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

[Fixed to Ruin]

Assuming Klingberg comes in around league minimum it’s literally a no risk move. I don’t see the harm.

I see the harm in the playoffs when he makes an egregious turnover that leads to a goal against that loses us the game

 

[soothsayer]

If it's 1.15 or less there is zero risk, unless of course there is a no movement. Can still waive though if he is a disaster.

Prime Klingberg is exactly what this team needs with Nurse.

Iam sure Ekholm and Arvidsson have been on the phone.

My prediction: he comes in at higher price than anyone expected; the response is roundly, "wtf!"; he ends up outplaying his contract and is a positive force on the backend; Oilers win the cup.

 

[belair]

We're front runners to sign Klingberg.

BUT HES NOT EVEN TOP 4 LOL

He averaged 19 minutes in Dallas and 20+ in his short time in Toronto. That's pretty much top four. That's said, he doesn't PK and the PP role will be minimal. Just another warm body at this point.

 

[Forgot About Drai]

Assuming Klingberg comes in around league minimum it’s literally a no risk move. I don’t see the harm.

Yeah thats fine, but looking at him as potential top 4 guy and pairing with Nurse seems like it could cause some harm lol

 

[Fishy McScales]

I see the harm in the playoffs when he makes an egregious turnover that leads to a goal against that loses us the game

Holy catastrophizing Batman.

 

[Fixed to Ruin]

The best way to not support the Oilers average goaltending is by signing a mistake prone offensive defenseman.

Holy catastrophizing Batman.

Have you watched him play in the last 5 years?

 

[Fishy McScales]

The best way to not support the Oilers average goaltending is by signing a mistake prone offensive defenseman.



Have you watched him play in the last 5 years?

catastrophized, catastrophizing. to view or talk about (an event or situation) as worse than it actually is, or assume it will have the worst possible outcome; overreact: Stop catastrophizing and get on with your life!

 

[McTonyBrar]

If it's 1.15 or less there is zero risk, unless of course there is a no movement. Can still waive though if he is a disaster.

Prime Klingberg is exactly what this team needs with Nurse.

Iam sure Ekholm and Arvidsson have been on the phone.

But in the playoffs? No we need a better defender than him

 

[OilerTyler]

I see the harm in the playoffs when he makes an egregious turnover that leads to a goal against that loses us the game

Giving him a tryout in January doesn’t guarantee him minutes in the playoffs. If he’s not playing well we can waive him or simply not dress him.

 

[McTonyBrar]

I'm not surprised to see the panic at word of us signing him, but if his skating is anywhere close to what it used to be having a big rangy guy like that as a depth piece will be great to have.

Short of Kilngberg coming here and blowing the doors off the opportunity, I'd be stunned if it at all changed what they're planning on doing at the deadline.

The Klingberg back to the NHL bit did come out of left field

 

[Shanahanigans]

I think the Klingberg move telegraphs that the Oilers are looking at a LHD to play the right side in the playoffs, but if someone gets injured then they’d rather have him as insurance than Josh Brown. I’m pretty sure it’s a depth move and not a solution move.

 

[TheNumber4]

I would definitely either remove a 2nd/3rd or akey.

But keeping Savoie is huge

Yeh I think we can take those out to compete the deal too. It’s a cost I can stomach, Knowing it fills a pretty big hole for the next 2 years.

Moving forward:
Forward depths can ultimately be filled through free agency or waiver pick ups as we’ve seen this year. Just gotta make good/decent bets like Podz and Kap. Then you got Savoie, Philp, then Sam O Reilly coming.

The D core is taken care of with EK65 in the 4RHD hole and Emberson extended long term in for 3RHD.

 

[foshizzle]

Bouchard putting up less points and playing worse than last year should absolutely bring down his ask. I've taken classes on negotiations in business, and we will have to disagree about this one.

The Oilers aren't trying to lowball Bouchard. They are likely trying to get Bouchard to sign a maximum term contract. I wouldn't compare his situation to that of Broberg or Holloway. Both of those players were squeezed (which is what most GM's do to their RFA's) as offer sheets in the past have been rare. Going forward, the price of RFA's might tend to go up now and drive up their leverage in negotiations. For Bouchard you are looking at production and comparable on what it would cost to extend him on a long-term deal.

