Rumor: Rumors & Proposals Thread | What Do Our RFA's Sign For Edition

[Oilers49er]

The offence isnt just fine, it's one if not the best forward group in the NHL lead by the two best players in the NHL. Outscoring the other team is literally how you win hockey games.

As far as not improving the defence did you not see that we traded for Ekholm? He basically got two top 4 defenceman in that trade with Bouchard flourishing. Popular to popular belief, Nurse is still a top pairing defenceman. Kulak has impressed as a solid minute muncher. Desharnais helped solidify our defence and Broberg showed flashes. It was a top 10 defence post TDL.

Is there still some work to replace Ceci? I'd love if it they upgraded now but it's more likely to be a deadline acquisition. Who knows, maybe Broberg takes a big leap forward or someone we werent expecting becomes available mid-season.

Goaltending as others have pointed out is hard to predict. I never would have thought that Hill + LB was better than what we had to start the year. Let's see how they do next season. If Campbell cant bounce back go after Hart, Gibson, Hellebuyck, or like 4 random nobodies like Vegas did. I don't think the goal is to chase a goalie anyways.

I was saying the offense is fine in the sense there are no issues with it. Best offense in the regular season rarely if ever win the cup.

Holland didn't get Bouchard he was already there and Holland/Tippett held him back. Nurse-Ceci does not work. It hasn't for 2 years.

Skinner saved Holland from another disaster.

Chia's draft picks have saved Holland which is sad to say.

Either way Oilers haven't been able to outscore their problems in the playoffs, because the D and goaltending are not good enough.

That's on Ken Holland.

 

[Oilers49er]

Ken Holland inherited a team that was wading-pool deep and cap f***ed to Tuesday. A team that missed the playoffs twice in a row. A team that would immediately lose its under-priced top defenseman to a career-ending injury at 28 years old, which would put them into LTIR for four years. A team that based its top contracts around the idea of the cap going up, only for a pandemic to induce a three-year flat cap. A team that already had the challenge of being the Edmonton Oilers. And he's done a very good job with it despite all that IMO.

The Oilers have gone from a team that was pushing Ty Rattie and Alex Chiasson in the top six to a team that has Kane, Nuge, Hyman and Brown on a collective AAV of 16.5M dollars. It's the best top-six group in the league and they just put up one of the highest-scoring seasons in modern NHL history. Their bottom six, still a work in progress, just finished the year with 10+ goals each. At the time he started, it could politely be described as a group of non-NHL players.

The Oilers are identifying pro players far better than they have in decades. They're developing later picks into actual, promising young players. I don't think the Oilers have been a more functional organization since the 1980s. Seriously.

"The Oilers aren't good enough" Yes, they are. They've lost to a Colorado team at the height of their possible power which immediately lost half of its forward depth to the cap. They lost to a Vegas team running a 96M dollar roster (and gave it a better fight than anyone), and even that series turned on a goalie injury and a hot back-up.

No team is without flaws on July 1 in a flat cap. The Knights gave away Reilly Smith for nothing just to become cap compliant. Boston just lost so much talent. Toronto shuffled Bunting, O'Reilly and Holl for Bertuzzi, Domi and Klingberg. Tampa had to let Killorn walk. Florida replaced Gudas with Ekman-Larsson. Colorado added two players with negative contracts in order to rebuild some of its depth semi-affordably. The Wild are the same team pretty much completely. *THESE ARE THE OTHER GOOD TEAMS*

These are the good times. You can say "should have won the Cup" or "the Cup is the only success". I get it, I do, but you're calling a B+ job an F because it isn't an A and you're missing the good times. The times when we know the Oilers go into a season as maybe one of seven teams most people wouldn't blink at winning the Cup. The times where the Oilers make the playoffs with home ice advantage for 4 straight years. The times where the Oilers have their handcuffs off at the deadline.

No team in history with a player of 97's talent and this isn't even including have Leon as well have not won a cup. Ken Holland had all the cap in the world and blew it on Nurse and Campbell. He constantly bridges his youth players, because he must sign older vets.
Keith retiring saved him from an embarrassment.
In 5 years Holland hasn't locked up any of his youthful core. Chia did that brilliantly and could draft, which his draft picks have saved Holland. Chi was just god awful at everything else. Like really really bad.
It's cup or bust and they haven't even sniffed at a Stanley Cup finals.
Golden Knights are proactive, they change players when they see something better. They are always looking to upgrade.
Tampa still has their core and know how to make trades and draft.
Holland can't draft and he seldom makes trades and typically doesn't make impact trades. Yes Ekholm trade was fantastic. All of it was great. Kulak to a lesser degree. The rest of his trades meh.

