Around the League Thread | Pre-Season Approaches

[wetcoast]

Yes bringing in another defence man that doesn't play defence on a team full of them is a step in the right direction.

Bryam is actually a pretty good all around Dman, maybe you never caught him during the 22 playoffs?

 

[bandwagonesque]

If one takes off the homer glasses and realizes how close the Oilers got to winning last year with a mangled Draisatil and no Kane then they would see why the Oilers are favoured by many to come out of the West,

Yeah, I freely admit I gained a lot of respect for the Oilers as a hockey team last season. They are awkwardly constructed but they have the skill and athletic ability to crank up their pace and decision-making for the 2nd round and beyond.

However, I also don't think their additions are going to make them much better, with the possible exception of Arvidsson. This team will still depend largely on the play of 6-8 players.

 

[Billy Kvcmu]

I’m calling Yzwrman as Jim Benning 2.0

Was part of an incredible organization because of other ppl’s work and now is getting exposed ‬

 

[arttk]

I’m calling Yzwrman as Jim Benning 2.0

Was part of an incredible organization because of other ppl’s work and now is getting exposed ‬

Nobody is that bad

If one takes off the homer glasses and realizes how close the Oilers got to winning last year with a mangled Draisatil and no Kane then they would see why the Oilers are favoured by many to come out of the West,

Repeated this a thousand times, they caught lightning in a bottle and had a historic PK that is joy repeatable. Nevermind they lost a bunch of speed that made their PK effective. Not saying they will have a bottom 10PK but it won’t be 95% good.

 

[Brookbank]

If one takes off the homer glasses and realizes how close the Oilers got to winning last year with a mangled Draisatil and no Kane then they would see why the Oilers are favoured by many to come out of the West,

I think the tone of this post is an example of the wish casting people do about the best player in the league. They think the McDavid should win a cup. Because it would just look bad on the game if he didn't.

I live in Edmonton and don't actually hate the team as much as everyone else. You're accusing me of partisanship but it is really the opposite. I was trying to be as objective as I can.

The Oilers last year spent a portion of the season out of the playoffs. And they lost that infamous game against the Sharks. Then they had to go on a miracle run just to make it. Then they almost lost in the first round against the Canucks. If they lost that round, the consensus would have been that goaltending was the reason they were a 1st round exit. But they squeaked it out. And this is what you are calling a commanding run to a Stanley cup final. It was anything but.

 

[StreetHawk]

Pretty much the same with all elite players at any sport. Rinaldo won the Euro late in his career. Messi a World Cup late in his.
Nfl too hard but for QBs that’s a measuring stick. NBA they talk about it. Giannis, Jokic, etc. MLB is happy to see Ohtani in the PO.
And certainly hope La goes on a run. Trouts time has likely passed.

NHL, Sid, Ovy, Mack got theirs. Now eyes on McDavid and Matthews. Eventually it turns to Bedard by the time we hit 2030.

 

[wetcoast]

I think the tone of this post is an example of the wish casting people do about the best player in the league. They think the McDavid should win a cup. Because it would just look bad on the game if he didn't.

Tone........ seriously I'm a fan of hockey (probably more so than a diehard canucks fan, perhaps I'm too old and jaded to be a homer) and no one is gifted the SC or deserves it teams earn it.

I live in Edmonton and don't actually hate the team as much as everyone else. You're accusing me of partisanship but it is really the opposite. I was trying to be as objective as I can.

Your OP that I was referring to comes off as homerish but my apologies if you live in Edmonton, no one deserves that.

Maybe the media is wishcasting but that's the nature of the media but that being said your post certainly doesn't come off as objective.

The Oilers last year spent a portion of the season out of the playoffs. And they lost that infamous game against the Sharks. Then they had to go on a miracle run just to make it. Then they almost lost in the first round against the Canucks. If they lost that round, the consensus would have been that goaltending was the reason they were a 1st round exit. But they squeaked it out. And this is what you are calling a commanding run to a Stanley cup final. It was anything but.

Great we all saw what happened last season but I'm a season on season guy and the year before they actually outplayed the eventual SC champs in the Vegas series but hit a wall with crappy goaltending, which is still a problem but not as bad as it was against Vegas.

