Rumor: Rumors & Proposals Thread | Where's The Beef?

[TheNumber4]

Skinner also had a real bad playoffs.

I think people want to replace Picard with a goalie like Blackwood to run with Skinner, not replace Skinner with Blackwood.

When Skinner is playing well and confident, it looks like hes wearing velcro with how the pucks stick to him, but when hes not playing like that, he looks like a guy who's never worn skates before.


I dont disagree with the staff.

Theres a reason Picard gets as many as starts as possible.

I like what Picard is done, but he really should be in the AHL with Rodrigue.

It’s well established that Stu loses his steam after 3-4 good games. So we got a back up for that very reason and are using it to successful results.

Picard was the best AHL goalie right before call up wasn’t he? You could argue he’s too good to be in the AHL. And not good enough to be a Starter. So slotting him as a backup, really isn’t that crazy of an idea. Especially considering he’s proven up to that task for a season and half and playoff run already.

 

[Trafalgar Sadge Law]

Regarding the Oilers vs Avs I think the Oilers core is just straight up better full stop. McDavid clears MacKinnon, Draisaitl clears Rantanen, Makar is better than Bouchard but the difference is negligible when Bouchard is on his game (see: last year's playoff Bouchard), I would take some of our tier 2 pieces over the Avs' too (Ekholm over Toews, RNH over Kadri etc, Hyman isn't as good as Landeskog but it's not a big gap either). Even our bad contract core guy Nurse is many tiers above the Avs' bad contract guy at the time in Erik Johnson. The difference between our teams is that the Avs absolutely loaded up their supporting cast with value contracts: reclamation projects, young players, or veteran guys close to league minimum: Compher, Nichushkin, Lehkonen, Newhook, Byram, O'Connor, Cogliano, Helm etc. We have a few like Podkolzin, Kapanen, Janmark, Emberson, but it pales in comparison to what the Avs had and the two players who should've filled these roles for us best were Holloway and Broberg. Instead we've loaded ourselves up with the worst kind of player in the salary cap era: mid-tier high AAV veterans with low likelihood of improving, let alone outperforming their contract value like Arvidsson, Henrique, Skinner, Brown (lets be real this dude is basically a 4 million dollar player still trying to make up for last season).

 

[OilerTyler]

Skinner also had a real bad playoffs.

I think people want to replace Picard with a goalie like Blackwood to run with Skinner, not replace Skinner with Blackwood.

When Skinner is playing well and confident, it looks like hes wearing velcro with how the pucks stick to him, but when hes not playing like that, he looks like a guy who's never worn skates before.

By what metric? He struggled at the start of the Vancouver series but was really good in the other three rounds and downright elite in the Dallas series.

 

[Mr Positive]

Wow I just saw the Blackwood extension. If he does well then it's a good bet. If he doesn't then he becomes their Campbell.

It's a good bet if they absolutely NEED the extra million or whatever it would cost to wait and see if he's really this good. I'd think the extra cost would be worth it.

 

[TheNumber4]

The Blackwood deal could be a good bet. I’m just surprised the Avs couldn’t get him for less. He’s a guy who hasn’t found a home in years and only small stretches of good play.

It’s almost like any goalie that shows a pulse for a 3 months is going to get paid in that $5M+ range these days.

I’ll take 2.75M for as long as we can before the market shifts from that. We aren’t in elite goaltender tier of teams, but are in great bang for your buck tier.

 

[McTonyBrar]

Skinner also had a real bad playoffs.

I think people want to replace Picard with a goalie like Blackwood to run with Skinner, not replace Skinner with Blackwood.

When Skinner is playing well and confident, it looks like hes wearing velcro with how the pucks stick to him, but when hes not playing like that, he looks like a guy who's never worn skates before.


I dont disagree with the staff.

Theres a reason Picard gets as many as starts as possible.

I like what Picard is done, but he really should be in the AHL with Rodrigue.

I agree with you. Maybe we should’ve let Pickard go in the Summer and gone after someone like Lankinen.

Rodrigue is also as close to NHL ready as he can be. His numbers only are getting better at this point

It’s well established that Stu loses his steam after 3-4 good games. So we got a back up for that very reason and are using it to successful results.

