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

[McJadeddog]

I've personally never been a big fan of Savoie. In junior he was on strong teams and seemed to really lack IQ. He's a small, speedy north south player

There is a reason Buffalo moved on from him....

I think it's another JJ strike out, unless we can move him for an asset.

The early results aren't very good, that is for certain.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

you new to hockey? having 2 of the best players in hockey doesn't guarantee anything...this isn't basketball where the stars play most of the games
nothing is guaranteed or "easy"

You're right, it doesn't. But it's not hard to look around the league and see basically every megastar (save those in other Canadian cities) with at least one ring. Crosby has 3, Ovi has 1, MacKinnon has 1, Kucherov has 2, Eichel has 1, Barkov has 1.

Finding a player of McDavid's caliber is a once in a generation thing. It's basically the hardest thing to acquire in any sport and we lucked out. Finding a player of Draisatl's caliber (also without sucking really badly) is also really hard. And yet we still struggle to fill out the rest of the lineup with NHL caliber players because the organization sucks at drafting (especially outside the first round), development, trades, and overall scouting. Not to mention just general incompetence (see the Holloway/Broberg offer sheets).

Let me ask you this, why shouldn't Bowman or whoever is the GM be scrutinized?

 

[oXo Cube]

Savoie aside the decision to go with Adam Henrique over Ryan McLeod is IMO the clear biggest miss by management this summer.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

You're right, it doesn't. But it's not hard to look around the league and see basically every megastar (save those in other Canadian cities) with at least one ring. Crosby has 3, Ovi has 1, MacKinnon has 1, Kucherov has 2, Eichel has 1, Barkov has 1.

it took Ovi 13 years before he got his Cup
Mackinnon won his ring when he was a 6.5 million dollar player...they had cap space for depth
Eichel had to jump ship to a winning franchise to get his
Barkov either missed the playoffs or never won a series in his first 8 seasons
Crosby is the exception, not the rule

it takes years for some teams...look at the Leafs, superstars galore and ONE playoff series win

Finding a player of McDavid's caliber is a once in a generation thing. It's basically the hardest thing to acquire in any sport and we lucked out. Finding a player of Draisatl's caliber (also without sucking really badly) is also really hard. And yet we still struggle to fill out the rest of the lineup with NHL caliber players because the organization sucks at drafting (especially outside the first round), development, trades, and overall scouting. Not to mention just general incompetence (see the Holloway/Broberg offer sheets).

Let me ask you this, why shouldn't Bowman or whoever is the GM be scrutinized?

Bowman's been here 4 months FFS and did some good things like getting Emberson and Podz...also, re-signed Drai to a max deal
Holland, the guy you ragged on for 5 years...took a team that was 25th in the league to within a period of the Stanley Cup

 

[CanadasTeam99]

He's not wrong. We're 6th in expected goals against and 10th in high danger shots against.

Our record is a reflection of bad goaltending, a bottom-5 PP, and a forward group of exactly 2.

In all situations, we are the #1 team at allowing the least high danger chances in the NHL. Top Ten 5 on 5

 

[Canovin]

Of course I would. No other team in the league has Connor McDavid. Delivering a team with him and Draisatl a championship should be child's play and yet here we are in year 10 and still no championship and the same issues plaguing the team that have been there since basically the day McDavid was drafted. I'm not convinced that Bowman is any better than his predecessors so far and him being "not pleased" is laughable. It's your team, dude.


Also we should still stay away from Gibson. A few good games doesn't magically erase a half decade of subpar play.

When you were arguably the best goalie in the league at one point and is still in the prime age for a goalie, it's easier to regain form

 

[GhostfaceWu]

Savoie aside the decision to go with Adam Henrique over Ryan McLeod is IMO the clear biggest miss by management this summer.

Lol how you really think if McLeod was retained played nothing but third line minutes with third liners like janmark and brown he'd be putting up the production he is currently putting up in buffalo? His stat line would look exactly like henriques.

 

[McDNicks17]

Savoie aside the decision to go with Adam Henrique over Ryan McLeod is IMO the clear biggest miss by management this summer.

