Proposal: Rumours & Proposals Thread | Keep Nuge Forever

[Mr Tadakichi]

I know that the Kings had interest in Puljujarvi, maybe you could flip him and Russell and try to get back Forbort or Martinez, just improve slightly, but improvement none the less.

I don't think Kings do that tbh. They are looking to retool and get back in the playoffs. They are probably going to look more for an impact forward who can help now rather than later. Although, value wise, it is probably close.

Edit: actually, if the Kings are interested, maybe they do that. I misread the first part of the post.

 

[Spawn]

I know that the Kings had interest in Puljujarvi, maybe you could flip him and Russell and try to get back Forbort or Martinez, just improve slightly, but improvement none the less.

Martinez would be a bit of an improvement.

I don't think Forbort would be. I also don't think he's ever played the right side before.

 

[guymez]

I would actually argue it's the opposite. You use analytic data (the good stuff, not publicly available meaningless crap like Corsi) to identify potential fits, and then you scout to match whether the eye test confirms your data.

I agree that some analytics are more useful than others...no doubt about that.
Still there are other elements in hockey that cloud analytics so I dont think you can make a blanket statement on how they are used.

For example...if we were to focus in on analytics for Lucic he appears to be an effective 5x5 player. When I watch him in a game I see a player with a toxic attitude and a player that cant handle a pass. A player that simply does not help his team win.
So put him with strong puck possession wingers and you get a different story that you might not necessarily see unless you watched the games. Sure you can key in on linemates and see their stats but its not always clear who is driving things. Visuals can confirm that.
Watching a player can confirm the analytics and sometimes it can contradict them and require you to take a closer look at a player.

Thats all I am saying...one (analytics) doesnt preclude the other(watching a player play) IMO.

 

[McCombo]

I think the team is 1 more top six forward away from really competing for a playoff spot.

Maroon would be safe bet. But if Holland would be able to somehow land Gusev that would be huge! He would be pretty surefire 50+ point guy even with Nuge + 1st PP.

Would Pulju + 1st rd pick (lottery protected be enough)? Of course there is a risk that Russian player might not enjoy his time in Edmonton, but he would 100% have value (he is that good player) and you can trade him if thats the case after posting PPG with Connor.

Edit. Gusev-McDavid-Draisaitl would be just absolutely sick line. Maybe even three 100 point players.

 

[majormajor]

I think the team is 1 more top six forward away from really competing for a playoff spot.

Maroon would be safe bet. But if Holland would be able to somehow land Gusev that would be huge! He would be pretty surefire 50+ point guy even with Nuge + 1st PP.

Would Pulju + 1st rd pick (lottery protected be enough)? Of course there is a risk that Russian player might not enjoy his time in Edmonton, but he would 100% have value (he is that good player) and you can trade him if thats the case after posting PPG with Connor.

Edit. Gusev-McDavid-Draisaitl would be just absolutely sick line. Maybe even three 100 point players.

I'm no expert but I don't think Gusev is quite that good, or at least he'd have to do a lot of adapting to become a star in the NHL. Judging by this video (much more useful than a goals clip):



You can see that he's fantastic in open ice, but he doesn't have much success when there are guys right on him. KHL has big rinks and the KHL defence makes AHL defence look good. Panarin can make plays in a phone booth, I don't see anything like that with Gusev, he's physically weak compared to Panarin or Kucherov. He also uses a long stick, which is easier to get away with in the KHL. His shot release is this kind of wide sweep around the side of his body. He won't have much space to use that.

Obviously he'd still be a great passer and transition player. But that makes him closer to Marcus Johansson than Artemi Panarin. The Oilers could nonetheless benefit from that kind of player, I'd support getting him if it just costs a 2nd rounder + B prospect or something like that.

 

[majormajor]

A good buy low candidate right now is Sonny Milano. The guy is a top 9 quality scorer (good chance of 20 goals) and good in transition. He's just not the most... mature. Columbus would probably take a 3rd rounder for him.

