Pre-Game Talk: Dallas vs Oile-OMG IS THAT A CAT WORKING AT MCDONALDS!?!

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They wouldn't have had needs if those two were here and they didn't even wind up accruing lol. They had to wait on Kane's LTIR to make the Walman trade and, furthermore, instead of having Broberg and Holloway they had to give up assets (1st+2nd+4th+) to acquire these guys to fill the Holloway and Broberg voids so essentially it was Holloway+Broberg+1st+2nd+4th for Walman+Frederic+underperforming vets+2nd+3rd. I take the former package quite easily. Just brutal asset management that not only made the Oilers worse short term but much worse long term as well.

The above is the very definition of hindsight. The decision on Broberg, about Broberg and whether he was the answer on D was made in the summer. Oilers looked a D-core of this:

Ekholm Bouchard
Nurse Broberg
Kulak Josh Brown

And determined it wasn't any better (or even as good) as our cup run and decided they couldn't and wouldn't match.

You match, and that's it... that's your D-core going into the playoffs.

Broberg took a step this year, but it's a step we'd all been waiting for for 3 years... you can't sit here now and say it was zero-risk that he would blossom. And if he didn't, you have just flushed this year down the toilet.

Oilers chose cap flexibility and that part of it worked out.

Also, Oilers didn't spend Kane's LTIR on Walman... they are only using ~$1M of Kane's LTIR pool presently... and he's already skating, so I'm not entirely convinced they are certain he's not coming back early... in which case they'll have to send down a couple of forwards, but can still make the room.


Not to mention running a good third of the season with 2 regular defensemen being #7 quality at best, and the other defensemen running up crazy amounts of minutes to shelter them.

Running Emberson and Stecher for as long as possible was exactly the point... they HAD to do that in order to save money up for Klingberg and Walman. Klingberg was the first bet and they still had flexibility for a contingency plan (Walman).

The alternative was Broberg and only Broberg even if he failed. There would be no money for contingencies.
 
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Don’t like our chances in this one. Dallas will want revenge after last time (We ran them out of the building for 2 periods until Dallas decided to show up in the 3rd). Of course McDrai will not be playing which makes the chances of winning slim to none. Stranger things have happened though
 
We used all of our accrued cap space on Klingberg. Walman was added because we had Kanes LTIR.
We let Holloway walk and got Klingberg out of it. Just, awful.
When the Oilers had a choice of matching Holloway, we had no accrued cap space. It's either match Holloway and play with 2 man short roster or play with a full roster.
 
We used all of our accrued cap space on Klingberg. Walman was added because we had Kanes LTIR.
We let Holloway walk and got Klingberg out of it. Just, awful.

Here's the Oilers current cap situation.

Edmonton Oilers Contracts, Cap Hits and Salary Cap | Puckpedia

We are only projected to be $1.085M over the cap IF Kane comes back and that's with 14 forwards & 8D currently counting on the active Roster.

The Oilers painted themselves into a corner with Jeff Skinner's signing. Before that they could have and should have kept Holloway. After signing Skinner, all of the decision making was around D... if Broberg was the answer in their mind, he'd have been kept... he wasn't and Holloway was simply a bystander casualty in favor of cap-space for D-men.
 
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The above is the very definition of hindsight. The decision on Broberg, about Broberg and whether he was the answer on D was made in the summer. Oilers looked a D-core of this:

Ekholm Bouchard
Nurse Broberg
Kulak Josh Brown

And determined it wasn't any better (or even as good) as our cup run and decided they couldn't and wouldn't match.

You match, and that's it... that's your D-core going into the playoffs.

Broberg took a step this year, but it's a step we'd all been waiting for for 3 years... you can't sit here now and say it was zero-risk that he would blossom. And if he didn't, you have just flushed this year down the toilet.

Oilers chose cap flexibility and that part of it worked out.

Also, Oilers didn't spend Kane's LTIR on Walman... they are only using ~$1M of Kane's LTIR pool presently... and he's already skating, so I'm not entirely convinced they are certain he's not coming back early... in which case they'll have to send down a couple of forwards, but can still make the room.