Also just to clarify the Oilers beat the canucks in the second round and the canucks were lucky to make it a 7 game series and like I said above goaltending was the issue for the Oilers not their overall play.

then the Oilers beat Dallas even with an injured draisaitl a lot easier than I thought they would.

Are the Oilers an automatic for the SC, no of course not a lot can happen and a team ahs to catch some good luck in the playoffs to win 16 games but it's pretty hard to look at it objectively and say that the Oilers aren't the team to beat in the West as of now.

Keeping Broberg and Holloway like your OP suggested isn't the end of the world for them as they were minor pieces.

 

[lawrence]

wow it seems like our drafting is ASS after all.

Gaudette waived.
Brisebois waived
William Lockwood waived
Kole Lind waived
Dipietro waived
Rathbone waived.

 

[mriswith]

wow it seems like our drafting is ASS after all.

Gaudette waived.
Brisebois waived
William Lockwood waived
Kole Lind waived
Dipietro waived
Rathbone waived.

As much as I would like to shit on Benning's drafting, most of that group had their development mangled in painfully obvious ways. I wonder if any nhl team had a worse record of developing talent in the AHL compared to us during those years.

We were certainly pioneers in the "put all our best developing prospects on a taxi squad and don't let them play any games in any league for the rest of the year" covid development plan.

 

[Brookbank]

wow it seems like our drafting is ASS after all.

Gaudette waived.
Brisebois waived
William Lockwood waived
Kole Lind waived
Dipietro waived
Rathbone waived.

These guys have been drifting around the league for years and getting chances. So I don't think that's the right conclusion. Proper ass drafting is when picks don't play a single game and nobody knows who they are.

 

[Brookbank]

Tone........ seriously I'm a fan of hockey (probably more so than a diehard canucks fan, perhaps I'm too old and jaded to be a homer) and no one is gifted the SC or deserves it teams earn it.



Your OP that I was referring to comes off as homerish but my apologies if you live in Edmonton, no one deserves that.

Maybe the media is wishcasting but that's the nature of the media but that being said your post certainly doesn't come off as objective.


Great we all saw what happened last season but I'm a season on season guy and the year before they actually outplayed the eventual SC champs in the Vegas series but hit a wall with crappy goaltending, which is still a problem but not as bad as it was against Vegas.

Also just to clarify the Oilers beat the canucks in the second round and the canucks were lucky to make it a 7 game series and like I said above goaltending was the issue for the Oilers not their overall play.

then the Oilers beat Dallas even with an injured draisaitl a lot easier than I thought they would.

Are the Oilers an automatic for the SC, no of course not a lot can happen and a team ahs to catch some good luck in the playoffs to win 16 games but it's pretty hard to look at it objectively and say that the Oilers aren't the team to beat in the West as of now.

Keeping Broberg and Holloway like your OP suggested isn't the end of the world for them as they were minor pieces.

I usually don't argue too much with the wise asses. But again , I just don't see what they are seeing with the Oilers. The team is all ceiling and no floor.

They weren't even a lock to make the playoffs last year. Let alone a cup. In what way is goaltending better now than it was vs Vegas ? I thought Picard looked good against the Canucks. But if they had any confidence in him , they would have kept him in for the rest of the series. There was lots of goaltender movement in the off season and the Oilers were in on none of it.

Roster turnover for the sake of it is best avoided. Especially if the group you had made it to the finals. The logical thing was to match at least one.

I just bought a second house in Summerside. So I'll manage.

 

[StreetHawk]

These guys have been drifting around the league for years and getting chances. So I don't think that's the right conclusion. Proper ass drafting is when picks don't play a single game and nobody knows who they are.

Look at the player development.
Gaudette, should have been in the A like Terry was in his pro year. But, lack of NHL C depth brought him up.
Brisebois and a lot of others spent their careers in the A, in which no skater developed for the Canucks. Is it just the picks or the Development?

 

[Bubbles]

wow it seems like our drafting is ASS after all.

Gaudette waived.
Brisebois waived
William Lockwood waived
Kole Lind waived
Dipietro waived
Rathbone waived.

Are you expecting an NHL star from 4th/5th rounders? Drafting anyone beyond the 2nd round, you're just lucky for that guy to play 1 NHL game.

