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

[Jimmi McJenkins]

I don't know what he costs, but I'm honestly fine with a Skinner/Gibson combo, I also think you could convince the Ducks to eat 50% and then maybe Columbus to eat the other 50%, that won't be cheap, but fits the team nicely, imo.

The other thing getting Gibson does is it lets you walk away from Skinner if that's where they numbers sit at the end of his deal. You have Rodrigue (or others) in the system and Gibson will still have a year left.

Plus I still believe there's more goalie left in Gibson beyond what he's shown on those bad Ducks teams.

 

[soothsayer]

I trust him more than a tandem of Skinner and Pickard.

They cannot head into the playoffs with both of them as their goalies.

Whether it's an upgrade on Skinner or a better backup to push him more, they can't just stand pat in net.

I am pretty much of the same opinion, only I think either they have to upgrade goaltending or they have to upgrade the defense.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me three times . . . Skinner has shit the bed two playoffs in a row. And I know people like to say how well he played against Dallas and that the Oilers made it to game 7 of the finals. But I would remind those people just how effing close the Oilers were to losing to Vancouver, and that was almost entirely due to Skinner's horrific play. You run that series again, and the Oilers probably don't make it through. Not to mention, Vancouver's leading scorer had to miss game 7 due to a freak illness.

Anyways, I think it's reasonable to expect Skinner to struggle again in the playoffs. So, they need to provide significant run support on the defensive end. Imo, the Oilers need to head into the playoffs as the best defensive team in the league.

Either that or they need to upgrade a goalie, and I think the writing is on the wall that they have no intention to go that route.

 

[VeteranPresence]

IMO we need an upgrade on Stetcher to round out the D. Stetcher would be a damn solid #7 and you need depth to win in this league. That said we also need a goaltending upgrade. No doubt about it.

A 4D, a goalie, and a 3C. That should be all be achievable but Stan needs to start right the hell now. The prices are only going to go up closer to the deadline and we need to try and take some of the pressure off McDrai every night ASAP by building out our depth.

O'Reilly
Akey
Savoie (for someone with term)

EDM 1st 2025/26
STL 2nd 2025
STL 3rd 2025
EDM 2nd 2026

We have the assets let's go spend them.

 

[TheNumber4]

I am pretty much of the same opinion, only I think either they have to upgrade goaltending or they have to upgrade the defense.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me three times . . . Skinner has shit the bed two playoffs in a row. And I know people like to say how well he played against Dallas and that the Oilers made it to game 7 of the finals. But I would remind those people just how effing close the Oilers were to losing to Vancouver, and that was almost entirely due to Skinner's horrific play. You run that series again, and the Oilers probably don't make it through. Not to mention, Vancouver's leading scorer had to miss game 7 due to a freak illness.

Anyways, I think it's reasonable to expect Skinner to struggle again in the playoffs. So, they need to provide significant run support on the defensive end. Imo, the Oilers need to head into the playoffs as the best defensive team in the league.

Either that or they need to upgrade a goalie, and I think the writing is on the wall that they have no intention to go that route.

So we should discount the series we won (Dallas, Kings) but consider the series we almost lost (Vancouver)? You know what another word for “almost losing” is? Winning.

For as much as we want to focus on Skinner blowing it in games 2 and 3 in Van. He still rebounded in Games 6 and 7. And Picks held the fort for Games 4 and 5.

There can be an argument made that the experience of getting to a game 7 finals should have the team more mentally prepared to do it better again the next time around. We’ve see this play out with Pitts losing their first visit to the SCFs and other teams as well. We use that experience argument for the players and assume the lessons they’ve received from that will have them be better. That argument can also be made for Skinner.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

A 4D, a goalie, and a 3C. That should be all be achievable but Stan needs to start right the hell now. The prices are only going to go up closer to the deadline and we need to try and take some of the pressure off McDrai every night ASAP by building out our depth.

O'Reilly
Akey
Savoie (for someone with term)

EDM 1st 2025/26
STL 2nd 2025
STL 3rd 2025
EDM 2nd 2026

We have the assets let's go spend them.

