Rumor: Rumors & Proposals Thread | The Road to the Draft June 28th and 29th

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Ya they have one goal as a line in almost 5 games. Dach has been bad too.

Stunned by how bad their top line has been. Still able to run the tournament with largely B games by their collective team I thought the T-Birds would breakout in the Final. Quebec's choked them out all game and Seattle's obliged with a flaccid, perimeter game and overpassing. Missed opportunity for the WHL ... again.

 

[foshizzle]

Holland got us Ekholm. Ruthless like Vegas front office? Sorry man but all I’ve seen is the NHL officials, Gary Farttman etc kissing the Golden Knights ass and showing favouritism. This is happening in the Florida series as well.

Lol- sure. Vegas has a better front office and fully taken every edge given to them. Oilers still don’t have an analytics team which puts them behind the 8 ball right off the bat. Lucky for them- they have 2 generational players right now

 

[foshizzle]

Trading McLeod would not be smart. He’s ready to breakout


Sorry but what has Holland done that is so awful? Honestly it’s like every GM our team gets the fans just jump on as being terrible. Are people really this ignorant?

Dude, you are in no position to be calling anyone ignorant.

 

[Paralyzer008]

Schaefer has been a disaster at the mem cup. I feel like we sold high on him.

Schaefer's upside is a 4th liner - when we dealt him, I had zero problem.

Was more mad at the draft when we passed on Lane Hutson but, less of an issue now.

 

[Took a pill in Sbisa]

Lol- sure. Vegas has a better front office and fully taken every edge given to them. Oilers still don’t have an analytics team which puts them behind the 8 ball right off the bat. Lucky for them- they have 2 generational players right now

The Oilers manager of analytics is Justin Mahe. Every team in the NHL uses analytics.

 

[Paralyzer008]

The Oilers manager of analytics is Justin Mahe. Every team in the NHL uses analytics.

Our team doesn't really have a department per say - it's clear to me that we are behind most other teams - however, Brad Holland definitely uses them and wants to invoke them more, if you hear his interviews.

Would especially make sense in the Kulak, Ekholm additions for playing a role.

It also makes sense that they likely paid attention to analytics when trying to still re-sign Puljujarvi before the deadline - it's likely he didn't accept more because Jay Woodcroft had decided not to play him and he didn't want the 13th forward role on the team.

 

[Soundwave]

That's the exception and not the norm. I posted a week or two ago the save percentages of cup winning goalies and goalie cup finalists over the last several seasons. Most of them were around .920 and up. It was more more common to see a goalie put a save percentage up around .930 than it was to see below .920.

Going into the playoffs last year Colorado was one of the rare triple crown teams, as in a team that going into the playoffs was fairly strong in all major areas

Forward/Offence - A
Defence - A
Goaltending B+ or A

Kuemper did have a .921 save percentage in the season.

Kuemper was .962 and .920 the first two games of the playoffs, then he got a horrible eye injury and was not great after that, but that's understandable at least. Vision is kind of important for a goalie unless someone wants to argue it isn't.

But that goes to show, things are not going to go your way 100% in the playoffs. People are going to get hurt. Refs are going to blow calls or not give you calls because you've scored on a PP. Bad bounces will happen.

1 dimensional teams crater under that in the playoffs, multi-dimensional teams can withstand that because they're not just reliant on forward scoring or great defence or great goaltending singularly, they have multiple team elements that step and they can win a game when the goalie is bad or MacKinnon doesn't score or Makar has a bad outing.

Our D (unlikely because we don't have a stud no.1 D) or (more likely) our goaltending has to win us some playoff games, yes especially in games where Leon or especially Connor don't have it or only score like 1 point. You can't expect those guys to score a 2 PPG for an entire 4 rounds, it's not 1985 where the goalies are 5'9 and no one knows what defensive structure is. That's too ridiculous of an ask of any two players.

 

[foshizzle]

The Oilers manager of analytics is Justin Mahe. Every team in the NHL uses analytics.