Disagreement is part of discussion forums! I appreciate the civil manner we are having this debate- thank you for that. My career is a large part negotiating. The difference is that the NHL is a vacuum and is different than other industries. It’s almost a fantasy world. I agree, in most situations, production increases/decreases contract value. In the NHL, teams prepay for potential and pay based on historical performance (sometimes overlooking recent performance). With Bouchard- his analytics are still excellent. According to Moneypuck, he still generates a ton of offence (he is 4th on the team behind Leon, Connor, Hyman). He also limits dangerous chances against. His scoring has dipped a bit this year- but he does have a strong record to fall back on. I think his next contract will not only be based on what the Oilers are willing to pay- but what they think “outside” offers will be. His agent will not be doing his job if he isn’t looking at all offers (or potential offers). That’s all I’m saying. I’m not convinced it’s Oilers v Bouchard in the board room- it’ll be Oilers v Bouchard + other teams potential offers

 

[K1984]

catastrophized, catastrophizing. to view or talk about (an event or situation) as worse than it actually is, or assume it will have the worst possible outcome; overreact: Stop catastrophizing and get on with your life!

Amen.

I feel like Josh Brown gets this treatment too. People pretend like its going to be a circus every time he's on the ice because they decided it would be back in July, but outside of one GA in Pittsburgh I can't think of a single other instance where he's even remotely hurt us. Until he gets 15+ mins per night (unlikely) and the risk exposure goes up he's basically just filling space and is completely inconsequential.

 

[foshizzle]

Unless you're also sending Bouch out the door, I don't see how Karlsson fits.

It's well proven he doesn't perform anywhere near his best when he's forced to share the offensive spotlight.

I’m not sure where you are getting this from. Not doubting you- but I don’t see any evidence of what you said.

I would absolutely love Oleksiak although idk much about his game. Can he move and transition the puck efficiently? That's the best partner Nurse needs for the pairing to be good.


Oh God, its Dustin Schwartz's golden child.

Wow- how many Schwartz’ guys are no longer in the NHL anymore. For gods sake- change the damn goalie coach

 

[TheNumber4]

Unless you're also sending Bouch out the door, I don't see how Karlsson fits.

It's well proven he doesn't perform anywhere near his best when he's forced to share the offensive spotlight.

Karlsson not at his best (his best is a 100 pt Norris winner), is still a 50-60 pt guy on a mediocre team. That’s still immense impact. And keep in mind we are talking about that impact at $5M per. And then consider how much better McD and Drai are to work with than Sid and Geno. There’s untapped potential here.

 

[oXo Cube]

Amen.

I feel like Josh Brown gets this treatment too. People pretend like its going to be a circus every time he's on the ice because they decided it would be back in July, but outside of one GA in Pittsburgh I can't think of a single other instance where he's even remotely hurt us. Until he gets 15+ mins per night (unlikely) and the risk exposure goes up he's basically just filling space and is completely inconsequential.

To be fair, Knoblach only played Brown 6:23 on Tuesday. A player you don't trust in tight games hurts you indirectly by shouldering heavier loads onto players higher up the lineup.

Of course, using this same logic it's clear the coaching staff doesn't trust Stetcher that much either which is probably a not small part of the reason Klingberg is a target at all.

 

[TheNumber4]

I'd rather they sign Klingberg at league min to replace Josh Brown than trade a 1st rounder for Ristolainen, that would be a brutal trade. If they're trading the 2026 pick they need to get someone like Ratmus for it.

Here’s the problem with trading for Risto. Next year we’ll be asking ourselves once again for a puck mover to replace Risto, like we did for Ceci.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

To be fair, Knoblach only played Brown 6:23 on Tuesday. A player you don't trust in tight games hurts you indirectly by shouldering heavier loads onto players higher up the lineup.

Of course, using this same logic it's clear the coaching staff doesn't trust Stetcher that much either which is probably a not small part of the reason Klingberg is a target at all.

how many 6/7 defenseman do we need though?
J. Brown, Stetcher and Klingberg? just a waste of a roster spot

 

[K1984]

To be fair, Knoblach only played Brown 6:23 on Tuesday. A player you don't trust in tight games hurts you indirectly by shouldering heavier loads onto players higher up the lineup.