Henrique has been good lately. 4 points in his last 8 games. Outscoring opposition 5-1. #2 guy on the PK.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

it took Ovi 13 years before he got his Cup
Mackinnon won his ring when he was a 6.5 million dollar player...they had cap space for depth
Eichel had to jump ship to a winning franchise to get his
Crosby won his first in a rookie contract...again, cap space for depth
Barkov either missed the playoffs or never won a series in his first 8 seasons

it takes years for some teams...look at the Leafs, superstars galore and ONE playoff series win



Bowman's been here 4 months FFS and did some good things like getting Emberson and Podz...also, re-signed Drai to a max deal
Holland, the guy you ragged on for 5 years...took a team that was 25th in the league to within a period of the Stanley Cup

Well we're at year 10 now and I don't think this team is good enough to win the Cup... again. Emberson and Podz are okay, but they're not as good as the guys they replaced who the Oilers basically lost for nothing. In fact most of the Jackson/Bowman acquisitions in the offseason have been middling at best. Even the much vaunted Savoie as pointed out earlier has not had the greatest returns so far.

As for Ken Holland, I rag on him for inept drafting (zero draft picks currently playing for the Oilers) and several bloated contracts/bad acquisitions (Campbell, Nurse, AA, James Neal, Zack Kassian), which outweighs the good he did (Ekholm, Hyman, Knoblauch). The team did almost win the Cup, you're right. But in the game of life, almost doesn't count for anything.

One of my biggest gripes with the Oilers over the past decade plus is that they've always had reactive management, never proactive. Waiting until the problem becomes so big it cannot be ignored is not a viable solution in sports. I could care less if Bowman's only been on the job for 4 months. Your job starts when you're hired. And through a quarter of the season the Oilers aren't even in a playoff spot staring up at the team they're likely going to have go through if they want to have any chance of winning the Cup in Vegas. If he's "not pleased" with the team so far then do something about it.

When you were arguably the best goalie in the league at one point and is still in the prime age for a goalie, it's easier to regain form

"At one point" was like 6 years ago. His stats since the Ducks took a tumble are atrociously bad.

 

[Canovin]

Well we're at year 10 now and I don't think this team is good enough to win the Cup... again. Emberson and Podz are okay, but they're not as good as the guys they replaced who the Oilers basically lost for nothing. In fact most of the Jackson/Bowman acquisitions in the offseason have been middling at best. Even the much vaunted Savoie as pointed out earlier has not had the greatest returns so far.

As for Ken Holland, I rag on him for inept drafting (zero draft picks currently playing for the Oilers) and several bloated contracts/bad acquisitions (Campbell, Nurse, AA, James Neal, Zack Kassian), which outweighs the good he did (Ekholm, Hyman, Knoblauch). The team did almost win the Cup, you're right. But in the game of life, almost doesn't count for anything.

One of my biggest gripes with the Oilers over the past decade plus is that they've always had reactive management, never proactive. Waiting until the problem becomes so big it cannot be ignored is not a viable solution in sports. I could care less if Bowman's only been on the job for 4 months. Your job starts when you're hired. And through a quarter of the season the Oilers aren't even in a playoff spot staring up at the team they're likely going to have go through if they want to have any chance of winning the Cup in Vegas. If he's "not pleased" with the team so far then do something about it.


"At one point" was like 6 years ago. His stats since the Ducks took a tumble are atrociously bad.

Looks similar to Skinner but he's playing on a terrible team in Anaheim

 

[Tobias Kahun]

I mean no right, again, your shit posting is not clever or funny.

Bouchard has had struggles this year, but he's still a net positive player and an elite defenseman. No amount of dumb "but like they're just like calling out that's he's played SO bad this year you guys" nonsense make him not elite.


Get f***ed, and no I'm still upset he was hired and has the nerve to say something like that after his dithering.

You guys don't have to lick Stan's boots, there's no prizes for it.

For his one horrendous giveaway or backcheck.
Didn’t he also walk an entire team for a goal of the year candidate?

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Looks similar to Skinner but he's playing on a terrible team in Anaheim

Right, but that team is still terrible. So that excuse immediately flies out the window for the last 5 years. And part of the reason the Ducks were terrible was because he sucked.

 

[Canovin]

Right, but that team is still terrible. So that excuse immediately flies out the window for the last 5 years. And part of the reason the Ducks were terrible was because he sucked.

