Rumor: Rumors & Proposals Thread | Vegas Claim & Somehow Assign Lavoie to Farm... because Oilers.

[Pucklington]

There is a distinct possibility that Emberson, Stretcher, and Dermott are upgrades over Ceci and Vinny...

At worst 1 of those guys are an upgrade and one is slightly worse.

 

[Burnt Biscuits]

There is a distinct possibility that Emberson, Stretcher, and Dermott are upgrades over Ceci and Vinny...

At worst 1 of those guys are an upgrade and one is slightly worse.

I will say the worse case is none of the 3 are better, I can see reasons why one might optimistic, but let's be real none of those 3 have established an average level of play that clearly outshines either Ceci or Vinny.

 

[nexttothemoon]

My hot take is the defense on this team is actually improved with Stecher/Emberson on the right side AND that the offense is likely going to take a hit with the turnover that they've had on the forward lines... plus Kane out for most of the season. At the very least it will take some time for this forward group to gel and build chemistry so I'm expecting offensive numbers to be pretty average for the first 10-20 games at least. Hopefully I'm completely wrong and I eat crow as they lead the NHL in scoring and my hot take (as far as offense goes) is completely wrong.

In goal it's a bit of a mystery as I don't know if Skinner is going to take a step forward or not. He can be great and can be pretty bad at times as well... normal for a younger goalie. Hopefully he can develop solid consistency and be a true #1 going forward. I don't mind Pickard and he played well last season BUT we may have seen the best season we'll ever see from Pickard... I would probably be keeping an eye open for another decent back up if I were the Oilers because I dunno if he repeats his solid play from last year with how up and down goalies can be.

 

[North]

Just all the stupid moves by management that any average Joe could have done better.

Oh yes I’m sure average Joe.

 

[smokersarejokers]

Too many people still don't understand what they watched in the playoffs. They think we made a Finals because "McDavid Magic!!!" and "super doooper offensive hockey!" when that's not the reality.

Look at every series ...

Kings series, Oilers playing poorly frankly through games 1 and 2, allowing way too many GA. Maybe Knoblaugh is in over his head. Adjustment made next 3 games, LA is shut down to 1.75 goals per game, Oilers cruise and win all three games.

That's COACHING ADJUSTMENTS.

Vancouver series, the Oilers losing 2-1 and 3-2 in this series, last 4 games defensive adjustments lead to Vancouver's offense being largely shut down to the tune of only averaging 2 goals/game in the last 4 games. In game 6 and 7 in particular, Vancouver barely had any scoring chances period, largely shut down until McLeod decides to be a dummy and just hand Vancouver a goal late in game 7 when they had *nothing* going.

That's COACHING ADJUSTMENTS.

Dallas series, Dallas winning 2-1 in the series, everyone saying "well that's it for the Oilers" since everyone picked Dallas to win. Instead the Oilers make defensive adjustments and shut down Dallas' offense, only 1.75 goals/game in the last 3 games ... Dallas loses every one of those games, Oilers win the series 4-2.

That's ... what ... do I even have to say it?

Florida series, down 0-3, Florida's offense shuts down to only 2 goals per game for the next 4 games, giving the Oilers a real chance of a miracle comeback. We almost get it done, holding Florida to 2 goals even in game 7, but unfortunately just no offensive juice in the tank with Draisaitl and Kane hurt.

People still want to think last spring was just "McDAVID tHO!" .... no it wasn't. As great as Connor was, we made the Finals because of defense, and not because of the d-corps ... because of the d system COACHING. Wake up to that reality and put some damn respect on Knoblaugh's name. He was the best coach in the league last year full stop.

He took a mediocre defensive team and with no real additions (Holland couldn't upgrade Ceci at the deadline even to save his life) turned them into a top 6 GA team in the regular season and then even better in the playoffs.

Yeah, man. I hear you.

Sorry, I gotta ask, why do you spell Knoblauch's name with a G?