Picard was the best AHL goalie right before call up wasn’t he? You could argue he’s too good to be in the AHL. And not good enough to be a Starter. So slotting him as a backup, really isn’t that crazy of an idea. Especially considering he’s proven up to that task for a season and half and playoff run already.

lol it’s been 9 games and I’ve seen Stu only lose steam in only one of them

 

[TheNumber4]

I agree with you. Maybe we should’ve let Pickard go in the Summer and gone after someone like Lankinen.

Rodrigue is also as close to NHL ready as he can be. His numbers only are getting better at this point


lol it’s been 9 games and I’ve seen Stu only lose steam in only one of them

Which tracks right? 4 good games, 1 bad, 3 good games = 9 games

 

[Trafalgar Sadge Law]

Put me on team "give Rodrigue a shot". 0.912, 0.916 and 0.923 the past 3 seasons on some meh AHL squads, and was at worst comparable with Pickard's performance down there numbers wise. At worst he sucks for a few games and we send him back down, and we'll have a better idea of his current level and he'll know what he needs to work on to succeed. Best case scenario is that he catches fire and sticks.

 

[McJadeddog]

Skinner is .923 his last 9 games.

Blackwood is .920 his last 9 games.

Picard is .914 in that same time span.

I really don’t think a “panic” goaltending move is happening any time soon, just like last year.

Our goalies perform just fine when the Team is playing well. GMs just don’t make moves to address non-issues.

I don't think Skinner is the guy that will win us a cup, I hope I'm wrong obviously though, as Oilers mgmt is very clearly not going to make a goalie move. They are going to live/die with Skinner.

 

[TheNumber4]

I don't think Skinner is the guy that will win us a cup, I hope I'm wrong obviously though, as Oilers mgmt is very clearly not going to make a goalie move. They are going to live/die with Skinner.

Lived 15 out of 16 wins last year. We’ll be more mature this year as a group. We should have more scoring ability. And Skinner will have another year under his belt. If we were 99.7% of the way to a Cup last year, I don’t see how we don’t have that chance or better this year.

 

[Took a pill in Sbisa]

Lol what are you yapping about. You're the one that said Gibson sucked in Anaheim while other goalies in Anaheim didn't and I just provided you with the information that they sucked slightly less but still sucked non the less. Lol apparently 19 games isn't long enough in a season to decide whether or not .888 sv percentage is considered bad. I'm not even advocating for Gibson but as usual your posts remains stupid.

Except you didn't prove that the other goalies sucked, you just found a couple instances over the past 5 years where his backups played as bad as Gibson for a stretch when they were at their worst.

 

[Trafalgar Sadge Law]

Lived 15 out of 16 wins last year. We’ll be more mature this year as a group. We should have more scoring ability. And Skinner will have another year under his belt. If we were 99.7% of the way to a Cup last year, I don’t see how we don’t have that chance or better this year.

More scoring ability is... certainly optimistic... You must have a lot more faith in Jeff Skinner than most lol. We've most likely already seen the career years of guys like RNH and Hyman who are both on the wrong side of 30. And the guy we were most hopeful of to make up for that decline plays on St. Louis.

 

[Fourier]

Last year Cayden Primeau was the hot commodity. He is now about to go on waivers. There are two types of goalies in the NHL. Great ones and question marks. And the former is a very small cohort. Now some of the question marks are definitely better than the others but you are still tossing the dice when you sign them.

 

[SupremeTeam16]

Put me on team "give Rodrigue a shot". 0.912, 0.916 and 0.923 the past 3 seasons on some meh AHL squads, and was at worst comparable with Pickard's performance down there numbers wise. At worst he sucks for a few games and we send him back down, and we'll have a better idea of his current level and he'll know what he needs to work on to succeed. Best case scenario is that he catches fire and sticks.

It seems like a good time for it. Team is healthy, playing well defensively and finding their scoring legs a bit. We play a lot in January so it would be a good time to get him into at least 3-4 games and see what he can do.

 

[Took a pill in Sbisa]

More scoring ability is... certainly optimistic... You must have a lot more faith in Jeff Skinner than most lol. We've most likely already seen the career years of guys like RNH and Hyman who are both on the wrong side of 30. And the guy we were most hopeful of to make up for that decline plays on St. Louis.

