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Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

Welcome to the Neno's Place!

Neno's Place Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality


Neno

I can be reached by phone or text 8am-7pm cst 972-768-9772 or, once joining the board I can be reached by a (PM) Private Message.

Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

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Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

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    Edmonton Oilers

    jedi17
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    Posts : 10738
    Join date : 2013-02-20
    • Post n°1

    Edmonton Oilers Empty Edmonton Oilers

    Post by jedi17 Fri 10 Feb 2017, 7:10 pm

    Rental Targets - West
    February 10, 2017, 4:12 PM ET [52 Comments]
    Matt Henderson
    Edmonton Oilers Edm Edmonton Oilers Blogger • RSS • Archive • CONTACT
    As the Bye-Week comes to a close with a practice at 5PM tonight (the earliest possible per the agreement with the Players Association) we started looking at potential rentals for the Playoff push. We started with a look at rentals from the East and now we shift to the West.

    The point I keep hammering home is that the Oilers are a good hockey club right now. They are in the upper 3rd of the NHL when it comes to points in the standings, goals, goal differential, shot attempts, and various other fancy stat categories. The Edmonton Oilers have a young and impactful Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Cam Talbot is stopping pucks. 

    The team is good. They also have Cap space. As of today, Cap Friendly estimates that the Oilers can add as much as 16 million dollars of salary onto their roster and still be compliant. That’s a lot of money to play with. The Senators are the only playoff club with more available space at the deadline. It’s also important to note that this is the cheapest Edmonton’s current core will be. Draisaitl gets a new contract for next year and McDavid the year after that. 

    If Edmonton would like to start the process of going from a “good” team to a “great” team, then now is the time to start. As unlikely as it seems, the window to win is open now. 

    So let’s look at some Rental options from the West’s worst clubs. 

    The Dallas Stars are 12th in the West. They have a -25 goal differential. They employ Lauri Korpikoski. They are 8 points out of the last Wild Card spot, which sounds do-able but leap-frogging the Flames, Canucks, Jets, and one of LA or Nashville is going to be a tough ask. They also have 5 pending UFAs who aren’t on the IR. Even if they don’t want to admit it, selling makes the most sense.

    Patrick Sharp – LW/C – 35 – $5,900,000

    Patrick Sharp is a LW and Center who also shoots right. His versatility is a huge asset as a rental, but he does have a No Trade/No Movement Clause in which he must submit a list of 10 teams. As with anyone who has a modified NTC, we can probably assume Edmonton isn’t on their list. That doesn’t mean they cant be traded to Edmonton, but they would have to waive it first. 

    Sharp has 850 NHL games of experience and another 142 in the playoffs. This year he’s been limited to just 29 games, scoring 6-6-12 in the process. On the Oilers he would fit on the 2nd or 3rd line most likely. His offense and possession numbers 5v5 with Dallas are middling, so he’s not offering as much as now as he used to, but that along with his high Cap hit could make him a cheaper acquisition in the rental market. 

    Jiri Hudler – RW – 33 – $2,000,000

    He’s on the list because he’s a pending UFA, but Hudler has not been good. He’s played fewer games than Sharp even and 24GP, 2-5-7 is not good enough at all for me. Not that long ago I would have had a lot of time for Jiri Hudler but those days have passed. I think at this point there’s no guarantee that he’s better than the Anton Slepyshev and that’s my lowest benchmark for whether a rental player is worth going after at all. 

    Patrick Eaves – RW – 32 – $1,000,000

    This guy is due for a pretty big raise and I’m sure the Stars would love to keep him, but he can also be one of the most heavily pursued players at the deadline. He’s a right shooting, right winger from Calgary *spits*. He’s always been good for 20’ish points, but Eaves is setting career highs with every new point that he scores. At 32 years of age, it’s unlikely that Eaves suddenly became an elite scorer, but he’s on pace for 50 points and should be able to cross the 20 goal barrier. He has 54GP, 19-14-33.

