Not sure the Oilers are all that interested in upgrading. Might keep their powder dry until TDL. This same d-corps got them right to the brink of the cup, and there has been substantial, substantial growth in Bouchard and Broberg.
Any big ticket is going to impact Bouchard and Drai next year.
For the money, the best value may be a winger who can play regularly with Draisaitl.
Bruce Curlock said it best on Twitter.
“Until the Edmonton Oilers fix their bottom two D pairings, you can put any combination of forwards up front and it still won’t matter.
The team will just lose momentum 2 out of every 3 shifts.”
I don’t care how liked Ceci is in the dressing room, we desperately need an upgrade.
The Oilers don’t lose momentum 2 out of every 3 shifts, that’s just stupid. The Oilers were a very efficient team moving out of the defensive zone, especially in the last two seasons, McDavid or no.
Bruce Curlock is another in a long line of hacks who think the Oilers should literally have possession of the puck all the time, and there’s no such thing as game flow, or situational play, or deployment effects.
And Bouchard flourished. We have a legit top pairing. The bottom two pairings for all their faults did enough to get to game 7 of the finals. The team hopefully will look at all options to improve but to get rid of Ceci or Nurse will cost a ton
Touché. I thought he had two years left. Still though, you’d likely be paying to rid yourself of a RHD and then either paying again to trade for one or outbidding another team for one and with the money we have available it’s tough to say we’d be able to afford a massive upgrade on him
Bouchard did NOT play anything out of the ordinary at all. He was 15 in EV ice time per game in the playoffs. 9th in overal TOI/g. So no, they did not have to play Bouchard 30 minutes a night that's just a flat out lie. He played typical minutes.
As for Nurse, he played 16:41 EV TOI per game, which ranked him 63rd. BUT... He was injured for one game, played 4:20. If you remove that game, he actually averaged around 17 and half EV minutes per game. Same for total TOI/g, he actually played around 19 and a half minutes per game.
So no, Darnell Nurse did not play the lowest EV TOI out of all the D. Not even close.
When everyone is due for a raise, it doesn't really put you in a position to shop for "upgrades." The priority needs to be trying to retain most of what they had.
If you can somehow keep about $5m in cap space free until the TDL then you're golden. Look at the last two seasons and it seems like about half the price paid wasn't for the player but for the cap space. Have that space available at the deadline and you can get exactly what you need for pennies on the dollar.
Of course, the only way the Oilers are doing that at this point is someone going on LTIR. Who knows? Maybe Nurse will develop a severe hangnail come February that will require two months of rest.
Oh my god. Please don’t tell me we will now use “they got to the game 7 of the cup final” as the justification to not fix glaring, obvious holes in the roster.
Yes. They got to game 7. They got to game 7 because Connor McDavid put up one of the greatest individual playoff performances of all time. They got to game 7 because Evan Bouchard is the best playoff-performing defenseman in the league past 2 years.
They didn’t get to game 7 because they have a roster which doesn’t need upgrading, they got there because their top guys are simply that good. They carried glaring roster holes to game 7 of the finals.
In a serious franchise, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl - with the way they perform in the playoffs - would have won multiple cups already. But hey, let’s not upgrade the roster around them, they almost won one.
We have 3 top 4 D-men? No problem. Let’s play young Broberg on his off-side and hurt his development, he may have spent last year in the AHL but he was quite good in 15 playoff games. Cody Ceci is a 3+ million anchor that gets hemmed in the D zone 75% of his shifts? That’s fine - McDavid got them to game 7 so we shouldn’t do anything about it.
Vegas management would win cup back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back if they got lucky enough to draft Connor fucking McDavid and if they had Draisaitl on a 8 million contract. But hey, we lost to eventual cup winner 3 years in a row. Let’s not fix the roster, let’s make it 4.
Blah blah blah blah blah. It’s always the same blubbering bullshit from complete bellends.
Through 82 games and 25 playoff games, the Oilers were great both analytically, and in real world results. How brain damaged do you have to be to be like “durrr… dis not serious franchise!”.
I’ll tell you how: Very.
They were great. Because they literally won the lottery and drafted the best player of this generation and another guy who’s top 5. They were great despite having holes in the roster.
Draisaitl has no scoring singers, even Knoblauch said it in his exit interview.
Nurse doesn’t have a RHD partner that’s capable of playing top 4 minutes.
Oilers were great despite this. They would be the best team in the league EASILY if these OBVIOUS holes are addressed.
But yeah, let’s run it back with Nurse - Ceci for the thirds straight year so they can get outscored 5-18 5on5 once again and we will lose to the eventual cup champ. Sounds good to me, why win a cup with literal cheat codes on the roster.
Broberg looked decent while the adrenaline was pumping and everyone else was playing with broken bones and torn tendons. When that wore off he started to look very ordinary.
What were you hoping for from a 22 year old D man being thrown in to the conference and Stanley Cup final?
He played great and it’s a huge positive heading in to what should be his first full time gig on the big team next season
I expected him to drown in the deep end and get eaten by sharks. I was happily wrong.
But in the here and now I do not want the Oilers to just sit on their hands and expect a very young D man to suddenly be a full-time, established player. Young guys, especially D, do not develop in straight lines. I want them to be proactive.