 

[Spawn]

Ken Holland inherited a team that was wading-pool deep and cap f***ed to Tuesday. A team that missed the playoffs twice in a row. A team that would immediately lose its under-priced top defenseman to a career-ending injury at 28 years old, which would put them into LTIR for four years. A team that based its top contracts around the idea of the cap going up, only for a pandemic to induce a three-year flat cap. A team that already had the challenge of being the Edmonton Oilers. And he's done a very good job with it despite all that IMO.

The Oilers have gone from a team that was pushing Ty Rattie and Alex Chiasson in the top six to a team that has Kane, Nuge, Hyman and Brown on a collective AAV of 16.5M dollars. It's the best top-six group in the league and they just put up one of the highest-scoring seasons in modern NHL history. Their bottom six, still a work in progress, just finished the year with 10+ goals each. At the time he started, it could politely be described as a group of non-NHL players.

The Oilers are identifying pro players far better than they have in decades. They're developing later picks into actual, promising young players. I don't think the Oilers have been a more functional organization since the 1980s. Seriously.

"The Oilers aren't good enough" Yes, they are. They've lost to a Colorado team at the height of their possible power which immediately lost half of its forward depth to the cap. They lost to a Vegas team running a 96M dollar roster (and gave it a better fight than anyone), and even that series turned on a goalie injury and a hot back-up.

No team is without flaws on July 1 in a flat cap. The Knights gave away Reilly Smith for nothing just to become cap compliant. Boston just lost so much talent. Toronto shuffled Bunting, O'Reilly and Holl for Bertuzzi, Domi and Klingberg. Tampa had to let Killorn walk. Florida replaced Gudas with Ekman-Larsson. Colorado added two players with negative contracts in order to rebuild some of its depth semi-affordably. The Wild are the same team pretty much completely. *THESE ARE THE OTHER GOOD TEAMS*

These are the good times. You can say "should have won the Cup" or "the Cup is the only success". I get it, I do, but you're calling a B+ job an F because it isn't an A and you're missing the good times. The times when we know the Oilers go into a season as maybe one of seven teams most people wouldn't blink at winning the Cup. The times where the Oilers make the playoffs with home ice advantage for 4 straight years. The times where the Oilers have their handcuffs off at the deadline.

I think a lot of this post is fair and reasonable. Some of it is dubious (our player development is still largely awful and our drafting seems to be worse, not better under Holland).

And yes, having home ice advantage in 4 straight years sounds good. But then you see only 3 series wins in those 4 years. Including a 1st round sweep and a play-in embarrassment loss to a 12th placed team. In Holland's years as GM the Oilers have finished: 9th, 11th, 11th and 7th across the league. Both as a regular season team and as a playoff team being moderately above average isn't good enough regardless of how you want to try and spin getting shit kicked by the Avalanche or losing in the 2nd round to Vegas.

When you walk into a situation where you have the greatest player in the league since Lemieux and riding shotgun with him is the 2nd best player in the world expectations are high. So yes, it is cup or bust.

 

[Burnt Biscuits]

I was saying the offense is fine in the sense there are no issues with it. Best offense in the regular season rarely if ever win the cup.

Holland didn't get Bouchard he was already there and Holland/Tippett held him back. Nurse-Ceci does not work. It hasn't for 2 years.

Skinner saved Holland from another disaster.

Chia's draft picks have saved Holland which is sad to say.

Either way Oilers haven't been able to outscore their problems in the playoffs, because the D and goaltending are not good enough.

That's on Ken Holland.

I was curious how true this was, 2 of the last 7 Cup winners also had the highest Goals For in the regular season (the Pens in 16/17 & TB in 19/20).

Its clearly a positive indicator though and a potential forebearer of good things to come:
- TB was the top scoring team in 2017/18, 18/19, and 19/20 and then won Cups in 2019/20 and 20/21
- COL was the top scoring team in 2020/21 and then won the Cup in 2021/22
- FLA was to the top scoring team 2021/22 and was a SC finalist in 2022/23

 

[McTonyBrar]

I think a lot of this post is fair and reasonable. Some of it is dubious (our player development is still largely awful and our drafting seems to be worse, not better under Holland).