Running Emberson and Stecher for as long as possible was exactly the point... they HAD to do that in order to save money up for Klingberg and Walman. Klingberg was the first bet and they still had flexibility for a contingency plan (Walman).

The alternative was Broberg and only Broberg even if he failed. There would be no money for contingencies.
Oilers waited 5 years for Broberg. His production was pedestrian to say the least and injury prone on top of that. Who gets put on lengthy injury cooking themself a meal?
 
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The above is the very definition of hindsight. The decision on Broberg, about Broberg and whether he was the answer on D was made in the summer. Oilers looked a D-core of this:

Ekholm Bouchard
Nurse Broberg
Kulak Josh Brown

And determined it wasn't any better (or even as good) as our cup run and decided they couldn't and wouldn't match.

You match, and that's it... that's your D-core going into the playoffs.

Broberg took a step this year, but it's a step we'd all been waiting for for 3 years... you can't sit here now and say it was zero-risk that he would blossom. And if he didn't, you have just flushed this year down the toilet.

Oilers chose cap flexibility and that part of it worked out.

Also, Oilers didn't spend Kane's LTIR on Walman... they are only using ~$1M of Kane's LTIR pool presently... and he's already skating, so I'm not entirely convinced they are certain he's not coming back early... in which case they'll have to send down a couple of forwards, but can still make the room.
These were ascending young players. You can see later in the season and in the playoffs that Holloway was starting to break out, of course nobody predicted him to do what he's doing now but that's not the point.
Also, Broberg showed some stuff in the playoffs that created excitement about him going into this season. Trust me, a lot of HFOil was excited about him after the playoff performance albeit with some not great metrics against Florida but just that the confidence was growing.

Even if they don't match Broberg that's fine. $4.6m is a strain on the cap for a player that hadn't proved much of anything but 2.2m for Holloway, which was apparently only 900K more than the Oilers offered, is such a small price to pay for a player that was blossoming and also loved being here. It's a fatal miscalculation that's going to be severely hamper the long term outlook. Teams kill for young players with Holloway's skillset, this is another in the long pile of big misses by Oilers management over the last 20 years. Hindsight or not doesn't matter, good GMs have the foresight to spot talent and retain it. The Oilers continue to fail miserably at this.

Sorry to hijack the thread but I felt it was relevant with Bowman's "no regrets" comment.

Also, how did the cap flexibility work out? They signed Klingberg and Kapanen with the accrued cap and gave up a pile of assets with the Kane LTIR that would have had regardless to bring in players that filled the Holloway and Broberg roles.
I say this as somebody who really likes Walman but he is essentially what Broberg is.
 
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The above is the very definition of hindsight. The decision on Broberg, about Broberg and whether he was the answer on D was made in the summer. Oilers looked a D-core of this:

Ekholm Bouchard
Nurse Broberg
Kulak Josh Brown

And determined it wasn't any better (or even as good) as our cup run and decided they couldn't and wouldn't match.
Stetcher? Emberson? they could send Brown down and keep Emberson at no extra cost to the cap...you actually save 50K
either way, that's 5 of 6 d-men from last year's Cup Final

Oilers chose cap flexibility and that part of it worked out.
Did it though? Klingberg sucks and always injured, Frederic hasn't played yet, Kapanen is generic and easily replaceable
and the only reason they got Walman was because they know Kane isn't ready until the playoffs so they could use his LTIR space

so which part worked out?
 
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These were ascending young players. You can see later in the season in the playoffs that Holloway was starting to break out, of course nobody predicted that he's doing what he's doing now but that's not the point.
Also, Broberg showed some stuff in the playoffs that created excitement about him going into this season. Trust me, a lot of HFOil was excited about him after the playoff performance albeit with some not great metrics against Florida but just that the confidence was growing.

Even if they don't match Broberg that's fine. $4.6m is a strain on the cap for a player that hadn't proved much of anything but 2.2m for Holloway, which was apparently only 900K more than the Oilers offered, is such a small price to pay for a player that was blossoming and also loved being here. It's a fatal miscalculation that's going to be severely hamper the long term outlook. Teams kill for young players with Holloway's skillset, this is another in the long pile of big misses by Oilers management over the last 20 years. Hindsight or not doesn't matter, good GMs have the foresight to spot talent and retain it. The Oilers continue to fail miserably at this.