Justin Mahe is also responsible for securing visas for players , and takes care of the families. Very little of what he does is analytics. He doesn’t even have a background in it. Hell, even Bob Stauffer has said Oilers don’t have a department (which they don’t). Oilers are the only team in the league without one.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Our team doesn't really have a department per say - it's clear to me that we are behind most other teams - however, Brad Holland definitely uses them and wants to invoke them more, if you hear his interviews.

Would especially make sense in the Kulak, Ekholm additions for playing a role.

It also makes sense that they likely paid attention to analytics when trying to still re-sign Puljujarvi before the deadline - it's likely he didn't accept more because Jay Woodcroft had decided not to play him and he didn't want the 13th forward role on the team.

I'm not sure why you are so sure about the state of the Oilers analytics work or that within teams across the league. Or how to gage the role and actual impact being made within any organizations. Cherry picking Kulak and Ekholm as advance stat based trade decisions is a stretch with no basis. Pretty obvious deals.

A list of analytics/data-driven roles across NHL teams: NHL Analytics | Behind the Benches

Look at bit closer at one by way of example Dallas Stars. Their assistant GM is a communications guy by training and worked as a media relations staffer. His bio and scope of work is contracts, scheduling, CBA and cap, mental health, oh ... and analytics

Dallas Stars Hockey Operations | Dallas Stars

The official National Hockey League website including news, rosters, stats, schedules, teams, and video.

www.nhl.com

"In his current role, Janko is primarily responsible for player and staff contract negotiations, and has played an integral role in the construction and framing of the contracts for several of the team's core players including Jamie Benn, Miro Heiskanen, Roope Hintz, Esa Lindell, Jake Oettinger and Tyler Seguin. Additionally, Janko oversees all preseason and regular-season scheduling, Collective Bargaining Agreement compliance, cap and budget management, salary arbitration, strategic planning and works closely with Dallas' scouting staff, with an emphasis on the professional level. Along with Jim Nill, he created and now oversees both an analytics department and mental health division and also serves as the team's liaison for all player transactions with NHL's Central Registry.

Janko, 46, joined the Stars in 1999 after serving in the media relations department for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim during the 1998-99 season. A 1998 graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara with a degree in communications, Janko is a native of Mission Viejo, Calif. He and his wife, Jessica, their daughters, Reese and Hayden, and son, Carson, reside in Highland Village, Texas."

Well down the org. chart are two scouts/analytic coordinators, one the son, of the team's CEO: Scouting Staff | Dallas Stars Hockey Operations

NHL organizations work with external data companies which probably is the most efficient way to breakdown walls of information from a high speed, chaos based sport. I speculate the internal quality of brain power doing analytics based support work likely varies dramatically as does the actual impact delivered.

 

[Ritchie Valens]

Going into the playoffs last year Colorado was one of the rare triple crown teams, as in a team that going into the playoffs was fairly strong in all major areas

Forward/Offence - A
Defence - A
Goaltending B+ or A

Kuemper did have a .921 save percentage in the season.

Kuemper was .962 and .920 the first two games of the playoffs, then he got a horrible eye injury and was not great after that, but that's understandable at least. Vision is kind of important for a goalie unless someone wants to argue it isn't.

But that goes to show, things are not going to go your way 100% in the playoffs. People are going to get hurt. Refs are going to blow calls or not give you calls because you've scored on a PP. Bad bounces will happen.

1 dimensional teams crater under that in the playoffs, multi-dimensional teams can withstand that because they're not just reliant on forward scoring or great defence or great goaltending singularly, they have multiple team elements that step and they can win a game when the goalie is bad or MacKinnon doesn't score or Makar has a bad outing.

Our D (unlikely because we don't have a stud no.1 D) or (more likely) our goaltending has to win us some playoff games, yes especially in games where Leon or especially Connor don't have it or only score like 1 point. You can't expect those guys to score a 2 PPG for an entire 4 rounds, it's not 1985 where the goalies are 5'9 and no one knows what defensive structure is. That's too ridiculous of an ask of any two players.

