Rumor: Rumors & Proposals Thread | With Klingberg in the Mix Who Are Our 7D After the Deadline?

[Messrules11]

The world where he's recovering from two major surgeries and is a player who needs to be physical to be effective. It's like people who were expecting Klingberg to walk onto the roster and be a difference maker- it takes time for guys to get up to speed... and sometimes they never do. Maybe by Round 2 Kane is an everyday player who bumps one of those three, but we can't take for granted he will be.

That’s fair but at the same time Kane is a warrior, about as different of a player than Klingberg as you’ll ever see. I’ll bet the core group can’t wait for his return, it’s like found money.

 

[Canovin]

Re the bolded...I agree completely. It was absolutely an issue in the playoffs.
Its been a problem for a while and its still a problem.

Bowman has to figure this out.

Pretty sure the depth showed up in the finals. The Oilers lost by one goal. Sometimes it comes down to goalies.

 

[guymez]

I think we can get away with Podz in the top six, there just needs to be an upgrade on Arvidsson then:

RNH-McDavid-Hyman
Podkolzin-Draisaitl-?
Skinner-Henrique-Arvidsson
Janmark-?-Brown

I dislike that third line for the playoffs, I really do, but if Kane can at least bring speed to go along with his physical play it will be palatable. He and Skinner can then rotate in and out depending on opponent. Trading Kap + pick for a finisher would do a ton for our depth. Palmieri for example would be a great add, possibly also Zucker with heavy retention.

I dont see how this team can afford to rotate Kane in and out of the lineup. Especially with Skinner who brings completely different elements to the game compared to Kane.

A healthy Kane offers some things this team really needs...top 6 scoring...a heavy presence at 5x5 (especially net front) and a player that can intimidate with his physicality.
A healthy Kane is a difference maker which is a completely different level than Jeff Skinner.

@Canovin
The Oilers scored 1 goal in game 7.

 

[iCanada]

The idea of Marchard in an Oilers sweater is just bonkers to me. Hasn't he bashed Edmonton as a city in the past? If the price seems fair and he wants to be here, I'd certainly be willing. We'd also be hated by everyone even more than we are now lol.

I'd rather try and get Tuch though tbh. He'd be an absolute monster in our top 6.

Is there anything Marchand hasn't bashed? He'd chirp his own mother just to hear his own voice.

If his time in Boston is coming to and the wants to win - I do think we're probably at the top of his list, tbh. He's pretty anti-trump, so I think he'd be willing or even prefer to come to Canada based on current events. Legacy wise, I can't see him going to Toronto. And then if you have the choice between Edmonton and Winnipeg, I don't know that anyone takes Winnipeg, both in terms of cities and in terms of hockey teams.

He's also telling the media on like a daily basis he's excited to play with McDavid at the 4 nations.

 

[Canovin]

I dont see how this team can afford to rotate Kane in and out of the lineup. Especially with Skinner who brings completely different elements to the game compared to Kane.

A healthy Kane offers some things this team really needs...top 6 scoring...a heavy presence at 5x5 (especially net front) and a player that can intimidate with his physicality.
A healthy Kane is a difference maker which is a completely different level than Jeff Skinner.

@Canovin
The Oilers scored 1 goal in game 7.

Florida scored 2 in game 7. I mean, sometimes it's like that in the finals.

 

[guymez]

I just made this point in another thread, but in my opinion a huge reason for this is that guys don't get PP time here, and their minutes tend to go down as well.

Take Marchand. He's got 4 PP goals and 11 PP points this year. He'll get 0 here, so now his stat line is 55 gp 15 g 31 p. He's also playing 19 minutes a game in Boston, that probably goes down to 15-16 here.

He'd still be an improvement on what we currently have, but when you're taking away so many offensive minutes from these guys, it's no wonder that the numbers look extremely underwhelming here.

Well...if they had more scoring depth then I think Knoblauch would be able to split up McDavid and Draisaitl. Which would mean that the 5x5 minutes would increase for the wingers on each line.

