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

[Scrapin Ice]

Ceci was solid enough defensively and could skate decently (although it didn’t look pretty, he got to where he needed to).

I just don’t see Murphy moving the needle. I want an improvement over what we had last year going into the playoffs. Some of that can come from Nurse himself, who’s trending to a better season than last year. Murphy has been a huge minus player on a bad Hawks team admittedly, but there’s no guarantee he learns solid defensive hockey if he comes here. He’ll have to unlearn a lot of trash Hawks hockey.

Have you watched this player? I've seen him in many many games. Watch him next game.
Yes I would rather have a Brandon Carlo or a Provorov. What available to us and whats available to more eager of our competitors with better assets to offer. Maybe look at whats out there realistically -- a guy that can play top 4 now? Who do you have in mind?
We don't have the assets (short of doing something dramatically stupid) to entice them to part with Alex Vlasic.

 

[TheNumber4]

Have you watched this player? I've seen him in many many games. Watch him next game.
Yes I would rather have a Brandon Carlo or a Provorov. What available to us and whats available to more eager of our competitors with better assets to offer. Maybe look at whats out there realistically -- a guy that can play top 4 now? Who do you have in mind?

I’ll give him a watch. Just watched a Jiricek game, there could be something there with him actually.

That’s the problem. There’s not much out there on the right side. Provorov brings the most ability and even he’s not ideal being a left shot playing the right side. But he should be and will be available.

The best hope we got is Bobs off-the-radar hint. None of the guys on the radar are great. As the season moves along and teams fall out of the race, hopefully better D-men become available. We can’t see the full market at this point.

 

[Scrapin Ice]

I’ll give him a watch. Just watched a Jiricek game, there could be something there with him actually.

That’s the problem. There’s not much out there on the right side. Provorov brings the most ability and even he’s not ideal being a left shot playing the right side. But he should be and will be available.

The best hope we got is Bobs off-the-radar hint. None of the guys on the radar are great. As the season moves along and teams fall out of the race, hopefully better D-men become available. We can’t see the full market at this point.

Im suggesting a more defensive version, you want a more offensive guy. What I'm saying is if you want a complete RD two way guy veteran you dont have the assets and you will have more eager competitors with better assets. Columbus likes Provorov too. Jiricek is definitely the wrong guy for Nurse. Outstanding vision high event not ready.

 

[TheNumber4]

Im suggesting a more defensive version, you want a more offensive guy. What I'm saying is if you want a complete RD two way guy veteran you dont have the assets and you will have more eager competitors with better assets.

Our accrued cap space might be the asset we need come TDL time. Having the cap space to spend paid dividends last year for teams and hurt teams that didn’t have it. Like Toronto who couldn’t make any moves for the D they wanted from Calgary cause they needed retention.

It seems like Bowman is planning to weaponize that accrued cap space. Hopefully he executes.

I think our willingness to spend futures should be higher than other teams too. Considering cup or bust and the last year of cheap Drai. It’s go time for us, it’s not go time for all of our competitors.

 

[Scrapin Ice]

Our accrued cap space might be the asset we need come TDL time. Having the cap space to spend paid dividends last year for teams and hurt teams that didn’t have it. Like Toronto who couldn’t make any moves for the D they wanted from Calgary cause they needed retention.

It seems like Bowman is planning to weaponize that accrued cap space. Hopefully he executes.

I think our willingness to spend futures should be higher than other teams too. Considering cup or bust and the last year of cheap Drai. It’s go time for us, it’s not go time for all of our competitors.

Okay if you want the last 3 games for Chicago are out there. Vancouver is aching for a top 4 guy. You have faith in Bowman?
Have you played against a strong defensive guy that stands up that closes quickly that a battler on the boards that has patience and skating with the puck and great decision making with a first out of zone pass. They dont grow on trees. Murphy does not have much offensive vision but he brings those other assets.

 

[Scrapin Ice]

Talking about watching games....you guys really need to watch the Saskatoon blades for a game or two, (i do occasionally as i went to university there).
Watch a D Tanner. He has the wings of Hermes attached to his skates.

 

[TheNumber4]

Okay if you want the last 3 games for Chicago are out there. Vancouver is aching for a top 4 guy. You have faith in Bowman?
Have you played against a strong defensive guy that stands up that closes quickly that a battler on the boards that has patience and skating with the puck and great decision making with a first out of zone pass. They dont grow on trees. Murphy does not have much offensive vision but he brings those other assets.