    Going after Eaves makes a lot of sense for any team, but there should be a lot of caution. Eaves is getting a large chunk of his points on the Power Play. There’s no guarantee the points will continue to roll in without getting sugar time. That said, he’s a positive possession player and he might be worth a shot on McDavid’s wing if it means spreading Draisaitl’s scoring to the other lines. 

    The Arizona Coyotes are in bad shape on and off the ice. They have 41 points and no hope to make the playoffs. They should be ready to move all non-essential players.

    Shane Doan – RW – 40 – $3,876,134

    Nope. Moving on.

    Michael Stone – RHD – 26 – $4,000,000

    Stone plays the position on defense that Edmonton needs the most. He’s a right shooting defender and that’s something the Oilers should be interested in adding. The problem with Stone is that he is producing at half of the rate he was just a year ago. Barring a miracle run, he wont get close to scoring 30 points this season. 

    In addition to having an abysmal offensive season, he’s dead last on the Coyotes blueline in CF% and CFRel. When I say that there is no guarantee that he will be better than Kris Russell, take that as a damning statement. He is not a clear upgrade over what the Oilers already have on the blueline.

    Radim Vrbata – RW – 35 – $1,000,000

    Radim Vrbata is the highest scoring player on the Coyotes. He has 52GP, 11-24-35 for a Coyotes team that cannot score. He is 14 points ahead of the next closest on his team. He’s a volume shooter (almost 50 more than the next Coyote). He’s also a positive CorsiRel player on a team that gets crushed all the time. 

    One of the down things with Vrbata is that he has bonuses built into his contract that could see a little more than 2 million added onto the Cap next year for the Oilers. It is the ONLY negative I can find about him. That said, it’s a big negative. I don’t know if the trading team takes on 100% of the bonus overage in a trade scenario, but if they do then that could halt this thing in its tracks.

    Martin Hanzal – C – 29 – $3,100,000

    He’s huge, he wins faceoffs, he has a decent level of offense, and like Vrbata he is a positive CorsiRel player on a bad team. If Edmonton is looking to upgrade the Drake Caggiula spot on the roster, look no further than Hanzal. Well…until you hear the asking price. 

    GM John Chayka seems to be a bit off his gourd if the reports are true. We’ve seen asking prices like a 1st round pick and a blue chip prospect. For Hanzal? That’s a steep price for a pending UFA. Hanzal has 43GP, 10-9-19, but only 9 of those points have come 5v5 and Hanzal has been playing the highest TOI per game of all Coyotes forwards on the PP. In Edmonton those minutes will be greatly reduced and his offensive impacts will shrink because of it.

    Still, having greater strength down the middle will only make Edmonton more dangerous in the Playoffs.

    Moving on to the worst team in the NHL, the Colorado Avalanche are a travesty on ice. They are on pace for 51 points this season. That is historically awful. As such, the whole team is in question. Every other day Matt Duchene and Gabriel Landeskog are the subject of trade rumours.

    Jarome Iginla – RW – 39 – $5,333,333 

    See Doan, Shane

    This is where we end on rentals for the Avalanche. Much like the bad Oiler teams of the past decade, it’s hard to see a diamond in the rough for their pending UFAs. There are players I want, but they are core or long term players, not rentals.

    There, of course, are other rentals on the market. I would be in derelict of duty if I didn’t add Kevin Shattenkirk’s name to the list.

    Kevin Shattenkirk – RHD – 28 – $4,250,000

    He’s a mobile, offensive, right handed defender who should slot in perfectly on Edmonton’s 2nd pairing with Andrej Sekera. On paper, it all makes sense. The team has been missing an offensive performer on the blueline forever. They are crying out for a threat on the power play from the blueline.

    Kevin Shattenkirk might want to play in the East. He’s reportedly interested in being a Ranger. There’s no indication Edmonton is even on the radar for him. But, they have the best player in the world (or 2nd best at worst) and a brand new arena. Shattenkirk has 55GP, 11-27-38 and he has 10 points more than the next highest scoring Blues defender. 

    Shatty has detractors. I think he’s exactly what the Oilers need. I would absolutely offer a conditional 1st (if he re-signs) and other assets to make it happen.

    Are any of these players destined to be Oilers? We wait to find out.
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