The problem with the TOI happens when Knoblauch loads up McDavid and Drai and I think the reason he is doing that is because the top 6 winger depth is so thin.

All that being said...I dont know if a 37 year old Marchand is the answer.

Florida scored 2 in game 7. I mean, sometimes it's like that in the finals.

Secondary goal scoring in game 7 would have helped...no?

 

[CupofOil]

Worth noting that we’ve been the best overall team in the league the last 3 years. Goaltending cost us against Vegas, and we were one shot away last year. This team has holes but shoring up scoring, the 2nd pair , and goaltending.

To those that say it can’t be done, in 2006 we got Spacek, Roloson, and Samsonov at the deadline, who were all huge, huge adds. Just 2 years ago Toronto went and got ROR, Noel Acciari, Jake McCabe, Luke Schenn, and Sam Lafferrty- all without giving up much. This team is good. Shore up its holes and multiple cups are possible.

Yeah, the team is very close. Last year came to down to one goal for winning a Cup and they had chances to go up in that game against Florida and many late to tie it, the year before they were right there with Vegas, and they might be even better this year with a likely significant deadline addition and perhaps Kane added in the playoffs to bolster the lineup. The team has a few flaws just like any team in history has had but it's a very strong team that doesn't need a major addition.

I think the biggest addition doesn't even need to be the skaters necessarily, a tandem goalie for Skinner might be the most important addition but not sure that's even on the wish list at all for management.
Either way, the Oilers have just as good a chance as anybody to win the Cup and that's all we can ask for at this point. Still doesn't mean they don't need to add but even as is it's an elite team.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

Since December first the oilers are getting 2.5 g/60 at 5on5 without mcdrai on the ice.

 

[Soundwave]

Re the bolded...I agree completely. It was absolutely an issue in the playoffs.
Its been a problem for a while and its still a problem.

Bowman has to figure this out.

The problem with this is they spent $10 million dollars trying to figure this out in the summer. Knoblaugh has some blame here too as he is extremely stubborn with offensive deployments and doesn't want to try anything different.

They spent a shit ton on forwards and got basically very little to show for it already.

The other thing is aside from pie in the sky options like Marchand or Crosby, the available forwards past that who might be available don't look that great honestly.

A player like Rakell has a long term 4 year contract, what happens if you spend a 1st+ on him and he doesn't click with Leon either? Now you're screwed.

 

[Canovin]

Well...if they had more scoring depth then I think Knoblauch would be able to split up McDavid and Draisaitl. Which would mean that the 5x5 minutes would increase for the wingers on each line.

The problem with the TOI happens when Knoblauch loads up McDavid and Drai and I think the reason he is doing that is because the top 6 winger depth is so thin.

All that being said...I dont know if a 37 year old Marchand is the answer.


Secondary goal scoring in game 7 would have helped...no?

The Oilers scored 8, 5, 5 goals prior to the last game. There was ton of secondary scoring. Game 7, your goalie needs to be your best player. The guy wasn't even close. The moment Stuart let in the 2nd goal, we all knew that was over

With that said, I would like the Oilers to add Rakell and Vejmelka.

 

[guymez]

Yeah, the team is very close. Last year came to down to one goal for winning a Cup and they had chances to go up in that game against Florida and many late to tie it, the year before they were right there with Vegas, and they might be even better this year with a likely significant deadline addition and perhaps Kane added in the playoffs to bolster the lineup. The team has a few flaws just like any team in history has had but it's a very strong team that doesn't need a major addition.

I think the biggest addition doesn't even need to be the skaters necessarily, a tandem goalie for Skinner might be the most important addition but not sure that's even on the wish list at all for management.
Either way, the Oilers have just as good a chance as anybody to win the Cup and that's all we can ask for at this point. Still doesn't mean they don't need to add but even as is it's an elite team.

