I'm perfectly fine with this experiment on defense. Who knows, it might just end up being exactly what the team needs. I'm happy for Emberson to get a real chance playing next to Ekholm. Plus Nurse has been playing pretty damn good this season.
Rumor: Rumors & Proposals Thread | Y'all Got Any Good Goalies?
- Thread starter Bryanbryoil
- Start date
McShogun99
Registered User
We need to play Bouchard with different partners before we give him his big contract to make sure he’s effective without Ekholm. With all his warts he’s still worth around 8 million but if he wants 10+ he needs to be able to play great with anyone.
Its nice to get a look and its good that kulak goes down for a bit to strengthen the third pair. But really its too early for Emberson to become a baby sitter for Nurse. He has still lots to learn defensively at this level before that. But he has been doing better than expected and it looks like we have a player there.
It wouldn't bother me at all to kick Kulak back up and find a defensively responsible guy to play with Emby on the third pair and make Sticker number 7.
Much cheaper than finding a two way number 4 guy too. But you know not so exciting for uhhh the fans on here.
And if he can't and he still wants his money?
Are you suggesting 'be prepared'. For example make a good offer for a 40 percent retained Provorov and if Bouch doesn't accept his 8 mill then trade his unprotected A55 for a 1st and a 2nd and a player?
Cause there would be lots of takers...even teams with very high firsts.
You want Kaiden back -- Kent Hughes will drive him to the airport.
I suggest to you -- yes Bouchard is far from a complete D ...he is not great--but he has a skill set almost unduplicated in the league right now. His walk and shot from the point is elite, he can skate well enough to keep up with the boys, his vision is very good. When he is motivated to he can close gaps well and his passing/headmaning the puck is excellent. Yes his board work defensively isn't great and he can be forced off the puck and sometimes he has a brain fart in transition but his exact skill set is very valuable and he will get his 10 mill. I predict 10.4 mill.
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Is there a chance to get rid of jeff skinner and use the 3m salary in a better way?
Anyone else we should offload? Arvy?
Do we still have space to add someone in case Kane returns early?
Anyone else we should offload? Arvy?
Do we still have space to add someone in case Kane returns early?
Jimmi McJenkins
Sometimes miracles
Kane won't be back until March at the earliest, and I suspect they've had some conversations with and about Skinner.
Have Jeff and Stan been talking about Skinner. Likely every second day. But have they gone to his agent at this point even for a discussion? Somehow I doubt that.
TheNumber4
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With accrual and possible LTIR to Kane, we really don't need to clear that much space. If these players have value on the market to someone though, maybe they consider.
Last word from JJ is he is still optimistic both can produce for the Oilers more towards their career norms. Arvie in particular has only got back from injury 1 game ago.
And while the stories of Podz and Kap have been nice, neither are exactly hitting it out of the park production wise either.
TopShelfGloveSide
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Jimmi McJenkins
Sometimes miracles
You think Jeff Skinner is content with his usage and role?
see above
I don’t think he is content with his usage and role and I am sure the team has made it clear why his usage and role is that way.
The team has made it clear they want full team buy in defensively and until Skinner catches on he is going to continue to push down.
You need full team buy in so that when a guy is off he at least isn’t a liability. Skinner is still at that point.
TopShelfGloveSide
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Like do you mean they have approached him about waiving his nmc?
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oXo Cube
Power Play Merchant
Jeff Skinner might take a trade to a bad team right now because if he sticks it out here in this bit role any longer there's a legitimate chance he doesn't get another contract.
It's too bad. I still think he's better than he's shown here.
It's too bad. I still think he's better than he's shown here.
I agree. Unless they are getting a pretty good goalie back in trade Monty's not likely going anywhere.
Dobes who might be a back up or co starter one day is a couple of years away after this one.
Fowler who has starter vibes (as long as nothing goes awry) is 3-4 years away.
Bryanbryoil
Pray For Ukraine
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It honestly looks like he's trying hard out there. I just think that we need more size on the wings. Mind you Arvidsson looks like he could be on the IR at almost any time but he came back on the 4th line so I'm not sure that he's a top 6 option here either.
So what! The coaches are talking to him. However the other management guys are not going to be discussing things till they are getting ready to do something. Even then in his case cause of the NMC they will likely p***yfoot around it with his agent first. You know but maybe im wrong.
Arvy coming off 2nd time back trouble like that likely has been told to be extra careful and build up his muscles game by game. He naturally is looking out he doesn;t get jammed the wrong way into the boards. By game 10 maybe we start to see something (if he doesn;t get hurt again).
Really have to wonder why he isnt starting in the A on a conditioning stint for a longer period.
Mentally it must be kinda exhausting playing like that.
Trading him to San Jose if the D target may happen to be Mario Ferraro could make some sense considering San Jose is pretty lean on left shooting wingers. But I'm not sure Skinner waives.
I think Ferraro makes a lot of sense looking at the current D market. He has some pretty good results playing with Ty Emberson to boot.
I keep bringing him up, but I think Edmonton should grab Brandon Coe from San Jose, too. He'll be playing at the Spengler Cup this year and played with Petrov in his rookie OHL season where he scored 40 goals. He's a guy who fell behind in a rebuilding organization and he has a size, speed combination that is intriguing for a shallower organization in terms of prospects.
TopShelfGloveSide
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Skinner has been bad but he hasn’t been no contract bad imo. He will get 15 goals even without a lineup bump.
I actually think he’s fine with playing bottom 6 while getting the warts out of his game that he developed over years of playing meaningless hockey. I also think he’s aware that our 2nd line is far from set in stone.
Mr Positive
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There's what we want, which is a fun debate, and then there's trying to guess at what management will actually do, which is a different discussion, but still related.
I strongly feel that the 2nd pair RD is the one piece management is after. I'd like a goalie, but it seems clear that it isn't coming. Every time Skinner has a few good games, the team chooses to forget the bad times, and Skinner never gets consequences for bad play. They let him work through his issues in-game. That indicates supreme confidence. Knoblauch doesn't even pull him when he's letting in everything
The way that management and coaching approached the RD 2nd pair spot clearly shows a lack of faith that the existing players can do it. Stecher has been doing well but at the drop of a dime Kulak is swapped up there. Kulak does okay but he has the same problem that he and Broberg had in the playoffs: they are obviously uncomfortable on the right side. The team always puts Stecher back up there for that reason.
So it's a rotation in that spot, which exposes an obvious hole meant to be filled, by design. The option wasn't there in the summer so they did these good stopgaps
Pip
Registered User
Agreed on both points. He’s built up enough of a track record that even if this season doesn’t get better a bad team will throw him a contract. Additionally he’s never played in the playoffs. At his age I think he might be willing to play through a rough season individually if the payoff is making real contributions come playoff time.
Obviously I’m not in his head but when I watch him I see more clueless mistakes than effort based ones. I still think he could find a role on this team. I’d be interested to see if Podkolzin would make sense on the other wing since he brings a lot of what Skinner doesn’t.
The knee jerk reaction of rushing a young player into the top 4 to play 18-20 minutes isn’t always the answer either
Nurse was putting up 35-45 points a year when he was doing those brain farts and playing bad defence.
What other points did we need from him?
They aren’t rushing Emberson into the top 4. Stetcher or Kulak can play it. They are playing him there cause he looks ready for a chance my guy.