And yes, having home ice advantage in 4 straight years sounds good. But then you see only 3 series wins in those 4 years. Including a 1st round sweep and a play-in embarrassment loss to a 12th placed team. In Holland's years as GM the Oilers have finished: 9th, 11th, 11th and 7th across the league. Both as a regular season team and as a playoff team being moderately above average isn't good enough regardless of how you want to try and spin getting shit kicked by the Avalanche or losing in the 2nd round to Vegas.

When you walk into a situation where you have the greatest player in the league since Lemieux and riding shotgun with him is the 2nd best player in the world expectations are high. So yes, it is cup or bust.

Why don't you actually watch the players we have drafted and developed so far before saying false things like that? Go take a look at players like Petrov, Tullio, Wanner, Akey (drafted this year), Bourgault has been trending well and Holloway is NHL ready. Broberg has been looked at negatively by all Oiler fans which is unfair to him but he will get his chance to prove himself this season and I hope he makes all the naysayers look stupid

 

[CycloneSweep]

We weren't better than Vegas defensively. Our goals against was 17th in the league. Vegas was 11th.
Shots against Oilers were 19th and Vegas was 13th.

That isn't good enough because Nurse-Ceci cannot defend. The coach thought they would get better in the playoffs and they were absolutely terrible. They were on the ice for majority of the goals against for a reason. Neither hold a blue line, neither have a net front presence.

These two are the concerns and without a change there is no cup.



Our D wasn't better than Vegas. No they aren't good enough.

Shots aren’t chances for one. Two our goals against was worse because Campbell was one of the worst goalies in the league this year. Our team was actually 6th best in the league at limiting high danger chances. You know that’s good right? We allowed nothing perimeter shots but the quality ones, we statistically limited very well.

You do realize that top pairing d are usually on the ice for more goals agains than the other pairings right? Because they play against top pairings.

Yea they didn’t perform in the playoffs but I rather not judge a player on a small sample size like that. Shit happens in the playoffs.

 

[CycloneSweep]

No team in history with a player of 97's talent and this isn't even including have Leon as well have not won a cup. Ken Holland had all the cap in the world and blew it on Nurse and Campbell. He constantly bridges his youth players, because he must sign older vets.
Keith retiring saved him from an embarrassment.
In 5 years Holland hasn't locked up any of his youthful core. Chia did that brilliantly and could draft, which his draft picks have saved Holland. Chi was just god awful at everything else. Like really really bad.
It's cup or bust and they haven't even sniffed at a Stanley Cup finals.
Golden Knights are proactive, they change players when they see something better. They are always looking to upgrade.
Tampa still has their core and know how to make trades and draft.
Holland can't draft and he seldom makes trades and typically doesn't make impact trades. Yes Ekholm trade was fantastic. All of it was great. Kulak to a lesser degree. The rest of his trades meh.

You do realize that lots of young players WANT bridges until they break out right? Cause they bet on themselves and can’t be forced to sign right?

Or for example on Bouchards case, we can’t afford to not bridge him.

Ken Holland inherited a team that was wading-pool deep and cap f***ed to Tuesday. A team that missed the playoffs twice in a row. A team that would immediately lose its under-priced top defenseman to a career-ending injury at 28 years old, which would put them into LTIR for four years. A team that based its top contracts around the idea of the cap going up, only for a pandemic to induce a three-year flat cap. A team that already had the challenge of being the Edmonton Oilers. And he's done a very good job with it despite all that IMO.

The Oilers have gone from a team that was pushing Ty Rattie and Alex Chiasson in the top six to a team that has Kane, Nuge, Hyman and Brown on a collective AAV of 16.5M dollars. It's the best top-six group in the league and they just put up one of the highest-scoring seasons in modern NHL history. Their bottom six, still a work in progress, just finished the year with 10+ goals each. At the time he started, it could politely be described as a group of non-NHL players.

The Oilers are identifying pro players far better than they have in decades. They're developing later picks into actual, promising young players. I don't think the Oilers have been a more functional organization since the 1980s. Seriously.