IF it's true that we are unsure of Kane's status and how it will affect our cap we will have to wait until the bitter end of trade deadline to maximize space. Let's hope that we don't end up getting to choose from a bunch of duds at that point because the market has been picked over.

 

[belair]

IMO we need an upgrade on Stetcher to round out the D. Stetcher would be a damn solid #7 and you need depth to win in this league. That said we also need a goaltending upgrade. No doubt about it.

I don't disagree, but it's also one of those things that can wait until 3:00pm of the deadline. Stecher and Emberson have more than held up their end of the bargain this year.

 

[soothsayer]

So we should discount the series we won (Dallas, Kings) but consider the series we almost lost (Vancouver)? You know what another word for “almost losing” is? Winning.

For as much as we want to focus on Skinner blowing it in games 2 and 3 in Van. He still rebounded in Games 6 and 7. And Picks held the fort for Games 4 and 5.

There can be an argument made that the experience of getting to a game 7 finals should have the team more mentally prepared to do it better again the next time around. We’ve see this play out with Pitts losing their first visit to the SCFs and other teams as well. We use that experience argument for the players and assume the lessons they’ve received from that will have them be better. That argument can also be made for Skinner.

I think you just have to appreciate how badly Skinner played against Vancouver. With average goaltending, the Oilers take that series in 5, maybe 6.

And I don't think you can count on the Oilers having a historically good PK and PP again in the playoffs. Last year wasn't a baseline; they need to get better. Because for every Pittsburg or Florida, there is a Nashville and San Jose.

I'm not saying they can't win the cup with Skinner. But if they are going to ride or die with him, they need to build a 2022 Avalanche or 2010 Black Hawks level of team around him. On a positive note, I think the Oilers are close to having that caliber of team--just a few pieces away.

 

[SupremeTeam16]

IMO we need an upgrade on Stetcher to round out the D. Stetcher would be a damn solid #7 and you need depth to win in this league. That said we also need a goaltending upgrade. No doubt about it.

Yeah getting an upgrade on Stetcher to a legit top 4 defender will greatly improve the depth and adding a veteran goalie like Quick or Talbot to be 1B and this team is an absolute wagon. They can be patient on their adds though, no need to rush into a still developing market.

 

[TheNumber4]

I think you just have to appreciate how badly Skinner played against Vancouver. With average goaltending, the Oilers take that series in 5, maybe 6.

And I don't think you can count on the Oilers having a historically good PK and PP again in the playoffs. Last year wasn't a baseline; they need to get better. Because for every Pittsburg or Florida, there is a Nashville and San Jose.

I'm not saying they can't win the cup with Skinner. But if they are going to ride or die with him, they need to build a 2022 Avalanche or 2010 Black Hawks level of team around him. On a positive note, I think the Oilers are close to having that caliber of team--just a few pieces away.

Or maybe we lose to Dallas in 7. Dallas had found another gear in Game 6, outshot us like 30-10. We had no business winning that game, and who knows what happens in Game 7 with them gaining back the momentum in that series. The argument can be made from the other side of the coin too, it’s really just a half glass full vs half empty thing.

Maybe they won’t be historically good. But with the mostly the same perssonnel and the same coaching staff. We can expect them to be still very good. There’s no guarantees in this league, but that’s a bet any team would make continuing and not consider an issue.

That said, yes i agree we need to of course upgrade the roster and increase our chances. I’m not even against an upgrade on Picks, and do think a challenge to Skinner as 1A would be prudent. We also for sure need an upgrade at 4RHD. Emberson’s ever improving solid D can handle a 3rd pair role. And Stecher would be great depth as a number 7. But we need an impact maker on the 2nd pair, try to emulate what we have with the 1st pair in Ekholm-Bouch as much as we can. Forward depths are fine for the most part, but production is still lagging, that’s something to keep an eye on up to the deadline to see if we need to add more in that area.

 

[CanadasTeam99]

Gibson just put up a .973 against the best offense in the NHL with a D corps in front of him that sucks balls.

He wants to play here in Edmonton too.

How f***ing sure are you that Stuart Skinner is really the next coming of Grant Fuhr? Because if you can add this guy for 50% retained (better for Anaheim to only pay 50% of his salary instead of 100%) it would give you a shit-ton more insurance for winning a Cup in McDavid's prime years.