Even Ceci stepped it up down the stretch. I hope all these players that found another level in the playoffs, like Ceci, Janmark, Brown, Foegle, and especially Skinner, can pick up where they left off.
we are not getting tanev unless we are absolutely braindead like the leafs are. leafs are giving him a 5m 6-8 year contract when the dude is 34 years old, hes stupid not to take it.
I think the best move here is standing pat on making any moves until the March trade deadline. This is a d corps got us to G7 of the SCF. Let's take the first half of the season to give Broberg more minutes to continue developing into a steady top 4D role, then re-assess the group in March. Depending on how Broberg looks, we can decide at that point whether the priority is upgrading our defense or forwards.
Honestly with the Campbell buyout we might be able to swing him
I keep coping that we're going to upgrade on Ceci, I think I will throw up if we're going into the year with Ceci again lol
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Oilers ran it back with the same dcore. I do think it would be a mistake in the long run to not move on from Ceci this off-season.
Same old, same old. Move on from Ceci and instead bring in. . . . ? That’s the issue. There aren’t RD out there to be had. When Chia was here he traded Hall to get a RD-1 Larsson. When Holland went looking at TDL for RD-1 or 2 , he ended up with LD Ekholm. Any one wanting to comment on Ceci should be required to state the available alternative.
Idk why they think he's going to return to form. He was "surprisingly good" (aka not shit) for one season and has been trending downward worryingly consistently since, and his deployment has gotten worse and exposed the weaknesses in his game.
Matt Roy is an analytical darling and doesn't seem to contradict it too much with the eye test. If we can get him under 6m I honestly say we go for it. Or just do 7x5.25m to lower that cap hit a bit.
The other places I saw his name being thrown around the most is the Sens, and the highest cap hits I'm seeing is like 6.5m at the very top with 5.5-6 being the normal range, but only on 5 or 6 year contracts.
At 29 I'd expect him to be properly good for like the next 5 years, and then maybe slowly decline. By all accounts he's a hard worker though.
Throw in Arvidsson and I think Brannstrom would be a good shout.
Just checked on capfriendly
if HenriqueBrownMark signs for collective 7m, Arvidsson for 3.25, Roy for 5.5 and Brann for 2m we can fit everyone (provided McLeod, Ceci, Kulak go)
Arvidsson-McDavid-Hyman
Nuge-Drai-Kane
Janny-Rico-Brown
Holloway-Ryan-X
Ek-Bouch
Nurse-Roy
Broberg-Brannstrom
Looks like an upgrade to me over last year
He wasn't, he was never healthy since December lol he just kept playing through injury
He "could play" but he couldn't torque a shot because of his hernia
Edit: he also literally has an nmc, you can't move him if he doesn't want to be moved and apparently the team asked him to waive and he didnt
I would, very tenatively, interpret Knoblauch's remarks about getting Leon some wingers, in a contract year, as pointing against Kane playing with Draisaitl. We know that they do not always play well together, and that there has been frustration there.
We'd have to trade someone out. We're not even sure if we can sign Desharnais at this point. Ceci or Kulak might have to go, and i'd rather it be Ceci personally. Nurse is overpaid by about 2 million but I can't see going anywhere. Broberg has proven himself a regular though IMO. He might be an excellent but cheap top #4 D replacement for Ceci.
It’s been my assumption Ceci will be moved this summer. They would have moved him at deadline last year but the leadership group said to hold off. Hopefully they don’t hold off again
Nurse has a no trade clause that he is unlikely to waive, his buyout is also very painful. He's not a bad defenseman and he's got leadership to go with the A on his chest. We keep him, even if he is overpaid. He needs a mature, stay-at-home defensive partner to back him up and let him activate offensively and we'll get value closer to his contract amount.
Broberg goes to the third line with either kulak or CiCi, I'd prefer kulak, and trade the other. Campbell's buyout will help with cap space.
My understanding is they are after a top 6 winger for drai first and foremost but based odd the absolute 0 rumors or word from anyone it seems we aren't going to do anything.
Not even a rumor about discussions with Brown or Janmark.
Brown said “this is where I want to be and this is where my heart is” I have no doubt he’s coming back, it’s just a matter of how much he’s going to cost (god willing 1mil or less)
Janmark said something pretty similar, reading between the lines on his quotes and reports about him he’ll take less to play in Edmonton if we offer him 2 or 3 years instead of another one year deal.
Frankly Henrique gave the impression he wants to be back too when he said “money isn’t my first priority at this point in my career” so if he feels like we can win a cup with this group I could see him back on like a 3x3 or something.
Youre right though the only rumour about an external add was a passing “keep an eye on Edmonton” comment on a podcast from Frank about Arvidsson,
I thought the issue with Henrique was family in California. Idk if you've met any women but convincing his wife to leave California for Edmonton is gonna be a stretch
That’s fair. I took the “money isn’t the most important factor at this point” to be a comment about cup chasing but I guess it absolutely could be more about location/family situation.
I also expect tomorrow to be pretty quiet. I know work never stops but with our season ending as recently as it did I could see them just negotiating the easy deals in house (Brown, Janmark and Pickard which is done obviously) then taking a look at what’s left for external adds on like July 7th once the dust has settled.