Just goes to show Bednar had more faith in a one-eyed Kuemper than Francouz.

No question one dimensional teams don't make it all the way. Take that dimension away, and they're done for. I agree that's why you need a goalie who can steal games and you see guys like Bobrovsky and Hill in the final. Their save percentages so far are right around where cup finalist goalies should be...0.931 for Bobrovsky and 0.938 for Hill.

 

[Soundwave]

Just goes to show Bednar had more faith in a one-eyed Kuemper than Francouz.

No question one dimensional teams don't make it all the way. Take that dimension away, and they're done for. I agree that's why you need a goalie who can steal games and you see guys like Bobrovsky and Hill in the final. Their save percentages so far are right around where cup finalist goalies should be...0.931 for Bobrovsky and 0.938 for Hill.

You need to have a no.1 D who can control a game, or a goalie who can win you games even when the team doesn't have a good game in the playoffs (on top of good forwards).

We need a goalie here where you can say "boy Connor and Leon and even Hyman and Kane just didn't have it tonight ... boy oh boy did (INSERT GOALIE NAME HERE) bailed our ass out". And not like just once, like probably several times in a playoff run.

Crosby, Malkin, Ovechkin too, you can't ask McDavid to perform miracles head and shoulders above those guys, those guys don't win any Cups without top end goaltending so why is the expectation that Connor can do it.

 

[BoldNewLettuce]

Well this sucks, nearly the entire bump will be eaten up by Bouchards bonus carryover.

Hence the flat cap.

 

[Burnt Biscuits]

Show me a team that had average-ish goaltending AND a weaker blueline akin to the Oilers (as in no no.1 D) that's won a Cup in the last 20+ years. Forwards, d-corps, goaltending ... you can be weaker-ish in one area, but not 2/3 if you want to win a Cup.

Carolina had an OK blue line (not that great), but Cam Ward was great in the playoffs for them in 2006 and their forwards were good/deep.

It's very hard, bordering on impossible to win when you have no dimension to your team other than "have 4 forwards beat you by outscoring you, preferably with a boat load of PP chances".

You need to either have a no.1 D who can control a game and win some games that way (which we don't have) OR a goalie who can win you games here and there during a playoff run even when Connor and Leon don't have a great night. A guy in net who can elevate their play to that level.

We don't have either right now. McDavid/Drai are great, but they are not *that* much better than Crosby/Malkin, MacKinnon/Rantanen, Ovechkin/Backstrom/Kuzentsov that you can sit there and say "well, you don't really need either the goaltending and we'll just give you an OK d-corps and we expect you to win".

Like it's an unreasonable ask. Those other duos/trios have way better run support, we are asking these two guys to do way too much. You can't win 16 games in the playoffs with 2 players basically be asked to win every f***ing game and the back end and goaltending situation being just "alright". Your goaltending or your D needs to win several of those games in the playoffs even on nights when no.1/no.2 offensive guys simply don't have it that night or aren't getting the bounces.

The most wins the Oilers have got in a playoffs in McDrai era is 8 wins ... that's still a Red Deer to Edmonton walk away from the 16 you need. To get to 16, there needs to be other players specifically in the defensive and goaltending position that chip in with a win here or there.

Crosby/Malkin/Kessel won with not such great blue lines at times (good low event guys though) but with good goaltending. Colorado won with poor goaltending last year due to Kuemper's injury, but it didn't matter because their blue line was elite to go help their forward group. We didn't get lucky with a bonafied no.1 D, we need a goalie to win and even steal us some games in the playoffs, not just be along for the ride.

You keep acting like winning in the SC playoffs is like checking off items on your grocery list, does an elite #1 D help? Yes. Does an elite goalie help? Yes; but the bottom line is you need to outscore the opposition team 4 times, nothing more nothing less. It doesn't really matter how you outscore simply that you do.

I would personally choose our current forwards and our current D over the Canes SC winning team and Cam Ward's great playoff performance he had a 0.920 sv% is the same as Campbell's career playoff sv%, this is not some unattainable goal.