A major flaw with this team and what coaches exploit...limit McDavid and Drai and your chances of winning go way up. Especially if the Oilers are playing them on the same line.
No one else in the forward group scares you which is why Knoblauch plays McDrai as often as he does.
He knows that he isnt going to get much of anything from the other lines but he is banking on McDrai overwhelming the opposition and producing enough to win them the game.
I dont think thats a Cup winning formula when the teams get distilled down to the elite of the NHL.
That includes elite coaching and elite systems.

If the Oilers had more legit top 6 talent then you can split up McDrai and that force the opposition to have to defend 2 high quality lines. So they need to match that with 4 dmen and at least 2 forward lines.
Very very difficult to do and that IMO would significantly increase this teams chances to win.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

The Oilers scored 8, 5, 5 goals prior to the last game. There was ton of secondary scoring. Game 7, your goalie needs to be your best player. The guy wasn't even close. The moment Stuart let in the 2nd goal, we all knew that was over

So score before that second goal goes in.

 

[Soundwave]

So score before that second goal goes in.

If only McDavid wasn't an idiot and didn't think of that.

If your goalie isn't one of the best players on the ice, it's pretty hard to win a game 7, especially if the other team is legit and has home ice.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

If only McDavid wasn't an idiot and didn't think of that.

If your goalie isn't one of the best players on the ice, it's pretty hard to win a game 7, especially if the other team is legit and has home ice.

Okay. But as they just said we had no trouble scoring on the Panthers in the previous 3 games.

 

[Soundwave]

Okay. But as they just said we had no trouble scoring on the Panthers in the previous 3 games.

Game 7 is a different realm of intensity. The odds of just running over a team as good as Florida 4 times in a row is also very, very low.

It was a borderline miracle we were able to win 3 in a row against them already having expended a fair bit of energy in the first 3 games. Most teams would have just folded up shop and lost in 5 or something (happy not being swept), like Florida did themselves a year earlier.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Game 7 is a different realm of intensity. The odds of just running over a team as good as Florida 4 times in a row is also very, very low.

It was a borderline miracle we were able to win 3 in a row against them already having expended a fair bit of energy in the first 3 games.

I wasn't asking to run them over. I was asking for more than one goal.

 

[McDNicks17]

Since December first the oilers are getting 2.5 g/60 at 5on5 without mcdrai on the ice.

And to add context to that, that would be tied with Vegas for 8th in the league in that time.

The "lack of scoring depth" narrative is a myth. It's just people that somehow don't understand that the Oilers PP production is going to only end up on a few players.

 

[Soundwave]

I wasn't asking to run them over. I was asking for more than one goal.

Again this has been explained to you that a game 7 (of a Cup Final especially) isn't played the same way as practically any other game.

The name of the game is to get to a 2nd goal first and then shut it down and play trap, trap, trap to victory. You'll have even "offense only" forwards busting their ass to do anything to keep the puck out of their net when they know they are only 30-40 minutes away from lifting the Stanley Cup.

SCF Final game 7s are extremely low scoring and the team that gets to 2 goals first has won every single time in modern history even going back to the 80s (Philly-Edmonton 1987).

 

[Messrules11]

I wasn't asking to run them over. I was asking for more than one goal.

Having Kane would have helped, sometimes it’s about who isn’t on the ice.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

A major flaw with this team and what coaches exploit...limit McDavid and Drai and your chances of winning go way up. Especially if the Oilers are playing them on the same line.
No one else in the forward group scares you which is why Knoblauch plays McDrai as often as he does.
He knows that he isnt going to get much of anything from the other lines but he is banking on McDrai overwhelming the opposition and producing enough to win them the game.
I dont think thats a Cup winning formula when the teams get distilled down to the elite of the NHL.
That includes elite coaching and elite systems.

If the Oilers had more legit top 6 talent then you can split up McDrai and that force the opposition to have to defend 2 high quality lines. So they need to match that with 4 dmen and at least 2 forward lines.
Very very difficult to do and that IMO would significantly increase this teams chances to win.

Limit the other teams best players and your chances of winning go way up?

That’s Jack Adam’s quality insight.

 

[Arpeggio]

And to add context to that, that would be tied with Vegas for 8th in the league in that time.