Every year is the same. Teams will always be out there looking for upgrades, mostly Centers and RD. And there will always be competition. But that hasn’t stopped us from getting mostly what we need every TDL. Last year we needed a Center, got it in Henrique. Year before we needed a top 4 defenceman, got it in Ekholm.

I’ll give JJ/Bowman the benefit of the doubt that he can complete some deals at the trade deadline for us. No reason not to at this point. He’s shown to be active and has completed some negotiations already in his short tenure.

Good first pass and solid D is nice. But it’s honestly not that far off from what Ceci already brought and I was a huge Ceci detractor. If we want to move the needle though, it’ll have to be someone better, someone who can make plays in the o-zone to go along with the solid D and puck movement. Maybe Provorov could be that guy or maybe some off the radar pick as Bob alludes to.

 

[Scrapin Ice]

Every year is the same. Teams will always be out there looking for upgrades, mostly Centers and RD. And there will always be competition. But that hasn’t stopped us from getting mostly what we need every TDL. Last year we needed a Center, got it in Henrique. Year before we needed a top 4 defenceman, got it in Ekholm.

I’ll give JJ/Bowman the benefit of the doubt that he can complete some deals at the trade deadline for us. No reason not to at this point. He’s shown to be active and has completed some negotiations already in his short tenure.

Good first pass and solid D is nice. But it’s honestly not that far off from what Ceci already brought and I was a huge Ceci detractor. If we want to move the needle though, it’ll have to be someone better, someone who can make plays in the o-zone to go along with the solid D and puck movement. Maybe Provorov could be that guy or maybe some off the radar pick as Bob alludes to.

Provorov is quite average defensively. There is almost always a trade off. Prongers or even Jaybos' are unicorns. Fox Makar Hughes are not available lol.

 

[TheNumber4]

Provorov is quite average defensively. There is almost always a trade off. Prongers or even Jaybos' are unicorns. Fox Makar Hughes are not available lol.

We don’t need to go that high end. Ekholm was a unicorn until we found him. Completely underrated all that time on Nashville, just sitting behind a stacked D that featured a Norris level Josi. I know it won’t be easy, but that’s the type of D we need to find. And I’d be willing to sell the farm for it, McDrai deserves the best chance possible before their cheap contracts are up.

 

[Scrapin Ice]

We don’t need to go that high end. Ekholm was a unicorn until we found him. Completely underrated all that time on Nashville, just sitting behind a stacked D that featured a Norris level Josi. I know it won’t be easy, but that’s the type of D we need to find. And I’d be willing to sell the farm for it, McDrai deserves the best chance possible before their cheap contracts are up.

Search and ye shall find lol. A diamond in the rough. Okay hope your right. Maybe im biased against Bowman cause he never played. Murphy is not ideal for our situation but would work at a price we can afford. If we can do better reasonably great.

 

[TheNumber4]

Search and ye shall find lol. A diamond in the rough. Okay hope your right. Maybe im biased against Bowman cause he never played. Murphy is not ideal for our situation but would work at a price we can afford. If we can do better reasonably great.

Hopefully yes lol. We’ll see what Bowman and JJ can find. It feels like this set up this whole year and our right side to have a hole that they will spend the entire season trying to fill. With Holland it was never sure how they felt about upgrading Ceci despite trying at times in the offseason. With bowman I think it’s clear what their plan is. Maybe they’ll strike out though and we’ll need to fall back on some of the names that are out there. I’m not saying Murphy couldn’t work, like I said I’ll give him a watch, i always do for players that could potentially be Oilers. Maybe there’s untapped potential there.

 

[Burnt Biscuits]

Yes your 3rd pair RD. You want two years of prime Murphy retained you will have to pay and they will need a RD back.
Murphy can skate and more than hold his own defensively.

To the bolded depends on the day, I really like his game when he is on and I've had my share of saw him good moments with Murphy, but also a lot of times where he looked bad or disinterested.

In this particular season he is legitimately playing well and retention on him does make him more appealing, but I will say if you compared his average level of play to Ceci for the past 3 seasons, I think Ceci was the better d-man on average, but Murphy's peak is well above what Ceci is capable of.

I could see Murphy being a better stylistic fit for Nurse, but Pettersson is far more consistent and the superior defender.

 

[nexttothemoon]

Man wouldn't it have been nice to give Kesselring a look on RD before trading him away.

 

[Scrapin Ice]

To the bolded depends on the day, I really like his game when he is on and I've had my share of saw him good moments with Murphy, but also a lot of times where he looked bad or disinterested.

In this particular season he is legitimately playing well and retention on him does make him more appealing, but I will say if you compared his average level of play to Ceci for the past 3 seasons, I think Ceci was the better d-man on average, but Murphy's peak is well above what Ceci is capable of.