I don’t disagree but my guess is the 2RD plan right now is Broberg unless something falls in our lap. There’s a decent amount of top 6 wingers out there, hopefully there’s a log jam and someone like Debrusk or Arvidsson finds their way to us in a couple days.
Also completely possible that Jackson is tight lipped (after all who heard anything about Knoblauch as a legit head coach candidate before we hired him out of left field) can’t rule out the possibility that JJ has irons in the fire we haven’t heard about and we make a decent splash on day 1.
Or just wait for the trade deadline on the 2RD. Broberg filled in well enough in the SCF on almost zero experience, he can certainly manage for half the regular season in a much less intense atmosphere.
We are not poised for big FA signings, because Drai and Bouchard's contract situation. All improvements need to come from within the team's pipeline.
Fourtunately, Broberg had a really strong showing in the playoffs, and I think he's ready to take that next step. If Nurse can potentially regain some of those COVID season abilities, our D is pretty good for next season. Then once Drai/Bouch contracts are set, we can think about how to improve through FA.
The defense is serviceable for the time being. Nurse isn't going anywhere. That's simply a boat anchor that no one else would come anywhere near. Maybe find a way to move Ceci out, and bring in a winger to play with Drai.
Otherwise, for me, the key is to find a way to keep Brown Henrique and Janmark to together. They would easily be the best 3rd line in the entire NHL and would give opponents fits on a nightly basis.
Realistically, a 1st to 2nd line winger is priority #1 and then line depth for lines 3 and 4 if we can’t re-sign the likes of Brown, Janmark, Foegele, etc. But it would be nice to also get a “defensive defenseman” of sorts. We have the offensive defenceman in Bouch, and a solid but aging Ekholm. But those are the only 2 D-men that I have absolute total confidence in going into next year. Broberg is looking great given the circumstance he was thrown into though.
We can look at two ex Canes players in Martinook and Teravainen both are good two way players and Martinook can play well on the PK and Teravainen brings offensive upside and Stanley Cup experience and knows how to play with gifted offensive players.
Play it out. Try Broberg on the 2nd pair with Nurse, Kulak can swap in if Broberg struggles.
See if we can grab a top 6 winger or a middle 6 winger(or both), and then extend some of the guys.
Use the TDL to upgrade the defence
I can't believe all the downvotes in this thread. Go back and review the playoffs. Who made the errors, who was on the ice, when we'd get scored on? Ceci, Nurse, Kulak. Team need a D upgrade along with 4th line grit players. That's a tried and true formula.
I think they should look to Troy Stetcher as their depth guy and try to resign Vinny. In other words try to keep the same dmen they had at the end of the season.
I think personally that we need an upgrade for ceci. And pray nurse can smarten up with broberg at his side. I think we are looking at some things wrong. I’d like to get somebody to play along side Nugent Hopkins and have a shutdown defensive line. Trade Kane if you have to. Defence wins championships and if we can shutdown a teams top line our stars can go to work.
Sean Walker would make the team so much better and nobody even thinks about him. Walker on a 4x4 would blow you guys away. You have no idea how good he is
Edit: it is clear that my "you have no idea how good he is" statement was true. Look at what happened to the Flyers after they traded him lmao. A team destined for the playoffs loses 8 in a row and completely falls apart.
Im a Flyers1/Oilers2 fan. Dont trust me, call me an idiot, whatever that's fine. But a top 4 where you remove Nurse/Ceci and have Ek, Bouch, Broberg and Walker is not only solid but affordable based on the way EVERYONE underrates Walker.
**You're all saying he sucks because he didnt excel in the playoffs with JACK JOHNSON as his partner**
Oh the guy who fetched a first round pick at the deadline sucks? The dman who, had he not been traded wouldve made the fucking FLYERS a playoff team?
I love being condescended to by people that haven't even seen Walker play.
Flyers got a 1st for Walker because they also took back the Ryan Johansen contract for 2 years.
Helped Colorado clear 4M in cap space last season and next.
Fair to point out. Deal obviously is more for Walker as they could've unloaded him for less, but fair.
Either way I watched Walker play 70+ games this year and can attest to his play how steady of a presence he is. He didnt make simple mistakes. You never felt nervous with him puck handling in our zone, you knew he was gonna make the pass. Drysdale, York, Zamula? Different story.
Walker is good. He's a pro. Secretly has a heck of a shot too. Hed be a great fit. Montour (just for instance) would not be happy to be on PP2. Walker would happily play PK1 minutes. He'd be your second pair shutdown guy similar to how Ekholm is for Bouchard. He was never trusted by LAK, but Philly played him in the top 4 and he was literally our best dman. Just think it'd be a clutch signing.
Because I watched him play 70 games this year and know how good he is. So I mention him as a good signing as an answer to OP's question.
I earnestly post a harmless opinion and I'm being condescended to my opinion is being rudely discarded by people that watched him play a few playoff games in a new system on a new team. Games which featured him playing 3rd pair minutes, paired with Jack Johnson!
I'm autistic (genuinely/not said for sympathy but context). So I think the combination of having extensive knowledge and being rudely dismissed is causing me to become mildly distressed.
Thought I was adding some knowledge about a fun hidden gem, dont know why it was insulted and downvoted. Sorry for being bothered by it, I know people are casually rude to one another on the internet but I'm still surprised everytime. Silly ultimately.
