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

[MessierII]

I don't hate Skinner, but he has to many mishaps. I get it he is young. He has shown he can be a #1 but lacks consistency. Defend him all you want that's a brutal goal to lose game 7 on

If you came into game 7 knowing Florida would score 2 goals how many of us would take that? All of us I’m guessing.

 

[CupofOil]

This would be my plan...

Current Cap Space - 10m (roughly)
Buyout Campbell - 3.9m freed up
Trade Ceci for a late pick - 3.25m freed up
Cap Space after those transactions - 17.15m

Sign Janmark and Brown for 3 year $4.5m
Henrique - 3 years $12m
Broberg and Holloway - 2m total on 1 year deals

Cap Space after those re-signings - 10.65m

This leaves decisions on Foegele and Desharnais both of whom I'd let walk unless they signed cheap.
So this is the roster with 10.65m left...

RNH-McDavid-Hyman
Kane-Draisaitl-xxx
Janmark-Henrique-Brown
McLeod-xxx-Holloway (for now)

Ekholm-Bouchard
Nurse-Broberg
Kulak-xxx

Skinner
xxx

So that leaves money for a top 6 forward/bottom pairing Dman or 4th line forward/top 4 Dman, backup goalie, 4th line center. 4th liner could be filled internally with the likes of Philp or Lavoie.
The Oilers are in pretty good shape to load up if they choose to.

 

[McSuper]

I think realistically the guys they move on from / lose through natural attrition are:

Ryan, Ceci (even though I don't really think he was as terrible a defender as when paired with the $9 million dollar man...), Perry, Foegele, Campbell. They can't, nor will, gut their roster. Nurse would be at the top of the list to move on from but what moron GM is going to take his albatross contract on? Besides which, Broberg stabilized him. A f***ing rookie had to come in and settle a 10+ year vet down. Unf***ingbelievable but there it is.

Mcleod is another guy to move on from, but you need another burner WITH A HEARTBEAT. Someone with speed, because they can't keep icing a vet laden lineup with all these creaky, leathery old vets limping into their golden handshake years. Which makes me think, regrettably, they will stick with him. Battle of the Blades might be too harsh for this guy. FFS.

They need, absolutely need to stick with Broberg. Let him have his growing pains but the guy just came into a pressure cooker series and performed really well. Stick with him.

They also need to move on from suspects like Bourgault in the system, and I'd be somewhat looking forward to the draft except they don't have any picks until at least late 2nd? 3rd? I don't even know anymore considering how much draft capital they expended to bring in the vets they did. f***ing depressing off-season, man.

I would move on from McLeod if we can re-sign Henrique"s. I would then sign Carrick for a little more grit and bring back Kostin at a reduced cap hit.

Janmark Henrique Brown is a nice line.
Holloway Carrick Kostin could be a good energy line

The problem is the 2nd line. Move on from Kane if we can bring Kostin back. Try and add 2 wings for Drasaitl or at least one as maybe Holloway will be ready for a top 6 role after another offer season to train.

 

[CupofOil]

I think realistically the guys they move on from / lose through natural attrition are:

Ryan, Ceci (even though I don't really think he was as terrible a defender as when paired with the $9 million dollar man...), Perry, Foegele, Campbell. They can't, nor will, gut their roster. Nurse would be at the top of the list to move on from but what moron GM is going to take his albatross contract on? Besides which, Broberg stabilized him. A f***ing rookie had to come in and settle a 10+ year vet down. Unf***ingbelievable but there it is.

Mcleod is another guy to move on from, but you need another burner WITH A HEARTBEAT. Someone with speed, because they can't keep icing a vet laden lineup with all these creaky, leathery old vets limping into their golden handshake years. Which makes me think, regrettably, they will stick with him. Battle of the Blades might be too harsh for this guy. FFS.

They need, absolutely need to stick with Broberg. Let him have his growing pains but the guy just came into a pressure cooker series and performed really well. Stick with him.

They also need to move on from suspects like Bourgault in the system, and I'd be somewhat looking forward to the draft except they don't have any picks until at least late 2nd? 3rd? I don't even know anymore considering how much draft capital they expended to bring in the vets they did. f***ing depressing off-season, man.

What? They got within a whisker of winning the Cup and have flexibility to actually improve that roster. The offseason is not f***ing depressing at all. Last nights loss was but not their prospects moving forward.

Also, the draft capital they expended was for Henrique who was pretty darn good in this finals run, no?

 

[oXo Cube]

This summer is an opportunity. The core pieces are in place. The cap has flexibility to work with. The team is not far off.

