This is the Oilers 50-man roster from training camp entering 2016-17. Peter Chiarelli clearly felt the team needed some veteran help on right wing, thus the presence of PTO signing Kris Versteeg. The center depth chart was amazing, left wing looked different without Taylor Hall, but Patrick Maroon was there and Milan Lucic was the big free-agent signing July 1. Right wing would be the problem. Chiarelli saw it.
Todd McLellan knew it, talked about it in training camp. They couldn’t get a deal done with Versteeg. The team would make the postseason so who cares, right? I think Versteeg could have helped in a big way.
I think the reason we won’t see a bunch of college, junior and Euro signings this summer is because of the Versteeg factor. More after the break.
THE ATHLETIC!
- New Lowetide: How a balanced Oilers roster is finally uniting the fan base
- Lowetide: Who’s the Oilers’ best player outside the NHL? It’s a tough call
- Lowetide: Which Oilers’ minor leaguers could help in the playoffs?
- Lowetide: Oilers’ Kailer Yamamoto’s future may hinge on 2023 NHL playoffs
- Lowetide: 5 ways Oilers’ Mattias Ekholm has delivered since trade
- Lowetide: Oilers’ second half spike owes much to Jay Woodcroft’s innovation
- Lowetide: Edmonton Oilers post an incredible March with playoffs in sight
- DNB: The Oilers ‘found a way’ against the Kings
- Lowetide: How many more college players will the Oilers sign this spring?
- Lowetide: Edmonton Oilers at 2018 NHL Draft, making the final call
- DNB: Connor McDavid joins the 60-goal club
- Lowetide: Is the Oilers’ defence deep enough to win the Stanley Cup?
- Lowetide: Stock up or down for every Oilers prospect in the system
- DNB: Oilers’ recent play gives 3 reasons to be optimistic about a long playoff run
- DNB: Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl shows he’s more than Connor McDavid’s sidekick
- Lowetide: What to expect from the Oilers’ 2023 NHL Draft after trading first-round pick
- DNB: Connor McDavid’s importance to the Oilers keeps showing no bounds
- Lowetide: Oilers top 20 prospects, winter 2022
CURRENT 50-MAN (37)
Edmonton has several UFA’s (Derek Ryan, Mattias Janmark, Devin Shore, Nick Bjugstad, Tyler Benson, Justin Bailey, Slater Koekkoek, Jason Demers, Cam Dineen) and will no doubt sign several. Ken Holland has room to sign them all and then some. If you look at the unrestriced list of NHL free agents this summer, there are some names who could sign for $1 million or less with a strong contender. Edmonton will be a strong contender. There are also some draft picks of interest and a player acquired recently worth signing. Here’s my list.
- LW Patrik Puistola, Edmonton Oilers. You traded Jesse Puljujarvi to clear cap space but maybe the scouts saw something. Sign the man. His numbers are good.
- LD Gavin Bayreuther, Columbus Blue Jackets. He’s a lefty but can play either side, and performed fairly well against elite and mid competition relative to his teammates. We’re talking No. 7D here, but he would give Edmonton needed depth on defense, and if he’s lost to waivers no harm, no foul.
- LD Luca Munzenberger, Vermont. He looked good against players his own age at the WJs, but at Vermont it’s tough to get a read on him. The team is bad, so the numbers look poor, but shutdown defenders alway have these kinds of numbers on struggling clubs. There’s room. Sign the man.
- LC Skyler Brind’Amour, Quinnipiac. I would sign him to an entry deal today, for several reasons. Edmonton invested in him as a draft and follow and he earned a deal. Second, you can never have too many centers in the organization. Third, the Oilers aren’t going to graduate many draft picks to pro in the next three years because they’re trading them. Finally, he’s a shutdown forward and Edmonton needs more.
- RW-LW Michael Eyssimont, Tampa Bay Lightning. I’ve always liked this player, he plays a rugged and aggressive game. A real throwback type, versatile, there’s some offense there.
- W Josh Leivo, St. Louis Blues. He’s 30, can play either wing, and per 82 NHL games over his career he averages 13-16-29. He appears to be healthy, and his five-on-five shooting percentage is poor this season (4.65) but his career shooting percentage is 9.2 overall. I know I’ve been talking about him for a long time but it doesn’t mean he isn’t any good.