TLDR; Walker is a great top 4 RHD fit for this club and will make half of what Montour gets. Its sly, don't break the bank and put a STEADY guy in the top 4. Ek, Bouch, Broberg, Walker, Nurse, Kulak as your top 6 doesn't sound bad at all.
Answering the OP's question in a hockey discussion thread is sad? That's kinda mean. I don't understand the need to be rude. Getting made fun of in real life for getting excited and talking about a hobby too excitedly is humiliating. Didn't think I'd get the same response on a hockey forum. I'll have to look for a different place to talk hockey
He didn't immediately fit into Bednar's system playing beside JACK JOHNSON so he sucks? Okay. Weird how upset this innocent suggestion has made everyone.
I’m not upset. Just saying he’s not an answer. I watched every COL game in the playoffs, he looked lost. Was fine in the regular season under Bednar’s system. There’s a reason Colorado isn’t extending him after paying to acquire him during the TDL.
I guess we're just going to disregard the whole Bednar plugging him on the 3rd pairing with Jack Johnson thing huh? A guy on a new team/system, paired with an AHL at best talent, playing fewer minutes, looked lost against the Dallas Stars in the playoffs.
How many points does Bouchard score this season if Johnson was his partner? Context matters.
It would be one of the best bargain bin signings for a team wasting big money on D already, but go ahead and break the bank for Montour or better yet, run it back.
Why do you think Colorado isn’t interested in extending him? They only have 4 dmen under contract and JJ is gone.
Not interested in Montour at all. I think if the Oilers can’t get Roy they should sit pat.
Have they extended him? No. Does he become a free agent tomorrow? Yes. If COL saw his signing as a priority then he would have been resigned before he has the ability to sign with any team.
I never claimed or implied in any way that Colorado didnt want to extend him, why did you ask me that question?
The guy had a great game vs us after the deadline, and then had very similar numbers to ceci the rest of the way. Greggor talked about it one day on one of his shows heading into the 3rd round I believe it was
Thanks for the downvote? Also I have no idea what this means but I assume MacKinnon and Rantanen are scrubs too since they also lost in that series.
Guy played with Jack Johnson and didnt look great. Wow. Shocker.
Schmidt maybe. I don't think we're upgrading Ceci at this point, so maybe just someone who can rotate in who can hopefully find some chemistry and provide some extra depth. Can't bank on everyone staying healthy all year.
Not free agency related but Nurse for Karlsson is my fantasy trade. Reunite Nurse and Dubas, giving the Penguins a leader for incoming young talent during their rebuild who’s signed for over 5 years. Karlsson gets to compete for a cup for the first time since his early Sharks days, and would be a great fit with Broberg.
Wow. This is just a terrible idea. I’m pretty sure the last thing the oilers need is another pure offence RHD whose cap hit is 11.5 mill. Hard pass on Karlsson.
Let Broberg play that top 4 role whole accruing Cecis cap space for the deadline, then try and trade for a dman instead of netting a FA one.
Trade market prices have jumped with Utah outbidding everyone.
Off-season market ≠ deadline market
Not sure the Oilers are all that interested in upgrading. Might keep their powder dry until TDL. This same d-corps got them right to the brink of the cup, and there has been substantial, substantial growth in Bouchard and Broberg. Any big ticket is going to impact Bouchard and Drai next year. For the money, the best value may be a winger who can play regularly with Draisaitl.
I’ve always hated watching us play against Arvidsson, I feel like he’s the most likely signing at the moment
Good call on this one.
Haha I mean I just follow the insiders
I'm with you. The priority should be a scoring winger and perhaps trying to keep Henrique.
Hen and Jan I'd love to see back
Brown too! Once he got going he was one of the better players
For sure Brown. If he has his legs going next season like he did in the playoff run he will be a great asset both offensive and defensively
i think all three of them said they'd like to remain here
I pray that we somehow get all three to comeback.
one of three as of now!
LFG! Two more to go!
Would love to see Rico come back. Hopefully the new GM can work some magic and get him to re-sign with us.
Bruce Curlock said it best on Twitter. “Until the Edmonton Oilers fix their bottom two D pairings, you can put any combination of forwards up front and it still won’t matter. The team will just lose momentum 2 out of every 3 shifts.” I don’t care how liked Ceci is in the dressing room, we desperately need an upgrade.
The Oilers don’t lose momentum 2 out of every 3 shifts, that’s just stupid. The Oilers were a very efficient team moving out of the defensive zone, especially in the last two seasons, McDavid or no. Bruce Curlock is another in a long line of hacks who think the Oilers should literally have possession of the puck all the time, and there’s no such thing as game flow, or situational play, or deployment effects.
You speak reason.
Bouchard had to play 30 minute games in the playoffs While 9.25 was routinely playing the least 5vs5 minutes out of all the D We had two 3rd pairs
A contender’s number one D man should play30.
In the playoffs, Edmonton held a 40 xG% without Ekholm & Bouchard and were out-scored 22 to 35.
Wasn't 9.25 padding minutes as a core piece on one of the best PKs in history?
In the playoffs, Edmonton held a 40 xG% without Ekholm & Bouchard and were out-scored 22 to 35.
Aren't Ekholm and Bouchard almost exclusively on the ice with McDavids line and sometimes Drai?