The "lack of scoring depth" narrative is a myth. It's just people that somehow don't understand that the Oilers PP production is going to only end up on a few players.

The Oilers are getting depth scoring this year, what they're missing is one more elite finisher in the top six. Having your entire forward group score more than 10 goals (save for Janmark) is actually pretty solid depth. It would just be nice to have one more guy scoring closer to a 30 goal pace (like Evander Kane). Add that guy, and the Oilers are overwhelming favourites.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

And to add context to that, that would be tied with Vegas for 8th in the league in that time.

The "lack of scoring depth" narrative is a myth. It's just people that somehow don't understand that the Oilers PP production is going to only end up on a few players.

Our “depth” scoring would appear better if we had 2 separate powerplay units, but I don’t think that gives us a better chance to win with how good the top unit is.

 

[CupofOil]

A major flaw with this team and what coaches exploit...limit McDavid and Drai and your chances of winning go way up. Especially if the Oilers are playing them on the same line.
No one else in the forward group scares you which is why Knoblauch plays McDrai as often as he does.
He knows that he isnt going to get much of anything from the other lines but he is banking on McDrai overwhelming the opposition and producing enough to win them the game.
I dont think thats a Cup winning formula when the teams get distilled down to the elite of the NHL.
That includes elite coaching and elite systems.

If the Oilers had more legit top 6 talent then you can split up McDrai and that force the opposition to have to defend 2 high quality lines. So they need to match that with 4 dmen and at least 2 forward lines.
Very very difficult to do and that IMO would significantly increase this teams chances to win.

The Oilers do have legit top 6 talent, they choose not to play them to their strengths.

The Oilers have been very successful with McDrai split up and even though the Podz-Draisaitl-Arvidsson line didn't score many goals from wing, they were still heavily a + line. After that line got split up, Podkolzin's game in particular has cratered. Shocking.
The team has hit a bit of a rough patch since McDrai was put together, not too surprisingly tbh.

Knoblauch is a great defensive coach, best of the McDrai era by a significant margin, but he's not so good at piecing together forward lines. The Skinner deployment is baffling, the reliance on Ryan for so long was confusing, his constant line juggling, the now reliance on McDrai etc. Just too much chaos with his decision making.
The Oilers have 4 legit top 6 wingers. Hyman, RNH, Skinner and Arvidsson. Arvidsson hasn't potted the goals but I think they will come and Skinner who has done everything asked of him yet gets very little top 6 opportunity, well I've said my piece on that already. There's top 6 options if they are used correctly.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

The Oilers do have legit top 6 talent, they choose not to play them to their strengths.

The Oilers have been very successful with McDrai split up and even though the Podz-Draisaitl-Arvidsson line didn't score many goals from wing, they were still heavily a + line. After that line got split up, Podkolzin's game in particular has cratered. Shocking.
The team has hit a bit of a rough patch since McDrai was put together, not too surprisingly tbh.

Knoblauch is a great defensive coach, best of the McDrai era by a significant margin, but he's not so good at piecing together forward lines. The Skinner deployment is baffling, the reliance on Ryan for so long was confusing, his constant line juggling, the now reliance on McDrai etc. Just too much chaos with his decision making.
The Oilers have 4 legit top 6 wingers. Hyman, RNH, Skinner and Arvidsson. Arvidsson hasn't potted the goals but I think they will come and Skinner, well I've said my piece on that already. There's top 6 options if they are used correctly.

Skinner is also clearly putting in effort defensively, he’s improved in that area quite a bit in only half a season

 

[CupofOil]

Skinner is also clearly putting in effort defensively, he’s improved in that area quite a bit in only half a season

He looks very good, I'm just not sure what more the coaches want from him. Maybe they don't trust him in a tough minutes role but, come on, you have the two best centers on the planet, make it work. Move Skinner to the McDavid line and let RNH, who has been surprisingly good at it, drive a 3rd line for a while or move Podkolzin down to the 3rd line. Just give the guy a chance and let him run with it for a while.