travel_dude

So Tanev at $4.5m as a slightly older UFA. I should add that as a UFA signing, I don't think he was overpaid. He was what he came advertised as.

I just don't see why Larsson would opt to sign for that, other than being a loyal citizen. Brodin signed last September for 7x$6m. Maybe not a good comparison, but less than $4m to me is an insult.

I don't know why he would sign for less than that. Doesn't mean that Holland will offer that, but then again he has buyouts as an option to increase his cap. Neal and Koskinen. Turris spending the year in the AHL adds a bit of coin too. Come on Kenny, $6.5m to Nuge and $5m to Larsson. The overpay for a UFA goalie.

I get that sentiment, but who exactly has a 1st to trade away? Minny, NJ, DET and CBJ have more than one each, but I doubt they give up their own picks in trade. The other 1sts available from them are from WAS, TBL and TOR. Considering what DET and CBJ paid for those trades, I doubt they are easily available. What's left is teams with better lotto odds than us and teams behind us. Does a deep re-tool signal that we will have a bunch of 1st rounders coming back? Monahan for upgrade. Gaudreau for upgrade. Tkachuk for upgrade. Gio to expansion draft. Any of those scream a 1st as part of the deal, whether you think BT is competent or not? Should he is a different story.

Still going to be drawn. No change and we draft 12th. Or a later team wins the lotto and we draft 13th. Or two later teams win the lotto and we draft 14th. Or we win one of the spots and draft 1st or 2nd. That is all. Hope for the latter.

No doubt. I'm hoping that it starts with at least a 6. Does he think he's worth more than $5m? I could be mistaken, but wasn't EDM's best season when they had him as #3C?

Gio produced similar numbers to other years he was the top played D-man. Down from a couple stud years, but about the same as normal years. My issue was that he was the top played and top pair D-man. No easing in anyone to replace him. No long term plan and no coach willing to sit him for any stretch of time. I would really like to upgrade the D top pair myself. Hanifin is close, Ras a bit farther away. Really, if Ras was given a bit more sheltering, I would be happier. To do that, you would need to bring in a top 2D. Trade Monahan + to CBJ for Jones, who may not even want to sign there after next year. It would need to be a good offer, but it would set our D up for years to come. Would allow us to pace our D so that we eventually retire Tanev. Too late to adequately plan for Gio's retirement. Hanifin-Jones Valimaki-Tanev Mackey-Ras Stone Re-signing Jones would come from money saved not paying Gio. We have vets playing with young potential stars. Mackey-Ras develop their skills without being thrown to the wolves.

Maybe Lucic is right about what BOS was when he played there. But he was 26 the last time he played there. I will throw this out here. If Lucic was talking about Bennett, would you still have the same opinion of him? It's just a question, no judgement. Can't say how likely that is, but Lucic wasn't just talking about the end of the season. That's not an indictment of Bennett either. He wasn't put in a position to improve his next contract. He did well in limited time with a new club, where he seemed to enjoy playing hockey again. I won't talk about Tampa and culture in the same breath. Cap circumvention? Sure. I like some of their players because they are just that good. Not a long list.

We managed to survive a playoff run without Gio. Not that we did well, but with him we were not much better off. I would see what it takes to get Seth Jones here. Monahan + for Jones. That would insulate Ras and Tanev from top pairing. And he's young enough to be part of the long term plan.

I never understood what they were doing with Nuge. He was a top 6 C and played well enough as a 2-way C. On a Oilers team, they figured he should be a LW. Pumped up his scoring by playing with Draisaitl. Some times I think he would be a good target for the Flames, but we would need to ditch Backlund at the very least. Other times, I think he was fortunate to play on a team where team defense was not something looked upon as good. He's built no more sturdy than Mangiapane. As a UFA, $5m x 5 might be reasonable, but does it make our team any better? Does he walk to sign for what he should be paid in EDM? Do teams starving for a C pay him based on being a complementary player in EDM?

https://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Sean-Maloughney/Dissecting-Ken-Hollads-Post-Season-Presser/261/111711 First priority - re-sign RFA and some UFA's. Second priority - tweak the roster a bit, as they were so close to winning 3 of 4 games. Buyouts - very possible Refreshing that EDM is thinking Smith is part of the solution and that real depth is not a priority.