- LD William Lagesson, Carolina Hurricanes. He’ll get better offers (Edmonotn’s LD depth chart is dive deep), but he knows the system and is enjoying a strong season with the Chicago Wolves. Lagesson has some nice things, including size and shut-down ability.
- LW Justin Kirkland, Anaheim Ducks. He’s 26 and 6.03, 183, plays a gritty two-way game. He’s a smart player, and is scoring goals at a higher rate (34 in his last 96 games) in the AHL.
- RD Mark Pysyk, Detroit Red Wings. Missed the season with an achilles injury, he’s going to be a bargain somewhere if he can play.
- LD Joel Hanley, Dallas Stars. He had a decent season in a support role, he’s undersized but has good wheels.
- RD Frederic Allard, Montreal Canadiens. RH puck mover, he’s 25, plug him in with the Condors and see what happens.
NOTE: This is NOT the list of most attractive free agents Edmonton will pursue at the top end, it’s a list of value deals at the bottom end. If you post “I don’t think any of these guys will help but there have been reports Edmonton is interested in Damon Severson” I’m going to delete it. The comments section gets clogged up with comments that are not germane and in fact derail things. Clearly, this is a value list. Also, if you’ve stated something 100 times before and then mention you’ve said it 100 times before, I’m deleting that, too. You’re giving me a headache. Thanks.
LOWETIDE AND JAMIESON
A busy day as we hit the ice, court and course in an effort to bring you everything, 10-2 on TSN1260. We’ll talk Oilers, NBA play-in and playoffs, the Masters and more. 10-1260 text, @Lowetide on twitter. See you on the radio!
Seravalli is reporting that Brind’Amour won’t be signing with the Edmonton Oilers.
Ah, spring! It’s getting warmer, it’s lighter in the morning, the air smells fresh, the sun is out – AND THE FLAMES ARE ELIMINATED! I’m positively giddy with enjoyment.
“Uberdough” sets an NHL record with the biggest points decline season to season in the history of the game. And he is there for EIGHT MORE YEARS! (Albatross 1). Kadri for SEVEN. (Albatross 2 in a series!)
Hope they sign their new “sniper” Ritchie long term too! Re-up Lucic, buy all the way in to “Sutter” hockey and stumble along for a decade or more – looks so good on them!
You deserve this Hrudey, Cassie, Button, Burke. Wasn’t;t it just last month that Button was so sure the “forward group” in Calgary was superior to most in their division? Please! Why does that fool still have a job? What are ANY of them on TV? Such Flames asskissers the lot of them. And usually only minimal acknowledgement of other teams. I hope someone on the panels calls them out – Button in particular.
It “may be ” apparent that I do not like the Calgary Flames.
Flames made history tonight:
“Sportsnet Stats
@SNstats
Flames are the 3rd team in NHL history to suffer 30 one-goal losses in a season
10:19 PM · Apr 10, 2023”
https://twitter.com/SNstats/status/1645642824103206912
The “weak Pacific Division” finishes as the only one in the NHL with four 100 point teams.
Thus ends the season-long comedy routine called the Calgary Flames. All the pre-season hype of their GM and his genius moves seems to have been……well……a little excessive. Please extend the coach and GM forever. Nick Ritchie in the SO with the season on the line. Man it doesn’t get any funnier. Is Sutter literally trolling their fans?
I thought he’d go with Looch.
Might be the only thing that would have been better. Of course they could resign Looch for 3x$3 million over the summer. That would be excellent 🙂
Indeed. He seems like a glue guy.
Moves like he’s skating in it as well 🙂
But he plays “Sutter” hockey, slow ponderous, angry!
Bring on the Jets payback time.
I feel like the Oilers are far superior to the Jets. And of course they are – the only wild card is Hellebuyck. He can steal games.
If they get to him like they did Markstrom last playoffs that would be awesome.
Calgar-e
Calga-ra
Calga-ra ha ha ha ha ha ha
I was waiting for someone to bring it home. Good work!
Tommy Novak: Flame Extinguisher
sidenote: (this guy came out of nowhere to put up a pretty solid season)
He’s legit! I’ve watched a few Preds games this year. One of the few American teams I’m into. More so now that they employ Barrie!
He’s got pretty good hands and skill with the puck. Another one for that 2015 draft! On a side note, I always appreciate a classy player. Noticed how toned down that SO winner celebration was. Just a small nod and “let’s go” to the boys. He knew what that meant to Calgary and made a point of not rubbing it in.
