Rumor: Rumors & Proposals Thread | The Oilers Biggest Roster Need Is?

[Shanahanigans]

The most promising part of the Oilers game right now is their defence and strong 5on5 play imo. They basically dominate every night, outside of a few outliers. If they replace Stetcher with a legit top four guy, I think we'll have the best team in the NHL. Skinner and Arvidsson will get going, and Kane coming back healthy will be huge. That's a huge injection of physicality and goal scoring into the lineup, which is basically all they're missing up front right now.

I think if you're doing a goalie, it's someone to replace Pickard and challenge Skinner. Everyone hates Skinner, but he's got another level to his game that Pickard doesn't. Oilers don't win that Dallas series if Skinner doesn't stand on his head in game 6. He was also really strong for the second half of last season.

That said, bringing someone in who could actually steal the net from Skinner would be really interesting, and I think would be good for the team. I don't have faith in Pickard being that guy, I think he's more of a number 3.

The Oilers are essentially a top 3 5on5 team in the NHL in terms of chance creation for/against. Goaltending, finishing, and special teams have been our kryptonite this year, but I expect finishing and special teams to come around. Still, our strong 5on5 play with struggling wingers, and aging bottom 6, and a rag tag defense is a testament to how good of a coaching duo Knob and Coffey are. A good coach will have a team play better than the sum of their parts.

Also, short sample size but that Nurse-Kulak pair so far are putting up elite metrics, among the best in the league. Something to watch for in the next while.

 

[OilersaretheMcBest]

Can see the blues holding on to hofer with binnington getting older and less consistent.

 

[McAsuno]

I feel like this is generally the sentiment when pretty much any alternative goalie options are mentioned. Then we see said options play well elsewhere, or have a good season, and people pine for them.

Nobody ever really wants to take a chance because it's not a clear cut upgrade, then they'll complain that we didn't take a chance based on hindsight.

That's the problem here. We have moron Oiler media members like Jim Matheson that don't think we should've went for Dante Fabbro when he was on waivers but that the Oilers should perhaps take a flyer on Matt Benning instead right after even though this team has enough bottom pairing Dmen on the roster. I'd take a chance and hope it pans out like how Florida did it with Gustav Forsling.

 

[VeteranPresence]

A couple Hawks fans on the trade board were down with O'Reilly or our 2026 1st + STL 2nd '25 for Connor Murphy @ 50% and Arvid Soderblom. I'd love Murphy for sure, but Soderblom is the real prize to me there- 25 year old 6'3 goalie with unreal stats on a very bad Chicago team. You hit on him plus upgrade the #4 spot and suddenly this is a whole new team.

 

[Burnt Biscuits]

So I think so, but I look at the Oilers and they're deep enough offensively (despite the not scoring right now lol) that energy guys can add value to the top-9.

Like Podkolzin isn't scoring, but his energy and forechecking is turning over pucks and creating space for Draisaitl and Arvidsson, and I think O'Connor could have a similar affect.

My question is where does Kane fit in when he is healthy?

Like I agree on the role O'Connor fills and he could provide a similar-ish element to Podz while having better scoring touch, but on a healthy line-up things get murkier to me.

Obviously there is some uncertainty on how good Kane will be when he returns, but I've got him loosely penciled in to a 2nd line role.

My current focus is getting more offense out of our 3rd line and I don't think we have anyone in house aside from possibly Nuge who is a good fit to unlock the Henrique- Brown line. I think they need a speedy playmaker who can hold on to a puck like Morgan Frost to unlock the line.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

My question is where does Kane fit in when he is healthy?

Like I agree on the role O'Connor fills and he could provide a similar-ish element to Podz while having better scoring touch, but on a healthy line-up things get murkier to me.

Obviously there is some uncertainty on how good Kane will be when he returns, but I've got him loosely penciled in to a 2nd line role.

My current focus is getting more offense out of our 3rd line and I don't think we have anyone in house aside from possibly Nuge who is a good fit to unlock the Henrique- Brown line. I think they need a speedy playmaker who can hold on to a puck like Morgan Frost to unlock the line.

I think Kane goes with Drai and Arvy, and it pushes everyone down making the depth just better overall.