I do think there are many lessons to be taken from this years playoffs and multiple avenues to improve the team, but this mindset of the team is crap and we need this and that and this to win, is BS. We are good enough to win right now, we were good enough to win with merely average starting goaltending (and I believe the guys we have can give that), but we got terrible goaltending, the Avs last year got by with poor goaltending cause the strength of their team could overcome that.

This idea that any defect demonstrated must be corrected through acquisition when sometimes its just as simple as a player got cold at the wrong time or multiple players were playing injured, a ton of the playoffs is just your group getting hot at the right time and being less banged up than the other team.



P.S. Did anyone notice that it looks like Bouchard has a solid chance to end the playoffs with the most points among d-men? Despite only playing in 2 series. Kinda impressive.

 

[McTonyBrar]

1) Did you just call me ignorant? If you have done this I would appreciate it if you would retract that. If you don't well you are in for some stormy water.
2) McLeod continues to improve on the PK.
3) Holland has made numerous mistakes. Presently we are discussing our team make up/personnel situation after a 2nd round exit. The mistakes are obvious ...Holland's defiences obvious. When you have our Dynamic Duo relying on tic tac toe PPs to score so much and cheating for offense they inevitably bleed chances against. It can work during the season. But in the playoffs you need strong D and at least average goaltending and a strong defensive 3rd line. PP oppurtunites are less in the playoffs and a team that loses 5 on 5 ...even though they score a power play goal or two ....well they are easy to isolate. Vegas is a much better team than us. We need 4 to 6 changes in personnel .....Relying on rookies for your 6 n7 D wont cut it, obviously the desperation move and 5 year contract to Campbell was a huge mistake for a guy without a long proven history of winning. Not selling JP two and a half years ago....etc etc etc.

Yikes calm down. So what’s your solution then? Pass it off to yet another GM? Also our series against Vegas was not as uneven as some think

Lol- sure. Vegas has a better front office and fully taken every edge given to them. Oilers still don’t have an analytics team which puts them behind the 8 ball right off the bat. Lucky for them- they have 2 generational players right now

Then should we just hire another GM again?

Dude, you are in no position to be calling anyone ignorant.

Lol and why’s that?


And Anarchism, I apologize for calling you ignorant but I did not mean it in such a harsh way so calm down man

 

[Broberg Speed]

You keep acting like winning in the SC playoffs is like checking off items on your grocery list, does an elite #1 D help? Yes. Does an elite goalie help? Yes; but the bottom line is you need to outscore the opposition team 4 times, nothing more nothing less. It doesn't really matter how you outscore simply that you do.

I would personally choose our current forwards and our current D over the Canes SC winning team and Cam Ward's great playoff performance he had a 0.920 sv% is the same as Campbell's career playoff sv%, this is not some unattainable goal.

I do think there are many lessons to be taken from this years playoffs and multiple avenues to improve the team, but this mindset of the team is crap and we need this and that and this to win, is BS. We are good enough to win right now, we were good enough to win with merely average starting goaltending (and I believe the guys we have can give that), but we got terrible goaltending, the Avs last year got by with poor goaltending cause the strength of their team could overcome that.

This idea that any defect demonstrated must be corrected through acquisition when sometimes its just as simple as a player got cold at the wrong time or multiple players were playing injured, a ton of the playoffs is just your group getting hot at the right time and being less banged up than the other team.



P.S. Did anyone notice that it looks like Bouchard has a solid chance to end the playoffs with the most points among d-men? Despite only playing in 2 series. Kinda impressive.

The Oilers only had to defeat one dominant team to reach the finals and they couldn't get it done.

Not enough depth at forward or defense. Even if we had another veteran defenseman to rely on we likely still would have lost the series against Vegas. For all the talk about "the best bottom six in the McDrai era" they weren't as good as their Vegas counterparts.