Even the players think the shootout is ocky.
And an ultra low contract ($800K) for one more season. He’d look good in Oilers colours…
You’re right about Tommy Novak coming out of nowhere. I didn’t know who he was until about a month ago. 41 pts in 49 games.
If you want a good laugh listen to Flames 960 after hours they always have this old-timer caller who can go on a rant for 5 minutes straight without taking a breathe I think his name is Robert
Is it Stauffer?
Sorry Flames fans,
The bloated OTL bettman points finally come home to roost
Tops in the league for most loser points!
Hrudey and Cassie are going to have a good cry tonight at Buttons house later tonight.
Brian Burke might even show-up with a bottle of wine.
ftfy
Brian Burke might even show-up with a bottle of whine
Ritchie is the third option for the Flames in a shootout… ouch.
That alone is enough reason to fire Sutter
Nooooooo…Sutter and Treliving need to be given lifetime contracts.
Gotta keep the Falmes mediocre!
Treliving has no contact it would be hilarious if they made Sutter G.M. Lindholm contract is up in a year no-way he resigns.
Maybe Sutter had a hunch…?
B-bye Cowtown.
The Winnipegger , CODY GLASS extends the shootout!!
This just in:
Apparently Robertson didn’t score any more points.
Whew. Thank goodness for that update.
oh my ;)…
Summarizing!
Jake Chiasson scored his second of the playoffs as he wired home a wicked wrister glove-side. It would be the eventual game-winner as the Blades won 4-1 to advance to Round 2. He also had a game-high 5 SOG and was named 3rd star for his efforts.
With all three Oilers CHL prospects off to the next round, the matchups will be:
Saskatoon vs. Red Deer
Winnipeg vs. Moose Jaw
North Bay vs. Barrie
Prospecting takes a break until Friday.
Gotta give credit to the Preds. That AHL lineup has game.
Saros putting on a show.
Watching Cowtown-Nashville makes me very happy to be an Oilers fan. We really get to cheer for some amazing players and plays.
Both those teams are not good. But the Flames should easily be in the playoffs but for Sutter and Markstrom.
Typical Flames game, out Corsi the Preds 85-49, but high danger chances are 19-17 for the Preds. How is that even possible? Maybe stop throwing the puck at the net from the point and along the boards. But that’s the Sutter way, I suppose.
Calgary and Nashville look terrible. I would love for one of them to advance. lol
No scoring in OT
A shootout will eliminate one of these teams
It’s not every day a 7th round pick makes it to 1000 career points… Pavelski accomplished this today at 38 yrs old
I’m glad we got Hyman instead of Coleman who’s a little think in the head.
Fuking Barrie
coach – he no happy
2-1 Predators!!!!
“This is the big one, Elizabeth! I’m comin’ to join you!”
-Fred Sanford
Dammn they tie it up>
1-1 CAL/NSH after 2 periods
The loser is eliminated from the playoff race
The winner is hanging by a thread
Did anyone see that brawl in Woman’s group B Qualifying Hockey I think is was Romania and ?
Q: were there any undergarments & pillows involved?
Asking for a friend
There was a few haymakers thrown.
Say what you want about Barrie he’s the smartest and most skilled player so far in this game he could easily have 2 Goals. He’s a true professional he didn’t pout after being traded I tip my hat to him.
I hated letting him go. I would take him back under the correct circumstances
I haven’t seen a coach – player bench squabble that bad since Taylor Halls waterbottle picked a fight with Dallas Eakins polyester suit
Sutter finally broke him next up Kadri.
I don’t think he broke him, but he definitely let him hear about it on the bench after the careless PP giveaway.
Will be interesting to see how much ice time Uberdough gets in the 3rd
MacKinnon vs Bednar:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XNrO80gTEHM
Ekholm is 16-2-1 as an Oiler, flesh this team out as is and get drunk off the wine.
Done and done
I drank the wine, smoked the homegrown and ate the special brownies
EK65, 100 points, holy piss. Thats so unreal
Good for him.
Wonder if he ends up an Oiler.
I just don’t see San Jose eating enough of that contract to make it happen.
Yes.
We will see how motivated Mike Grier is, and how motivated other GMs around the league are.
(I’d think Mike Grier is very motivated, I am unsure that Holland will be or can be the most motivated GM, in terms of assets but mostly in terms of AAV accepted).
