Oilers off season review?

[Peasy]

Funny how quickly Jeff Jackson's reputation plummeted after so many oiler fans/people were being over the moon with his moves early in the off season.

 

[theVladiator]

Hindsight is 20/20, but currently it looks like Skinner/Arvidsson signings were a big mistake. Ultimately, this was the domino that caused other moves. In particular, without these signings Broberg and Holloway do not get offersheeted (and their asking deals were at 50% of what they are being paid now, so would have been relatively affordable roster options). Those signings were a gamble in an effort to fix scoring depth woes in one fell swoop. Not only the gamble isn't working out, it led to blowing a hole in the defense because of the offer sheets. Things could change of course, but it's looking really bad at the moment.

 

[benfranklin]

Ok yea that makes more sense. I’d still argue he hasn’t been good but at least there’s something other than he’s just sucked, which is his linemates have too

Maybe Edmonton needs to try and spread some top 6 players out? Swap RNH and Henrique, I know rnh used to play C so maybe he can get something going. Or maybe Hyman down to carry a third line, he’s been not the greatest this season but I remember he was able to do it in stretches for the leafs so maybe that’s the spark that’s needed

Without depth scoring idk how realistic having mcdrai + Bouchard replicate last year is, because that’s the only way they win them.

It seems like they try then quickly go back to McDrais when it doesnt work leaving the other three lines to dread water. IMO rather than Skinner, find a good two way guy to at least keep the goals against down. "Depth" scoring is what they need, but its not depth scoring anymore if one of Drais of McD are needed to get them to score, which is their entire lineup. Outside of the PP and McDrais, its a pretty poorly constructed team.

And I fully recognize they made it to Game 7 of the SCF and Im still saying that. I think most of that run was luck/PK hot at the right time. Id be shocked if they ever get there again without drastic changes or getting lucky with homegrown talent.

 

[AnInjuredJasonZucker]

I hope that people who don't follow the Oilers don't read this and think it in any way resembles solid analysis.

 

[benfranklin]

I hope that people who don't follow the Oilers don't read this and think it in any way resembles solid analysis.

So give us your take...or just dont provide anything of value to the thread.

 

[TheNumber4]

I hope that people who don't follow the Oilers don't read this and think it in any way resembles solid analysis.

Quite possibly one of the most inaccurate OPs I’ve ever read.

 

[AnInjuredJasonZucker]

So give us your take...or just dont provide anything of value to the thread.

Well, for starters, a buyer beware reminder is always of value.

For my take, X points in X games is simply not telling the story. The core of the team has played more hockey than any other over the past few seasons, and then they went and turned over a high percentage of the support players. The best players struggled mightily, and are only now coming along so to expect your complimentary and tweener players to carry the load when they're coming into a new system with linemates that they've never played with is pretty misguided.

One example from the list is a guy like Emberson. What should the realistic expectations for him have been? All we were told by the legions of HF posters is that Ceci was a cap dump AHLer. Do you really think we were getting a legit top 4 guy in return?

Still, with the defense pairings starting to show signs of life, Emberson is showing that he could develop into a solid blueliner. He's had a similar career trajectory to Desharnais, who Paul Coffey did wonders with, and seems to have more natural ability.

In general, with the forwards, the shooting percentage is unsustainably low. Again, that seems to be coming around now with players settling into new roles with a new team.

 

[Czechboy]

Skinner needs to be moved down from The Good to a meh category. He’s came as advertised and doesn’t really bring much on the ice if he doesn’t get fed scoring chances.

Corey Perry has looked the best out of all the off season acquisitions( I know he was on the team before )

I said better than meh, dammit lol.

 

[Czechboy]

I hope that people who don't follow the Oilers don't read this and think it in any way resembles solid analysis.

It was obviously my opinions and a conversation starter.. please tell me what you think of our off season signings and how they are doing. Use as much real analysis as you prefer.

 

[ManofSteel55]

He would have been more likely to stay if they didn't low ball him an offer. Or they could have matched.

He was never going to take a reasonable deal in Edmonton. They could have matched, but it was a big gamble. He's had a good start to the year, but the jury is still out on if he will be worth that amount.

 

[GOilers88]

I'm an Oiler fan and I didn't like our offseason at all and many did. So I thought I'd look at it now that we've finally got back to playoff position and are seemingly playing better (at least temporarily). I do think we have a strong team that should make the playoffs but we need some trades and LTIR shenanigans.