Sorry to hijack the thread but I felt it was relevant with Bowman's "no regrets" comment.
2.2M seems like an automatic match but it's not once the numbers is layout in front. "No regrets" probably has a deeper meaning if we had access to more details that the public doesn't have access to.

There was no point in last year season Holloway look like he was breaking out. It was in a handful of games in the playoffs that showed both Holloway, Broberg and the Oilers would have a bright future. Their team up to screw the Oilers was the double cross.
 
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Don’t like our chances in this one. Dallas will want revenge after last time (We ran them out of the building for 2 periods until Dallas decided to show up in the 3rd). Of course McDrai will not be playing which makes the chances of winning slim to none. Stranger things have happened though
Hard to get up for games in March especially if you’re not playing against the two best players in the league.

I think the mental game is a toss up.
 
These were ascending young players. You can see later in the season and in the playoffs that Holloway was starting to break out, of course nobody predicted him to do what he's doing now but that's not the point.
Also, Broberg showed some stuff in the playoffs that created excitement about him going into this season. Trust me, a lot of HFOil was excited about him after the playoff performance albeit with some not great metrics against Florida but just that the confidence was growing.

Even if they don't match Broberg that's fine. $4.6m is a strain on the cap for a player that hadn't proved much of anything but 2.2m for Holloway, which was apparently only 900K more than the Oilers offered, is such a small price to pay for a player that was blossoming and also loved being here. It's a fatal miscalculation that's going to be severely hamper the long term outlook. Teams kill for young players with Holloway's skillset, this is another in the long pile of big misses by Oilers management over the last 20 years. Hindsight or not doesn't matter, good GMs have the foresight to spot talent and retain it. The Oilers continue to fail miserably at this.

Sorry to hijack the thread but I felt it was relevant with Bowman's "no regrets" comment.

Also, how did the cap flexibility work out? They signed Klingberg and Kapanen with the accrued cap and gave up a pile of assets with the Kane LTIR that would have had regardless to bring in players that filled the Holloway and Broberg roles.
Hedging your bets isn’t failing.
 
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Hard to get up for games in March especially if you’re not playing against the two best players in the league.

I think the mental game is a toss up.

There’s definitely a chance that Dallas takes us lightly, which reminds me of the Decade of Darkness area as we would beat some very good teams down the stretch
 
Goaltending aside, the Oilers are a team built for playoffs, not for the regular season... and they've proven it, being thoroughly mediocre this regular season.

If everyone's healthy, I still think the Oilers beat out Vancouver and/or Calgary (if they make it in), and L.A. too. I know the Kings are having a good season, but I think the Oil win.

Last year, the Oilers would have taken down Vegas, I'm sure, but this year I doubt it.

So, I don't see the Oilers getting past round 2, if they even make it that far.

Since 1990, the most fun I've had watching the Oilers was from midway through 2019-20 through 2022-23. (Last year was okay but they weren't as enjoyable to watch as before.) This year, they're kind of boring to watch, honestly.

I dunno, they have some good names and if Kane were back and healthy, Frederic healthy, Ekholm rested and healthy, etc., then the Oilers definitely could catch lightning again and go on a run. I mean, it wouldn't shock me, but it would surprise me a bit.

The most likely scenario is that they've just entered a decline from the 2020-2024 period of competitiveness.
I said this at the deadline after not doing anything with the goaltending. The only team we could beat was the kings because they lacked scoring yet tye last 10 games they showed they can put the puck in the net. I said we DO NOT stand a chance against high octane offensive like vegas Colorado amd the Jets with stu backstopping us. Easily second round exit of we are able to even win a round
 
I actually feel good about this game. I feel like the players we have in the lineup up front are highly motivated to play well and are taking advantage of the minutes.

Ironically, the forwards haven't been an issue whatsoever in the 4 periods without 97/29. If anything they've thrived. It's been the defence, again, that can't help but fart out odd man rushes by the bushel. Bouchard is still effectively scoring a goal in his own net per game, and the rush defence and puck management from the Nurse-Walman pair has been nothing short of embarrassing.