A manager with some balls could push this roster over the edge in the next few weeks.

 

[Spawn]

What? They got within a whisker of winning the Cup and have flexibility to actually improve that roster. The offseason is not f***ing depressing at all. Last nights loss was but not their prospects moving forward.

Also, the draft capital they expended was for Henrique was pretty darn good in this finals run, no?

Great, he scored a couple goals in a couple blow out wins. Team didn’t win the cup. It’s all meaningless. Its draft capital wasted.

The only acceptable outcome is winning the cup. Losing in game 7 or getting swept in 4… it’s irrelevant.

 

[CupofOil]

nevermind

 

[FlameChampion]

In regards to forwards:

Holloway - McDavid - Hyman
RNH - Draisaitl - RW2
Janmark - Henrique - Brown
LW4 - 4C - RW4

I really hope we can sign Henrique to a reasonable 1-2 year deal.

I think Janmark is a perfect bottom 6 player. I would give Brown another contract if he signs for 1-2m.

We need another winger for Draisaitl. He needs some better players to play with.

I would move on from Kane, McLeod, Foegele, Perry etc personally

Maybe Lavoie could be the RW4

I would move on from Perry. But I don’t mind him as a 13F rotating in with Lavoie if he signs for under 1m

McLeod could be the 4LW but I would gauge what interest there is around him. Could also be the 4C but feels like hes a better winger than a center. I sort of like the player but hes also really frustrating too.

Foegele could also be LW3/LW4 but hes a 1.75m ish player to me so I don’t want to overpay him. He doesn’t produce enough in the bottom 6 for me.

Kane I think it depends on what the medical staff says. I don’t think he fits in the top 6 and I don’t think he wants to play in the bottom 6. He was more productive than he appeared to be though. I think the injuries are catching up.

 

[McJadeddog]

Agree with much of what BBO says, so copying his format.

Out Via Trade: Ceci, Nurse (although I know nobody will take him), Kane

Out Via Buyout: Campbell

Out Via FA: Desharnais, Foegele, Carrick, Gagner, Perry, Stetcher

UFA's To Hopefully Retain: Henrique, Brown, Janmark, Pickard (if he's around $1 million AAV)

Players To Give a NHL Push To: Holloway, Broberg, Lavoie, maybe Rodrigue

Players to Target Via UFA: I don't know enough, and haven't research enough for this category

Players to Target Via Trade: I don't know enough, and haven't research enough for this category

This team is old as is, oldest in the league in fact. We have one more year with McDrai, and we have a decision to make: do we trot out the same players and hope for better luck next year, or do we start the rebuild right now? The current core likely has one more run in it, even with an older player like Kane. But we don't have 2 more runs as is, even if McDrai both re-sign. This is an old team, and we need to start cutting it down and replacing with younger players, its just whether we do it this year or next.

 

[dem]

It's a shame Nuge has a NMC... because I don't like him on our top line.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Great, he scored a couple goals in a couple blow out wins. Team didn’t win the cup. It’s all meaningless. Its draft capital wasted.

The only acceptable outcome is winning the cup. Losing in game 7 or getting swept in 4… it’s irrelevant.

Have you uh, seen our drafting?

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

Demelo off the market

 

[Zerotonine]

If you came into game 7 knowing Florida would score 2 goals how many of us would take that? All of us I’m guessing.

Fair enough

 

[GOilers88]

I think you look to move out a lot of our draft picks and prospects in order to ship Nurse/Campbell away. You then also hope good players will finally take a discount to stay or sign here for a Cup run opportunity.

There's no way we can do this again with all this dead cap. Everything went right.

You can't dump Nurse and just hope to sign a big name free agent or players take discounts.

If you don't have something lined up, as much as I Hage his contract, you can't just dump and hope to fill those minutes.

 

[CycloneSweep]

You can't dump Nurse and just hope to sign a big name free agent or players take discounts.

If you don't have something lined up, as much as I Hage his contract, you can't just dump and hope to fill those minutes.

With how bad he has played them, you absolutely can

 

[GOilers88]

With how bad he has played them, you absolutely can

Removing one of the legit top 4 defensemen the team has and just hoping for a big ticket free agent is a surefire way to take a step back.

 

[ChaoticOrange]

It became pretty clear to me in the final that we really only have one puckmoving defenceman and that’s not enough. We need another. I think we also need a couple wingers.

I'd aim to build something like this:

RNH-McDavid-Hyman
Holloway-Draisaitl-(DeBrusk)
X-McLeod-X
Janmark-X-Brown

Ekholm-Bouchard
Nurse-X
Broberg-Desharnais

Skinner
1B

All the holes won't be filled this offseason.

