He ain't staying in EDM once his contract is up. No way he does.
GDT: Around the League - 2021/22 PART II
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A new goalie? Mike Babcock? Crashing Oilers have to try something | The Star
So, the terrific start was an illusion. Compared to last year, the Oilers are about the same offensively and a half-goal worse defensively. Facing American competition again hasn’t agreed with them after registering a nifty .705 winning percentage last season in the all-Canadian North Division. The next four Oilers home games have been postponed, which means the chance to use home ice to get back to winning is off the table for now.
The current woes could, of course, be turned around quickly, as happened in both Toronto and Vancouver. The immediate question is whether Tippett will get the opportunity to be the coach who turns it around.
He was behind the bench Monday against the Rangers, with many questioning whether he would still be there Wednesday in a near-empty Scotiabank Arena against the Leafs.
Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are still the best one-two offensive punch in the game, so the answer either lies in getting more out of the rest of the roster — with Tippett or somebody else at the helm — or changing the roster. GM Ken Holland doesn’t have a lot of chips to play. Evan Bouchard and Jesse Puljujarvi are talented young players. Edmonton has its 2022 first-rounder to move, but that’s a big risk given the current arc of the team. Still, there are those who would trade it right now for a rental such as Montreal’s Ben Chiarot, if that’s a possibility.
In terms of coaching options, there’s Mike Babcock, whose shortcomings in Toronto before he was fired were wildly exaggerated. He’s out there with obvious connections to Holland from their days in Motown.
Vigneault also has loads of experience, as does Claude Julien, now scheduled to coach Canada in Beijing next month. Gulutzan has NHL experience, and Bakersfield Condors coach Jay Woodcroft took his team to a championship of sorts last season, winning the season-ending AHL Pacific Division tournament.
There also might not be anything so terribly wrong with Edmonton that a hot goalie couldn’t fix.
Everybody in Alberta remembers what Dwayne Roloson did for a similarly talented but underachieving squad led by Chris Pronger in 2006. But is a suitable netminder out there for Holland to get? Some have mentioned Chicago’s Marc-André Fleury, but he makes $7 million (U.S.) per season and is an unrestricted free agent after this season. He’d be an expensive rental. Braden Holtby, Joonas Korpisalo and Linus Ullmark are other names that have been circulated, but there’s no guarantee any would be better than what the Oilers already have.
Staying the course just doesn’t seem to be an option. Given the unbalanced structure of the roster, there’s nothing about this Oilers team that offers much confidence that it won’t crash in the playoffs again without a significant change of some kind.
So, the terrific start was an illusion. Compared to last year, the Oilers are about the same offensively and a half-goal worse defensively. Facing American competition again hasn’t agreed with them after registering a nifty .705 winning percentage last season in the all-Canadian North Division. The next four Oilers home games have been postponed, which means the chance to use home ice to get back to winning is off the table for now.
The current woes could, of course, be turned around quickly, as happened in both Toronto and Vancouver. The immediate question is whether Tippett will get the opportunity to be the coach who turns it around.
He was behind the bench Monday against the Rangers, with many questioning whether he would still be there Wednesday in a near-empty Scotiabank Arena against the Leafs.
Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are still the best one-two offensive punch in the game, so the answer either lies in getting more out of the rest of the roster — with Tippett or somebody else at the helm — or changing the roster. GM Ken Holland doesn’t have a lot of chips to play. Evan Bouchard and Jesse Puljujarvi are talented young players. Edmonton has its 2022 first-rounder to move, but that’s a big risk given the current arc of the team. Still, there are those who would trade it right now for a rental such as Montreal’s Ben Chiarot, if that’s a possibility.
In terms of coaching options, there’s Mike Babcock, whose shortcomings in Toronto before he was fired were wildly exaggerated. He’s out there with obvious connections to Holland from their days in Motown.
Vigneault also has loads of experience, as does Claude Julien, now scheduled to coach Canada in Beijing next month. Gulutzan has NHL experience, and Bakersfield Condors coach Jay Woodcroft took his team to a championship of sorts last season, winning the season-ending AHL Pacific Division tournament.
There also might not be anything so terribly wrong with Edmonton that a hot goalie couldn’t fix.
Everybody in Alberta remembers what Dwayne Roloson did for a similarly talented but underachieving squad led by Chris Pronger in 2006. But is a suitable netminder out there for Holland to get? Some have mentioned Chicago’s Marc-André Fleury, but he makes $7 million (U.S.) per season and is an unrestricted free agent after this season. He’d be an expensive rental. Braden Holtby, Joonas Korpisalo and Linus Ullmark are other names that have been circulated, but there’s no guarantee any would be better than what the Oilers already have.