 

[SupremeTeam16]

The stats don’t accurately reflect the entire story. Teams have really done their home work and learned to defend what the Oilers want to do in the offensive zone, which is force the puck into the low slot. So teams just collapse on that area and it becomes a pile of bodies, legs, sticks and it’s almost impossible to find the puck let alone get a stick on it and get any sort of clean shot off. Even though they are counted as high danger because of where they’re taken from, the reality is most of them aren’t accurate at all and are just pucks being swept or hacked towards the net, they are pucks a 2x6 stood up on end could stop.

Teams aren’t worried at all about any sort of shots from the Oilers coming from the high slot or outside the home plate area because we almost never shoot from those areas ever, instead the team just passes it around endlessly or McDavid goes for a skate trying to open up a lane that defensively disciplined teams almost never give up anymore now that they know.

A perfect example of this was Nurses first goal last night. The Preds, including their goalie, started collapsing to the middle and weak side because they know the Oilers MO there is to either throw it across the ice, into the low slot or to skate it behind the net. Instead Nurse actually takes the ice they give him and easily buries it into the gaping short side hole because Wedgwood is already positioning himself down and towards the middle of the net expecting to be looking looking through legs for a soft puck in the bottom half of the net.

 

[VeteranPresence]

I think Kane goes with Drai and Arvy, and it pushes everyone down making the depth just better overall.

RNH-McDavid-Hyman
Kane-Drai-Arvidsson
Skinner-Henrique-Podkolzin
Janmark-Philp-Brown
Perry, Ryan

PP1: Hyman-McDavid-Draisaitl-Ekholm-Bouchard
PP2: Kane-RNH-Arvidsson-Skinner-Nurse

PK1: Brown-Henrique-Ekholm-?
PK2: Janmark-Philp-Nurse-Kulak

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

RNH-McDavid-Hyman
Kane-Drai-Arvidsson
Skinner-Henrique-Podkolzin
Janmark-Philp-Brown
Perry, Ryan

PP1: Hyman-McDavid-Draisaitl-Ekholm-Bouchard
PP2: Kane-RNH-Arvidsson-Skinner-Nurse

PK1: Brown-Henrique-Ekholm-?
PK2: Janmark-Philp-Nurse-Kulak

Probably Emberson based on who's here not. Ekholm and Emberson have been on the 1st PK recently and it seems to have good results

 

[Trafalgar Sadge Law]

This could absolutely be a big opportunity to get a guy who's not appreciated that fits what the Oilers need.

Sign me up for this player. Very talented and could be a nice replacement for the Broberg shaped hole of young, cheap defenseman playing his way into the top 4.

 

[CanadasTeam99]

I feel like this is generally the sentiment when pretty much any alternative goalie options are mentioned. Then we see said options play well elsewhere, or have a good season, and people pine for them.

Nobody ever really wants to take a chance because it's not a clear cut upgrade, then they'll complain that we didn't take a chance based on hindsight.

This is what I feel when it come to alternative goalies and we have seen with Skinner.

You have 2 pancakes on the table.

1 has 8 pieces of sh** on it. The other has 2. You have to eat one or you die. I think the one with 2 (new goalie) would be most peoples choice.

 

[bucks_oil]

Yeah that wrister that squeeked through Pickards gaping 5-hole coming off the stick of 15 career goal 4th liner Cole Smith was far more dangerous than the 5-hole shot from one season 63 goal scorer Connor McDavid.

God forbid a goalie makes a save on a breakaway against a 4th line scrub.

You weren't even watching, or you don't have goalie eyes. It hit his blocker first and bounced down... it was going 7-hole, not 5-hole.

Any breakaway is a very dynamic play, so anything can happen and you can actually get unlucky. The 'errors' you make on a breakaway that contribute to a goal are sometimes no more glaring than the errors a player might make that loses them a puck battle on the boards. Yeah, you are supposed to win more than you lose, but you aren't going to win them all and it isn't always because you misplayed it, or you suck.

The best goalies in the league only save about 7/10 breakaways. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/3644101/2022/09/30/igor-shesterkin-rangers-saves-analytics/

That's the type of 'perfection' and consistency that $11M will buy you. Are our goalies 5-times worse??? Cuz' that's what we're paying them.

Until you guys are willing to trade Hyman and Ekholm and replace them with players making league minimum, you shouldn't be complaining about our inconsistent goaltending. We haven't invested in a premium model.