This could be a huge draft haul for Mikey’s first go.
I think the pressure is getting to Uberdough. That was quite the blatant trip out of frustration.
“Uberdough” – love it.
Even though I’m a fan of Tulsky, man, I still hate Carolina after ’06.
I’d like see Carolina lose in 5 or 6 to the Cats.
I’m hoping New Jersey passes Carolina for first in the division.
17 years is a long time to hold a grudge.
It is, but to be fair,
You’ve been holding a grudge against the Oilers for far longer
Exactly. Messier must have really tooled him good back in the eighties. 40+ years and he can’t let it go. Bizarre.
Your grudge is so strong that Robertson got 3 points for Dallas and you celebrated it here more than you did for any of the Oilers who did it this season, multiple times already.
I still hate Billy Smith and Denis Potvin
Tell us again how the Oilers broke your heart so so long ago. Go on spillies, let it out.
hahahahaha, post of the day 🙂 🙂 🙂
They haven’t quite been the same since they lost Svechnikov.
Calgary intermission with a nice reminder of how much Nashville got for Jeannot.
Makes me laugh still.
Who’s Jeannot?
😄
He is the guy who may make history for being a player who had the most assets traded for him only to produce 1 goal for his new team.
Jeannot has 4 points since the trade deadline. Cal Foote has 3. Maybe if you excluded the 5 draft picks, that would have been a fair 1:1 trade. 😀
It’s unbelievable. Tampa nearly traded an entire draft plus a former 1st rounder for him.
He was on pace for 7 goals and 20 points per 82 when they acquired him.
It’s one of those trades that is entirely self-inflicted by Tampa, too. They wanted their guy and they got him.
Pretty sure most teams in the NHL would have gladly given Tampa a better player for that kind of haul.
The flames giving up the 1st goal on a egregious Markstrom puck play blunder that was almost identical to the Nuge goal in the playoffs – absolutely magnificant.
If the Flames lose in OT or SO they’re Toast
I still wish I’d gotten an Anton Lander jersey. #51, I believe? Shames are lucky to only be down 1-0. Tyson Barrie with a great, seeing-eye shot from the point on the PP that somehow spins off the INSIDE of the post and stays out of the net.
Afanaseyev with 1st NHL goal. 1-0 Predators!!!!!!
Jankowski with the assist. Mark is going to score the dagger Goal
Let’s go Preds
Jets’ magic number vis-a-vis the flame is 1.
1 point gained by the Jets in their last two games or one point lost by the flames in their last two games and the flames are eliminated.
Out of the playoffs with a 0% chance to move up to 1st overall – this is the way – every season.
I would love them to retool by signing some +30 yr old UFA to a fat contract.
Wonder if they’ll go after O’Reilly again?
Lucic is an old UFA
I said it a couple of days ago that Erik the Viking would win the Norris easily because he’s lapping the field just like Coffey did on numerous occasions. Anyhow Erik rubber stamped himself with 25 Goals 75 Assists for a easy peezy Norris.
Side note… If Ekholm plays like he has the first 19 games for 82 next season he will garner at least top 3 votes and possibly better. Makar has a hit me sign on his back, him being injured half the time won’t surprise me. We all thought It would be Nurse, who here thought Ekholm would have such instant chemistry with the super fast thinking McDavid and the German.
Just listened to a radio hit with Frank Seravalli who actually has a vote.
He says there is no way he could vote for Karlsson because his defensive work is so poor and he believes many other voters will feel the same.
Despite his two goals tonight, Karlsson was also -2 bringing his season total to -21.
That’s all clicks just to keep the suspense.
Are there not something like 25 EN GA in that -21?
Karlsson is legit. He gets excessively more than he gives up, and turns forward turds into caviar.
Unfortunately, NHL will NHL.
The constant debate that Norris should be awarded to the best all-around D, rather then points will come to fruition, because a D beat a record that most fans didn’t think would happen in the salary cap era.
NHL needs to have 2 defenseman awards / trophies. One for best overall, one for offensive stats or something to that extent.
Call the best overall the Norris, best offensive the Orr – or something to that tune. If a D wins both cause they have a rocket of a season (punny), good for him.
NHL absolutely sucks at marketing the game.
I don’t know the exact number of EN goals (there’s probably a number of SH GA) contributing too, but YES.