If Bouchard/Nurse/Walman manage to not be stupid I think we win, if they repeat the last 4 periods we won't.
 
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I said this at the deadline after not doing anything with the goaltending. The only team we could beat was the kings because they lacked scoring yet tye last 10 games they showed they can put the puck in the net. I said we DO NOT stand a chance against high octane offensive like vegas Colorado amd the Jets with stu backstopping us. Easily second round exit of we are able to even win a round
Chicken little never wins anything.
 
I actually feel good about this game. I feel like the players we have in the lineup up front are highly motivated to play well and are taking advantage of the minutes.

Ironically, the forwards haven't been an issue whatsoever in the 4 periods without 97/29. If anything they've thrived. It's been the defence, again, that can't help but fart out odd man rushes by the bushel. Bouchard is still effectively scoring a goal in his own net per game, and the rush defence and puck management from the Nurse-Walman pair has been nothing short of embarrassing.

If Bouchard/Nurse/Walman manage to not be stupid I think we win, if they repeat the last 4 periods we won't.
Play selection is like that. When your options contract execution becomes simpler.
 
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Stetcher? Emberson? they could send Brown down and keep Emberson at no extra cost to the cap...you actually save 50K
either way, that's 5 of 6 d-men from last year's Cup Final


Did it though? Klingberg sucks and always injured, Frederic hasn't played yet, Kapanen is generic and easily replaceable
and the only reason they got Walman was because they know Kane isn't ready until the playoffs so they could use his LTIR space

so which part worked out?

You are right, I forgot Stecher.

Emberson was acquired using the assets we got for Holloway/Broberg. You could argue we still make that trade, but he wasn't part of the organization on the day we made the decision.

Re Cap Flexibility:

1) As I've stated (and shared our puckpedia page... here again... https://www.puckpedia.com/team/edmonton-oilers), we are only using $1.08M of Kane's LTIR. That tells me that they aren't 100% sure he isn't playing in the regular season and have a plan to deal with that if it happens.

2) Even if we are using Kane's LTIR for Walman (we aren't really, but I'll concede for the purpose of the argument), HOW WAS MANAGEMENT GOING TO KNOW THAT IN THE SUMMER? That's what I mean about hindsight. They had to make the call in the summer. You are throwing shade on the decision based on hindsight.

3) Which part worked out???? The FRICKIN' FLEXIBILITY my friend! You don't manage based on an arrogance of knowing (at least I hope not!), you manage based on a humility of NOT KNOWING and ASSESSING RISK. Klingberg was a bet that didn't work out. Our cap flexibility ALLOWED us to place that bet AND have a contingency of additional cap if (when) it went wrong. That's WHY we have Walman.

4) I agree Walman for Broberg is an equal substitution... but Walman, being a guy we picked up NOW when we concluded we needed him, when he's not injured, when he's playing well... that's the type of certainty that the Oilers were betting their season on. What you are not getting is that Broberg carried some risk (ok fine) but more importantly he REMOVED ANY ABILITY TO COMPENSATE IF YOU BET WRONG. Management chose cap space over Broberg because 1) Broberg could fail, 2) Broberg could get injured, 3) Kane could come back, 4) We needed TWO upgrades on D vs Ceci/Desharnais, 5) We didn't know if if Stecher or Emberson would fill that role, 6) It's a long season and our priorities could change by deadline.
 
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Every f***ing thread in here lately is a Holloway/Broberg whine thread. f*** me, can we at least keep it somewhat contained to the appropriate thread???

We have the Around the League, this thread, biggest disappointment thread and then the actual whine thread all saying the same thing. Yes, it's a conspiracy by the league to f*** the Oilers and no, it is not cathartic to jerk off to pics of your ex. Half you people hated Broberg and called him a bust and now miss him like he's your 1st born. It's embarrassing.
This board is getting boring once again.
 
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Here's the Oilers current cap situation.

Edmonton Oilers Contracts, Cap Hits and Salary Cap | Puckpedia

We are only projected to be $1.085M over the cap IF Kane comes back and that's with 14 forwards & 8D currently counting on the active Roster.