"The Oilers aren't good enough" Yes, they are. They've lost to a Colorado team at the height of their possible power which immediately lost half of its forward depth to the cap. They lost to a Vegas team running a 96M dollar roster (and gave it a better fight than anyone), and even that series turned on a goalie injury and a hot back-up.

No team is without flaws on July 1 in a flat cap. The Knights gave away Reilly Smith for nothing just to become cap compliant. Boston just lost so much talent. Toronto shuffled Bunting, O'Reilly and Holl for Bertuzzi, Domi and Klingberg. Tampa had to let Killorn walk. Florida replaced Gudas with Ekman-Larsson. Colorado added two players with negative contracts in order to rebuild some of its depth semi-affordably. The Wild are the same team pretty much completely. *THESE ARE THE OTHER GOOD TEAMS*

These are the good times. You can say "should have won the Cup" or "the Cup is the only success". I get it, I do, but you're calling a B+ job an F because it isn't an A and you're missing the good times. The times when we know the Oilers go into a season as maybe one of seven teams most people wouldn't blink at winning the Cup. The times where the Oilers make the playoffs with home ice advantage for 4 straight years. The times where the Oilers have their handcuffs off at the deadline.

All very well said.

The literal only thing I would disagree on is that I think our drafting is still shit. But that could change if players start to show up.

 

[Spawn]

Why don't you actually watch the players we have drafted and developed so far before saying false things like that? Go take a look at players like Petrov, Tullio, Wanner, Akey (drafted this year), Bourgault has been trending well and Holloway is NHL ready. Broberg has been looked at negatively by all Oiler fans which is unfair to him but he will get his chance to prove himself this season and I hope he makes all the naysayers look stupid

Get back to me when these players turn into bonafide contributing NHLers.

 

[iCanada]

The team isn’t “suddenly” not good enough. The team was never good enough and Holland doesn’t appear to have any interest in improving the team in meaningful ways this summer.

This only acceptable outcome at this point is a cup win. Nothing less is good enough.

Idk, I disagree. We lost to Vegas in a hard fight series where we didn't get the bounces. (Or goaltending, depending how you look at it).

Fundamentally, I do believe if we beat Vegas we walk to the Stanley Cup just like they did. If you ask Vegas fans or Vegas players, their biggest obstacle by a mile was the oilers.

Vegas is getting worse and we're getting better. We sure as shit are good enough to go for it; we played 6 games with Vegas and 4 of them could of went either way with both teams having a gimme. You do that over again with us having Brown and them not having Smith... I could easily see us taking that series. But you look around the league, basically every contender except us is getting worse. Maybe asterix to Toronto, but they need to fix their cap before you can really judge. And maybe asterix to Carolina, but they looked like shit compared to the Florida team that Vegas walked over. Factor in that we have the youngest core of all of these teams, including the rookie goaltender... Suddenly we're looking and feeling good.

Kostin was good, and I'll miss the lovable bastard, certainly hard to see him go... but he had a hot hand that anyone could get. He had a higher sitting percentage in the NHL this year then he ever did in the AHL or even in the Russian junior league. Hell janmark or even holiday can get that kind of puck luck; everyone does over the course of a career at some point.

Sure, we'll miss his physicality, but we already beat the hell out of Vegas in the fisticuffs department and I don't think Kostin even really had a physical series. Then you add in Brown basically being super Yams; same poster just with an extra 6 inches and 30 lbs with just a little bit more finish and suddenly you start to feel pretty confident. Atleast I do.

 

[iCanada]

We had the 11th lowest xGA 5v5 last year while having the 6th best xGF. Statistically our defense IS good enough


You are right on the missing pieces. Although if you loook at the cost for even average bottom pair guys right now, I don’t think solving that top 4 rhd spot is possible right now. Only potential name is Pesce.

Goaltending could easily be solved internally. I think it would be shocking for Campbell to at least not bounce back to a good backup and Skinner should see forward momentum too.

D is my only worry but if there is a move to make Holland will make it.

Like shit Adin Hill won a cup and only played cause Brossoit got injured. Goaltending is so all over the place.

I'd add parayko to that list. Risk with him, but I think that parayko is more the kind of defender you win with in the playoffs and I think he'd be reinvigorated to play for his home town team. Him and his whole family are die hard oilers fans.

Literally 10 years into his career with a cup as a leader from another team and he still uses "we" every time he talks about the Oilers.