Staying the course just doesn’t seem to be an option. Given the unbalanced structure of the roster, there’s nothing about this Oilers team that offers much confidence that it won’t crash in the playoffs again without a significant change of some kind.
zeke
The Dube Abides
- Mar 14, 2005
- 66,937
- 36,957
I mean - the consensus in leafland was that Hyman was a very good complementary guy, no? That he was probably the 9th or 10th most important leaf?
And then he switches jerseys and the media says he's Team Canada caliber?
zeke
The Dube Abides
- Mar 14, 2005
- 66,937
- 36,957
I feel a little bad.
The worst thing possible happened to the Oilers last year - their 38yr old goalie had an elite season out of nowhere, making the GM think his team was much better than it actually was, RIGHT before the offseason where he had all his capspace to spend.
If Smith had had a normal season last year, the Oilers would have sucked and maybe even missed the playoffs.
But instead they had a decent looking year, and the GM thought he had something - sp instead of blowing things up and adding core pieces instead he just re-signed super flawed pieces Nurse/RNH/Barrie/Smith and then went out and added only complementary pieces to support then.
A disaster - all caused by a hot half-season from a 38yr old goalie fooling everyone as to how bad that teak actually was.
keonsbitterness
Registered User
His name was brought up in the media last season as an outside shot for Canada. I can accept that he was touted as a bit less of a long-shot this season, but that was due to his quick start. Where's the fire?
Warden of the North
Ned Stark's head
Well, if Babcock goes to Edmonton we'll finally be able to answer the question of what Leon and Connor can do apart from each other long term. Babs will make sure they never see the ice together ever again.
Also looks forward to Hyman-McDavid-Kassian being a line for multiple seasons without change
Also looks forward to Hyman-McDavid-Kassian being a line for multiple seasons without change
zeke
The Dube Abides
- Mar 14, 2005
- 66,937
- 36,957
might actually be a good idea for them tho!
Foegele - McDavid - Hyman
RNH - Draisaitl - Puljujarvi
Oilers need goaltending but they also need defense. Nurse is a very sorry excuse for a #1D and now he's immensely overpaid.
stickty111
Registered User
- Jan 23, 2017
- 27,260
- 34,233
Menzinger
Kessel4LadyByng
Hopefully they test negative and are good to go tomorrow. Always love seeing Matthews best McDavid on the ice. Less fun if one has to miss for a situation like this
HolyCrap
Team before player
- Oct 2, 2015
- 5,396
- 6,376
Oilers fans will argue till no end that they don’t play together much right now. Lol.
That team and more specifically those two need a hard ass to hold them accountable
Say what you want about Babcock but he's not going to accept the effort those two put in defensively
Scoring is fantastic but you can't have team leaders showing zero willingness to do what's needed to win games and I'm sorry but giving a **** in your own end helps win games
justashadowof
Registered User
- Aug 15, 2020
- 4,025
- 4,230
Marner, Ritchie and Robertson.
Cap works too.
Drai will still have a set up man in Marner.
Ritchie and Robertson add forward depth for them.
Their PK will improve with Marner.
Warden of the North
Ned Stark's head
Theres way too much fire around Babcock for it not to happen. He and Holland talked recently, but apparently not about the Oilers. I have a bridge to sell you if you believe that....
Can't wait for him to play McDavid 16 minutes a night while Kassian get's 18-20.
notDatsyuk
Registered User
- Jul 20, 2018
- 12,000
- 10,169
So we are actually agreeing, but on two quite different things.
The poster I originally responded to was talking about the Pacific division being really bad and the Atlantic division being really good. I just pointed out that, as a complete division, the Pacific had a better record, largely because our bottom four are really bad.
As far as our top four go, i completely agree they are really good.
TMLeafer
Rest in Peace Johnny Bower
leafsfan5
Registered User
- Jun 14, 2014
- 15,226
- 26,859
I was bored so I decided to compare our overall scoring with the other contenders in our division to see how its shaped up so far:
[TBODY]
[/TBODY]
Couple of notes:
- Marner underperforming and Kucherov injured make TOR/TB's top 4 numbers lower than they should be. If Marner was on his regular 95 point pace TOR would be at 1.12. If Kucherov played similar to how he did in 19-20 (85 in 68, 1.25 ppg) over Tampa's 34 games they would be at 1.07 ppg. Just something to keep in mind as 2 of the game's elite haven't been producing at their normal clip for various reasons
- To extend the same courtesy to FLA as above, had Barkov played 32 games the top 4 for FLA would have a ppg of 1.04. So, if every star played up to their regular level and was healthy FLA would be similar to TB (1.04 vs 1.07) but TOR (1.12) would be ahead by a comfortable margin for top 4 production
- Florida has the best overall depth for scoring, specifically in the bottom 4 where they have a sizeable lead.