Offseason moves
The good
Signed Janmark to 3 years - it's aging really well, he's improved
Noah Philp - great signing, low cost and low impact though

Cory Perry to 1 year - 4 points in 17 games - better than meh
Jeff Skinner to one year - 6 points in 17 games and in top 10 - better than meh

The bad

Signed Calvin Pickard to 2 years - meh
Connor Brown for another year (and a caphit from last season on our current season) - 4 pts in 17 games. meh
Viktor Arviddson to 2 years - 5 points in 16 games - meh
Vasily Podkolzin - 3 points in 17 games and a really nice fight. meh

Troy Stecher to two years - 13 games, 0 points, TOI is 14 - between meh and dogshit

The ugly

Ty Emberson - 1 point in 15 games, a minus 5 and TOI is 14. Dogshit
Josh Brown to 3 years - maybe the worst offseason contract? dogshit
Adam Henrique to 2 years - 2 points in 17 games. dogshit

Lost Broberg - Ouch
Lost Holloway - Ouch
Lost McLeod - Ouch

Undetermined
Matt Savoie for McLeod - TBD - Savoie could be a solution for Top 6 or a great trade piece for D help
Raphael Lavoie to a 1 year contract - he's in Vegas for free

My opinion is that Jackson and Bowman shit the bed badly. We still need D, a backup goalie to push Stu and probably some forwards.

What does everyone else think?

I don't think your "Bad's" are really any worse than the goods. Also disagree about Emberson and Henrique being dogshit. That seems more like an end of season assessment to me. And Conor Brown came up pretty clutch last summer so personally I cut him some slack.

 

[ManofSteel55]

Eye test definitely does not match the conclusions in this thread.

Emberson started rough but has been playing good hockey lately. If this is the real Emberson now, he replaces Ceci for a fraction of the Cap hit. He’s not the big Ceci upgrade everyone wanted? But I’ll take Ceci equivalent for a third of the Cap hit all day.

A lot of the forwards are underperforming this year. It’s a not a JSkinner or Arvidsson issue. It’s affecting Hyman and Nuge too. It starts from the top, simply put our drivers in McDrai had a crappy start to the season. They’ve found their game now though, and I expect the Top 6 to follow including Arviddson who’s quickly creating chemistry with Drai. JSkinner I’m worried about his foot speed though.
Arviddson is starting to find his game and gaining chemistry with Drai. I think he’ll be fine.

The only forwards who aren't having issues producing are Drai and McD. It's pretty funny actually, our top 5 point producers right now are Draisaitl, McDavid, Bouchard, Ekholm, and Nurse. Kulak is next.

 

[McShogun99]

broberg eas gone all along anyone that says he was an oiler this year is lying to themselves

They should have traded him right after the playoffs but they thought they could strong arm him into playing another year because he had no arbitration rights. They didn't expect him getting a 4.6x2 offer sheet and were caught with their pants down. They should have matched the offer sheet and maybe he would have liked playing for Edmonton after this season with an increased role.

 

[TheNumber4]

The only forwards who aren't having issues producing are Drai and McD. It's pretty funny actually, our top 5 point producers right now are Draisaitl, McDavid, Bouchard, Ekholm, and Nurse. Kulak is next.

Yeh. Lately. And the rest of the forwards will follow suit. McDrai drives results. With them at their best, our other forwards should uptick along with them.

 

[EdmFlyersfan]

Oilers in a nutshell got older and slower, goaltending still was not addressed...and somehow found a way to downgrade their GM.

 

[Czechboy]

Quite possibly one of the most inaccurate OPs I’ve ever read.

Fine... I'm a moron and my opinions are wrong. Please tell me how you'd rank those 15 transactions and use any method you like.

 

[Three On Zero]

I said better than meh, dammit lol.

The hindsight about people raving about JJ’s moves it bitter sweet. People thought he did such a good job, until he actually didn’t.

 

[Czechboy]

I don't think your "Bad's" are really any worse than the goods. Also disagree about Emberson and Henrique being dogshit. That seems more like an end of season assessment to me. And Conor Brown came up pretty clutch last summer so personally I cut him some slack.

Unless I'm missing some amazing PKing or 2 way skill, Henrique has been a real let down. A few have mentioned my Emberson take is wrong... what do you see? Bottom pair or top 4?

Here is Connor Brown's Oilers career so far...

88 games and 16 points for 5 million dollars. I agree he was good in the playoffs. I still don't think he's worth 5 million for 2 seasons.

 

[Czechboy]

The hindsight about people raving about JJ’s moves it bitter sweet. People thought he did such a good job, until he actually didn’t.

I said all this in July when it was happening live. I'm not using hindsight but it was overwhelmingly 'Jeff Jackson should be the GM' in July. So I shut up and waited till.. now. I hope I'm wrong. I hope this ages poorly. All I wanted was a 2D and a backup for Stu.lol

 

[Three On Zero]

I said all this in July when it was happening live. I'm not using hindsight but it was overwhelmingly 'Jeff Jackson should be the GM' in July. So I shut up and waited till.. now. I hope I'm wrong. I hope this ages poorly. All I wanted was a 2D and a backup for Stu.lol

Still really early, the post season is when the true evaluations needs to be done

 

[Czechboy]

Still really early, the post season is when the true evaluations needs to be done

We are barely clinging to a wildcard spot.lol

Agree it's early! Who do you think will breakout for the last roughly 60 games of these guys?