Rumor: Rumors & Proposals Thread | Post Deadline Apocalypse: 3rd Time's a Charm? Stu, Stu, Stupider Management, May the Schwartz Be With You!

[Ibanez]

At least if Stu shits the bed and we lose in the first round the mgmt has to address our goalie right? Right? Guys? Right??????

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

The only reason the Oilers are better are because of some lottery balls bouncing their way, not because they are better managed.

This is sadly true. The team was nowhere close to turning a corner before McDavid arrived. Annoying that we don’t even need great management, just passable. Alas, all we can hope now is the team gets it together in time for the playoffs.

 

[Mr Positive]

At least if Stu shits the bed and we lose in the first round the mgmt has to address our goalie right? Right? Guys? Right??????

Honestly yes. That would be a consolation prize.

I wanted a goalie this deadline, and that would have meant some cheap gamble. The only true upgrade options would have been Gibson or Vejmelka. I'm guessing that Bowman only wanted that kind of player, and we just didn't have the cap and assets at this time. In the summer we will.

Also both Anaheim and Utah might not have been selling.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Podkolzin - McDavid - Hyman
RNH - Draisaitl - Arvi
Kane - Henrique - Skinner
Janmark - Frederic - Brown
Jones - Ryan - Kapanen

Ekholm - Bouchard
Nurse - Kulak
Walman - Emberson
Stecher - Klingberg

This roster has the bodies to catch fire if Knoblauch can manage to light one underneath them.

Move Kane and Frédéric into the top 6 and move out Arvi and Pod

 

[McDoused]

I also don't buy "no one was available!".

Detroit has Talbot, Lyon, and Mrazek why do they need 3 freaking goalies for?

Anaheim has Gibson, Dostal, Husso, ditto.

I'm willing to have a reasonable conversation but if the options are mrazek and Husso then I'd rather just play Skinner and thats saying something.

 

[Soundwave]

I'm willing to have a reasonable conversation but if the options are mrazek and Husso then I'd rather just play Skinner and thats saying something.

What do those teams need their higher end goalies for? They’re not going anywhere. I’d have taken Talbot.

 

[scotchtapejr]

Waste of a season going into the playoffs with Stuart. It is what it is what it is, but I hoping the exit will pave the road to all of his teammates staring him down in the locker room post elimination so hard he has no choice to retire at the post game interview while weeping and shaving off his moustache and hair.

 

[Heavy Dee]

I'm willing to have a reasonable conversation but if the options are mrazek and Husso then I'd rather just play Skinner and thats saying something.

We are a Skinner injury away from a first round exit.

 

[Scrapin Ice]

Don't think STan even tried for a goalie. He took the other path. Likely he looked for a power forward like Tuch. Or Coyle. Im surprised we never got at least Donato.

 

[Scrapin Ice]

We are a Skinner injury away from a first round exit.

And nothing in tbe AHL to back us up! Really bad planning. As bad as leaving us open to offer sheets. Imagine if we had the team we have today but with Holloway. But hey look at the bright side 'we had cap flexibility'.

 

[LTIR]

At least if Stu shits the bed and we lose in the first round the mgmt has to address our goalie right? Right? Guys? Right??????

Should be an automatic firing of Bowman and clowns like Bob if this were to happen.

 

[LTIR]

There's way too many forwards, developing chemistry in a short stretch is going to be a problem. Also I mean Corey Perry comes out when he's been like probably the third best forward this year, lol.

I think their only prayer is to do everything to get a second line going. I would put Frederic in the Patrick Maroon spot and see if that can do anything.

RNH McDavid Frederic
Hyman Draisaitl Arvidsson

Is something I might look at.

Right now we don't really have an actual 2nd line that's reliable, let alone multiple lines going.

I don't agree. We could have 4 reliable lines with all that we have accumulated.

Kane-RNH-Hyman could be a good 3rd line.
Jones-Henrique-Perry (Ducks line) good 4th line.

Podz-Drai-Arvi can continue o develop chemistry.

Leaves us with Frederic-McDavid-Skinner/Kapanen as the last line.

Janmark/Brown/Savoie/ Ryan can watch from outside and get inserted if needed to help with PK.

 

[AddyTheWrath]

I really like the trades we made. But like the last 2 years, I'm just left wishing we had one more guy who could put the puck in the net.

Last year I wanted Toffoli bad, and call me crazy, but I think that could have been the difference. The year before, one extra scorer in our depth could have been the difference in the Vegas series.

TBF that’s Skinner. He just needs to play

 

[LTIR]

Thats a lot of responsibility for a guy who has been struggling in bottom pairing minutes for the 2nd straight season.

Numbers aren't everything. Carlo is certainly not a 3rd pairing Dman no matter what the charts say.
The charts make Bouchard look like a great defensive Dman but it's just not the case.
It's doesn't matter anymore but Carlo would've been a good add on Oil.

 

[Soundwave]

I don't agree. We could have 4 reliable lines with all that we have accumulated.

Kane-RNH-Hyman could be a good 3rd line.
Jones-Henrique-Perry (Ducks line) good 4th line.