- TB/TOR are very similar for offensive production at this point, though I can see TOR potentially pulling away in the bottom 4 with Mikheyev healthy
- Dubas has done a good job filling out the depth for the club. We have the best high end talent as expected, but the depth does keep up with the other contenders in the division.
- This doesn't account for the roles players have. So for instance, we don't really care if Kampf scores as his job is to be a defensive minded centre.
| Team | Top 4 | Middle 4 | Bottom 4 |
| Toronto | Matthews: 33 in 28 (1.18 ppg) Tavares: 33 in 30 (1.11 ppg) Nylander: 33 in 31 (1.06 ppg) Marner: 21 in 25 (0.84 ppg) Combined: 1.05 ppg | Bunting: 19 in 31 (0.61 ppg) Kerfoot: 19 in 31 (0.61 ppg) Kase: 16 in 28 (0.57 ppg) Spezza: 12 in 27 (0.44 ppg) Combined: 0.56 ppg | Engvall: 10 in 31 (0.32 ppg) Kampf: 10 in 31 (0.32 ppg) Simmonds: 10 in 30 (0.33 ppg) Mikheyev: 2 in 2 (1.00 ppg) Combined: 0.34 ppg |
| Florida | Huberdeau: 41 in 32 (1.28 ppg) Reinhart: 26 in 32 (0.81 ppg) Barkov: 21 in 19 (1.11 ppg) Duclair: 22 in 24 (0.92 ppg) Combined: 1.03 ppg | Verhaege: 24 in 31 (0.77 ppg) Bennett: 17 in 26 (0.65 ppg) Lundell: 16 in 28 (0.57 ppg) Hornqvist: 13 in 32 (0.41 ppg) Combined: 0.60 ppg | Luostarinen: 12 in 28 (0.43 ppg) Vatrano: 12 in 30 (0.40 ppg) Tippet: 11 in 30 (0.37 ppg) Marchment: 10 in 13 (0.77 ppg) Combined: 0.45 ppg |
| Tampa | Stamkos: 39 in 33 (1.18 ppg) Killorn: 29 in 34 (0.85 ppg) Point: 18 in 20 (0.9 ppg) Kucherov (hurt): 4 in 3 (1.33 ppg) Combined: 1.00 ppg | Palat: 24 in 34 (0.71 ppg) Cirelli: 18 in 29 (0.62 ppg) Perry: 16 in 34 (0.47 ppg) Colton: 14 in 34 (0.41 ppg) Combined: 0.55 ppg | Joseph: 11 in 31 (0.35 ppg) Maroon: 10 in 30 (0.33 ppg) Raddysh: 9 in 30 (0.3 ppg) Bellemare: 8 in 33 (0.24 ppg) Combined: 0.31 ppg |
Couple of notes:
- Marner underperforming and Kucherov injured make TOR/TB's top 4 numbers lower than they should be. If Marner was on his regular 95 point pace TOR would be at 1.12. If Kucherov played similar to how he did in 19-20 (85 in 68, 1.25 ppg) over Tampa's 34 games they would be at 1.07 ppg. Just something to keep in mind as 2 of the game's elite haven't been producing at their normal clip for various reasons
- To extend the same courtesy to FLA as above, had Barkov played 32 games the top 4 for FLA would have a ppg of 1.04. So, if every star played up to their regular level and was healthy FLA would be similar to TB (1.04 vs 1.07) but TOR (1.12) would be ahead by a comfortable margin for top 4 production
- Florida has the best overall depth for scoring, specifically in the bottom 4 where they have a sizeable lead.
- TB/TOR are very similar for offensive production at this point, though I can see TOR potentially pulling away in the bottom 4 with Mikheyev healthy
- Dubas has done a good job filling out the depth for the club. We have the best high end talent as expected, but the depth does keep up with the other contenders in the division.
- This doesn't account for the roles players have. So for instance, we don't really care if Kampf scores as his job is to be a defensive minded centre.
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