3.2 million is not a lot of money, we're paying Henrique and Skinner about the same to play bottom 6 roles.

Yes he had some bad seasons in Anaheim after getting shelled for *years* there, there's no living modern day goalie who doesn't have bad seasons on really bad teams. Carey Price had some and he generally still had at least OK d-corps for most of his time there. Asking a goalie to be .910+ every year on a bottom 5 team is a ridiculous ask, no one can do that without breaking at least for a period.

We have to lower our expectations on skinner. He makes 2.5 million or so

*looks up sub million goalies like dostal, lankinen, etc*

Who knows what Edmonton is doing. They could be looking for a skinner partner. They just don't ever talk about it.

We missed the boat on the guy who would have blown skinner out of the water and pickard. Blackwood.

Nevermind askarov being available too

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

There are alot of options and talk, but unless they try Rodrigue and he sticks, I suspect overpaying the Red Wings for Alex Lyon might be the best way to go.

By overpaying, I mean like moving a 2nd and a 3rd for soon to be UFA Lyons.

 

[McTonyBrar]

Poor Arthur Kaliyev

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

The only other goalie besides Skinner we have seen behind Knobs team is a guy that was sent to the AHL for 6 years. We need to see what another actual NHL goalie can do behind this team.

 

[McDoused]

I don't see why Anaheim wouldn't be willing to eat dead cap for the next 2 years if they are getting assets back and shipping out a distressed asset. They could likely start a bit of a bidding war if they retained 50%. Also, as previously posted, there are a ton of teams that will need to take on contracts in order to meet the cap floor, I don't see finding a 3rd team being that big of a hurdle. Yes, it does mean shipping out more future assets which is a risky game, but we've seen plenty of Cup contenders do this and they don't look the worse for ware (Tampa and Vegas immediately come to mind).

Pat Verbeek is going to have to go to his owner and convince him that moving Gibson is worth it. They will have to spend 6.4M in real money (retaining 50%) for Gibson to not play for them anymore. They need to get something back that can justify that cost.

Unfortunately that's the way they are going to think, instead of looking at it as a way to save 6.4M and acquire assets.

 

[Ibanez]

Was listening to GYB this morning and couldn’t believe my ears. Praising Pickard without qualification. “Keeps doing what he needs to do for the team to win, keeps getting the job done, one of the best backups in the league, etc). This is all great when almost all of his opponents are terrible (believe he’s only played against two playoff teams this year), but if we end up with injury or underperformance from Skinner we are truly f***ed if he has to play any more than a one off against a real good team.

Gives me grey hair because you kind of just know that’s how the organization perceives him too.

Actual footage of oiler mgmt offices

 

[McTonyBrar]

Certainly playing like it.

Well if you think this guy is a top 4 and can help lead us to the Final, I commend you. I'm glad the Oilers don't see it that way

 

[Ibanez]

I am pretty much of the same opinion, only I think either they have to upgrade goaltending or they have to upgrade the defense.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me three times . . . Skinner has shit the bed two playoffs in a row. And I know people like to say how well he played against Dallas and that the Oilers made it to game 7 of the finals. But I would remind those people just how effing close the Oilers were to losing to Vancouver, and that was almost entirely due to Skinner's horrific play. You run that series again, and the Oilers probably don't make it through. Not to mention, Vancouver's leading scorer had to miss game 7 due to a freak illness.

Anyways, I think it's reasonable to expect Skinner to struggle again in the playoffs. So, they need to provide significant run support on the defensive end. Imo, the Oilers need to head into the playoffs as the best defensive team in the league.

Either that or they need to upgrade a goalie, and I think the writing is on the wall that they have no intention to go that route.

The Oilers have been fooling us for over a decade when it comes to goalies lol

 

[OilynutEsquire]

Trading for a goalie before seeing what we have in Rodrigue would be classic Oilers. Maybe Bowman is smarter then the last few GMs. Hopefully he is but I have my doubts.

 

[Ibanez]

Poor Arthur Kaliyev

I don’t think he’s going to help the rangers much. Man what an implosion…

 

[VeteranPresence]

Trading for a goalie before seeing what we have in Rodrigue would be classic Oilers. Maybe Bowman is smarter then the last few GMs. Hopefully he is but I have my doubts.