And while we are assigning blame... In a one-goal game, with less than three minutes left: Have you asked yourself what on earth Emberson was "thinking" when he held the zone after a turnover while being 30 feet from the puck? Do you think the juice was worth the squeeze on that risk-reward decision, or maybe we should be managing the game a little better at that point?

 

[Burnt Biscuits]

A couple Hawks fans on the trade board were down with O'Reilly or our 2026 1st + STL 2nd '25 for Connor Murphy @ 50% and Arvid Soderblom. I'd love Murphy for sure, but Soderblom is the real prize to me there- 25 year old 6'3 goalie with unreal stats on a very bad Chicago team. You hit on him plus upgrade the #4 spot and suddenly this is a whole new team.

I don't know Soderblom, but there isn't enough track record there for me to have confidence in him and C. Murphy to me is the kind of guy that teams who are wishy washy about their chances to win a Cup pick up as a frugal I hope it pays off kind of move. At Murphy's best he is a close to ideal fit for Nurse, but I don't think he plays that way even 25% of the time when I watch him. I view Ristolainen, C. Murphy, and D. Savard as the bottom of the barrel 2nd pairing trade options.

Also I'm strongly against trading O'Reilly, he's the one prospect I think we have to hold on to above all the others.

 

[bellagiobob]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1857440923614847099

 

[Yuke]

So you want less than 2, so you want 1 or 0.

You want something that isn't real or realistic.

Sincerely, what you imagine defense to be and what actually is are quite different.

Wow.
Less means not as many. Never said two either. These guys give up 5 or more some nights.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

You weren't even watching, or you don't have goalie eyes. It hit his blocker first and bounced down... it was going 7-hole, not 5-hole.

Any breakaway is a very dynamic play, so anything can happen and you can actually get unlucky. The 'errors' you make on a breakaway that contribute to a goal are sometimes no more glaring than the errors a player might make that loses them a puck battle on the boards. Yeah, you are supposed to win more than you lose, but you aren't going to win them all and it isn't always because you misplayed it, or you suck.

The best goalies in the league only save about 7/10 breakaways. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/3644101/2022/09/30/igor-shesterkin-rangers-saves-analytics/

That's the type of 'perfection' and consistency that $11M will buy you. Are our goalies 5-times worse??? Cuz' that's what we're paying them.

Until you guys are willing to trade Hyman and Ekholm and replace them with players making league minimum, you shouldn't be complaining about our inconsistent goaltending. We haven't invested in a premium model.

And while we are assigning blame... In a one-goal game, with less than three minutes left: Have you asked yourself what on earth Emberson was "thinking" when he held the zone after a turnover while being 30 feet from the puck? Do you think the juice was worth the squeeze on that risk-reward decision, or maybe we should be managing the game a little better at that point?

You’re right.

Never the goalies fault.

 

[aspin3]

The D has been fine. The numbers have been posted repeatedly for you, you just want to live in delusion where you don't like what the advanced stats say so you want to spin a narrative of "achsually I know better than the advanced stats". No you don't, you don't know shit.

The 5 on 5 D has been best part of the team's game this year. They have only allowed 4 more goals at 5 on 5 than Winnipeg has. 5 on 5 they have a lower GA than Florida and Vegas (the no.1 team in the division) and Vancouver (the other team ahead of them).

If the offense wasn't shit to start the year or the goalies trash, they should be no.1 or no.2 in the division now.

Even with the horrendous PK where the goalies are awful, the GA is significantly down overall this year versus the last two seasons. 53 GA versus 66GA last year and 61 GA two years ago through 17 games is a significant improvement. That's fact not an opinion.

Just because a 4th line scrub was cheating out of the zone and managed to get a partial breakaway doesn't invalidate all the work the D does. You're not going to stop teams from getting zero chances for entire periods at a time, that's not how hockey works.

Which stats have you shown? Please show those again? I never saw any.

I dont need any words for you on the lead up to this:

https://x.com/i/web/status/1857440623965745376

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

You weren't even watching, or you don't have goalie eyes. It hit his blocker first and bounced down... it was going 7-hole, not 5-hole.