Gaudette is a success if you consider he was drafted in the 5th round.

Do people just expect getting Pavel Bure's and Zetterberg's every draft?

 

[Grantham]

Jacob Pelletier on waivers. PPG in the AHL. I think he gets claimed for sure.

Any chance we put a claim in?

 

[orcatown]

These guys have been drifting around the league for years and getting chances. So I don't think that's the right conclusion. Proper ass drafting is when picks don't play a single game and nobody knows who they are.

Drifting around the AHL.

 

[tantalum]

Oilers are Stanley Cup faves simply because almost every year the media picks the winner and the runner up as the faves. There isn't a lot of thought put into it.

 

[Hit the post]

Look at the player development.
Gaudette, should have been in the A like Terry was in his pro year. But, lack of NHL C depth brought him up.
Brisebois and a lot of others spent their careers in the A, in which no skater developed for the Canucks. Is it just the picks or the Development?

Willie D's idea of player development:

1) Trade for a veteran center (who has decent defensive skills) to take the pressure off of sophmore center Horvat (who still isn't exactly that great defensively. Not horrible mind you, just not great).
2) Proceeds to stick Sutter with the Sedins for some reason & leave Horvat in the deep end of the pool

Though at least Willie eventually got the message that perhaps that wasn't a good idea.

Player development didn't just suck shit with their minor league affiliate.

 

[tantalum]

Jacob Pelletier on waivers. PPG in the AHL. I think he gets claimed for sure.

Any chance we put a claim in?

He just seem to have any sort of defining factor in his game to stay in the NHL. Good AHL player and good chance that is where he stays (if he doesn't go to Europe).

 

[Ernie]

Oilers are Stanley Cup faves simply because almost every year the media picks the winner and the runner up as the faves. There isn't a lot of thought put into it.

The McDavid and Draisatl contracts are ridiculously below value at this point and even a fairly middling team behind them still puts them as favourites.

They are far from prohibitive favourites though; they are simply the best bet in a wide open field.

It'll be interesting to see how they do. I don't think I've seen a contender prioritize offence over defence to the level they have. They'll certainly do well in the regular season but they could easily be knocked out by a team that closes out the middle of the ice and has stellar goaltending.

 

[Brookbank]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1843337156556927052

 

[WetcoastOrca]

If one takes off the homer glasses and realizes how close the Oilers got to winning last year with a mangled Draisatil and no Kane then they would see why the Oilers are favoured by many to come out of the West,

That’s one side of the argument. The other side is that a lot went right for them as they were within one game of losing to the Canucks and one game from being swept by the Panthers with McDavid having an all time great playoffs. Is that repeatable?
They also had an historically great PK in the playoffs which is unlikely to be repeated given that their PK wasn’t great in the regular season.
Should they be one of the top 5 contenders? Absolutely. But I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion that they get back to the SCF. We’ve seen numerous examples of how hard it is to get back to the Finals.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

For the eighteen millionth time, that idiot writing for Daily Faceoff is an enormous f***ing tool. Good Lord. What a wildly insensitive write up.

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

What a f***ing loser.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1843321398862946588

For the eighteen millionth time, that idiot writing for Daily Faceoff is an enormous f***ing tool. Good Lord. What a wildly insensitive write up.

You wonder what the f*** is going on with him.

 

[timw33]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1843337156556927052

Jeff Skinner really wasn't what the Oilers needed, no surprises here. Defensively he's consistently amongst the worst on the league up front.

 

[timw33]

Oilers are Stanley Cup faves simply because almost every year the media picks the winner and the runner up as the faves. There isn't a lot of thought put into it.

This is the real answer, the media landscape is full of low-information reporters who only really know one region, and are very unlikely to stay up past midnight most nights to catch the west coast games.

They look at trends as linear progressions up or down, and don't really dig into underlying factors. They see the runner up adding a pair of skill wingers and go "oh wow now they're gonna score more" without then reviewing the depth and talent of their D core after the top pair, or that they lost significant bottom-6 speed, or that they were running at a completely unsustainable historic PK percentage, or factoring in the crazy variance of NHL playoff hockey. That being said, they are still in the pack of front runners just due to the sheer magnitude of talent of the top-2 players.