Goalie are supposed to look good on a terrible team?

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Goalie are supposed to look good on a terrible team?

I mean... are the Ducks good right now?

 

[ChaoticOrange]

Still waiting on a reply to this bud?

You credit Eichel with a McDavidesque play here?

Watch the play dude. Bouchard is still focused on the boards. Now watch the winger(or center). They want to dart for the trailing winger but abandon that plan once they realize Bouchard FAILED to get into his own assignment. Unlike your version of events that Eichel "blew past him like McDavid", NO. Eichel had a free lane cuz Bouchard didn't react till AFTER Eichel was past him.

I have praised Bouchard over and over with his timely pinches. Bouchard also gets bailed out alot with these pinches mostly by Ekholm who understands when he's doing them, or a forward who darts back while Bouch makes sure he rubs out the guy on the boards to not ensure a breakaway or a slip past him, which are good plays

But this play was BETWEEN all that, where he wasn't close enough to pinch and was indeed back enough to cover his assignment. He literally got confused here and you can rightfully see that by his teammate who wanted to cut to the guy on the boards but then realized Bouch was in no man's land......again!!

Yet somehow your quest for "analytics" wants to praise him and credit Eichel with this play??

FYI, the play against TO that he got called LAZY.....i defended him. It was nowhere near a lazy play . It was a good IQ in that particular moment...to recognize Ekholm had the better step and he dropped to cover the front of the net

However, just like this Vegas play......Bouchard assumed SOMEBODY else should cover him. He made a poor pinch and in the EXACT same spot, was SUPER SLOW to RECOGNIZE his role in the play. He didn't even start hustling till the play was past him.

You don't need analytics to breakdown plays bud, and you surely don't need to tell ppl they pick favorites or understand hockey cuz they don't interpret "analytics" and understand hockey like you do b/c you have Natrural Stat Trick saved as a bookmark LMAO

the whole play happens in approximately one second from where Bouchard is in good position to where he isn't. Could he have played that one play better - sure - but fixating on it is f***ing weird.

Still waiting for the other games you claim he singlehandedly lost us.

Keyboard warriors like you have no idea how fast NHL hockey really is. I'm guessing that the modern game passed you by long ago given that your namesake is a wrestling manager last relevant in the 80's.

 

[oXo Cube]

Lol how you really think if McLeod was retained played nothing but third line minutes with third liners like janmark and brown he'd be putting up the production he is currently putting up in buffalo? His stat line would look exactly like henriques.

McLeod's most common linemates in Buffalo are Jordan Greenway and Jason Zucker. He has also played a grand total of 9 minutes more 5v5 than Henrique has this year.

He would also be cheaper, way better defensively(though Adam isn't that bad), and probably the teams top Penalty Killing option.

Henrique has been good lately. 4 points in his last 8 games. Outscoring opposition 5-1. #2 guy on the PK.

This is absolutely true FWIW and it's also not like you can just ignore the trade return in practice the way I did in my post.

 

[Canovin]

I mean... are the Ducks good right now?

Goaltending is not the issue. All you had to do was take at look at Dostal and Gibson

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Goaltending is not the issue. All you had to do was take at look at Dostal and Gibson

But you just said that goalies can't look good on a bad team. ...But they are.

So my question is, why didn't Gibson look good the past 5 years on a bad Ducks team? Which do you think is more likely? That the 5 good games he's played this year is truly indicative of his play, or the last 5 years where he was one of the worst goalies in the league is what he really is?

 

[Soundwave]

You're right, it doesn't. But it's not hard to look around the league and see basically every megastar (save those in other Canadian cities) with at least one ring. Crosby has 3, Ovi has 1, MacKinnon has 1, Kucherov has 2, Eichel has 1, Barkov has 1.

Finding a player of McDavid's caliber is a once in a generation thing. It's basically the hardest thing to acquire in any sport and we lucked out. Finding a player of Draisatl's caliber (also without sucking really badly) is also really hard. And yet we still struggle to fill out the rest of the lineup with NHL caliber players because the organization sucks at drafting (especially outside the first round), development, trades, and overall scouting. Not to mention just general incompetence (see the Holloway/Broberg offer sheets).