 

[McCombo]

I'm no expert but I don't think Gusev is quite that good, or at least he'd have to do a lot of adapting to become a star in the NHL. Judging by this video (much more useful than a goals clip):



You can see that he's fantastic in open ice, but he doesn't have much success when there are guys right on him. KHL has big rinks and the KHL defence makes AHL defence look good. Panarin can make plays in a phone booth, I don't see anything like that with Gusev, he's physically weak compared to Panarin or Kucherov. He also uses a long stick, which is easier to get away with in the KHL. His shot release is this kind of wide sweep around the side of his body. He won't have much space to use that.

Obviously he'd still be a great passer and transition player. But that makes him closer to Marcus Johansson than Artemi Panarin. The Oilers could nonetheless benefit from that kind of player, I'd support getting him if it just costs a 2nd rounder + B prospect or something like that.

Usually players who are very skilled and have high hockey IQ can adapt to NA fairly well. Of course he can't do all the things in NHL he can in KHL.

Shooting isn't his best weapon and might be little weak, but he is very shifty. It's not easy to defend player who has sick mitts, high IQ and is shifty skater.

 

[nexttothemoon]

If Gusev is the best player in the 2nd best league in the World... that's a pretty good bet to take.

You'll probably get at least an average middle 6 NHL player out of him... which is still a strong asset.

Probably his floor is a Sam Gagner type player... a guy that gets you ~40 pts and is somewhat overpaid at ~$4 million (if the rumour is correct that's what he's looking for).

If Oilers are comfortable adding a $4 million player that gets potentially ~40 pts, then Gusev is a reasonable bet.

Not saying he'll do only that (could be more and could even be less if he flames out)... but it's what you should expect as a reasonable floor.

 

[nexttothemoon]

Another feature with Gusev... he's much more a playmaker than a sniper.

Ok you might say... but the Oilers need goals... they already have 3 playmaking centres... they need finishers... but a guy like Gusev opens up opportunities for snipers like McDavid/Draisaitl and even Neal (if he rebounds) to snipe when Gusev opens up the ice and gets them the puck.

I feel McDavid is still very untapped in terms of his goalscoring potential.. and a playmaking winger would be dynamite on his line. Drai is obviously excellent but he's the sniper on that line that feeds off McD.... and of course Draisaitl is a good playmaker as well... but oh my could you imagine if they added a crafty 3rd wheel to that line that made the opposition think not once... not twice... but 3 times about who they were going to have to cover. Opposing Defenses would likely be turning themselves inside out when that line comes down the ice.

 

[I am the Liquor]

A good buy low candidate right now is Sonny Milano. The guy is a top 9 quality scorer (good chance of 20 goals) and good in transition. He's just not the most... mature. Columbus would probably take a 3rd rounder for him.

Or JP. Milano is currently facing legal problems. So the buy low thing is in play for sure I would think.

 

[belair]

Or JP. Milano is currently facing legal problems. So the buy low thing is in play for sure I would think.

Milano is also waiver eligible. Trading JP for him would be selling low on JP.

 

[I am the Liquor]

Milano is also waiver eligible. Trading JP for him would be selling low on JP.

Selling high on JP sailed a long time ago. He is a young dumb player with a terrible agent. He is not a nhl player. What do you propose he is worth?

It will be another junk for junk deal like Lucic/Neal.

 

[Pointteen]

Another feature with Gusev... he's much more a playmaker than a sniper.

Ok you might say... but the Oilers need goals... they already have 3 playmaking centres... they need finishers... but a guy like Gusev opens up opportunities for snipers like McDavid/Draisaitl and even Neal (if he rebounds) to snipe when Gusev opens up the ice and gets them the puck.