 

[Fourier]

This team's offense is fine, but the fact the D is the same is an absolute fail this offseason. Two playoffs in a row they tried to outscore their defensive issues. It doesn't work.

Yes Holland will be reactive and make a trade at the deadline, but is it for a top 4 D or depth D. If people get tricked because Ceci plays a little better then Holland won't change the top 4.

It's simply not good enough D and potentially not good enough goaltending. Two spots Holland hasn't fixed in 5 years.

0 Division titles.

Everyone wants the defense to be better. But how precisely were you to do that this off season with the cap being what it is. The goal should be to find a true top pairing RHD not just shuffle the deck. It wasn't going to be by free agency with no cap space when the likes of Ian Cole, Carson Soucy Connor Clifton , Justin Holl and Luke Shcenn are getting nearly $3M or more and really no one of consequence being available anyway. The only defenseman available who would really have been a difference maker was Orlov who is a LHD and signed for $&.75M. So now you are looking at trades. Aside from Pesce, to do that you need to probably find someone making $6M+ which means manufacturing $3M+ in cap space over what Ceci makes. That would mean trading both Foegele and Kulak. You can't trade Kulak until you know you have the RHD in the bag or you risk making things worse. But let's say that the Oilers have trades in place for Foegele, Ceci and Kulak ready to go. Now you look around and discover that the only two realistic targets are Pesce and Karlsson since pretty much half the league is looking for this same player. Karlsson only works if you trade Bouchard or if they eat 40% plus which at this point they won't do. So now you are down to Pesce a guy that has been linked to half the league. How much do you pay if he won't re-sign?

The reason you wait for the TDL is because this team should not need that player to be in playoff contention at that time and the opportunity to upgrade for the playoffs is much greater in terms of both possible players available and cap to make it happen. That's not to say that Holland should pass up any cahnce to really improve the team now but it is extremely unlikely that chance is now.

 

[Burnt Biscuits]

It seems like people are entering this acceptance phase that we can't do anything more that is exciting, I will say some people had unreasonable expectations cause we clearly need to pay out raises and we clearly need to reserve a little nest egg of cap so we can be players at the trade deadline.

That said I still foresee a lot of trades that are likely to be made and there are often opportunities created through that process, swapping bodies around can make certain players expendable.

So we have 6 players who should be traded prior to the season starting:
-Hanifin
-E. Karlsson
-Hellebuyck
-Gibson
-Scheifele
-Debrincat

We have 3 teams that look to be over the cap, TOR is well over, WSH has ~$890K left and only 10 F signed, and PIT looks to be barely over roughly $450K after they waive a goalie.

CHI, ARI, and ANA need some more NHL d-men and have the cap space.

STL- seems like they really want to trade one of the high priced vet d-men.

PHI- Had like 4 guys on the block that they haven't moved.

OTT- Only has 7 forwards signed + an unsigned Shane Pinto

BOS- Definitely isn't done, Swayman deserves a good raise and they likely don't want 2 expensive goalies, will probably also trade a D and need to figure out the futures of Krejci and Bergeron.

NSH and CBJ both have 4 RHD signed that make $2.5M or more.

CAR- looks like they are going all in and are at the center of a ton of rumors, clearly still many changes they want to make.

 

[Anarchism]

So we really dont need those 'exciting' players right now to improve significantly.
A quality 3rd line center and a 3rd pair RD pretty significantly improves our situation vs. Vegas.
One of a Goalie or a top pair RD at the deadline would put us over the hump re Vegas who contrary to the ideas above still will kick our ass if we don't change.
This is our year and Holland needs to acquire two or three players. Yes horror horror it will require change in our players and trading prospects and futures for 'non-exciting' players.

 

[Anarchism]

Hope Winnipeg can pull off this trade for Helly with New Jersey for the assets for the rumored assets.

 

[Broberg Speed]

So we really dont need those 'exciting' players right now to improve significantly.
A quality 3rd line center and a 3rd pair RD pretty significantly improves our situation vs. Vegas.
One of a Goalie or a top pair RD at the deadline would put us over the hump re Vegas who contrary to the ideas above still will kick our ass if we don't change.
This is our year and Holland needs to acquire two or three players. Yes horror horror it will require change in our players and trading prospects and futures for 'non-exciting' players.

Should we consider packaging Bouchard, McLeod, picks and prospects along with warm bodies if we could fill all the holes before the season gets underway?