Let me ask you this, why shouldn't Bowman or whoever is the GM be scrutinized?

You can add on mediocre goaltending. Go look at the goalies most of those guys had in their Cup runs, they were all massive contributors for all of them except maybe Colorado's win and Colorado had the most loaded team of the last several years because of MacKinnon's sweetheart contract (6 mill) allowed them to load up (they've lost a lot of that depth which is why they've won 1 total playoff round since winning the Cup two years ago).

Ovechkin some how got himself eliminated in round 2 with like .930+ goaltending, lol. We'd cruise to a Cup with that.

You give McDavid/Drai even .915 in a playoff run and they probably would have a Cup already.

 

[Canovin]

But you just said that goalies can't look good on a bad team. ...But they are.

So my question is, why didn't Gibson look good the past 5 years on a bad Ducks team? Which do you think is more likely? That the 5 good games he's played this year is truly indicate of his play, or the last 5 years where he was one of the worst goalies in the league is what he really is?

The reason to go after Gibson is he probably can be had for cheap and at 50% cost. If you were expecting him to be good the past 5 years, the Oilers would be paying 1st+prospect at least for him. The 5 good games is a gamble. It's a risk but considering how elite he was and he's only 31, it's well worth it. The Oilers can't do much worse than Stuart Skinner

 

[Slats432]

I remember in the past, wondering if the team did nothing different would it be better than all the changes.

I just whipped this up. So, we couldn't have fit the cap and stand pat, but if the only deals we did were Podkolzin, Ceci/Emberson, and added a guy like Kapanen, this is what we could have had within cap. You don't sign Arvidsson, Skinner or Henrique. Is it better than what we have? It also gives us $1.2M in space to add at the deadline. I don't know the accrue calculation, but under the cap helps.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

The reason to go after Gibson is he probably can be had for cheap and at 50% cost. If you were expecting him to be good the past 5 years, the Oilers would be paying 1st+prospect at least for him. The 5 good games is a gamble. It's a risk but considering how elite he was and he's only 31, it's well worth it. The Oilers can't do much worse than Stuart Skinner

It's not really a gamble though because his body of work the last few years seems to indicate that the five good games is a mere blip on the radar.

People shit on Skinner for his GSAA and sure, it's understandable... Do you want to know what Gibson's was last year? -21.2.

 

[FlameChampion]

Savoie aside the decision to go with Adam Henrique over Ryan McLeod is IMO the clear biggest miss by management this summer.

I think trying to analyze this team just ends up in a headache that’s hard to solve.

Foegele and McLeod weren’t productive players on the third line here. The only time either guy really performed was when they played with Draisaitl.

I feel like had we kept McLeod and not signed Henrique and played McLeod in the same role as Henrique this year (3rd line minutes and second PP) that he would probably have similar production to Henrique.

There’s something about the Oilers system and organization that I think prevents players from producing. Whether its ice time, lack of PP time, too much sitting back and waiting for MCDrai to do everything, etc. I don’t know what exactly what it is.

Just my opinion. I think if we had Holloway, McLeod, Foegele etc instead of Henrique, Arviddson, Skinner etc I think we are pretty much in the same place in the standings. I don’t think those players are producing the same here.

Of course we will never know.

Probably would of been better doing nothing. Team would been more exciting if they didn’t.

 

[Canovin]

It's not really a gamble though because his body of work the last few years seems to indicate that the five good games is a mere blip on the radar.

People shit on Skinner for his GSAA and sure, it's understandable... Do you want to know what Gibson's was last year? -21.2.

Gibson has faced more shots than any goalies. Skinner has been sheltered on the Oilers and it shows.

It is a gamble. High risk high reward. Stuart Skinner on the other hand is high risk low reward

 

[CanadasTeam99]

The reason to go after Gibson is he probably can be had for cheap and at 50% cost. If you were expecting him to be good the past 5 years, the Oilers would be paying 1st+prospect at least for him. The 5 good games is a gamble. It's a risk but considering how elite he was and he's only 31, it's well worth it. The Oilers can't do much worse than Stuart Skinner

I always laugh when people pretty much say "Do you REALLY think Edmonton can find a goalie that is better than pretty much a last place goalie!!??"