Karlsson is +3 at 5v5, which is the best mark on the Sharks. (as a team, the Sharks are -49 at 5v5 on the season – Karlsson is terrible!).
Seriously, this is just shocking when you look at it:
With Karlsson on the ice at 5v5 the Sharks are 96GF-93GA (50.8%).
With Karlsson off the ice at 5v5 the Sharks are 70GF-122GA (36.5%).
Yes, it is difficult to overstate how legit Erik Karlsson is.
It was materially more shocking a few months ago – the team was about the same negative without Karlsson but they were like plus 16 at 5 on 5 with Karlsson on the ice.
He’s been a large negative over the last little while to have to close to even – he performance int he first 50-60 games was near historic.
He’s 4-20 with an empty net (-16) and has been on the ice for 10 goals against while on the PP.
Yes I remember that it was.
I was on a Sharks blog recently (thinking, it was for Couture’s reaction to Demers getting game 700). It was mentioning getting frustrated with Karlsson – it sounds like he’s been cheating for offense in a way McDavid has not been – which makes sense because Karlsson has nothing else to play for while McDavid has a fuck ton more.
The with/without numbers are still remarkable even his numbers sliding notably from where they were.
Maybe Karlsson can help our friend Hair with his blog posting
Lol
Reminds me of when people were trying to slander Draisaitl’s Hart campaign based on his plus minus.
Some things that make you smile:
Lieutenant Eric
@Lieutenant_Eric
·
9h
With just two games remaining, #Flame
forward Jonathan Huberdeau is on pace for the largest points decline in #NHL history
10.5 x 8
Tkachuk has twice as many points 108pts as Milli Vanilli Huberdeau 54pts and is 1 point back of Kadri and Huberdeau combined. Kadri has 6 more years Huberdeau 8 more years of less than mediocre Hockey.
Huberdeau is (in my opinion) a good hockey player. That is all i have to say.
10.5 is superstar money not Matt Stagan coin. Huberdeau and Kadri are declining assets, it’s not going to end well for both of them. Check the buyouts there’s a reason why Florida bailed on soft as butter Huberdeau.
Huberdeau’s contract has a heavily-weighted signing bonus structure. He’s pretty much buyout-proof. They are stuck with him.
kadri falling back to his normal points average and he will be 33 to start next season.
Presuming the Jets finish off this win over the Sharks, that puts another big nail in the flames coffin – they are all but mathematically done at that point (even if they can muster 2 points against the Preds later).
Stay the course flames, Treveling and Sutter next year… it’s going great!
#hapless
Re-sign Lucic..?
too much to ask for..?
Flames resigning lucic will cost the oilers a third.
Absolutely re-sign Looch, Sutter’s go to guy in all situations.
The Jets last two games are the Wild and the Avs. The Flames play the Predators then the Sharks.
Even if the Jets win today, they still need to grab a point from the Wild or the Avs if the Flames win their last two.
Yup, that’s alot of shoes to drop – the Jets magic number would be 1.
As I said “all but mathematically eliminated”
Jets 3-1 middle of 2nd period over the Sharks – shots 21-6 WPG
CAL/NSH to follow – that’ll be a beauty
Assuming that Winnipeg score holds, a Nashville win in reg eliminates the Flames
A Flames win in reg eliminates NSH
They’re both hanging by a thread assuming the WPG score holds
I believe even a flames OT or SO loss would eliminate them.
Jets hold the tie break on the flames.
Puljujarvi is playing his 15th game for the Hurricanes tonight. Still no traction. Think he’ll be in the NHL next season?
If he could be talked into being a defensive forward, maybe on a shut down line.
He’s been up and down the lineup – last game he was at the top of the lineup and all the verbal was about his great forechecking and creating chances.
Today, back down, under 9 minutes total and -1 in a 3-2 loss to a bad team.
The Jason Robertson show underway in Detroit.
1G 2A early in the second period…Dallas leads 5-0.
Oh my..
So? In every game where a team scores goals, somebody scores a goal.
Pavelski hits 1000 points.
Claude Giroux 1000 points.
man you’re at the wrong site
those are some pretty unimpressive numbers around here
Oilers doing so well seems to be taking a toll.
How many times have we seen an Oiler hit 3pts in a game this campaign.. Oh my.