 

[Tobias Kahun]

Holy shit this unhinged rant.
I’m not arguing with you that the coaching staff and systems are why it was good.
I’m literally saying you take worse players and put them in the same system you get worse results.
If that’s not true then by that logic replace Ekholm and Bouchard with Dermott and Brown and should have same results right? Ceci is a #5d, Desharnais is a #6. We replaced them with 4 7/8 d.
I’m not saying it’s dire or end of the world but you can’t get better or the same results with WORSE PLAYERS.
If that’s the case then trade Bouchard, Ekholm and Nurse for spare parts and run waiver wire guys for defence.

Emberson and stecher are 7/8’s?

Their results last year say otherwise.

 

[Took a pill in Sbisa]

Swayman really did reset the market

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Swayman really did reset the market

Shesterkin is getting 12 mil

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Sorry I am surprised, thanks for pointing that out. We can't draft/devlop worth shit so we might as well trade them.

I can’t say that I disagree with you on that one! Although the new regime seems to have made some good picks with the last draft but time will tell.

 

[MessierII]

Shesterkin is getting 12 mil

Didn’t he already turn down 11?

 

[Pucklington]

I will say the worse case is none of the 3 are better, I can see reasons why one might optimistic, but let's be real none of those 3 have established an average level of play that clearly outshines either Ceci or Vinny.

Vinny is not completely established. He played primarily as a 3rd pairing and struggled when the pace increased in the playoffs.

Ceci had a single good season two years ago, and fell to the 3rd pair at the end of his tenure after visibly struggling playing any decent competition for 2 years.

True, maybe these guys don't end up better but we are still talking about replacement level players. The same hole in the top 4 is there regardless.

 

[CycloneSweep]

I can’t say that I disagree with you on that one! Although the new regime seems to have made some good picks with the last draft but time will tell.

Our last group seemed to make good picks too but we saw how that went lol.
I think development is our issue right now. Our AHL coaching is awful. Rodrigue was a good goalie coach and we lost him.

 

[CupofOil]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1843749349794426983

I don't like being this heavily favored to win it all and if I'm honest I don't think we deserve it, I view us as a top 4 team with serious question marks that seem fixable, but we aren't no complete package juggernaut by any means.

Yeah, kinda shocked to see the overwhelming majority picking the Oilers to win the Cup.
Not that I believe in jinxes or anything, I just don't think the Oilers are a good enough team to be considered an overwhelming favorite but this is also probably some Canadian Media bias at play too.

 

[CupofOil]

Desharnais was injured (minor injury maybe but an injury nonetheless), so I dont know if you should call it a healthy scratch. He was a daily contributor for like a full year for us, and if we still had him he would be our best PKer on the right side. Thats just a fancy way of saying “we’re worse”. Sure, we had Broberg as a luxury option at the time, but we dont now.

Ceci carried a lot of water and a lot of tough minutes for this team for a long, long time.

Florida is not going to win the cup this year because of the D they lost.

Edmonton is not going to win the cup this year because of the D they lost unless they go out and get a big upgrade for RD.

Yeah and was also one half of a pairing that got shredded every playoffs. It's hard to imagine the next pairing being worse than the Nurse-Ceci pairing was the last 3 playoffs.

Hilarious that people are lamenting the loss of Ceci after doing nothing but criticizing him for like 80% of his time here.
He was an ok enough #4/#5 Dman but is the definition of replaceable. I bet that Emberson will fill the role just fine if not more.

In terms of Desharnais, the Oilers actually played their best hockey of the playoffs (the last 2 series) without him and the PK didn't skip a beat.
Again, like Ceci, he had his role here and was ok in it but another guy that was entirely replaceable.

The real loss was Broberg but that's more of a long term loss.
The Oilers have some roster kinks to work out but the losses of freaking Ceci and Desharnais aren't going to cripple the team.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Didn’t he already turn down 11?

yup

 

[oXo Cube]

Ottawa unfortunately got stuck paying the small Canadian market tax here I think but I'm glad to see goalies getting their due. Swayman should have held out longer.

 

[CycloneSweep]

Emberson and stecher are 7/8’s?

Their results last year say otherwise.

Emberson had a relatively small sample size. I probably should have said 6/7 d. Embersons small sample size shows a 6th d with potential for more, Stetcher was a 7th d here last year and has been a 6/7 d for his career.