We're pretty much in the same position as Florida last year. Lost in the cup finals, didn't lose any of the biggest pieces over the offseason, and running it back with the same core that got us there last year. Florida didn't have a Broberg or Holloway type addition to their team over their offseason either

 

[TheNumber4]

More scoring ability is... certainly optimistic... You must have a lot more faith in Jeff Skinner than most lol. We've most likely already seen the career years of guys like RNH and Hyman who are both on the wrong side of 30. And the guy we were most hopeful of to make up for that decline plays on St. Louis.

Compared to the complete playoff offensive black holes that was Foegele/Mcleod. Yeh I’ll take my chances with guys who have proven to be able to score their whole careers. Plus we got Podz/Kapanen that could step up in a big way. I think Brown/Janmark are on a different level this year too, and they’ll drive Henrique.

So far we haven’t seen it yet, but in the new year I bet alot of these guys find their stride.

 

[Trafalgar Sadge Law]

We're pretty much in the same position as Florida last year. Lost in the cup finals, didn't lose any of the biggest pieces over the offseason, and running it back with the same core that got us there last year. Florida didn't have a Broberg or Holloway type addition to their team over their offseason either

They didn't have an unexpected loss of an Anton Lundell or Eetu Luotsarinen either though and their team was on average about 2 years younger than ours', less core players above age 30 etc. Doesn't mean Oilers can't win a Cup since McDavid, Draisaitl, and Bouchard are game breakers on a level that Florida can't match, but we made it significantly more difficult for ourselves for no reason.

Compared to the complete playoff offensive black holes that was Foegele/Mcleod. Yeh I’ll take my chances with guys who have proven to be able to score their whole careers. Plus we got Podz/Kapanen that could step up in a big way. I think Brown/Janmark are on a different level this year too, and they’ll drive Henrique.

So far we haven’t seen it yet, but in the new year I bet alot of these guys find their stride.

Ryan McLeod had a bad 2024 playoffs for sure but people are soon to forget he was by far our best depth forward during the 2021-22 playoff run. I have more faith in him getting back to that level or Holloway improving based on the flashes we saw last playoffs than I do in 30-35 year olds somehow finding the fountain of youth. I do like Podkolzin a lot but man, you can't tell me that you haven't fantasized about a Holloway-Draisaitl-Podkolzin line.

 

[hockeyguy0022]

I don't think skinner is "the guy" but options are non-existent and others are also looking for the same thing.

Maybe you could get a goalie out of Toronto for Jeff Skinner (Not Matt Murray) or a D man for that matter.

Vladar will be a hot commodity at the deadline, but I doubt Craig trades with you guys.

As for cheap and possibly better... I mean if you really stretch, maybe Tokarski for free, but he's the same as skinner, streaky but can by lights out as well (or could be)

 

[FlameChampion]

Put me on team "give Rodrigue a shot". 0.912, 0.916 and 0.923 the past 3 seasons on some meh AHL squads, and was at worst comparable with Pickard's performance down there numbers wise. At worst he sucks for a few games and we send him back down, and we'll have a better idea of his current level and he'll know what he needs to work on to succeed. Best case scenario is that he catches fire and sticks.

The team has to start getting better at figuring out what we have in our farm system. Feels like we never really give these guys a chance. On other hand, it’s partially because our goaltending and defense don’t get injured much.

 

[GhostfaceWu]

Except you didn't prove that the other goalies sucked, you just found a couple instances over the past 5 years where his backups played as bad as Gibson for a stretch when they were at their worst.

Yeah that was the whole point of soundwaves argument you fool. Good to know the team at their worst argument only works when it supports your opinion.

 

[Messier11]

Agreee with many who don't think that Skinner is not the guy to take us to the promised land. Some of that his fault and I am sure some of that from the brainiac who is our goal coach. Watching Skinner meltdown a few games ago against Florida, the one thing that came to mind is that Skinner really likes the role of the village ho being on on his knees a lot. Too much. In contrast, Bob for Florida was more acrobatic and on his legs a lot. A stand up goalie.