Any breakaway is a very dynamic play, so anything can happen and you can actually get unlucky. The 'errors' you make on a breakaway that contribute to a goal are sometimes no more glaring than the errors a player might make that loses them a puck battle on the boards. Yeah, you are supposed to win more than you lose, but you aren't going to win them all and it isn't always because you misplayed it, or you suck.

The best goalies in the league only save about 7/10 breakaways. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/3644101/2022/09/30/igor-shesterkin-rangers-saves-analytics/

That's the type of 'perfection' and consistency that $11M will buy you. Are our goalies 5-times worse??? Cuz' that's what we're paying them.

Until you guys are willing to trade Hyman and Ekholm and replace them with players making league minimum, you shouldn't be complaining about our inconsistent goaltending. We haven't invested in a premium model.

And while we are assigning blame... In a one-goal game, with less than three minutes left: Have you asked yourself what on earth Emberson was "thinking" when he held the zone after a turnover while being 30 feet from the puck? Do you think the juice was worth the squeeze on that risk-reward decision, or maybe we should be managing the game a little better at that point?

Where's Pickard's stick, protecting the post?

He HAS to make that save, it was tough, but he played very poorly.

 

[Yuke]

Which stats have you shown? Please show those again? I never saw any.

I dont need any words for you on the lead up to this:

https://x.com/i/web/status/1857440623965745376

Defensive breakdown by Nuge and Kulak

 

[Tobias Kahun]

Wow.
Less means not as many. Never said two either. These guys give up 5 or more some nights.

You’re aware that every team gives up 8.5 high danger chances per 60 or more at 5on5 right?

The oilers are second best with 8.52

Are you sure you even know what you’re talking about?

I guess no NHL team is good enough to win the cup this year, and they all suck defensively

 

[aspin3]

The D has been fine. The numbers have been posted repeatedly for you, you just want to live in delusion where you don't like what the advanced stats say so you want to spin a narrative of "achsually I know better than the advanced stats". No you don't, you don't know shit.

The 5 on 5 D has been best part of the team's game this year. They have only allowed 4 more goals at 5 on 5 than Winnipeg has. 5 on 5 they have a lower GA than Florida and Vegas (the no.1 team in the division) and Vancouver (the other team ahead of them).

If the offense wasn't shit to start the year or the goalies trash, they should be no.1 or no.2 in the division now.

Even with the horrendous PK where the goalies are awful, the GA is significantly down overall this year versus the last two seasons. 53 GA versus 66GA last year and 61 GA two years ago through 17 games is a significant improvement. That's fact not an opinion.

Just because a 4th line scrub was cheating out of the zone and managed to get a partial breakaway doesn't invalidate all the work the D does. You're not going to stop teams from getting zero chances for entire periods at a time, that's not how hockey works.

Again really does not need any lead up comments to it:

VGK@EDM: Eichel scores goal against Stuart Skinner | Vegas Golden Knights

VGK@EDM: Eichel scores goal against Stuart Skinner

www.nhl.com

 

[Mr Positive]

Again really does not need any lead up comments to it:

VGK@EDM: Eichel scores goal against Stuart Skinner | Vegas Golden Knights

VGK@EDM: Eichel scores goal against Stuart Skinner

www.nhl.com

There have been breakdowns but other teams regularly have breakdowns too. Even the best teams allow chances as good as that or better even. That is the value of statistics that can measure the quality over time, and compare fairly to other teams

Maybe stats don't show the whole picture but they do a much better job than a gut judgement or highlight reel

 

[iCanada]

You’re aware that every team gives up 8.5 high danger chances per 60 or more at 5on5 right?

The oilers are second best with 8.52

Are you sure you even know what you’re talking about?

I guess no NHL team is good enough to win the cup this year, and they all suck defensively

To be clear - the best in the league is the trapping wild at 8.5. We're 8.52.

Teams like the Jets, Stars, Panthers, Hurricanes, Knights, Rangers, etc all average over 10.5 per game.

 

[Yuke]

You’re aware that every team gives up 8.5 high danger chances per 60 or more at 5on5 right?

The oilers are second best with 8.52

Are you sure you even know what you’re talking about?

I guess no NHL team is good enough to win the cup this year, and they all suck defensively

Every team eh? Or average. Please show me the stats

 

[iCanada]

Every team eh? Or average. Please show me the stats

Literally every team.

You'll also note that absurd HDSC% column that we're cooking the rest of the league in...