We could have a championship quality team set to go from the get go but it would really piss off this board right off the bat.

They'd change their minds after they witness first-hand what a championship team looks like.

 

[Anarchism]

Should we consider packaging Bouchard, McLeod, picks and prospects along with warm bodies if we could fill all the holes before the season gets underway?

We could have a championship quality team set to go from the get go but it would really piss off this board right off the bat.

They'd change their minds after they witness first-hand what a championship team looks like.

Holland will pay for potential with Mcleod.
Bouchard can be part of the answer.
Unfortunately Holland will not change our team enough.
His strategy was sound for Edmonton....if he could draft or make the right bottom 6 or vet D changes. He has make alot of bad choices.
Maybe the biggest trade we could make is Holland for Gilman and Tlusky.

 

[Broberg Speed]

Holland will pay for potential with Mcleod.
Bouchard can be part of the answer.
Unfortunately Holland will not change our team enough.
His strategy was sound for Edmonton....if he could draft or make the right bottom 6 or vet D changes. He has make alot of bad choices.
Maybe the biggest trade we could make is Holland for Gilman and Tlusky.

You don't trust Staios or any of Holland's other underlings? The scouting staffs, both amateur and pro... need to go? What about the coaching?

 

[Anarchism]

You don't trust Staios or any of Holland's other underlings? The scouting staffs, both amateur and pro... need to go? What about the coaching?

Obviously new GMs make their own decisions.

 

[Broberg Speed]

Obviously new GMs make their own decisions.

I was asking for your opinion on the organizations complete hockey operations since you don't seem to like the choices management has made.

 

[bobbythebrain]

Should we consider packaging Bouchard, McLeod, picks and prospects along with warm bodies if we could fill all the holes before the season gets underway?

We could have a championship quality team set to go from the get go but it would really piss off this board right off the bat.

They'd change their minds after they witness first-hand what a championship team looks like.

How many posts are you gonna make asking to trade Bouchard? Do you think repeating yourself over and over is somehow miraculously gonna change people's minds?

We get it, you have watched hockey for "a long time". This amount dedication and research qualifies you to make statements like Bouchard is nothing more than a PP specialist, Hyman does nothing but goal suck, McLeod sucks(despite stats saying otherwise), and my personal favourite....Quinn Hughes is a meh player.

Hey, how did your JP evaluatins turn out? Watching hockey for a long time I figured you nailed that one lol

 

[Anarchism]

I was asking for your opinion on the organizations complete hockey operations since you don't seem to like the choices management has made.

With respect to the coach ...Woodcroft has done the best he could with the soldiers he has.
However Vegas exposed further his slowness to adjust lines and strategy. Hopefully he has learned.
He seems very cerebral. A couple of our players have learned too..

 

[Broberg Speed]

How many posts are you gonna make asking to trade Bouchard? Do you think repeating yourself over and over is somehow miraculously gonna change people's minds?

We get it, you have watched hockey for "a long time". This amount dedication and research qualifies you to make statements like Bouchard is nothing more than a PP specialist, Hyman does nothing but goal suck, McLeod sucks(despite stats saying otherwise), and my personal favourite....Quinn Hughes is a meh player.

Hey, how did your JP evaluatins turn out? Watching hockey for a long time I figured you nailed that one lol

Good morning, nice time for some fabrication huh bobby.

With respect to the coach ...Woodcroft has done the best he could with the soldiers he has.
However Vegas exposed further his slowness to adjust lines and strategy. Hopefully he has learned.
He seems very cerebral. A couple of our players have learned too..

His mannerisms trouble me. I think he might be an android.

 

[bucks_oil]

Ken Holland inherited a team that was wading-pool deep and cap f***ed to Tuesday. A team that missed the playoffs twice in a row. A team that would immediately lose its under-priced top defenseman to a career-ending injury at 28 years old, which would put them into LTIR for four years. A team that based its top contracts around the idea of the cap going up, only for a pandemic to induce a three-year flat cap. A team that already had the challenge of being the Edmonton Oilers. And he's done a very good job with it despite all that IMO.

The Oilers have gone from a team that was pushing Ty Rattie and Alex Chiasson in the top six to a team that has Kane, Nuge, Hyman and Brown on a collective AAV of 16.5M dollars. It's the best top-six group in the league and they just put up one of the highest-scoring seasons in modern NHL history. Their bottom six, still a work in progress, just finished the year with 10+ goals each. At the time he started, it could politely be described as a group of non-NHL players.

