Skinner will be gone this summer since he's UFA so there's your 1/4. Wouldn't be shocked though to see him moved sooner though as a cap balancer in a mid-season deal. I still believe RV has more to give, the dude just needs to stay healthy. Henrique might be done as a 40-point guy but with no trade protection he'll be easy to dump next year.
Kane is the worst of the four deals because even if he is fully recovered I am not sure we will ever see "that" Kane again, and no team will take him for free if he does prove to be washed. That's a situation where we need to be cutthroat and if Evander starts well you maybe take advantage and move him right away. He has too much baggage, makes too much and has a lot of wear. We literally can't afford to be nostalgic here.
I don't think we should be shy about moving any of these guys even in season. They were signed to do more and there was always risk that because of age/injury their production would be a downhill trajectory.
And it's not like I don't like these guys, I like all of them fine, but in a cap world you have to get better bang for your buck than having a huge chunk of your cap locked in to guys who aren't worth their cap hit.
Honestly I'm a little surprised they haven't given a Skinner or Advidsson an extended look with McDavid. It's not like RNH and Hyman's play this year has been enough to lock those spots down.
Personally I don't mind the idea of keeping the Drai line together, and giving a rework to the 1st and 3rd.
Arvidsson-McDavid-Hyman
Podz-Drai-Kap
RNH-Rico-Skinner
Brown-Janmark-Perry
McDavid gets two wingers that go to the net well, and Arvidsson is decent enough defensively that the falloff from RNH isn't a massive issue.
The 3rd line gets a strong 2 way personality anchored by RNH and Henrique, who normally look good together. This also puts Skinner in his best spot to succeed, and gives you a few months to evaluate that.
Much like RNH and Henrique, Brown and Janmark work well together and they're used to playing shorthanded, so Perry's slow boots shouldn't be much of an issue.
Even if Arvidsson does OK here, I'm worried about his durability at this point. I don't know if this guy is going to hold up during a playoff run if he's already breaking down like this.
I'll give him another look with both McDavid and Drai sure, but if it's not going gangbusters, I'd cut bait on the contract and just admit it probably wasn't a good idea in the first place and move him out.
Any one of Kane, Arvidsson, Henrique for example would probably be amenable to trades to say Anaheim since they all have family connections to the LA area (Arvy lived there for a few years, Henrique obviously, Kane's wife is from LA).
Gibson with some retention would be my target as a tandem goalie option.
I agree we need to be more cutthroat with these contracts ... if they are not performing or there is a high risk they are on a potentially rapid decline, cut bait soon. They are all at an age where they could be past their prime to begin with, add in massive injury problems for some of them too.
oilersnation.com
thehockeywriters.com