I feel McDavid is still very untapped in terms of his goalscoring potential.. and a playmaking winger would be dynamite on his line. Drai is obviously excellent but he's the sniper on that line that feeds off McD.... and of course Draisaitl is a good playmaker as well... but oh my could you imagine if they added a crafty 3rd wheel to that line that made the opposition think not once... not twice... but 3 times about who they were going to have to cover. Opposing Defenses would likely be turning themselves inside out when that line comes down the ice.

Goals
Assists

Get you a man who does both.

 

[48g90a138pts]

Unless Holland can move out some
salary Gusev isn't a possibility anymore. Vegas can't be taking any salary their way so another deal would have to be made before acquiring him. Right now the Oilers are sitting at $2.4 mil in cap space and have to add another body to the 23 man roster. So cap space is more like $1.7-1.4 mil depending on who fills that spot. Could also gain $50-300k with Manning being sent down. So Holland would have to unload approx $2.5 mil to make room for Gusev.

I can't see that happening now. Probably just PTO's coming in now till the start of the season.

Also Gaëtan Haas will probably be on the opening night roster so that most likely wipes out the benefit of the Manning swap.

Yup $4.88 mil in dead cap this season.

 

[Spawn]

Unless Holland can move out some
salary Gusev isn't a possibility anymore. Vegas can't be taking any salary their way so another deal would have to be made before acquiring him. Right now the Oilers are sitting at $2.4 mil in cap space and have to add another body to the 23 man roster. So cap space is more like $1.7-1.4 mil depending on who fills that spot. Could also gain $50-300k with Manning being sent down. So Holland would have to unload approx $2.5 mil to make room for Gusev.

I can't see that happening now. Probably just PTO's coming in now till the start of the season.

Also Gaëtan Haas will probably be on the opening night roster so that most likely wipes out the benefit of the Manning swap.

Yup $4.88 mil in dead cap this season.

The Oilers could make Gusev work at 4M depending on who they threw down in the minors without needing to make any trades clearing salary. They'd almost assuredly end up with overages next season with Smith bonuses.... but they could technically make it work and be cap compliant with a full 23 man roster.

Realistically you're correct. It's too tight to be plausible. But just for fun:

ROSTER SIZE	SALARY CAP	CAP HIT	OVERAGES	BONUSES	CAP SPACE
23	$81,500,000	$81,378,665	$0	$1,820,000	$121,335

[TBODY] [/TBODY]
[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Buyouts

• Andrej Sekera: $2,500,000
• Benoit Pouliot: $1,333,333
• Eric Gryba: $300,000

Retained Salary Transactions

• Milan Lucic: $750,000 (13%)

Buried - 1.25M with Manning and Brodziak
Roster

Left Wing	Centre	Right Wing
Gusev, Nikita $4,000,000	McDavid, Connor $12,500,000 C UFA - 7	Draisaitl, Leon $8,500,000 C, LW, RW UFA - 6
Neal, James $5,750,000 RW, LW UFA - 4	Nugent-Hopkins, Ryan $6,000,000 C, LW UFA - 2	Chiasson, Alex $2,150,000 RW UFA - 2
Granlund, Markus $1,300,000 RW, LW, C UFA - 1	Gagner, Sam $3,150,000 C, RW UFA - 1	Kassian, Zack $1,950,000 RW UFA - 1
Nygård, Joakim $925,000 LW UFA - 1	Khaira, Jujhar $1,200,000 C, LW RFA - 2	Archibald, Josh $1,000,000 RW UFA - 1
Jurco, Tomas $750,000 RW, LW UFA - 1	Cave, Colby $675,000 C RFA - 1

[TBODY] [/TBODY]
[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Left Defense	Right Defense	Goaltender
Klefbom, Oscar $4,167,000 D UFA - 4	Larsson, Adam $4,166,666 D UFA - 2	Koskinen, Mikko $4,500,000 G M-NTC UFA - 3
Nurse, Darnell $3,200,000 D RFA - 1	Russell, Kris $4,000,000 D M-NTC NMC UFA - 2	Smith, Mike $2,000,000 G NMC UFA - 1
Jones, Caleb $720,000 D RFA - 1	Benning, Matthew $1,900,000 D RFA - 1
Lagesson, William $741,666 D RFA - 1

[TBODY] [/TBODY]
[TBODY] [/TBODY]

 

[Burnt Biscuits]

IMO Gusev is of a high enough caliber that you find a way to make it work salary wise, it's players like Brassard/Maroon that aren't worth twisting yourself in knots to try and find creative ways to make it work.