And Bouchard flourished. We have a legit top pairing. The bottom two pairings for all their faults did enough to get to game 7 of the finals. The team hopefully will look at all options to improve but to get rid of Ceci or Nurse will cost a ton
Impossible to get rid of Nurse Ceci has 1 year left, I don’t know if that will cost “a ton”
Touché. I thought he had two years left. Still though, you’d likely be paying to rid yourself of a RHD and then either paying again to trade for one or outbidding another team for one and with the money we have available it’s tough to say we’d be able to afford a massive upgrade on him
If they were to get rid of Ceci + Kane, it’d open up quite a bit of money to go after a 2RW and a 2RD Easier said then done obviously
Bouchard did NOT play anything out of the ordinary at all. He was 15 in EV ice time per game in the playoffs. 9th in overal TOI/g. So no, they did not have to play Bouchard 30 minutes a night that's just a flat out lie. He played typical minutes. As for Nurse, he played 16:41 EV TOI per game, which ranked him 63rd. BUT... He was injured for one game, played 4:20. If you remove that game, he actually averaged around 17 and half EV minutes per game. Same for total TOI/g, he actually played around 19 and a half minutes per game. So no, Darnell Nurse did not play the lowest EV TOI out of all the D. Not even close.
in game 7 when it mattered most he was 5th in TOI out of our 6 D
We had 1 elite pair & Two 3rd pairs
Incorrect. As usual.
So the Nurse pairing played well ?
When everyone is due for a raise, it doesn't really put you in a position to shop for "upgrades." The priority needs to be trying to retain most of what they had.
If you can somehow keep about $5m in cap space free until the TDL then you're golden. Look at the last two seasons and it seems like about half the price paid wasn't for the player but for the cap space. Have that space available at the deadline and you can get exactly what you need for pennies on the dollar. Of course, the only way the Oilers are doing that at this point is someone going on LTIR. Who knows? Maybe Nurse will develop a severe hangnail come February that will require two months of rest.
Player Coach Coffey on a vet min
The ol’ Reggie Dunlop
Oh my god. Please don’t tell me we will now use “they got to the game 7 of the cup final” as the justification to not fix glaring, obvious holes in the roster. Yes. They got to game 7. They got to game 7 because Connor McDavid put up one of the greatest individual playoff performances of all time. They got to game 7 because Evan Bouchard is the best playoff-performing defenseman in the league past 2 years. They didn’t get to game 7 because they have a roster which doesn’t need upgrading, they got there because their top guys are simply that good. They carried glaring roster holes to game 7 of the finals. In a serious franchise, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl - with the way they perform in the playoffs - would have won multiple cups already. But hey, let’s not upgrade the roster around them, they almost won one. We have 3 top 4 D-men? No problem. Let’s play young Broberg on his off-side and hurt his development, he may have spent last year in the AHL but he was quite good in 15 playoff games. Cody Ceci is a 3+ million anchor that gets hemmed in the D zone 75% of his shifts? That’s fine - McDavid got them to game 7 so we shouldn’t do anything about it. Vegas management would win cup back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back if they got lucky enough to draft Connor fucking McDavid and if they had Draisaitl on a 8 million contract. But hey, we lost to eventual cup winner 3 years in a row. Let’s not fix the roster, let’s make it 4.
Blah blah blah blah blah. It’s always the same blubbering bullshit from complete bellends. Through 82 games and 25 playoff games, the Oilers were great both analytically, and in real world results. How brain damaged do you have to be to be like “durrr… dis not serious franchise!”. I’ll tell you how: Very.
They were great. Because they literally won the lottery and drafted the best player of this generation and another guy who’s top 5. They were great despite having holes in the roster. Draisaitl has no scoring singers, even Knoblauch said it in his exit interview. Nurse doesn’t have a RHD partner that’s capable of playing top 4 minutes. Oilers were great despite this. They would be the best team in the league EASILY if these OBVIOUS holes are addressed. But yeah, let’s run it back with Nurse - Ceci for the thirds straight year so they can get outscored 5-18 5on5 once again and we will lose to the eventual cup champ. Sounds good to me, why win a cup with literal cheat codes on the roster.
It's like a lobotomy.
Ayo fuck this guy
Everytime i see TDL i think its Tony Deangelo and i get a little frightened Then i realize its trade deadline but that still a little scary
Broberg looked decent while the adrenaline was pumping and everyone else was playing with broken bones and torn tendons. When that wore off he started to look very ordinary.
Naw he looked good right through. Not perfect, but WAY more confident with the puck on his stick.
What were you hoping for from a 22 year old D man being thrown in to the conference and Stanley Cup final? He played great and it’s a huge positive heading in to what should be his first full time gig on the big team next season
I expected him to drown in the deep end and get eaten by sharks. I was happily wrong. But in the here and now I do not want the Oilers to just sit on their hands and expect a very young D man to suddenly be a full-time, established player. Young guys, especially D, do not develop in straight lines. I want them to be proactive.
Even Ceci stepped it up down the stretch. I hope all these players that found another level in the playoffs, like Ceci, Janmark, Brown, Foegle, and especially Skinner, can pick up where they left off.
we are not getting tanev unless we are absolutely braindead like the leafs are. leafs are giving him a 5m 6-8 year contract when the dude is 34 years old, hes stupid not to take it.