Bowman has the perfect opportunity to do that against Pittsburgh or Chicago later this week. We won't face another non-playoff team until the Sabres on the 25th. Let's see if he is actually that smart/proactive, or if he'll waste the chance to do it again.

 

[TheNumber4]

I don't know what he costs, but I'm honestly fine with a Skinner/Gibson combo, I also think you could convince the Ducks to eat 50% and then maybe Columbus to eat the other 50%, that won't be cheap, but fits the team nicely, imo.

The other thing getting Gibson does is it lets you walk away from Skinner if that's where they numbers sit at the end of his deal. You have Rodrigue (or others) in the system and Gibson will still have a year left.

Plus I still believe there's more goalie left in Gibson beyond what he's shown on those bad Ducks teams.

What’s the closest comp? The Markstrom deal?

Markstrom had 2 years left on his 6M deal. Markstrom was sitting on at a .905 at the time of trade.

Gibson has 2 years left at 6.4M. Gibson is sitting at a .914 on the year.

Markstrom (without retention) cost 1st round pick plus Bahl.

So Gibson would be something like 1st plus Emberson. Plus what a 2nd + 3rd if you want him at 50%.

Seems pricey if you going to use him in tandem with Skinner.

 

[CupofOil]

Well, he did have 2 goals in the playoffs, so he did bring DOUBLE what Corey Perry did - but was he worth 4 times as much against this years cap? We could have signed someone to less than either of them who probably would have scored more than both of them.

Brown has been good this year and yet he still isn’t worth 4 million dollars.



Our deadline space now is like 1,000,000 based on today’s roster. Because we have guys like Josh Brown hanging around sucking up cap. We can maybe afford to add some depth scrubs at this rate.

Brown's caphit is $1m, there's nothing this current management could have done about the bonus, go yell at Ken Holland who is no longer employed by the Oilers for that. Would you rather not have Brown who was a key player in the playoffs and has been greatly outproducing his contract this season for the sake of saving $1m? What exactly is the complaint here?

Josh Brown's caphit is buriable as has been pointed out to you many times so it has no impact on the cap if they send him down. There's nothing wrong with having a vet like that on the farm and a callup in case of multiple injuries at a buriable caphit number.

 

[bucks_oil]

A 4D, a goalie, and a 3C. That should be all be achievable but Stan needs to start right the hell now. The prices are only going to go up closer to the deadline and we need to try and take some of the pressure off McDrai every night ASAP by building out our depth.

O'Reilly
Akey
Savoie (for someone with term)

EDM 1st 2025/26
STL 2nd 2025
STL 3rd 2025
EDM 2nd 2026

We have the assets let's go spend them.

Agree on the priorities (I'd say 4C though, I'm still fine with Henrique at 3C, especially with Kane giving us an extra LW... so RNH could also 3C).

The problem is that every game day we delay, we are accruing more deadline spending power.

We always talk about AAV cap hit, but your cap is actually calculated based on the sum of your active game-day rosters... we were ~$800K under the annual cap at the start of the year, so essentially we are saving about ~$10K/game day (ie 800K divided by 82 games).

So the later we delay, the more game days of $$$ we accrue. Which is a bigger factor in trades than the rising prices IMO. Plus... I don't see the logic in prices rising toward the deadline, more teams fall out, fewer buyers, more sellers.

 

[TheNumber4]

Trading for a goalie before seeing what we have in Rodrigue would be classic Oilers. Maybe Bowman is smarter then the last few GMs. Hopefully he is but I have my doubts.

Both Rodrigue and Pickard are waiver eligible. So that does put some risk on testing Rodrigue out. Once you bring him up, you have to be ready to lose him if he doesn’t stick.

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

Well if you think this guy is a top 4 and can help lead us to the Final, I commend you. I'm glad the Oilers don't see it that way

Ya I think Stecher is going to “lead us to a final.” Lol oh lord because that’s even close to what I said.

I do think we need to add a D to get through the western conference but the Oilers have played cup level defence this season and that’s just a fact. You can whine about Stecher all you want but he hasn’t been a problem…