Poor goaltending and the wrong goaltender played. Maybe the series goes 7 if Campbell was parachuted into the crease but even then I highly doubt we would have won against Vegas.

The series against Vegas is going to go down as the year Cassidy showed Woodcroft what coaching is all about. Woodcroft got schooled. Everything Woodcroft was implementing was dissected by Cassidy.

Good grief Bouchard had 2 even strength points in the entire playoffs and 15 on the power play.

Power play specialist on a team that already had the most lethal power play in NHL history before Bouchard saw any meaningful minutes on the first unit.

Trade Bouchard along with a cap dump and other parts, get the assets and the cap relief the Oilers desperately need then fill out a proper roster that can win a Cup.

Have a new GM spearhead the reconstruct of the organization.

 

[Senor Catface]

1) Did you just call me ignorant? If you have done this I would appreciate it if you would retract that. If you don't well you are in for some stormy water.

 

[brentashton]

Trading McLeod would not be smart. He’s ready to breakout

McYams, what specific indicators give you this sense?

Unfortunately, I haven’t seen anything other than blazing speed in the guy. Just seems like a generic/dime a dozen utility 4th liner but I’d love you to be right though. Breakout season by someone making league average would be a huge win.

 

[McSuper]

I think one play that hasn't been discussed is adding our second to James Neal's contract and trade it for a lower pick or prospect.

With the cap going up only a million, that 1.9 on Neal's buyout would be so valuable.

Can not trade cap you retained on a buy out.

 

[Mcnotloilersfan]

The Oilers only had to defeat one dominant team to reach the finals and they couldn't get it done.

Not enough depth at forward or defense. Even if we had another veteran defenseman to rely on we likely still would have lost the series against Vegas. For all the talk about "the best bottom six in the McDrai era" they weren't as good as their Vegas counterparts.

Poor goaltending and the wrong goaltender played. Maybe the series goes 7 if Campbell was parachuted into the crease but even then I highly doubt we would have won against Vegas.

The series against Vegas is going to go down as the year Cassidy showed Woodcroft what coaching is all about. Woodcroft got schooled. Everything Woodcroft was implementing was dissected by Cassidy.

Good grief Bouchard had 2 even strength points in the entire playoffs and 15 on the power play.

Power play specialist on a team that already had the most lethal power play in NHL history before Bouchard saw any meaningful minutes on the first unit.

Trade Bouchard along with a cap dump and other parts, get the assets and the cap relief the Oilers desperately need then fill out a proper roster that can win a Cup.

Have a new GM spearhead the reconstruct of the organization.

This is way too doom and gloom.

First, you absolutely do not trade Bouchard unless it's for a legit #1dman who will be here for a while.

Second, there's a difference between not having enough forward depth, vs not having them show up. If we got the Kane, Hyman and Nuge from last years playoffs, we probably win that series.

We do need to upgrade the D a bit, and if goaltending doesn't bounce back, we need a fix there too.

 

[McJadeddog]

This is way too doom and gloom.

First, you absolutely do not trade Bouchard unless it's for a legit #1dman who will be here for a while.

Second, there's a difference between not having enough forward depth, vs not having them show up. If we got the Kane, Hyman and Nuge from last years playoffs, we probably win that series.

We do need to upgrade the D a bit, and if goaltending doesn't bounce back, we need a fix there too.

Obviously nobody is going to trade Bouchard unless he is demanding a 8 year deal at a high cap or something crazy like that.

The other thing that people forget when they say "we need better bottom 6 players". Yeah, sure, that would be awesome. But we have more cap tied up in our top-6 than we do the bottom-6. Therefore our bottom-6 is always going to be a little worse on average. The problem with this year for forwards had absolutely nothing to do with the bottom-6, and everything to do with the top-6. RNH, Kane and Hyman were all shadows of themselves, as were the guys pinch-hitting in the top-6 (Yams, and Bjud). I have no idea what series Broberg Speed was watching if he came away with the idea that the bottom-6 was the problem with the forwards.