He’ll barely finish 3 years of that. Guy is perma injured.
He'll be visiting Robidas Island before the end of year 2
I think the best move here is standing pat on making any moves until the March trade deadline. This is a d corps got us to G7 of the SCF. Let's take the first half of the season to give Broberg more minutes to continue developing into a steady top 4D role, then re-assess the group in March. Depending on how Broberg looks, we can decide at that point whether the priority is upgrading our defense or forwards.
Ekblad lol
💀
Could you imagine? Lmao.
Matt Roy
Yeah, basically the only good option left
Honestly with the Campbell buyout we might be able to swing him I keep coping that we're going to upgrade on Ceci, I think I will throw up if we're going into the year with Ceci again lol
Better get that bowl ready. Ceci will be a trade deadline move.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Oilers ran it back with the same dcore. I do think it would be a mistake in the long run to not move on from Ceci this off-season.
Same old, same old. Move on from Ceci and instead bring in. . . . ? That’s the issue. There aren’t RD out there to be had. When Chia was here he traded Hall to get a RD-1 Larsson. When Holland went looking at TDL for RD-1 or 2 , he ended up with LD Ekholm. Any one wanting to comment on Ceci should be required to state the available alternative.
Idk why they think he's going to return to form. He was "surprisingly good" (aka not shit) for one season and has been trending downward worryingly consistently since, and his deployment has gotten worse and exposed the weaknesses in his game. Matt Roy is an analytical darling and doesn't seem to contradict it too much with the eye test. If we can get him under 6m I honestly say we go for it. Or just do 7x5.25m to lower that cap hit a bit. The other places I saw his name being thrown around the most is the Sens, and the highest cap hits I'm seeing is like 6.5m at the very top with 5.5-6 being the normal range, but only on 5 or 6 year contracts. At 29 I'd expect him to be properly good for like the next 5 years, and then maybe slowly decline. By all accounts he's a hard worker though. Throw in Arvidsson and I think Brannstrom would be a good shout. Just checked on capfriendly if HenriqueBrownMark signs for collective 7m, Arvidsson for 3.25, Roy for 5.5 and Brann for 2m we can fit everyone (provided McLeod, Ceci, Kulak go) Arvidsson-McDavid-Hyman Nuge-Drai-Kane Janny-Rico-Brown Holloway-Ryan-X Ek-Bouch Nurse-Roy Broberg-Brannstrom Looks like an upgrade to me over last year
kane was a healthy scratch in the playoffs last year, no way they go into next year with him playing on drai's wing.
He wasn't, he was never healthy since December lol he just kept playing through injury He "could play" but he couldn't torque a shot because of his hernia Edit: he also literally has an nmc, you can't move him if he doesn't want to be moved and apparently the team asked him to waive and he didnt
I would, very tenatively, interpret Knoblauch's remarks about getting Leon some wingers, in a contract year, as pointing against Kane playing with Draisaitl. We know that they do not always play well together, and that there has been frustration there.
lol Ceci will be an Oiler in the fall, mentally prepare for that now.
I have roughly 10 hours of hope left, then im back on the copium
We'd have to trade someone out. We're not even sure if we can sign Desharnais at this point. Ceci or Kulak might have to go, and i'd rather it be Ceci personally. Nurse is overpaid by about 2 million but I can't see going anywhere. Broberg has proven himself a regular though IMO. He might be an excellent but cheap top #4 D replacement for Ceci.
It’s been my assumption Ceci will be moved this summer. They would have moved him at deadline last year but the leadership group said to hold off. Hopefully they don’t hold off again
Nurse has a no trade clause that he is unlikely to waive, his buyout is also very painful. He's not a bad defenseman and he's got leadership to go with the A on his chest. We keep him, even if he is overpaid. He needs a mature, stay-at-home defensive partner to back him up and let him activate offensively and we'll get value closer to his contract amount. Broberg goes to the third line with either kulak or CiCi, I'd prefer kulak, and trade the other. Campbell's buyout will help with cap space.
Rumours were he was part of the trade with Cgy for Tanev.
My understanding is they are after a top 6 winger for drai first and foremost but based odd the absolute 0 rumors or word from anyone it seems we aren't going to do anything. Not even a rumor about discussions with Brown or Janmark.
Brown said “this is where I want to be and this is where my heart is” I have no doubt he’s coming back, it’s just a matter of how much he’s going to cost (god willing 1mil or less) Janmark said something pretty similar, reading between the lines on his quotes and reports about him he’ll take less to play in Edmonton if we offer him 2 or 3 years instead of another one year deal. Frankly Henrique gave the impression he wants to be back too when he said “money isn’t my first priority at this point in my career” so if he feels like we can win a cup with this group I could see him back on like a 3x3 or something. Youre right though the only rumour about an external add was a passing “keep an eye on Edmonton” comment on a podcast from Frank about Arvidsson,
I thought the issue with Henrique was family in California. Idk if you've met any women but convincing his wife to leave California for Edmonton is gonna be a stretch
That’s fair. I took the “money isn’t the most important factor at this point” to be a comment about cup chasing but I guess it absolutely could be more about location/family situation.
I see it as he’ll be back if he convinces his wife too, but fucking he’ll that’s not gonna be easy.