Podz-Drai-Arvi can continue o develop chemistry.

Leaves us with Frederic-McDavid-Skinner/Kapanen as the last line.

Janmark/Brown/Savoie/ Ryan can watch from outside and get inserted if needed to help with PK.

There’s nothing that suggests this team has 4 good lines. Right now its a struggle to even have 1 good line on a nightly basis as RNH McDavid Hyman have run stale.

Podz Drai Arvidsson has been given tons of time … the line simply does not score.

 

[Scrapin Ice]

TBF that’s Skinner. He just needs to play

Toffoli likely would have made a difference. (though he is is a touchy subject with me still, f--king 6 rings.) But the year before another scorer was unlikely to help us. Vegas beat us down our soft RW and our poor RD. We were soft and our defense was porous on the right. While our RD still is not perfect it is better than it was two years ago.

 

[Burnt Biscuits]

I can't imagine management made the decision to not upgrade goaltending without Schwartz backing up our current guys. I also noticed even when our goaltending wasn't great in the past, a lot of times Schwartz's former students like Jarry or Hart would be brought up in his defense who are both no longer relevant, while my greatest hope is our goalies deliver by some miracle, but if they don't I think this might and hopefully is the last of Schwartz's 99 lives.

 

[Burnt Biscuits]

Now that the deadline is over and we can't improve our roster further through trade, I think a huge onus is on Knoblauch, while I'll credit his system for helping us really reign in some of the high quality chances against, I think he has stifled our forwards and offensive creativity too much.

Presently of all of our forwards only Drai and Perry have met or exceeded my offensive expectations and it doesn't go unnoticed that they are our most skilled power forward types, it seems like Knob's system is a better fit for Bruins hockey than Oilers hockey.

IMO Knob has been coaching us to play 3-2 hockey, but with our goaltending and group I don't think we are meant to play that way, I see as more of a 4-3 hockey club who needs a little more leash to take chances and emphasis on transition. Also Knob revealed that the group was a bit fragile at the moment which I think is a byproduct of a lot of our offensive guys not feeling great about their game cause they aren't contributing enough and when 80%+ of our forwards are below normal scoring expectations it has to fall on the coaches shoulders.

 

[LTIR]

There’s nothing that suggests this team has 4 good lines. Right now its a struggle to even have 1 good line on a nightly basis as RNH McDavid Hyman have run stale.

Podz Drai Arvidsson has been given tons of time … the line simply does not score.

Sure, change 'good' to 'balanced' .
If no line is good then might as well balanced them and hope PP or individual efforts keep getting us the wins.
We can have 4 balanced lines if we move Nuge to C.

 

[Zerotonine]

I mean what do you want Bowman to say? To call out a fragile Skinner?

The truth is that the goalie market sucked and this is Skinners chance to redeem himself. If not you can bet that's the first thing Bowman upgrades in the offseason.

Gibson was available. Now maybe the price wasn't right but let's not pretend there wasn't an opportunity to upgrade. The fact this management thinks Gibson isn't an upgrade over Skinner is mind boggling scary

To me the way they always deflect on goaltending is them trying to protect Schwartz. Because imo if they start to blame and admit goaltending is an issue it starts to bring Schwartz to the for front and we can't have that obviously

 

[alphahelix]

Gibson was available. Now maybe the price wasn't right but let's not pretend there wasn't an opportunity to upgrade. The fact this management thinks Gibson isn't an upgrade over Skinner is mind boggling scary

To me the way they always deflect on goaltending is them trying to protect Schwartz. Because imo if they start to blame and admit goaltending is an issue it starts to bring Schwartz to the for front and we can't have that obviously

Anaheim wanted a high price for Gibson especially if retained, and they probably wanted Skinner back.

Gibson is injured all the time including right now, so if we overpaid for that deal we would be starting Pickard tonight with Rodrigue backing up. Surely you can see that this is a dicey proposition at best.

Gibson also said he only wants to waive if hes the undisputed starter somewhere, not an ideal attitude from an aging injury prone goalie.

Finally, Anaheim's defence has been very underrated this year. Zellwegger is blue chip all the way, Radko Gudas captain is a playoff warrior, Brian Dumoulin is a strong vetetan, the 8 million dollar man in Jacob Trouba and the #1 PP guy emerging in Jackson Lacombe who has more points than a lot of teams top guy. Last guy is Drew Helleson who isnt too shabby himself.

 

[Soli]

 

[Bryanbryoil]

I'm not sure that would've been such a good thing. That said if this is true we may well go big game hunting in the offseason.

 

[Scrapin Ice]

It should have been quite easy to see early on in the day that (given he already made up his mind that a goalie better than Skinner was out of the question) prices were too high the power forwards and cap hits were trouble ....Why didn't he pivot to the option C...bringing more skating and meanness and a fourth line center that can pass very well and be a threat.
He could have done this for cheap and strengthened our AHL goaltending with two new guys showing promise. There are four guys at the top in the AHL. Certainly one of them would have been available for a 4 or 5th.

 

[McShogun99]

We are a Skinner injury away from a first round exit.

He doesn't need to be injured for a first round exit.