 

[Soundwave]

You keep acting like winning in the SC playoffs is like checking off items on your grocery list, does an elite #1 D help? Yes. Does an elite goalie help? Yes; but the bottom line is you need to outscore the opposition team 4 times, nothing more nothing less. It doesn't really matter how you outscore simply that you do.

I would personally choose our current forwards and our current D over the Canes SC winning team and Cam Ward's great playoff performance he had a 0.920 sv% is the same as Campbell's career playoff sv%, this is not some unattainable goal.

I do think there are many lessons to be taken from this years playoffs and multiple avenues to improve the team, but this mindset of the team is crap and we need this and that and this to win, is BS. We are good enough to win right now, we were good enough to win with merely average starting goaltending (and I believe the guys we have can give that), but we got terrible goaltending, the Avs last year got by with poor goaltending cause the strength of their team could overcome that.

This idea that any defect demonstrated must be corrected through acquisition when sometimes its just as simple as a player got cold at the wrong time or multiple players were playing injured, a ton of the playoffs is just your group getting hot at the right time and being less banged up than the other team.



P.S. Did anyone notice that it looks like Bouchard has a solid chance to end the playoffs with the most points among d-men? Despite only playing in 2 series. Kinda impressive.

So basically

Oilers: Connor, Leon we expect you to win us a Cup like Crosby and Ovechkin did.

Also Oilers: But we can't give you a Letang probably not even a Carlsson. You get Nurse, 9 million and thumb up his ass 5 feet away from the net when a goal is scored.

Connor: Well then you're going to give me at least a top end goalie, right? You know like Crosby and Ovechkin got?

Oilers: You'd like to think so, but nah don't count on it. Just win anyway.

Like lol, this organization is just laughably inept. Just putting everything on two guys and two support wingers basically and then feeling like doing a bare minimum at D and goalie is good enough. Crosby, Malkin, Ovechkin have zero Cups if this is the run support they got.

The Oilers are something like 2 wins-10 losses in the playoffs (Winnipeg series onwards) when McDavid only scores 1 point or less in a playoff game.

Meanwhile Washington (Cup run year) and Pittsburgh (in all their Cup runs) having *winning* records (better than .500) when Crosby or Ovechkin only score 1 point or less. A big part of that reason is because their goaltending won them games in the playoffs when Crosby or Ovy didn't have monster games.

Oilers as presently built are basically an auto-loss in the playoffs when McDavid doesn't have a big game. It's really not a fair situation the Oilers put their star players in, they have to be so much better than Crosby or Ovechkin.

 

[CupofOil]

The Adin Hill Magic Show reinforces how strong and deep bluelines aligned with strong own zone defending, systems and structure can overcome average goaltending. For the Oilers to get it done in the winning season, they have to clean up with their own zone defending - improve quality of defense corp with a final piece (quality veteran top RD); stronger, committed and connected d-zone play; and simplifying system that focuses on home plate defending with disciplined d-corp that doesn't chase out of position and minimizing the coverage switches between d and forward which exposes high quality scoring chances against and breakdowns.

This team is rolling with a platoon pairing of Skinner and Campbell. No miracle tender trade coming. So the learning from Vegas is much better own zone defending work is required to play and win in deep Cup playoff runs. It's been the message from Holland and coaching staffs going back to Tippett's day 1 on the job.

EDIT: It looks like you're replying to someone I can't see. Assume I haven't misconstrued your post in my reply.

Exactly and it's pointless to discuss other goaltenders outside of adding a 3rd vet guy (like a Pickard type).

The reality is Campbell-Skinner is the duo. There's no way to get out from under the Campbell contract so might as well try to work with him to get some improvement. This is a guy who has proven he can play well in the league so he's not a lost cause.
Skinner put up a Calder level season but this all gets forgotten by some because he had a bad playoffs, as a rookie in his first playoff run.