Nuge did it last game and it was hardly mentioned post-game or in the almost 3 days in between. Common occurrence.
you seem pretty desperate buddy… absolutely love it 🙂
Who are we cheering for tonight? I think I’m cheering for LAK, and against SEA. I think I’d rather face LAK than SEA, and SEA has a chance to move into 3rd in the division. SEA has won 4-in-a-row and has a +35 differential (7-2-1 in their last 10). LAK have lost 3-in-a-row with a +18 differential (5-5-0 in their last 10). I could see Seattle having a pretty solid shutdown game (although LAK does too). I’ll cheer for SEA tomorrow night against VGK, though. Although, if we pass VGK for 1st in the division, then I should be cheering for SEA instead of LAK. Uggh!! Haha! Do we want to face NSH, WPG, or CGY if we win the Pacific and the Conference?
So maybe I should cheer for best case scenario: SEA to win the rest of their games, LAK to lose the rest of their games. VGK to lose the rest of their games. I don’t want to face Hellebuyck or Saros so I’m hoping CGY gets the final spot (Markstrom seems snake bitten by the Oilers since last years’ playoffs). Plus, I love the battle of Alberta, especially when I’m pretty confident we’d win.
I know I’m rambling, and all over the place but I guess I’m cheering against VGK, LAK, WPG, and NSH, and cheering for EDM (of course), SEA, and CGY for the final 2 or 3 games.
Also cheering against all the top teams in the Central (COL, DAL, MIN) so we might get home ice later, and against CAR, NJD, NYR, and TOR in the east which might mean home ice advantage when we get to the Cup final if it’s not BOS.
I’d feel very confident facing Seattle and they aren’t as dirty as LA.
I’d prefer to steer clear of hellybuck for 1st round.
I’d probably go Seattle over LA due to less greasy but not concerned with either.
True, SEA has up arrows and LAK has down arrows but, what a week ago it was opposite and it could be opposite when the playoffs start right?
Also, its hard to cheer for one or the other, even if you have a “preferred match-up” given the Oilers could finish 1st in the division and conference or 2nd in the division – what one wants vis-a-vis LAK/SEA is dependant on what happens among COL/EDM/VEG, right?
The thing with Seattle, their tending is just crap and I don’t think their tending has any hope in hell of stopping the Oilers. I don’t really think Korpisalo does either but he has the ability to get super hot and he’s stolen series from elite teams in the past I believe (TBL).
Daniel Nugent-Bowman
@DNBsports
·
8m
McLeod is skating with Ryan and Foegele at practice in Denver. Shore is swapping in, too. Looks like McLeod is nearing a return to action.
————————
Sooooooo deep at forward.
Sooooooo deep at forward.
Man, when was the last time we could say this? 2006? 1990? What a welcome change from the Decade of Darkness. Anyone else remember the Belanger Triangle?
I’d argue this is the deepest forward group since the glory days of the 80’s.
Even the ’90 Cup winning team had Mark Lamb as its second line centre. Now he was a real soldier and stepped up big time for the Cup run but he needed two exceptional wingers — Kurri and Tikkanen — in order to succeed in that role.
I loved that ’06 team with all of my heart, and the forward group was deep but didn’t have the skill of this team. Hemsky was an extraordinary talent — explosive and a with a fearlessness that was criminally under-appreciated — but he was the high-water mark in terms of talent.
This team stands apart. I’m enjoying every possible moment that I’m blessed to watch them. We all are really.
Hard times create strong men.
Strong men create good times.
Good times create weak men.
And, weak men create hard times.
An interesting perspective, and it has a circular logic, but I’m going to counter by saying people are people and at any time, people are capable of being either strong or weak. My father grew up in southern Sask during the 60s and 70s. I don’t think history would classify that as hard times. My father was a rock and highly respected in the town I grew up in. Let’s go even further south and a couple decades later where my wife grew up in central IL, and she grew up in good times. All who know her would describe her as a pillar of strength. Maybe it’s not the times that create us but our parents and our teachers and the people we model our lives after. As we’ve heard on this blog, get good people, keep good people. This includes the people in our lives.
Did we say this in 2006? Maybe. But 2006 was nothing compared to now. 77 points for hemsky, 73 for horc, 68 for stoll, 66 for smyth pronger 56, pisani had 37. This was a team that caught fire in the playoffs.
Fast forward to today: 151, 124, 103, 83, 43, 38
Michael Stone taking the ice at practice this morning……..