I could see Murphy being a better stylistic fit for Nurse, but Pettersson is far more consistent and the superior defender.

I am sorry would love to comment but really have little experience watching Petterson. Do you think i should watch Petterson now or do you think the inevitable failures of the team is making it hard to guage his play?
edit: just a cursory look shows him at a LD 6'4" and only 174 lbs. Scrawny? How strong can he be?

 

[OilerTitanFan]

This is what a goalie can do.

Canucks have 8 shots in almost 2 periods and like 5 of them are on a PP. Maybe 1 high danger chance call game.

Bruins have had a bunch and Lankenen just saving everything

Canucks can probably get a first for Lankanen. Then another first for Silovs. That's when Demko comes back. How come we can't just randomly call up some 3rd string backup from the AHL and he plays like Dustin Wolf?

 

[nexttothemoon]

Have people mentioned Nick Jensen from Ottawa?

He's making ~$4 million which isn't that bad... and 50% retained that's a manageable cap hit. Has this year and next remaining on his contract so he's not a pure rental.

He seems like a decent defense first RD to help out the roster.

 

[Scrapin Ice]

Canucks can probably get a first for Lankanen. Then another first for Silovs. That's when Demko comes back. How come we can't just randomly call up some 3rd string backup from the AHL and he plays like Dustin Wolf

Very little attention has been paid to the position in the last few years. We should and we should do it now. Options and future pieces are out there now.

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

Canucks can probably get a first for Lankanen. Then another first for Silovs. That's when Demko comes back. How come we can't just randomly call up some 3rd string backup from the AHL and he plays like Dustin Wolf?

Lol who’s giving a first for Silov.

That would be nice though

 

[Whoshattenkirkshoes]

Those wanting to trade for Jiricek have stars in their eyes and for obvious reasons.
However unless your a high end skating coach that has been observing Jiricek for some time its probably better to step back and analyze our situation.
Limited quality assets. We need to use some of those as we are in a win now and i mean now not the year end situation. And we need some for the TD.
Optimally we need a fast skating somewhat two way but more defensive type D with at least somewhat of a quality record. We need at least one goalie capable of playing 40 ish games +.900 and hopefully capable of .910 and steady (occasionally to steal one would be a plus). Further it would be nice to have a 4th line cycle guy with grit and skating and puck battle.

Don't get me wrong would love to have Jiricek's passing. But there are at least a handful of teams in better situations than ourselves to chase him.
If Bowman actually spends the assets it would take its probably a mistake that could/should cost him his job.

I agree 100 percent. While Jiricek would be nice to have for the future, I'd rather trade our assets (Savoie) to improve the team this season.

After this season our cup window takes a serious hit.

 

[Whoshattenkirkshoes]

He's on pace for ~60 points and is top ten league wide analytically by virtually every category. He's not playing like shit. He's not playing at the level he was last year yet, but ECHL goaltending behind him certainly isn't helping anything.

Dude points aren't everything and something is seriously wrong with Bouchard's analytic stats.

He's not an 11 million dollar player that you win with.

 

[Whoshattenkirkshoes]

"I watched one game where Bouchard was bad for five minutes, that means he sucks always and is terrible"

Is this Evan Bouchard behind the keyboard?

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Man wouldn't it have been nice to give Kesselring a look on RD before trading him away.

Oilers asset management, a comedy of errors.

 

[Whoshattenkirkshoes]

Not saying you specifically, but I do think it's funny that people are anointing Nurse as "fixed" based on a 10 game sample with Kulak but Bouchard has 120 regular season and 50 playoff games of excellence but they see one highlight on SportsCentre and he's ass.

Some of us seen the signs last year that this was coming for Bouchard.

His brain farts, defensive struggles and lack of intensity go beyond this 1/4 season. It's been a pretty big sample size.

When his offensive is elite (like last year) his poor defensive play seems to get looked over.

The analytics definitely have this player wrong.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

Some of us seen the signs last year that this was coming for Bouchard.

His brain farts, defensive struggles and lack of intensity go beyond this 1/4 season. It's been a pretty big sample size.

When his offensive is elite (like last year) his poor defensive play seems to get looked over.

The analytics definitely have this player wrong.

Yeah, I’ll take the analytics over your biased opinion.

Players who play 26 minutes will make mistakes, and sometimes glaring ones.

 

[Whoshattenkirkshoes]

Yeah, I’ll take the analytics over your biased opinion.

Players who play 26 minutes will make mistakes, and sometimes glaring ones.

I'm glad you aren't in charge