Rumor: Rumors & Trade Proposals Thread | Post Mortem '23-24 Season: Who Should Stay, Who Should Go & Who Should We Bring In?

[oXo Cube]

Jeff Skinner is the very personification of empty calorie points but he does seem like a guy who might be willing to go to a contender on a really cheap contract.

Really don't like the player and never have but could be a fit.

 

[Zerotonine]

.901 sv% isn't fantastic anyway you cut it.

He was responsible for the only loss against LA.
He single handily almost cost us the Vancouver series
He was responsible for one of the 2 losses against Dallas
He was responsible for the game 3 loss against Florida
Gave up a backbreaker goal in game 7 in what ended up a 2-1 game.

At best Skinner was below average. Realistically he was arguably the teams weakest link all playoffs long.

Skinner was streaky, yes we won a few games I'm spite of his play. Yes he lost us a few games because of his play. Yes that was a horrible goal to let in game 7.

BUT he is still super young. Get him the proper goalie coach amd we could be on to something. Possibly Rodriguez his back up next season?

 

[North Cole]

If McDavid had taken 10M or less. We'd probably won the cup or a few by now.

Drai would have probably taken 7M. We'd have $$ to not bridge Nurse and sign him to 5M x 8 years.

That would have been huge in the dead cap era.

I agree if McDavid signs 16M and Drai takes 14M. The Oilers won't be winning anything

Has nothing really to do with how much they've taken. For their contracts they have provided more than enough relative value to win. The issue is others not doing their job - GM, D, Goalie, other forwards.

You can even win with Nurse making 9.25, as long as he's providing ~6M of value, but he seems to somehow be declining every year.

You know what we win a cup with? Klefbom. I maintain that completely f***ed our org. Put us in a spot where not only did we put Nurse into a position where we entirely relied on him to carry our D, we couldn't walk away from him when he severely overperformed in that role.

Maybe we finally have a replacement in Broberg, but I think the damage is already done on that front. Have to just hope that Nurse can regress back to a serviceable 2nd pair at some point, and stop plummeting toward replacement level. Skinner was fine enough for us to win.

I'd like us to bring back Brown, sunk cost of 4M is already there and I think he can be had for cheap. Foege, Kulak and Ceci can go away. Stuck with McLeod unfortunately. Maybe we get lucky and can LTIR Kane or he rebounds. Need someone from the farm to step into a bottom six role and run Holloway permanently in the top 6 next year.

 

[LTIR]

EK is a better D man at 34 than Nurse will ever be, signed for just three seasons, RH shot.

He really isnt. I would make this move only if we plan on selling high on Bouchard in another deal.

 

[Canovin]

everyone forgets that Kane has a NMC and very little value outside of Edmonton. He doesnt want to go anywhere else and no one else wants him.

Evander Kane didn't play the remaining 3 games. I could see him wanting out

 

[Paralyzer]

everyone forgets that Kane has a NMC and very little value outside of Edmonton. He doesnt want to go anywhere else and no one else wants him.

When I say "replace', I mean we LTIR him Just like your username

 

[foshizzle]

If they sign for $40 combines (say $10 for Bouch, $14 for Drai and $16 for Connor, or something like that), we might not make the playoffs again, let alone get to the cup. We'd only have ~$55M to fill out the rest of the roster of 20 players. That is assuming a 4% increase each year until the first year of Connor's new year in 26/27, bringing the cap to $95 M, and the increase might actually be less. $55M for 20 players means an average of $2.75M/player, but its actually worse than that. Hyman, RNH, Nurse are all signed long term for $18.8 between them, so you actually have $36.2 for 17 spots, or $2.13M/player.

If the Oilers, and McDrai themselves, are going to ever get back to a cup, they need to take discounts on their next contracts.

I completely disagree. You can sign those 3 for 40M- but Nurse will have to go. You also already have Hyman, RNH signed long term. You will need some players on value contracts for sure- but saying they will never win a cup is massive hyperbole

 

[McJadeddog]

So we're going to have to likely downgrade a lot of depth roles due to cap restraints and people want to upgrade on our goalie that led us to the scf for 2.6 mil? Nurse isn't being moved and a campbell buyout might let's us keep 1 or 2 of out ufas...where are we finding the money to replace skinner, are we trading drai?

We very much might be trading Drai, but that won't help with our cap issues, as he has such a ridiculous team friendly contract right now.

 

[LTIR]

If McDavid had taken 10M or less. We'd probably won the cup or a few by now.

Drai would have probably taken 7M. We'd have $$ to not bridge Nurse and sign him to 5M x 8 years.

That would have been huge in the dead cap era.

I agree if McDavid signs 16M and Drai takes 14M. The Oilers won't be winning anything

would have , could have. If these top players would have taken discounts then we just would have used that to pay RNH, Hyman and Kane 500K more and spent the rest on Connor Brown and Perry.

 

[Little Fury]

He really isnt.

Except he is. Nurse is a third pairing D man.

I would make this move only if we plan on selling high on Bouchard in another deal.

That would defeat the entire purpose.

 

[foshizzle]

Evander Kane didn't play the remaining 3 games. I could see him wanting out

I agree. Kane needs to secure the next contract more than win the cup. I can see him waiving for a team that will give him top 6 mins and PP time so he can put himself in a position to get one more good deal. With the Oilers- he won’t get PP time and top 6 time is far from guaranteed

 

[LTIR]

Evander Kane didn't play the remaining 3 games. I could see him wanting out

he wasnt a healthy scratch. A healthy Kane would have played over half on our roster.