You are basing it on expectations of a top 4 rafted player in what many saw as a strong draft. The only proof he is close to those expectations is a short stretch with a playoff bound team. A player doing well in the East and not in the West. It's a limited proof so far. What happens if he regresses back to his usual output next season? I'm not hoping for it, just suggesting that it's as possible as what you've seen. Playoff Sam Bennett was always going to produce. I blame the GM for not building up a player, regardless of what he ever would become. Clean house if you like, but there are others making important decisions and recommendations that are not the GM. Make sure you get those.

Funny that Pettersen didn't play today, and they lost to Canada. Glad Mange was able to get an important goal for Canada.

Yeah that wasn't happening. A 1st for Bennett + something. 3 years ago Bennett might have commanded a 1st from a contender. Doubtful, considering he wasn't a Blake Coleman at the time. Woulda, shoulda, coulda. No real insight into whether Bennett would have made it here. I see one situation where he is thriving, and can't come up with a series of moves that gets him to that magical player. We trade Gaudreau, perhaps we don't get Tkachuk because we have picked up assets and futures. The only given is that he didn't thrive here. Trade and assess might have worked by using about 6 years of his career to see what you had. Would it be any better than trading him for a 2nd + prospect? Jury is still out, isn't it.

If we weren't able to maximize Bennett, I think we might have a problem with a guy like Ruzicka. Zary may work out because he is already built on a 2-way game. Pelletier might be an issue, since he's probably the same type of player as Mangiapane. The way we are built, we simply don't have room in the top 9 for him. Maybe a crazy line like Pelletier-Ruzicka-Dube would be able to succeed, but I don't see the opportunity to use a line like that. Not here. Anywhere else, probably. Seems to me that for every Pelletier, we have to have a Lucic or Ritchie.

The past mistakes are good learnings I guess. As much as I have enjoyed Lucic's play and "team" game, he is part of the problem. For close to $6m, we should have a top 4 RW, not a 3LW. We have guys that could do that. Backlund is a waste of $5m. Our best RW and we have to use Lindholm as a C. To me, it does appear as if we just looked through a list of players and just picked them at random for their salary fit. I don't really see any line that was built to succeed. Gaudreau-Lindholm-Tkachuk played well, well because they are the three best players on the team. Fine, build a bottom 9 with that in mind. Secondary scoring line that can fly. Shutdown line that can score on transition. 4th line that ends up even at worst against whomever they play, but has guys that can actually score a goal. What bothers me is that players like Mangiapane rarely make it on this team. He got promoted to 3M, and then does everything you want, so we drop him to Lucic's line. He still scores there. I don't know if a Ruzicka will ever be a top 6 player, but I have no idea how he even gets the chance to show his skill. Garbage games and he still plays on a 4th line with Ritchie. He's actually got a decent shot and isn't slow.

ONe of the best players for the ypung to learn from was Hudler. He was a decent role model for Monahan and Gaudreau. But I tend to agree there was little else. Stajan? Brouwer? Bollig? I don't know, you tell me. It took us years to provide a top 6 RW. And trading away a top D to do it. Tkachuk was given a shutdown role. How does that make any sense? It's n surprise that we tried Bennett on the wing. And kept him there. As it is, we can't even line up two top 6 RW's now, with all the changes over the last 5 years.

Really? Because I understood that he is still dealing with it, not that he was healed.