 

[ManofSteel55]

This would be my plan...

Current Cap Space - 10m (roughly)
Buyout Campbell - 3.9m freed up
Trade Ceci for a late pick - 3.25m freed up
Cap Space after those transactions - 17.15m

Sign Janmark and Brown for 3 year $4.5m
Henrique - 3 years $12m
Broberg and Holloway - 2m total on 1 year deals

Cap Space after those re-signings - 10.65m

This leaves decisions on Foegele and Desharnais both of whom I'd let walk unless they signed cheap.
So this is the roster with 10.65m left...

RNH-McDavid-Hyman
Kane-Draisaitl-xxx
Janmark-Henrique-Brown
McLeod-xxx-Holloway (for now)

Ekholm-Bouchard
Nurse-Broberg
Kulak-xxx

Skinner
xxx

So that leaves money for a top 6 forward/bottom pairing Dman or 4th line forward/top 4 Dman, backup goalie, 4th line center. 4th liner could be filled internally with the likes of Philp or Lavoie.
The Oilers are in pretty good shape to load up if they choose to.

I think it's time that we brought in a standard winger for Draisaitl to play with, like we did with Hyman for McDavid. Drai has gotten some good production out of some pretty average at best players, if we give him and Kane (if he's still here next year) and legitimate top six winger to play with, it makes the team far better than we are right now. If we can bring in a guy like Jake Debrusk, Teuvo Teravainen, or maybe even Tyler Toffoli to play with Draisaitl, I think it helps our core a lot. Same if we can swap out Kane for another winger who might fit better, if we can find a team to take him.

Hyman - McDavid - Nuge
Kane/replacement - Drai - Debrusk/Teravainen/Toffoli/etc
Janmark - Henrique - Brown
McLeod/replacement - 4C upgrade - Holloway

I like your blueline. I hope we can get Vinny for 1.5 or so as our #7 defenseman, but there are so few decent RD out there that I don't know who we can expect to bring in as a 3rd pair guy without having to pay them 2nd pair money.

 

[GOilers88]

It became pretty clear to me in the final that we really only have one puckmoving defenceman and that’s not enough. We need another. I think we also need a couple wingers.

I'd aim to build something like this:

RNH-McDavid-Hyman
Holloway-Draisaitl-(DeBrusk)
X-McLeod-X
Janmark-X-Brown

Ekholm-Bouchard
Nurse-X
Broberg-Desharnais

Skinner
1B

All the holes won't be filled this offseason.

I hope others can acknowledge your last statement there before going off on however the offseason plays out.

 

[CycloneSweep]

Removing one of the legit top 4 defensemen the team has and just hoping for a big ticket free agent is a surefire way to take a step back.

You don’t even need a big ticket free agent. With how Nurse had played this year, and I say this as a Broberg hater, Broberg and Kulak could fill his minutes.

 

[Kaniac]

Our two biggest needs are a pure top 6 sniper for our second line and a top 4 dman who can move the puck. Hopefully our new GM is an analytical freak and can find some players who are on the cusp of breaking out and can get on the cheap.

 

[CycloneSweep]

I think it's time that we brought in a standard winger for Draisaitl to play with, like we did with Hyman for McDavid. Drai has gotten some good production out of some pretty average at best players, if we give him and Kane (if he's still here next year) and legitimate top six winger to play with, it makes the team far better than we are right now. If we can bring in a guy like Jake Debrusk, Teuvo Teravainen, or maybe even Tyler Toffoli to play with Draisaitl, I think it helps our core a lot. Same if we can swap out Kane for another winger who might fit better, if we can find a team to take him.

Hyman - McDavid - Nuge
Kane/replacement - Drai - Debrusk/Teravainen/Toffoli/etc
Janmark - Henrique - Brown
McLeod/replacement - 4C upgrade - Holloway

I like your blueline. I hope we can get Vinny for 1.5 or so as our #7 defenseman, but there are so few decent RD out there that I don't know who we can expect to bring in as a 3rd pair guy without having to pay them 2nd pair money.

As much as I think Desharnais had improved in the regular season. He is too slow for playoff hockey and $1.5 mill for a 7th D is far too much.

 

[Echodek]

Do we even have a GM? Isn’t Holland done?

 

[DaGap]

You don’t even need a big ticket free agent. With how Nurse had played this year, and I say this as a Broberg hater, Broberg and Kulak could fill his minutes.

You mean Kulak who couldnt control the gap on the GWG.... lmfao

 

[Paralyzer]

Demelo off the market

Damn. He'd have been my upgrade over Ceci.