Obviously we have very little cap room left to play with, but two teams to keep an eye on that look to have even less space are the Flames and the Rangers they are having arbitration hearings on Sam Bennett and Pavel Buchnevich respectively in roughly a week and will need to either trade to make room for their new contracts or just trade Bennett/Buchnevich instead, I see the possibility for a good value deal with them hard up against the cap.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

IMO Gusev is of a high enough caliber that you find a way to make it work salary wise, it's players like Brassard/Maroon that aren't worth twisting yourself in knots to try and find creative ways to make it work.

Obviously we have very little cap room left to play with, but two teams to keep an eye on that look to have even less space are the Flames and the Rangers they are having arbitration hearings on Sam Bennett and Pavel Buchnevich respectively in roughly a week and will need to either trade to make room for their new contracts or just trade Bennett/Buchnevich instead, I see the possibility for a good value deal with them hard up against the cap.

I wouldn’t mind seeing maroon on a 1-2 year deal. Pretty much provides what Lucic was supposed to.

 

[OiledUp]

I'm no expert but I don't think Gusev is quite that good, or at least he'd have to do a lot of adapting to become a star in the NHL. Judging by this video (much more useful than a goals clip):



You can see that he's fantastic in open ice, but he doesn't have much success when there are guys right on him. KHL has big rinks and the KHL defence makes AHL defence look good. Panarin can make plays in a phone booth, I don't see anything like that with Gusev, he's physically weak compared to Panarin or Kucherov. He also uses a long stick, which is easier to get away with in the KHL. His shot release is this kind of wide sweep around the side of his body. He won't have much space to use that.

Obviously he'd still be a great passer and transition player. But that makes him closer to Marcus Johansson than Artemi Panarin. The Oilers could nonetheless benefit from that kind of player, I'd support getting him if it just costs a 2nd rounder + B prospect or something like that.

The KHL is way more defensively structured than the AHL. It’s become a very tactical league, most teams are playing the trap. The big issue, outside of ice size, when trying to predict how well a player translates from the KHL to the NHL is the pace. Due to the focus on structure the pace is lower compared even to the other top euro leagues where there’s more aggressive checking but less clogging up the middle, make no mistake the quality is clearly higher in the KHL, which benefits highly skilled players who can break down that structure either with an elite shot, hands or vision but it’s hard to know how well they’ll handle the more aggressive checking and overall speed of the NHL game. In the case of Gusev I think he will translate based on the type of skill he has and that he actually looks better on occassions when the pace has gone up but before we’ve seen him there’s still no guarantees of course.

 

[Del Preston]

Brandon Manning is only making $2M this season. Melnyk should be all over this.

 

[majormajor]

The KHL is way more defensively structured than the AHL. It’s become a very tactical league, most teams are playing the trap. The big issue, outside of ice size, when trying to predict how well a player translates from the KHL to the NHL is the pace. Due to the focus on structure the pace is lower compared even to the other top euro leagues where there’s more aggressive checking but less clogging up the middle, make no mistake the quality is clearly higher in the KHL, which benefits highly skilled players who can break down that structure either with an elite shot, hands or vision but it’s hard to know how well they’ll handle the more aggressive checking and overall speed of the NHL game. In the case of Gusev I think he will translate based on the type of skill he has and that he actually looks better on occassions when the pace has gone up but before we’ve seen him there’s still no guarantees of course.

I was talking more about the individual defensive play. A lot of bad reads going on in that video.

 

[ToeMcDrag83]

I really wish CBJ retained all their pending UFA's.
Would've been ripe for the taking of some valuable pieces, I really like Josh Anderson.