The Oilers painted themselves into a corner with Jeff Skinner's signing. Before that they could have and should have kept Holloway. After signing Skinner, all of the decision making was around D... if Broberg was the answer in their mind, he'd have been kept... he wasn't and Holloway was simply a bystander casualty in favor of cap-space for D-men.
Skinner and Henrique both.

Nobody this summer thought we could bring back Henrique and not only did Jackson give up the $3M of cap but two years and an NMC. While assuming they could lowball our RFAs and still keep them.
 
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These were ascending young players. You can see later in the season and in the playoffs that Holloway was starting to break out, of course nobody predicted him to do what he's doing now but that's not the point.
Also, Broberg showed some stuff in the playoffs that created excitement about him going into this season. Trust me, a lot of HFOil was excited about him after the playoff performance albeit with some not great metrics against Florida but just that the confidence was growing.

Even if they don't match Broberg that's fine. $4.6m is a strain on the cap for a player that hadn't proved much of anything but 2.2m for Holloway, which was apparently only 900K more than the Oilers offered, is such a small price to pay for a player that was blossoming and also loved being here. It's a fatal miscalculation that's going to be severely hamper the long term outlook. Teams kill for young players with Holloway's skillset, this is another in the long pile of big misses by Oilers management over the last 20 years. Hindsight or not doesn't matter, good GMs have the foresight to spot talent and retain it. The Oilers continue to fail miserably at this.

Sorry to hijack the thread but I felt it was relevant with Bowman's "no regrets" comment.

Also, how did the cap flexibility work out? They signed Klingberg and Kapanen with the accrued cap and gave up a pile of assets with the Kane LTIR that would have had regardless to bring in players that filled the Holloway and Broberg roles.
I say this as somebody who really likes Walman but he is essentially what Broberg is.

I agree with you on both Holloway and Broberg's improving trajectory during the playoffs. It's also true that BOTH players had a checkered injury history.

It was a huge mistake to sign Skinner prior to resigning the RFAs (both). That isn't in debate.

We're talking about post offer sheet.

The point you are missing (and I've made it again above)... is that ONCE we decided Broberg was not the solution to our D-woes, at least not at $4.6M, from that decision point we HAD NO CHOICE but to let Holloway go because CAP SPACE FOR D AT DEADLINE was more valuable than yet another forward, young, defensively responsible and emerging as he was/is... he was a luxury at that point and one we could not afford. We had to prioritize cap space for D-men.

Letting Holloway go had almost nothing to do with him. The decision centered around Broberg and what to do with the D.

Letting Holloway go allowed us to:
A) Audition Emberson
B) Swing and miss on Klingberg - because mistakes DO happen, especially when you are buying low (ie inherently risky) due to no cap space
C) Have cap space for Walman

The decision to also let Holloway walk was actually very unfortunate, tough, but also GOOD MANAGEMENT, it allowed flexibility and contingency planning. The BAD MANAGEMENT was signing Skinner in the first place and opening yourself up to offer sheet... that's on Jackson, it happened before Bowman was in place.
 
Every f***ing thread in here lately is a Holloway/Broberg whine thread. f*** me, can we at least keep it somewhat contained to the appropriate thread???

We have the Around the League, this thread, biggest disappointment thread and then the actual whine thread all saying the same thing. Yes, it's a conspiracy by the league to f*** the Oilers and no, it is not cathartic to jerk off to pics of your ex. Half you people hated Broberg and called him a bust and now miss him like he's your 1st born. It's embarrassing.
You said it.

I f***ing hate this discussion. The fact that it was allowed to happen makes me furious but I am so tired of people talking about it outside it's thread. It's worse than the Yamamoto vs JP debate at this point!
 
This heel turn on Broberg is ridiculous.

He asked for a trade because Knoblauch wouldn't play him and he was on the NHL-AHL express all year.

Then he was put in a pressure situation in the postseason and did well.

Lots of Oilers fans wanted to keep Broberg.

But since he signed an offer sheet since the Oilers front office lowballed him and coaching jerked him around for 3 seasons, he's the villain now.
 

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