My hot take is the defense on this team is actually improved with Stecher/Emberson on the right side AND that the offense is likely going to take a hit with the turnover that they've had on the forward lines... plus Kane out for most of the season. At the very least it will take some time for this forward group to gel and build chemistry so I'm expecting offensive numbers to be pretty average for the first 10-20 games at least. Hopefully I'm completely wrong and I eat crow as they lead the NHL in scoring and my hot take (as far as offense goes) is completely wrong.

In goal it's a bit of a mystery as I don't know if Skinner is going to take a step forward or not. He can be great and can be pretty bad at times as well... normal for a younger goalie. Hopefully he can develop solid consistency and be a true #1 going forward. I don't mind Pickard and he played well last season BUT we may have seen the best season we'll ever see from Pickard... I would probably be keeping an eye open for anther decent back up if I were the Oilers because I dunno if he repeats his solid play from last year with how up and down goalies can be.

My worry with the forwards is our third line with Janmark and Brown was our 4th line to end the regular season. Our 3rd line was made up of young guys with potential, we don't have that anymore. We have an older 3rd line consisting of a very good Henrique and 2 4th liners (well I guess Skinner is there now and we have a 4th liner on the 2nd line again but....sigh). And our 4th line is 3 guys who are arguably all 13th forwards and shouldn't be seeing regular time.

 

[joestevens29]

Swayman really did reset the market

I don't know what did people really expect? There are so many shaky goalies making 5-6.5mil

Saros just got just under 8mil to keep him until he's 38.

Swayman is tied for 5th in cap hit, so I don't really see how this is a reset.

Ottawa unfortunately got stuck paying the small Canadian market tax here I think but I'm glad to see goalies getting their due. Swayman should have held out longer.

I don't know why they signed him now. How much could he really drive his value up by x-mas?

That's a big chunk of cap to give to a guy that hasn't played a game for you again. Better hope it's not like CGY with Huberdeau

 

[oobga]

I am saying the massive improvement is because of the COACHING SYSTEM pretty much entirely, pieces like Ceci and Desharnais make f*** all for a difference, it's the SYSTEM that is responsible for the dramatic change.

The Oilers didn't even add any one to the d-corps last year, a d-corps that was frankly mediocre, again 17th best in GA in the 22-23 regular season, worst GA for any team in the playoffs past round 1 (which they barely got by LA).

This is the dictionary definition of a coach coming in and making all the difference in the world.

Knoblaugh should have won coach of the year last year and was the most valuable person in the organization (yes even above McDavid). He saved the Oilers season and finally got them to buy into a defensive system that won them 3 rounds and damn near 4 rounds.

No chance any of that happens without him/Coff/Stuart. They are the difference makers, not guys like Ceci and Desharnais who were sitting around with their thumbs up their ass when the team was what? 30th or 31st worst in the league for goals against? Where were the two of them then exactly? No one gave them the memo that they had to play D until the 11th game of the regular season?

We made game 7 of the Finals *despite* players like Ceci and Desharnais playing way over their heads, not *because* of said players. If anything that's a testament to the coaching job Knoblaugh/Coffey did last year, they took guys that had no business being there and still made a game 7 of a Cup Final anyway.

Agree on the system piece. Knob bent over backwards the entire year trying to figure out ways to mitigate the handicap he had with our bottom 4 D group. You could see his struggle as he juggled guys around and reacted to terrible performances by individuals by swapping them. It’s so unfortunate that we went back to the extreme handicap of nurse+ceci in game 1 of the finals and it burned us just 3 minutes in to let Florida start the series off with a bang. But that is what happens when your GM didn’t do his job, it finally caught us. Thankful as well Skinner did enough backflips to mitigate the bleeding of chances by the bottom 4 to extend the series to make it a lot more fun than a sweep.

 

[Tarus]

Shesterkin is getting 12 mil

Maybe

He apparently only wants a 4 or 5 year deal, and will only sign an 8 year deal if it breaks the bank(aka, 12+)

Caps going to start going up significantly now that the covid limiters are off, and some players don't want to be stuck on a contract that gets left behind.

 

[oXo Cube]

I don't know why they signed him now. How much could he really drive his value up by x-mas?