Of course, using this same logic it's clear the coaching staff doesn't trust Stetcher that much either which is probably a not small part of the reason Klingberg is a target at all.

I wouldn't want Stecher or Brown to even sniff the playoffs, but I think Kilgberg can hold water in spot duty if we needed him to.

 

[ManofSteel55]

I think the Klingberg move telegraphs that the Oilers are looking at a LHD to play the right side in the playoffs, but if someone gets injured then they’d rather have him as insurance than Josh Brown. I’m pretty sure it’s a depth move and not a solution move.

It also just might signal that Oilers management knows that if Bouchard goes down, we have nobody to run the powerplay from the blueline.

 

[oilers4life5]

I welcome Kling at a cheap price. Try him out. If he is not where he needs to be ditch him. No harm no foul. I think he will surprise some folks.

 

[McJadeddog]

Play in the top 4? What has he done in the recent past that suggests that?

Nothing, the answer is nothing, lol. He isn't a "top 4" guy anymore, but he might be better than playing Stecher in that spot though, which is really what we need to be thinking about.

Ek/Bouch
Nurse/Kling
Kulak/Embs

That isn't terrible. It's not great, and I would feel better with Kling playing in the bottom pair, or maybe not at all (as the 7th guy), but that could still happen at the TDL. Kling would cost nothing other than cap space, so as long as its near league minimum, I don't see the risk. If he sucks, nothing lost, send him to minors. If he gets more than league min, its an entirely different argument of course.

If we can add him at league min, and then add a REAL 2nd pairing guy at the TDL, that would be a tidy piece of work to improve our D and get ready for the playoffs. We'd have a decently solid top-7.

 

[TheNumber4]

Karlsson's final 2 salary years are $9 million and $7.5 million respectively. A 50% retention money involved is actually $7,177,500 over two years ($3,915,000 + $3,262,500). So the hard dollars involved are less.

Theoretically the Penguins could approach this as a cap dump that would free money used on a position redundancy with Letang and on a team heading to another missed playoffs. Reallocate the cap savings to retool around other roster positions.

Or a 3-way trade scenario as I've posited before with C-Bus having $19 million cap space with the Gaudreau exemption. They could absorb the 50% cap retention while applying the cap space difference between Karlsson's real dollars salary and $11.5 annual cap hit. In what is projected to be a big, high annual growth with the cap, a prospective budget team with C-Bus could apply the cap difference to their own need to keep within the league parameters.

There's a reasonable business case for all three teams involved. On the Oilers front, the Kings game reinforces a real valuable role Karlsson would play on this playoff team. He could be deployed as a second puck transportation option/decoy to give McDavid more room as the primary carrier moving into stacked neutral zone and offensive blue line aggressive PK deployment. I'd moved Karlsson into left flank PP1 replacing Nugent Hopkins to give a right-shot shooter option and elite game processor who would force PK deployment off their overload on Bouchard at top of umbrella.

Then there's the most important piece of an EV elite puck mover for quick, efficient and lethal zone exit work to Draisaitl's Line 2 and Oiler support scoring lines. His skill would help to blunt hard, aggressive forecheck strategies against the Oilers with threat of quick strike puck movement by Karlsson to start attacks the other way.

Karlsson would be a significant X-factor within these tight, hard ice playoff series hockey. And if they wanted to in critical situation play, still manage deployment with Nurse Kulak to offset any defensive concerns.

I don't think the cost would be as high as your proposal. But I would move aggressively to discuss a Karlsson move.

I love that we could broker the retention through CBJ, combined with the real dollars aspect that you bring up. Should make the acquisition cost lower and more obtainable.

And of course I agree with the fit on many levels

 

[McJadeddog]

how many 6/7 defenseman do we need though?
J. Brown, Stetcher and Klingberg? just a waste of a roster spot

As long as Kling (or any other player we bring in) is better than Brown and Stecher, then the team has improved. The other caveat is that said player needs to be at a cap hit where you bury the full amount of course. Bringing in Kling, just means that Brown isn't your 7th guy anymore. Is it an answer for the top4, lol, no, not even close. But it makes the team better and costs you nothing. Again, this assumes Kling > Brown, which I guess we'd find out pretty quickly.