Ok, so there was some kind of offer on the table for Bennett + Gaudreau was there? Sure there were other deals Bennett was packaged in that fell through. And there was probably some belief that his value was higher than what any of the offers were. Probably two years ago we get primo from Anaheim. I certainly don't absolve BT for any of the huge mistakes he made. I do give credit where due. If you can find examples of where Bennett showed he should be a #1C on this team, I would be happy to talk about them. No, he wasn't shoved under a rock becuase of Gaudreau. All he needed to do was take that next step. Which he didn't. Was the playoffs enough reason to promote him to #1C because we needed one?

Some would have you believe (Gregor) that the Oilers only need improve in steps and they will be that contender. As if that happens all the time. You have to be incredibly luck like Tampa last year that you could use LTIR and cap space effectively enough to add at TDL. And be ready to give up picks without fear. Koskinen should have been a better goalie this year, but he was overplayed when Smith was on vacation. Now, he's a $4.5m hole and not a fear to be claimed in the draft. Neal accounts for another amount of dead cap space, and they know what they have in him now. Just rambling. I don't see a real path forward for them. How do you improve a team without gving up some assets that only help the top end. Yamamoto suffered from a sophomore regression, and suddenly they are really a one line team. Russell, McLeod, Kassian, Khaira, Chaisson, Haas, Archibald, Ennis, Shore is your depth? Phew. Can't afford Barrie now to score a bunch of PP points. All eyes on Broberg and Bouchard, who will probably help scoring but be questionable on defense. I'm not saying that their prospects are trash, but if you don't even have a 2nd line, you won't be able to compete just adding more rookies.

Benning has said they will be busy this summer, with (yes he said that) buyouts, trades and signings. Probably similar to what Capmaster Kenny does in EDM.

He could have been traded to Buffalo and not be able to dig them out. Or a playoff team where his role was defined by what he was in CGY. If we had a definite plan of what core players were on the way out and what was coming back, then Bennett might have been slated to be protected in the draft. Criticize BT all you want, but he made the best of a bad situation for both Bennett and the team, and does not need to lose him for nothing. I can only speculate that Lucic was talking about Bennett when he said playing for individual stats. It matches what Bennett talked about, being moved to RW or C, or 4th line or no PP time. If true, it shows how frustrated a player can get by being yanked around. The other side of the coin is that a player has to fit the vision and not just complain about it. You don't like your role - do something about it to make yourself indispensable. I'm talking out of my butt. No idea if any of that is true or not. The player didn't work out here. He's doing well in a limited viewing so far and could see a new lease on his career. Or return to the normal.

Tanev was quick to point out that he said the injury was no big deal to him. I don't agree with him playing past the point where games didn't matter, but you do have to factor in player decisions when suggesting it's toxic or not. I do think the team needs to better evaluate risk/reward though. It made little sense to play an injured Monahan, where his performance was impacting the line. Not that performance is the only issue, just that it made no sense where he needed surgery. Perhaps we are not that bad a place to sign as a UFA. The biggest issue for me is sometimes the guys we do go after.

Yes, you are interpreting what I said the right way. I see Tkachuk as a RW when played with Mangiapane or Gaudreau. We keep all three and we have good scoring in the top 6. Add in Lindholm and a top C, and we have two good lines. That implies that we use Backlund and Monahan and perhaps Dube and a 1st to improve the RW and C. Unfortunately, I am all over the map on how to improve the team. Part of me says move out Backlund, Monahan, and Lucic, plus whatever picks or prospects improve the #1C and top 6 RW spots. The other part of me says we need to upgrade the top pairing. Ship out: Gio, Monahan, Backlund, Lucic, 1st in 2021, Dube, prospects Bring in: Top D like Seth Jones, top C, sign UFA RW'er, sign #3C Maybe we have to sacrifice one of Gaudreau or Tkachuk, but those would hurt the most. I don't see them as the reason we failed in the playoffs. Maybe Gaudreau is too small for the playoffs, but if he played with a true sniper he wouldn't be the target of every defensive player. Maybe if he got a pass every now and then he would sore more. Seems like he is learning that part of the game a bit better.