That's a big chunk of cap to give to a guy that hasn't played a game for you again. Better hope it's not like CGY with Huberdeau

I could see a scenario unfolding this year where Ullmark plays well but Ottawa still sucks. Should that come to pass they probably wouldn't be able to sign him at all.

Sometimes you just gotta take the plunge on a player you believe in when the opportunity presents itself.

 

[Juxta Position]

Somebody said we had a superstar D corps last year? Are they in the room with us right now? Did you take your meds today bro?

Our D was good before Knoblauch, it actually improved right around the time we graduated Desharnais to the NHL. Our D was terribly floundering and we were at risk of falling out of the playoffs before we brought in Woodcroft and he brought up Desharnais to play the PK for us. It was only like 2 years ago. Where were you? Ekholm also was a major stabilizing presence on the left side, and suddenly we could ice a solid handful of players that we could trust in the defensive zone.

The Best Player in the modern history of the sport missed the playoffs on this team, and was at risk of doing it again when we had shit defence. He also got off to a TERRIBLE start last year when Ekholm was injured for a few days.

We’re one Ekholm flu away from getting smashed on defence. We don’t have a superstar goalie. Connor McDavid can’t play goalie and defence. He can’t win alone. That is THOROUGHLY proven.

Our D was top 10 last year. Thats not great, but it’s enough to win with McDavid if you get some breaks.

It’s top 20 now. Is that enough? Probably not. Never was good enough in the past.

You are seriously overrating Ceci and Desharnais.

Ceci is being replaced with Emberson, who had much, MUCH better defensive metrics on a much, MUCH worse team, Ceci was pure chaos personified.

Desharnais was a decent PKer for sure, simply because he was a giant with a long reach who was effective at blocking passing lanes on a relatively static penalty kill. at 5 on 5 he was about as useful as a wet fart. Stetcher and Dermott are both better puck movers, better skaters and overall better defenders than Desharnais ever was at evens.

The hand wringing and pearl clutching on this site because the Oilers replaced replacement level players with better replacement level players is kind of ridiculous.

 

[McFlyingV]

You are seriously overrating Ceci and Desharnais.

Ceci is being replaced with Emberson, who had much, MUCH better defensive metrics on a much, MUCH worse team, Ceci was pure chaos personified.

Desharnais was a decent PKer for sure, simply because he was a giant with a long reach who was effective at blocking passing lanes on a relatively static penalty kill. at 5 on 5 he was about as useful as a wet fart. Stetcher and Dermott are both better puck movers, better skaters and overall better defenders than Desharnais ever was at evens.

The hand wringing and pearl clutching on this site because the Oilers replaced replacement level players with better replacement level players is kind of ridiculous.

It is funny seeing this board do complete 180's on Vinny and Ceci now that they're gone. Two of the biggest whipping boys and reasons why this team would fall short in the playoffs the past two seasons on this board suddenly become "big shoes to fill".

 

[joestevens29]

It is funny seeing this board do complete 180's on Vinny and Ceci now that they're gone. Two of the biggest whipping boys and reasons why this team would fall short in the playoffs the past two seasons on this board suddenly become "big shoes to fill".

I assume Vinny had big feet so those shoes are big to fill

But seriously on Ceci I thought he was worth his contract, but couldn't keep up as an everyday top 4 d-man. He played 20 minutes a night and while I hope Emberson can fill in that is gonna be tough.

Vinny, I always thought was that perfect #6 d-man to play 70 games a year or so. Easy to replace that, but his size and PK abilities will be something that needs to be replaced.

It's not that I don't think those guys can't be replaced, but we aren't exactly replacing them with sure fire guys. I've seen this song and dance for decades now that we just hope someone is going to fill the void and have breakout years. Not sure the guys we have give me a whole pile of confidence in that.

Although it was clear with the July 1st moves that we were going top heavy, so hopefully the offense makes up for the lack of defense

 

[CanadasTeam99]

Our defence was JUST good enough for this team to do what it did. That defence is worse right now.
The coaching staff deserves those accolades and are still here. But you realize that as much as we hated Ceci he is better than any of Emberson, Stetcher, Brown, Dermott etc. and not a small amount.
You have a worse dcore you get worse results.
That said we have till the deadline to fix it.

The scary thing is, what if we can't make a trade for something we want on D? Then what?