These guys are both capable of being good goalies and are good enough to win with.
I don't even think the Oilers are THAT far off defensively. What they need to prevent is those mental lapses when they give up a goal and it snowballs from there. I thought they were decent enough defensively in both series outside of those few minute lapses that really cost them. I think looking for an upgrade on Ceci should be a priority, most likely in season, and a vet for the 3rd pairing to share time with Desharnais. I thought Holland's biggest mistake at the deadline was relying on Desharnais-Broberg as their #6/#7. Just too much youth to depend on, along with Bouchard, for a serious Cup run which just about cost them the L.A. series with Desharnais completely overwhelmed and carrying some of those struggles over to the Vegas series with Broberg struggling in Game 5. Need to prioritize defense if not this offseason then by the deadline because these are the goalies next season so work to make it easier on them.

 

[McShogun99]

Schaefer's upside is a 4th liner - when we dealt him, I had zero problem.

Was more mad at the draft when we passed on Lane Hutson but, less of an issue now.

I don't think he'll amount to much in the NHL. Usually players with his size and draft pedigree dominate their draft+1 years but this year is not much different then his draft year and he wasn't noticeable in the world juniors or memorial cup.

 

[McShogun99]

The Oilers only had to defeat one dominant team to reach the finals and they couldn't get it done.

Not enough depth at forward or defense. Even if we had another veteran defenseman to rely on we likely still would have lost the series against Vegas. For all the talk about "the best bottom six in the McDrai era" they weren't as good as their Vegas counterparts.

Poor goaltending and the wrong goaltender played. Maybe the series goes 7 if Campbell was parachuted into the crease but even then I highly doubt we would have won against Vegas.

The series against Vegas is going to go down as the year Cassidy showed Woodcroft what coaching is all about. Woodcroft got schooled. Everything Woodcroft was implementing was dissected by Cassidy.

Good grief Bouchard had 2 even strength points in the entire playoffs and 15 on the power play.

Power play specialist on a team that already had the most lethal power play in NHL history before Bouchard saw any meaningful minutes on the first unit.

Trade Bouchard along with a cap dump and other parts, get the assets and the cap relief the Oilers desperately need then fill out a proper roster that can win a Cup.

Have a new GM spearhead the reconstruct of the organization.

It wasn't our bottom six that cost us against Vegas, our top 6 and the Nurse-Ceci pairing got eaten alive. Ceci was -7 and Nurse was -6 during the series.

 

[Soundwave]

Exactly and it's pointless to discuss other goaltenders outside of adding a 3rd vet guy (like a Pickard type).

The reality is Campbell-Skinner is the duo. There's no way to get out from under the Campbell contract so might as well try to work with him to get some improvement. This is a guy who has proven he can play well in the league so he's not a lost cause.
Skinner put up a Calder level season but this all gets forgotten by some because he had a bad playoffs, as a rookie in his first playoff run.

These guys are both capable of being good goalies and are good enough to win with.
I don't even think the Oilers are THAT far off defensively. What they need to prevent is those mental lapses when they give up a goal and it snowballs from there. I thought they were decent enough defensively in both series outside of those few minute lapses that really cost them. I think looking for an upgrade on Ceci should be a priority, most likely in season, and a vet for the 3rd pairing to share time with Desharnais. I thought Holland's biggest mistake at the deadline was relying on Desharnais-Broberg as their #6/#7. Just too much youth to depend on, along with Bouchard, for a serious Cup run which just about cost them the L.A. series with Desharnais completely overwhelmed and carrying some of those struggles over to the Vegas series with Broberg struggling in Game 5. Need to prioritize defense if not this offseason then by the deadline because these are the goalies next season so work to make it easier on them.

Win what exactly? 4 playoff rounds for Skinner + Campbell combined, 3/4 losses, 3/4 sub .900 goaltending.

These two guys haven't won shit at the NHL level in the playoffs and have been frankly awful in net for 3/4 playoff rounds.

I think they can be decent regular season goalies when given tons of run support in offence to win games on, but being a no.1 goalie on a team that goes all the way to the Finals requires a degree of mental toughness and just overall ability to make big ticket saves that I have some doubt Skinner or Campbell have.