Interesting with the cap going away in 5 days….
Vegas and Tampa are expert cap circumventologists.
Someone should mention this was posted quite a while ago and Michael Stone plays for the Flames.
He meant to say Mark Stone, not Michael. Nobody cares about Calgary anyway.
I’m waiting for the HH vs OP playoff matchup
That’s funny
I was perplexed on why would Calgary trade Stone to their divisional rival.
I’m sure he’ll be unfit to play game 82 and cleared for game 1 of the playoffs.
I think that any player on LTIR for game 82 should have to miss at minimum the first game of the playoffs, I would like to see more than 1 game.
This would then apply to McLeod for us if he doesn’t play before the end of the season.
The game is afoot!
See Landeskog, Gabriel. Skating with the team but not able to play. Look for him Game 1 of the playoffs.
Unless the NHL eliminates this type of circumvention, teams may have to follow this path to win.
It will only be eliminated once the Oilers exploit this.
I thought the league were taking a long hard look at this? Was the long hard look really just code for “if Canadian teams try it we’ll do something”
All he’s doing is skating in a non-contact jersey. There is no intel (at least that I know of) that he’s likely to be “ready for next week”. Not to mention, he was never “deemed” out for the entire season/playoffs. There was little info on potential timing of returns but a return in the playoffs was always a potential.
Now, Landeskog would be different if he is all of a sudden ready for the playoffs after missing the entire season – that would clearly be “playing the timelines”.
Exactly, 3rd round pick to Calgary for doing it.
I think you mean ‘just before’ the Oiler’s exploit this! No way Bettman will allow it!
Do you really believe Neal was not fit to play the opener a few years ago. Every competitive team employs a pettifogger are two.
Having your captain sit out for the entire season is not the model for cap circumvention.
Now what you want is your most overpaid player to go on ltir right at the trade deadline. That i think would be more helpful. Or have a rotating door of ltir contracts. Each player sits out 10 games.
Reported earlier
I believe it was reported by (maybe DNB?) around the beginning of the year that some in the Oilers front office thought that Broberg might be better than Chychryn by the end of the season.
They would have had to play Broberg more for that to potentially have materialized. However, unless they have really soured on Broberg, if that was the thought this year than definitely the though should be that he will surpass Kulak next season which means Kulak is one of the players sacrificed to save cap. His salary is too much for a 7D. And I like Kulak.
Broberg is better than JC right now as he is available if needed. JC is, shockingly, not!
The Oilers are a contender. Seven defensemen that one believes are competent are not too many. Injuries to defensemen are the only thing that can really derail a season. Injuries to depth forwards do not derail seasons.
Foegele and Yamamoto are expendable. Kulak, not so much.
Unless they replace Kulak with somebody of similar quality for less money. Lots of miles to be travelled before decision time.
I would think that a Kulak move would be back-filled with a cheaper vet D for 7D – Ryan Murray but, you know, not washed and terrible.
Neimelianen?
Nope – I think a more established vet is needed – Nimeo is a tweener.
I would say goalies are the worst injuries to over come
Rod has a lot of friends in the NHL. LT is always looking for the next Pisani. Well, there he is staring right at you.
While the argument itself is defensible I think the fact that Friedman wrote that there are other teams “circling’ around the player willing to give him an NHL contract makes it moot. Elliote is probably the most reliable source of media information there is in the league so really your position pretty much translates to one that you wouldn’t try to sign him.
I don’t really have an opinion on this player since I know no more about him than what I read here but you have said this before and you know what Friedman wrote so continuing to promote this position which is likely untenable doesn’t really make sense to me.
EDIT: I see I am late to the party and the argument was already made.
I’m very much aware that I’m in the minority on this one and, given the intel from Friedman, he’s likely to get an NHL ELC.
At the same time, if the thing the org likes best about the player is that “he’s a Brind’Amour”, well, that’s not a ringing endorsement of the player.
He’s likely an ECHL/AHL tweener until he proves more (when he does get pro games to prove it).
I wouldn’t hate it if the Oilers signed him to an ELC, I mean they have plenty of room right now as we know.. At the same time, the Oilers have set a precedent with this level of player (AHL contract) and have show the hockey worlds they treat these players just like NHL contracted prospects and there is real opportunity to progress, even to the NHL (Hamblin, Dehernais, etc.).