Skinner has too much of a penchant for letting in bad goals. Yes, second goal of Game 7 should never have gone in. Zadorov's in round 2, also a no no. Having a meltdown in the middle of the playoffs, also a no no. Much like the Vegas series two years ago, he loses focus when we have a lead. The GWG the other day against Florida. Sorry, McDavid may do that to others, but that is McDavid. Zadorov is not McDavid. Those cannot go. Full stop. Those. Goals. Cannot. Go. In.

But I also find it hard to say much because I am not sure if Skinner is cut from the right cloth to take charge of his own destiny and skill. Bob was. One of the most telling things was that clip they showed from the Amazon series where Maurice is in the locker room telling them to shoot high. FFS, everyone knows what to do on him, which was also on display against against Florida recently.

So, that article that came out today that suggested Jonathan Quick....I would be all over that. Yes he is old, but he has a pretty decent 18 months in NY for the Rangers. Has won a Stanley Cup, and may be able to teach Skinner and Pickard and thing or two (not sure if we could keep Pickard). And veteran enough to tell out beloved goal coach to go have carnal relations with himself. Aaaannnnddd, his contract is low which should help our bean counters.

Not sure about defence, though. So many options, but we are low budget which is the sad thing about our team. We should not always have to bargain basement hunt.

Anyway, YMMV. But for a bang for your buck option, is there a better one?

 

[Took a pill in Sbisa]

Yeah that was the whole point of soundwaves argument you fool. Good to know the team at their worst argument only works when it supports your opinion.

You don't seem to understand the argument. The point was that Gibson was putting up poor numbers because he was playing for Anaheim. My point was that if you combine the numbers from all the other Ducks goalies over the past 4-5 years, they haven't been poor. They've been at least league average.
Gibson's have been poor. It's not a complicating argument.

If you can't reply without name-calling, it's probably best to just leave the discussion. No need for that on these boards.

 

[Zerotonine]

Can edmomton sign this Latvia goalie gesus fk what a beast of a game

 

[FlameChampion]

Colorado is actually built strikingly similar

#1 pick superstar - MacKinnon, McDavid
elite #2 picked in the top 10 - Rantanen, Draisaitl
#1 Dman picked in the top 10 - Makar, Bouchard
#1 and #2 picks from the 2011 draft - Landeskog, RNH
Big Dman acquisition by trade - Toews, Ekholm
Support forward acquisition - Lehkonen, Hyman
Playing a bit of moneyball with the goaltending and added a bad contract - Keumper, Skinner and Georgiev, Campbell

The biggest difference, besides a little more luck which is usually the difference between Cup winners and Cup runner-ups, is that the Avs had a little more depth up front (Kadri was probably the decider between the teams) and on defense on that 2022 team but besides that they were built very similarly.
I think this Oilers team can compare favorably with that Avs team with the depth up front now and with a Dman acquisition at the deadline.

Another similarity is that neither team drafted that great outside the 1st round.
Unfortunately the Oilers have that Avs head scout now. We'll see how that goes

The only difference is that Colorado got like double PP opportunities. Lol

Which would of been nice when our PP is historic

Mostly being sarcastic

 

[TheNumber4]

They didn't have an unexpected loss of an Anton Lundell or Eetu Luotsarinen either though and their team was on average about 2 years younger than ours', less core players above age 30 etc. Doesn't mean Oilers can't win a Cup since McDavid, Draisaitl, and Bouchard are game breakers on a level that Florida can't match, but we made it significantly more difficult for ourselves for no reason.

Ryan McLeod had a bad 2024 playoffs for sure but people are soon to forget he was by far our best depth forward during the 2021-22 playoff run. I have more faith in him getting back to that level or Holloway improving based on the flashes we saw last playoffs than I do in 30-35 year olds somehow finding the fountain of youth. I do like Podkolzin a lot but man, you can't tell me that you haven't fantasized about a Holloway-Draisaitl-Podkolzin line.

I liked Mcleod’s 200 ft game and thought there could be more offense there, but Mcleod was near invisible in the offensive end for us in the playoffs. Warren forgele has the yips and can’t complete a pass when the games get intense. Holloway already produced last playoffs and that should have been a clear signal he was a player.

That said in the playoffs, Henrique combined with the better offensive play of Janmark and Brown should out produce Mcleod. Anyone can out produce Foegele. And Skinner while hasn’t shown enough yet, still has a chance to make a big impact. With his skill level, I still say he does it. We shall see.