Correct but we haven't heard ANYTHING since that point. Just worried Jackson has no intention to do anything
I also expect tomorrow to be pretty quiet. I know work never stops but with our season ending as recently as it did I could see them just negotiating the easy deals in house (Brown, Janmark and Pickard which is done obviously) then taking a look at what’s left for external adds on like July 7th once the dust has settled.
Which is a huge problem when we need an RW for drai and a 2RD to replace ceci
I don’t disagree but my guess is the 2RD plan right now is Broberg unless something falls in our lap. There’s a decent amount of top 6 wingers out there, hopefully there’s a log jam and someone like Debrusk or Arvidsson finds their way to us in a couple days. Also completely possible that Jackson is tight lipped (after all who heard anything about Knoblauch as a legit head coach candidate before we hired him out of left field) can’t rule out the possibility that JJ has irons in the fire we haven’t heard about and we make a decent splash on day 1.
Or just wait for the trade deadline on the 2RD. Broberg filled in well enough in the SCF on almost zero experience, he can certainly manage for half the regular season in a much less intense atmosphere.
Trade Ceci, run Bromberg until the TDL and re-assess.
We are not poised for big FA signings, because Drai and Bouchard's contract situation. All improvements need to come from within the team's pipeline. Fourtunately, Broberg had a really strong showing in the playoffs, and I think he's ready to take that next step. If Nurse can potentially regain some of those COVID season abilities, our D is pretty good for next season. Then once Drai/Bouch contracts are set, we can think about how to improve through FA.
We will never get another D with nurse eating the entire defence budget.
Sean Walker
Montour
Fuck no. He’s going to ask for 8 mil+ and he was not a stud from my viewpoint in the finals
I was kinda impressed with Montour. Plays a good game. Being 30 years old he still has plenty of fuel in the tank and can rack up the points.
Montour would be great with Nurse but he wants to get paid
The defense is serviceable for the time being. Nurse isn't going anywhere. That's simply a boat anchor that no one else would come anywhere near. Maybe find a way to move Ceci out, and bring in a winger to play with Drai. Otherwise, for me, the key is to find a way to keep Brown Henrique and Janmark to together. They would easily be the best 3rd line in the entire NHL and would give opponents fits on a nightly basis.
Trade Ceci, sign Vinny. Ride Nurse-Broberg. Make a trade in season if needed
This. D-core is basically set. Only question is whether Ceci, Vinnie, or someone else is playing 3RD.
I think best thing would be to make a move next TDL with a team that decides it's time to fold the season and get younger.
Walker or Roy
Realistically, a 1st to 2nd line winger is priority #1 and then line depth for lines 3 and 4 if we can’t re-sign the likes of Brown, Janmark, Foegele, etc. But it would be nice to also get a “defensive defenseman” of sorts. We have the offensive defenceman in Bouch, and a solid but aging Ekholm. But those are the only 2 D-men that I have absolute total confidence in going into next year. Broberg is looking great given the circumstance he was thrown into though.
We can look at two ex Canes players in Martinook and Teravainen both are good two way players and Martinook can play well on the PK and Teravainen brings offensive upside and Stanley Cup experience and knows how to play with gifted offensive players.
Matt Roy
Play it out. Try Broberg on the 2nd pair with Nurse, Kulak can swap in if Broberg struggles. See if we can grab a top 6 winger or a middle 6 winger(or both), and then extend some of the guys. Use the TDL to upgrade the defence
If they don’t keep Desharnais I’ll lose my mind
I would rather trade early than late (like at TDL) to give any new players time to acclimate.
We can’t add anyone unless we move one or two of them out.
I can't believe all the downvotes in this thread. Go back and review the playoffs. Who made the errors, who was on the ice, when we'd get scored on? Ceci, Nurse, Kulak. Team need a D upgrade along with 4th line grit players. That's a tried and true formula.
I think they should look to Troy Stetcher as their depth guy and try to resign Vinny. In other words try to keep the same dmen they had at the end of the season.
I think personally that we need an upgrade for ceci. And pray nurse can smarten up with broberg at his side. I think we are looking at some things wrong. I’d like to get somebody to play along side Nugent Hopkins and have a shutdown defensive line. Trade Kane if you have to. Defence wins championships and if we can shutdown a teams top line our stars can go to work.
Drai needs a solid goat scoring winger. Move Ceci and see where we are at defensively by trade deadline. Would love to keep Janmark and Henrique
Sean Walker would make the team so much better and nobody even thinks about him. Walker on a 4x4 would blow you guys away. You have no idea how good he is Edit: it is clear that my "you have no idea how good he is" statement was true. Look at what happened to the Flyers after they traded him lmao. A team destined for the playoffs loses 8 in a row and completely falls apart. Im a Flyers1/Oilers2 fan. Dont trust me, call me an idiot, whatever that's fine. But a top 4 where you remove Nurse/Ceci and have Ek, Bouch, Broberg and Walker is not only solid but affordable based on the way EVERYONE underrates Walker. **You're all saying he sucks because he didnt excel in the playoffs with JACK JOHNSON as his partner**
He fucking sucks
4/10 sell job. The league knows walker sucks lol
Oh the guy who fetched a first round pick at the deadline sucks? The dman who, had he not been traded wouldve made the fucking FLYERS a playoff team? I love being condescended to by people that haven't even seen Walker play.