 

[belair]

Selling high on JP sailed a long time ago. He is a young dumb player with a terrible agent. He is not a nhl player. What do you propose he is worth?

It will be another junk for junk deal like Lucic/Neal.

I think we'll get what we want out of the asset or he'll be spending some time in Europe. What his market value is at this point is kind of irrelevant.

Trading that asset for a player in Milano's position just seems wasteful.

 

[780il]

A lot of chatter on twitter about Holland being interested in Sissons.

That's a guy I've been saying we should target for a long time. Right shot 3c with great defensive abilities/faceoffs, good for 30ish points. Has good size and shows up in the playoffs. He'd be the perfect 3c for a Dave Tippett system and would allow the top 2 lines to get more favourable zone starts. Also would be our best pker to boot.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Do not get the love in with Gusev. If he plays in the nhl he will break some hearts

 

[48g90a138pts]

The Oilers could make Gusev work at 4M depending on who they threw down in the minors without needing to make any trades clearing salary. They'd almost assuredly end up with overages next season with Smith bonuses.... but they could technically make it work and be cap compliant with a full 23 man roster.

Realistically you're correct. It's too tight to be plausible. But just for fun:

ROSTER SIZE	SALARY CAP	CAP HIT	OVERAGES	BONUSES	CAP SPACE
23	$81,500,000	$81,378,665	$0	$1,820,000	$121,335

[TBODY] [/TBODY]
[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Buyouts

• Andrej Sekera: $2,500,000
• Benoit Pouliot: $1,333,333
• Eric Gryba: $300,000

Retained Salary Transactions

• Milan Lucic: $750,000 (13%)

Buried - 1.25M with Manning and Brodziak
Roster

Left Wing	Centre	Right Wing
Gusev, Nikita $4,000,000	McDavid, Connor $12,500,000 C UFA - 7	Draisaitl, Leon $8,500,000 C, LW, RW UFA - 6
Neal, James $5,750,000 RW, LW UFA - 4	Nugent-Hopkins, Ryan $6,000,000 C, LW UFA - 2	Chiasson, Alex $2,150,000 RW UFA - 2
Granlund, Markus $1,300,000 RW, LW, C UFA - 1	Gagner, Sam $3,150,000 C, RW UFA - 1	Kassian, Zack $1,950,000 RW UFA - 1
Nygård, Joakim $925,000 LW UFA - 1	Khaira, Jujhar $1,200,000 C, LW RFA - 2	Archibald, Josh $1,000,000 RW UFA - 1
Jurco, Tomas $750,000 RW, LW UFA - 1	Cave, Colby $675,000 C RFA - 1

[TBODY] [/TBODY]
[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Left Defense	Right Defense	Goaltender
Klefbom, Oscar $4,167,000 D UFA - 4	Larsson, Adam $4,166,666 D UFA - 2	Koskinen, Mikko $4,500,000 G M-NTC UFA - 3
Nurse, Darnell $3,200,000 D RFA - 1	Russell, Kris $4,000,000 D M-NTC NMC UFA - 2	Smith, Mike $2,000,000 G NMC UFA - 1
Jones, Caleb $720,000 D RFA - 1	Benning, Matthew $1,900,000 D RFA - 1
Lagesson, William $741,666 D RFA - 1

[TBODY] [/TBODY]
[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Nice work @Spawn

Might have to go with a 22 man roster for most of the season though. Gaëtan Haas will most likely be the #4 centre. I recall reading that if he gets sent down to the AHL he'll spend a couple weeks there. But if he's definitely not making the Oilers roster after a few weeks he'll head back to SC Bern. I'm sure management will accommodate him a bit for signing with the Oilers but it's good there's lots of competition for the bottom 6 positions. It's not like a guaranteed spot for him, he'll definitely have to earn it.

So if Holland were to try at Gusev looks like we're a wee bit short on a 23 man roster.