal share)
Yes, he’s slowing down and, by eye, more prone to the giveaway and getting beat off the rush (to the middle it seems) but that last season was still very legit.
$4MM is a steal if he’s the same player as last season.
What’s the sample size on your Stastney stats? Seems pretty small to me.
The full season – they played 225 minutes together at 5 on 5.
Move Nurse to LW and live happily ever after
Great, so a $9m bottom 6 winger.
I imagine he’s a much better d-man than he is forward.
He IS a good d-man that has issues in his game – its called being a second pairing d-man worth apx $6.75MM-$7.25MM in the current market.
It worked for Brent Burns…..
Burns went the other way, no?
Friedman also saying the Oilers did a bunch of work on Devon Levi but doesn’t think that’s going anywhere.
Levi is a “smaller goalie” – org may be adverse to that (that’s me, not Friedman).
Dustin Wolf is a smaller goalie too. Like Levi, he proved himself in the AHL for several seasons. He’s no longer waiver exempt, so maybe the Oilers are pushing the Sabres to accept a lesser price. The Sabres look like they are big game hunting for Hellybuyck though.
Since Legace and the Oilers upset, Babcock locks small goaltenders in the broom closet in the dressing room. The Oilers hired Mike Babcock. He likes goaltenders who are giants. Get him a giant, not a midget.
Is Levi better than Ingram? Nope… Just sign Ingram, he is consistent and calm in there. Levi hasn’t proven anything. Potential? Sure… or not.
If they go after him don’t pay a ransom… likely not worth it.
Agreed. Stick with Ingram, Jarry. Build a more defensively responsible team, starting with F group, before wasting any assets or thoughts on bright, shiny goalies. Goalies have not been a problem for the past three years. An F group that won’t consistently play responsibly has been the problem.
Ingram is the most consistent tender we have had in a long time, not the highest ceiling but def the most consistent style in a long while. He isn’t flashy but is a good tender if Jarry goes walk about. If Ingram can put up a 907-912… we are cooking.
Those numbers, given how SV% is being measured and how it’s trending, may be “elite,” for most goalies in the coming season. I’m not sure the Oilers F group will play consistent “elite” responsible hockey. They’re hoping the whip that is MB will remind them of what they too often forgot with KK.
But I’m repeating myself. Ingram is enough. Is the F group?
And they just drafted a “smaller goalie” in spite of fading Ungar and not seeming to like small goalies.
The Oilers just can’t get out of their own way.
By fading Ungar, do you mean AHL games over Jonsson (and Day) and re-sining him well in advance of any other RFA?
This is an area where you have to use the stats to inform what you are looking for. If the numbers say a goalie is at the top of available, but he’s short so you in the end aren’t going to use him, go in a another direction – start as you mean to go
Same thing with a lot of the undersized D they acquire – what are you hoping to get out of it? The next Hughes or Makar? Those guys aren’t found in the depths of the draft or in far off leagues very often, pick typical sized guys
Nurse update from Friedman: Philly has interest but need to move Risto first, Pens have interest but want the Oilers to retain and they won’t, Nurse currently not willing to waive for Anaheim.
LT writes: “Dealing Nurse before free agency allows the Oilers to wheel right away and I suspect that’s what they’ll do.”
I wonder if waiting until after July 1 allows teams that struck out in free agency a chance to bid on Nurse as a consolation prize. Bowman can always go back to Nurse’s agent and explain that he tried to trade his client but the market has spoken; how about being open to other destinations?
I wouldn’t sign anyone July if I’m Bowman, no matter if Nurse is dealt. The Oilers aren’t good at day 1 free agency.
Agree 100%
Honest question, who is? Are we talking a GM, or an organization, with a track record of success in free agency? Because for the most part, I see plenty of swings and almost as many misses across the league.
Completely agree – if a Nurse trade goes down, I’d prefer it to happen after July 1, as I think the oilers will fetch a better haul, and it will ace the Oilers from spending foolishly at the start of UFA season
This all day ^^^
There isn’t anyone to get in free agency. As such, I doubt GMs are waiting for it to commence before making a decision.
Nurse isn’t horrible, he just paid $2Mish too much. Please SB, don’t make a panic move just because. I won’t be crushed if he stays and DJ might be the guy to unlock him – particularly if they plan to change the PK strategy. Based on wind and imagination – I’m not sure Stuart was helping so much on the back end
Nurse will be moved because of his cap, may not be this season if it’s not a good scenario. Even with the cap going up teams shouldn’t spend what Bouch and Nurse make on two D. My thing now is 3 high cap players is the max, or your team isn’t deep enough – the Leafs problem for a long time
The Oilers need some Moneypuck in their lineup building.
Allocate dollars for each position and stick to your plan.
A 10 million dollar 4th line is not good value.
Why does it seem like it’s so hard for any Oilers GM to make a good deal or a decent signing?
Oilers get Hyman and he’s automatically the best UFA they’ve ever signed?
The Oilers have been in the NHL for 47 seasons… and their ~most recent~ UFA is the best one in history?
What the fook have these Oilers GM’s been doing?
I agree with the line of thinking that says the Oilers should just keep their hands and their money in their pockets and only make trades… they’re not good at Free Agency buying.
Hyman was an insane ‘best’ oiler FA because he popped and got better along side 97, he figured it out how to play and score with him… substantial FA
He would be high on a list among all time UFA for all teams likely though I am not looking that up… no time!
Your point is true though…. FA’s a lot times for the oil just don’t create that value…probably for a lot teams this happens.
Nurse’s value is only going to go up through the season, if he isn’t traded:
Entering into four years remaining on his contract, he’ll have 3 years remaining after this campaign. His trade protection slides after this year too: more bidders, more options for the Oilers.
Don’t panic on Nurse, he’s a good top 4 defenseman, just making too much. It’s not as if the Oilers are great at weaponizing cap space, and they no longer have the assets to trade. The team you see is the team we’ll get for the next two years (until McD runs out), for better or for worse:
Three top five players (in their positions): McDavid, Draisaitl, Bouchard.
Some strong (multi-dimensional top 6f, top 4 d) supporting (albeit aging) players: Nuge, Hyman, Ekholm.
Three strong young players on the up: Savoie, Howard, Dach.
The rest: Island of Misfit Toys.
Significant chatter this morning including from Elliott Friedman that a Nurse trade to Philadelphia is possible when the Flyers move Rasmus Ristolainen.
The latter might be a good fit in San Jose as a stop gap while Keaton Verhoff, Ryan Lin and Eric Pohlkamp develop further and populate the right side for the Sharks.
If CBJ moves Werenski that opens a possible spot for RR as well
Ristolainen would be a better fit in Anahiem than Nurse.
Agreed, no doubt they will qualify Dach, Stastney and Michaels and I see no reason why they would t qualify Jarventie. Might as well keep his rights.
I definitely could see them letting Petrov walk.
With the ‘beef wars’ in the east, they need to keep decent or better bigger players that can and will push back
Maybe, Carolina just beat the more physical Knights…….