Flyers got a 1st for Walker because they also took back the Ryan Johansen contract for 2 years. Helped Colorado clear 4M in cap space last season and next.
Fair to point out. Deal obviously is more for Walker as they could've unloaded him for less, but fair. Either way I watched Walker play 70+ games this year and can attest to his play how steady of a presence he is. He didnt make simple mistakes. You never felt nervous with him puck handling in our zone, you knew he was gonna make the pass. Drysdale, York, Zamula? Different story. Walker is good. He's a pro. Secretly has a heck of a shot too. Hed be a great fit. Montour (just for instance) would not be happy to be on PP2. Walker would happily play PK1 minutes. He'd be your second pair shutdown guy similar to how Ekholm is for Bouchard. He was never trusted by LAK, but Philly played him in the top 4 and he was literally our best dman. Just think it'd be a clutch signing.
Why are you so sensitive about this lol
Because I watched him play 70 games this year and know how good he is. So I mention him as a good signing as an answer to OP's question. I earnestly post a harmless opinion and I'm being condescended to my opinion is being rudely discarded by people that watched him play a few playoff games in a new system on a new team. Games which featured him playing 3rd pair minutes, paired with Jack Johnson! I'm autistic (genuinely/not said for sympathy but context). So I think the combination of having extensive knowledge and being rudely dismissed is causing me to become mildly distressed. Thought I was adding some knowledge about a fun hidden gem, dont know why it was insulted and downvoted. Sorry for being bothered by it, I know people are casually rude to one another on the internet but I'm still surprised everytime. Silly ultimately. TLDR; Walker is a great top 4 RHD fit for this club and will make half of what Montour gets. Its sly, don't break the bank and put a STEADY guy in the top 4. Ek, Bouch, Broberg, Walker, Nurse, Kulak as your top 6 doesn't sound bad at all.
Thats cool bro. Walker still sucks and meat riding him on the oilers board looks sad af
Answering the OP's question in a hockey discussion thread is sad? That's kinda mean. I don't understand the need to be rude. Getting made fun of in real life for getting excited and talking about a hobby too excitedly is humiliating. Didn't think I'd get the same response on a hockey forum. I'll have to look for a different place to talk hockey
Dude got exposed big time in the playoffs. If a contender signs him, they’re gonna regret it.
He didn't immediately fit into Bednar's system playing beside JACK JOHNSON so he sucks? Okay. Weird how upset this innocent suggestion has made everyone.
I’m not upset. Just saying he’s not an answer. I watched every COL game in the playoffs, he looked lost. Was fine in the regular season under Bednar’s system. There’s a reason Colorado isn’t extending him after paying to acquire him during the TDL.
I guess we're just going to disregard the whole Bednar plugging him on the 3rd pairing with Jack Johnson thing huh? A guy on a new team/system, paired with an AHL at best talent, playing fewer minutes, looked lost against the Dallas Stars in the playoffs. How many points does Bouchard score this season if Johnson was his partner? Context matters. It would be one of the best bargain bin signings for a team wasting big money on D already, but go ahead and break the bank for Montour or better yet, run it back.
Why do you think Colorado isn’t interested in extending him? They only have 4 dmen under contract and JJ is gone. Not interested in Montour at all. I think if the Oilers can’t get Roy they should sit pat.
Have they extended him? No. Does he become a free agent tomorrow? Yes. If COL saw his signing as a priority then he would have been resigned before he has the ability to sign with any team. I never claimed or implied in any way that Colorado didnt want to extend him, why did you ask me that question?
Didn't he get fathered by Dallas in the 2nd round?
The guy had a great game vs us after the deadline, and then had very similar numbers to ceci the rest of the way. Greggor talked about it one day on one of his shows heading into the 3rd round I believe it was
Thanks for the downvote? Also I have no idea what this means but I assume MacKinnon and Rantanen are scrubs too since they also lost in that series. Guy played with Jack Johnson and didnt look great. Wow. Shocker.
I didn't downvote you... I do disagree though
With what?
Sound sean walkers reddit account
Schmidt maybe. I don't think we're upgrading Ceci at this point, so maybe just someone who can rotate in who can hopefully find some chemistry and provide some extra depth. Can't bank on everyone staying healthy all year.
Trade Ceci and sign Matt Dumba
Adam Larsson at the trade deadline.
Not free agency related but Nurse for Karlsson is my fantasy trade. Reunite Nurse and Dubas, giving the Penguins a leader for incoming young talent during their rebuild who’s signed for over 5 years. Karlsson gets to compete for a cup for the first time since his early Sharks days, and would be a great fit with Broberg.
Wow. This is just a terrible idea. I’m pretty sure the last thing the oilers need is another pure offence RHD whose cap hit is 11.5 mill. Hard pass on Karlsson.
Good grief. You watch EK play? Awful
Who else are you going trade Nurse for lmao. At least EK is on a shorter contract and plays RD
Sounds like Nick Robertson is available.
Yamamoto without the fight in his game. Im good
Ouch!, I didn’t know he was that bad.
Edmonton's D men are too soft.....You need grit.....Someone to move the guy in front of Skinner...Go get big Z