The Oilers are identifying pro players far better than they have in decades. They're developing later picks into actual, promising young players. I don't think the Oilers have been a more functional organization since the 1980s. Seriously.

"The Oilers aren't good enough" Yes, they are. They've lost to a Colorado team at the height of their possible power which immediately lost half of its forward depth to the cap. They lost to a Vegas team running a 96M dollar roster (and gave it a better fight than anyone), and even that series turned on a goalie injury and a hot back-up.

No team is without flaws on July 1 in a flat cap. The Knights gave away Reilly Smith for nothing just to become cap compliant. Boston just lost so much talent. Toronto shuffled Bunting, O'Reilly and Holl for Bertuzzi, Domi and Klingberg. Tampa had to let Killorn walk. Florida replaced Gudas with Ekman-Larsson. Colorado added two players with negative contracts in order to rebuild some of its depth semi-affordably. The Wild are the same team pretty much completely. *THESE ARE THE OTHER GOOD TEAMS*

These are the good times. You can say "should have won the Cup" or "the Cup is the only success". I get it, I do, but you're calling a B+ job an F because it isn't an A and you're missing the good times. The times when we know the Oilers go into a season as maybe one of seven teams most people wouldn't blink at winning the Cup. The times where the Oilers make the playoffs with home ice advantage for 4 straight years. The times where the Oilers have their handcuffs off at the deadline.

100% agree...

Holland has done a lot with a little. There have been bets that haven't cashed (Campbell), but en masse he has completely rebuilt the team and we enter the year:
1) A favorite
2) In decent shape (finally) to add at the deadline given we are out of LTIR jail

It's a real shame we don't have another year left on each of Draisaitl and McDavid's contracts, because having a 3-4 year window (vs 2-3) given where the cap is headed, and finally being out from Chia's cap mistakes would be huge.

But we really are reasonably set up for the next two seasons (pending Bouchard's contract)...

And anyone with half an understanding of the cap knew that this coming year and next were Holland's first realistic chances to maximize our roster space and go "all in". (I say that noting that we STILL have $1.9M in Chia-mistakes on our cap)

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Its July 4th. I'm going to tell you the same thing my kids struggle with... have patience.

I don't suspect the team will be drastically different by the time the first game is played. Unfortunately Holland bungled the cap hard with two extremely questionable contracts to important players. He's obviously counting on Campbell to bounce back and I think he can at least not be the worst goalie the franchise has seen.

This team can win the Stanley Cup, but unfortunately Vegas exposed the same warts that have plagued us in previous years: Vanishing depth, suspect defense, and questionable goaltending. We're 8 years into McDavid and we've not won more than 8 playoff games in a year. Patience only goes so far, and we're quite a bit deep into Holland's tenure.

That being said I really didn't expect much movement this offseason. The team is tight to the cap and we have very few assets of worth. I can understand the frustration from the fanbase because it definitely feels like we blew probably our best chance to win it all, and no, losing to the Cup champs for the second straight year means little to me. Second place is still second place. Let's hope that's not the case come next June.

Get back to me when these players turn into bonafide contributing NHLers.

McDavid makes the Oilers drafting seem a lot better than it really is. We have nothing to show for the 2016 draft at all.

 

[Broberg Speed]

I don't suspect the team will be drastically different by the time the first game is played. Unfortunately Holland bungled the cap hard with two extremely questionable contracts to important players. He's obviously counting on Campbell to bounce back and I think he can at least not be the worst goalie the franchise has seen.

This team can win the Stanley Cup, but unfortunately Vegas exposed the same warts that have plagued us in previous years: Vanishing depth, suspect defense, and questionable goaltending. We're 8 years into McDavid and we've not won more than 8 playoff games in a year. Patience only goes so far, and we're quite a bit deep into Holland's tenure.

That being said I really didn't expect much movement this offseason. The team is tight to the cap and we have very few assets of worth. I can understand the frustration from the fanbase because it definitely feels like we blew probably our best chance to win it all, and no, losing to the Cup champs for the second straight year means little to me. Second place is still second place. Let's hope that's not the case come next June.


McDavid makes the Oilers drafting seem a lot better than it really is. We have nothing to show for the 2016 draft at all.

same, it's very disheartening