 

[oXo Cube]

Depth is overrated. Elite talent is how you win.

 

[Canovin]

would have , could have. If these top players would have taken discounts then we just would have used that to pay RNH, Hyman and Kane 500K more and spent the rest on Connor Brown and Perry.

Or they would taken even less considering their captain could a major discount?

 

[Little Fury]

It's been said before but not putting Kane on LTIR before the deadline so the Oilers could have used that space on an impact forward was a massive, massive blunder.

 

[CupofOil]

Well I did watch the games, and Stu lost 2 games in the finals for the team, full stop. Yes, he won 1 game as well, but if you are -1 due to goaltending, its a problem. Stu needed 1 more save in game 7, a relatively easy save at that, and didn't make it, and that was the difference in the series.

Skinner lost which games in the series which were directly his fault?
Game 3 perhaps even though all the goals were the highest of danger chances. Which other one? Game 7 when the team scored 1 goal or was it Games 1 and 2 when the team combined to score 1 goal? One can argue that he could have saved the Reinhart shot but, again, the team scored 2 total goals in 3 of their losses.

 

[McJadeddog]

I expect the increase to be more than the 4% you are suggesting. The CBA sets 5% as the limit unless both sides agree. This year the players may well get escrow dollars back even after the last of the deficit was paid off. Teh cap this year should probably be more like $95M without the pandemic restrictions. It would not surprise me if the cap for McDavid's first year was $100M.

For what it is worth I think the $40M is high. My guess would be McDavid $14.5M, Draisaitl $13M and Bouchard at $9.5M. That is $37M.

The point still stands, even at $37M, although obviously every dollar counts/helps. We should all be crossing our fingers for larger cap increases for sure, but I'm not willing to bank on that.

All three of those players need to take pretty big team friendly deals, or they are never winning here, end of story. Something like Bouch at $8.5, Drai at $12 and McD at $14. I'm not sure even that would be enough to adequately fill out the bottom of the roster.

As an aside, I really, 110% believe, that COVID caused us to not win a cup in the last 2-3 years. The backend of the McDrai contracts was when we were going to have our best window (and we still do next year if we don't trade Drai), but the cap being stagnant for those years really, REALLY, f***ed us hard.

 

[Canovin]

Depth is overrated. Elite talent is how you win.

I don't know man. The finals look like a battle of depth. The depth players won the games for each teams

 

[CupofOil]

I expect the increase to be more than the 4% you are suggesting. The CBA sets 5% as the limit unless both sides agree. This year the players may well get escrow dollars back even after the last of the deficit was paid off. Teh cap this year should probably be more like $95M without the pandemic restrictions. It would not surprise me if the cap for McDavid's first year was $100M.

For what it is worth I think the $40M is high. My guess would be McDavid $14.5M, Draisaitl $13M and Bouchard at $9.5M. That is $37M.

I'd be pleasantly shocked if they signed at those numbers. I expect 16,14 and 10 respectively at minimum.

 

[McJadeddog]

It's been said before but not putting Kane on LTIR before the deadline so the Oilers could have used that space on an impact forward was a massive, massive blunder.

It sure was. The fact they didn't get the surgery done in January, and put on LTIR is simply baffling. Especially with all the "noise" around the recent cup winners doing this exact thing. The recipe was right there, and we could have added a significant piece, say Toffoli or something like that, at the deadline. Terrible mistake by the franchise.

 

[LTIR]

Or they would taken even less considering their captain could a major discount?

RNH, Hyman and Kane making 6M per could have been considered 'taking less' as they were UFAs.
Brown signing for 3.5M and Perry for 2.5M would also look alright since we had the cap.
Issue isnt with McD and Drai contracts. Its with Campbell and Nurse's deals.

 

[oXo Cube]

I don't know man. The finals look like a battle of depth. The depth players won the games for each teams

Nope. We lost because of Bobrovsky and Barkov. Our depth players outplayed theirs the entire series.

We won 2 of our 3 games because our generational superstar willed the team to victory.

 

[LTIR]

I'd be pleasantly shocked if they signed at those numbers. I expect 16,14 and 10 respectively at minimum.

I am hoping Draisaitl bets on himself and takes a 12.5Mx2yr deal. it shifts the focus on McDavid reupping first and with cap going up possibly lands Draisaitl a 8yr big money deal.
Gives Oilers a chance to extend McDavid and then try to fit in Draisaitl afterwards.

 

[Canovin]

RNH, Hyman and Kane making 6M per could have been considered 'taking less' as they were UFAs.
Brown signing for 3.5M and Perry for 2.5M would also look alright since we had the cap.
Issue isnt with McD and Drai contracts. Its with Campbell and Nurse's deals.

They already took less than 6M so why would they take 6M?

So you're trying to say is that they would have taken more because McDavid took 10M and Drai at 7M? If anything, RNH, Hyman, Kane would have taken less.

 

[WaitingForUser]

It sure was. The fact they didn't get the surgery done in January, and put on LTIR is simply baffling. Especially with all the "noise" around the recent cup winners doing this exact thing. The recipe was right there, and we could have added a significant piece, say Toffoli or something like that, at the deadline. Terrible mistake by the franchise.

The reality is however that we needed all hands on deck just to make the playoffs after the 2-9-1 start. It would have been nice to have the luxury of putting one or two top six players on LTIR but we would have risked missing all together. If we missed the dance I can almost guarantee Leon would request a trade and Connor would follow suit. Now we know we are this close to the end goal I think both will stay long term. A blunder maybe but an absolutely necessary one IMHO.