A Reasonable Oilers Offseason
Posted 10:43 PM ET | Comments 4
SORRY ABOUT THE FORMAT OF THIS BLOG PARAGRAPHS WERE BEING A REAL PAIN I have read multiple blogs, with outrageous ideas about what Edmonton should do during this off season and all I have to say to that is this isn't a Video game, this is a business and you can’t go get whatever you want whenever you want. With that being said let’s look at what the Oilers off season will look like... Craig MacTavish has made the Oilers off season plans pretty clear; add 4-5 players, 1 or 2 coming via trade and the other 2-3 coming from the yet rather weak free agency pool. Player 1: MacT stated that the Oilers need to acquire a good puck moving defenceman. This defender will be coming from a trade and will likely be paired with Jeff Petry on the top pair, therefore needing to be a Left D-man.Now taking a look at the possible candidates for this position would probably be Braydon Coburn, with Philly right on the edge of the cap with just over 4M available with needing to still resign B. Schenn, they need to free up cap."MacTavish said today on @OilersNow that a trade like the Perron one of last summer is a "likely", "scenario that makes the most sense to us" — HockeyInfo (@HockeyInfo_) This would be very similar to the Perron trade made last summer where Philly needs to dump some cap, so they will take a younger guy that will in time replace the void left by Coburn, and that’s the problem I just don’t like the idea of giving up a Klefboom type guy. Player 2: MacT says the next player will need to be a lockdown defender, this player will be on the third pairing with most likely Martin Marincin. The #1 candidate on my list would be Matt Greene assuming he doesn’t get resigned he should throughout the playoffs that he can play the shut down role on the 3rd pair as he held his own during the playoffs.Player 3,4: Will be players that will help shape the top 9 forward group and when thinking of which 2 free agents could fit the bill in my mind it would be the likes of either a Nikolia Kulemin, Benoit Pouliot, Marcel Goc, and/or David Moss. Kulemin will bring skill to the 3rd line and also being a fellow Russian to Nail Yakupov they could possibly end up helping one and other succeed in a certain way. Pouliot he still has the skill the 3rd line could use, but is also a power winger who isn’t afraid to grind it out and win those puck battles in the corners or along the boards. Standing at 6’3 and roughly 200 lbs he also helps the Oilers size issue. Getting Pouliot would probably be a hard task but I’m sure it can be done. Goc would be a long shot for the Oilers but there is no way I’m not taking a stab at him if/when he’s on the open market. He is one of the best faceoff men in the league and is the type of guy you want eating up your 3rd line minutes, he’s got alright size at 6’1, 205, but he definitely plays bigger than he is. Moss isn’t a player I thought of until listening to the Oilers Now show today and it made me look into him and I believe he would be a good asset for the Oil to have on the 3rd line. He’s a gritty player that digs in the corners and his 6’3 frame definitely helps the grinder side of his game. He doesn’t provide much offense but if he can get on a 3rd line with a guy or 2 who provides skill then he will for sure help them by opening up the ice for them to make plays. Player 5: I think player number five can easily be our 3rd overall pick, I don’t see a chance that Ekblad will make it down to the Oil at number 3, but if he does that will be great for the team and make plenty of fans happy, but the 3 centre’s in the top four are all great players themselves and I truly hope the Oilers can walk up to the podium and announce the name Leon Draisaitl I watch a lot of junior hockey as I have season tickets to a junior team and I must say from what I’ve seen this kid is amazing, he is a big centre that is very smart on the ice and knows how to use his body to his advantage to shield off defenders and honestly with a little more off season training I could see this kid possibly making the jump to the NHL. To recap the changes that would be made during the off season would be renovating the whole 3rd line of forwards to have a possible line of… Kulemin/Pouliot/Moss-Draisital/Goc- Kulemin/Pouliot/Moss The 1st defence pair would turn into Cobrun-Petry, with the 2nd being Ference-Schultz, and the 3rd being Marincin-Greene. These are the types of players I think will come to Oil Country, not saying these will be the exact players they are just my hopes of who will come, to me this seems quite reasonable. What are your thoughts? Leave them in the comments. Also make sure to checkout my Twitter- HockeyInfo_ Thanks for reading and Go Oil!
MacT also said its unlikely that any of our young D go anywhere. He wants to keep them all developing. Hopefully in the minors. They will not be rushed into the line up.
Yup, I read that also, The problem is if he wants a "puck moving defenceman" via trade hes going to most likely need to use on of the 3. Which i would love to see them all stay, unfortunately I dont see it being possible if we want to acquire a top guy.
Not the shittiest blog this week.
Kulkikov now on blog how we feel bout him?