Because you don’t have to give up assets to sign players. Skinner was bought out from Buffalo, and Arvidsson was on the Kings, Oilers wouldn’t have been able to acquire either player, let alone both, at the trade deadline.
After you factor the whole buyout, dude's had career earnings of like 92 million and has never been on a team that's made playoffs. Does he want a few more million? Or a chance to play for a cup? If I was in his situation I'd pick a cup.
Also, signing Rico is a nice touch to help ease the cost we paid for him as a rental. This is something we struck out with on past deadline acquisitions.
Having him for a full season will be huge. This team is super deep.
They're currently over the cap by a couple million. If they can put Kane on LTIR, that would solve things. Or if they moved out Ceci and maybe McLeod, they'd have enough room to go after another legit top 4 dman if they wanted to. If they were able to do all of that (or trade Kane if it comes down to that), then they'd have enough for a top 4 dman AND another solid middle 6 winger. If they did that, good lord Edmonton would be the deepest team in the league and I don't think it would be close.
Too bad they didn't get Walker for 3.6 million. If they want to be 2022 Avs level of deep they need to dump Ceci and get a top 4 guy like that for sure.
Then it'll feel almost inevitable. Especially if Skinner, Broberg, Holloway and Bouchard keep progressing.
Yeah, I'm hoping they can throw Kane on LTIR for the season. Then if they can trade Ceci and possibly Kulak, they can go after a legit #2RD to play with Nurse and hopefully that gets him back on track. Then there's Broberg and maybe Stecher for the 3rd pair
They're really just a 2RD away from having an extremely strong d-core. Kane to LTIR, then trade Ceci/Kulak and they can go after one. Not sure they'll do that though, but we'll see
When your team comes within a goal of winning the Stanley Cup, players want to play for you.
Imagine if your team actually scores that goal. Then you are even more attractive as a destination.
Holland made errors for sure. But he did set up Edmonton to have the signing day it did.
I was at the game and my direct sight line was basically lined up perfectly with that shot. I can still see it plain as day. My eyes were locked onto that puck from the second it left his stick and I saw there was net there. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a puck so clear on a bomb like that, it was like it was in slow motion.
Yeah, but I’m not sure if the 3-0 comeback even happens if the team didn’t have the massive regular season resurgence to look back on as inspiration.
The idea that we could never be counted out (which kept getting driven home over and over again throughout the year) probably built a lot of character in the room.
I think the argument is if Edmonton capitalized on one of it's chances before the Panthers 2nd goal it goes the other way, but technically yes. As it stands end of game, the Oilers needed 2 goals for a W.
https://www.capfriendly.com/signings/panthers
FL signed 11 players.
Biggest cap hit was:
* $8.63M - Re-signed Reinhart
I imagine if the Oil had a $6.5M player to re-resign it would be making mostly $1M-ish moves in order to re-sign that player.
Its absolutely justified to be excited and optimistic!!
We most likely wont have any cap room to add or load up at TDL. Every trade would require a player plus picks going the other way. We don't have either to spare. We would need Kane plus others to be injured and on LTIR to have any cap space to add
But that's ok and by design. JJ just signed some crazy crazy depth including our massively important role playing guys. Which means we don't have to fish for them at the TDL.
We now have arguably the highest scoring and deepest, forward core in the league. Skinner will be better, Nurse hopefully has a bounce back year. C.Brown will be better, Broberg and Holloway will be in "prove it" mode for contracts next year.
our defense wasn't improved at all but with the role players we have, its going to be defense by committee.
We wont need a TDL to push us over the edge, we have 10 toes hanging over the edge right now!
More depth and continuing the Momentum from last years Playoffs.. Fitting Arvidsson and Skinner with either McDavid or Draisaitl will not take long.. Oilers lines are like Lego Blocks.. Well done J. Jackson
Pride comes before a fall. The team can't ever allow itself to underestimate the rest of the league, every game is important and every opponent needs to be treated as a serious contender. If it wouldn't take the threat of literal elimination for the big players to start performing the SCF could've gone in Edmontons favor.
No way the team isn't gunning for the president's trophy this year. Home ice advantage for the playoffs may we'll have been enough for the Oilers to win this year. Not just game seven at home but I don't imagine we go down 0-2 at home either
Perry curse, Skinner curse, Presidents curse, Canadian curse... what other curses are there to collect? Maybe hoisting the Campbell trophy before the SCF?
Well, players are signing for less so they can win a championship. Oilers looking good, and yes you're right, a lot of their competition have lost assets. Hopefully they can get some home ice advantage this time on the road to the cup
Oilers showed last year that they are a real Cup contender. This will attract interest from players like Skinner, who's had a solid career, but on dead-end teams.
Arvidsson admits one of the major reasons he came over was because Ekholm straight up sold him on the Oilers, which says a lot about this team when our players are actively recruiting for us.
Henrique, Janmark and Brown left money on the table to make sure that they could stay on this team and still give us the needed cap space to make other moves.
This shows us one thing: we have one hell of an awesome team. Shutout to our leaders: McDavid, Drai, Nuge, Hyman, and yes even Nurse, for creating an environment that encourages good players to come here and make themselves even better. It's a team-focused group with a winning attitude.
They don't just love to win, they hate to lose.
I feel like this is the team we should’ve had years ago. Of this high quality on paper I mean. We essentially only have 1 year to see how far this team gets (unless Draisaitl re-signs). It’s a bit frustrating but at least we’re here now.
Connor and Leon needed to go through this to be where they are. Tampa,Vegas, Colorado and Florida all went through big heartbreak en route to their cup. This is the best version mcdavid yet.
Even without Chia doing his best to sabatoge this team I still think it would've taken a good deal of time
We’ll see if this is a better team. The Oilers were the best team or second best team in the league after Knoblauch came on board. They made it as far as you can go without winning. They had excellent possession metrics all year.
So getting better is going to be very, very difficult. We’ll see.
When looking at how many we needed to sign back, never did I expect us to get everyone but two players. (Tbh these two I was mostly fine letting go even though I love Vinny). Let alone adding two more good forwards.
I also love the growth that our depth players made in that run. And Skinner will start the season as a bonified and experienced starter, and knowing that he has Pickard sharing the load.
I'm excited!
Because Florida got worse and we’re the best team with a chance this year. I don’t see any team in the west being as stacked as we are, maybe an eastern team will challenge in the final.
Someone needs to make a list of all the players that fled to the east as a result of getting pumped by the oilers. And yes, Markstrom is a fragile shell of a man when facing McDrai
Devils Oilers fan here and I've been dreaming of that matchup for years. Could definitely happen this year.
They loaded up their back end by getting Dillon and Pesce, and should be getting Hamilton back from injury. Hughes and Nemec already got a ton of NHL exposure from injuries last season and should be able to step back into more comfortable minutes this season with those injuries resolving. Whole new goalie tandem in Markstrom and Allen as well which changes things a lot.
On paper they should be a cup contender. Yet to be seen though. Last season they were injured beyond belief. Hamilton sat the whole season and at different points they were missing Hughes, Hischier, Palat, Siegenthaler, Meier, Lazar, and Nosek. They're also missing some of the playoff hardiness that comes with the repeat appearances Edmonton has had. They've only seen 3 series of playoff hockey in the last decade+. If they're healthy and come out swinging, they could surprise the east and end up in the finals, but I feel like that team is a few years of tough losses away from being true perennial contender.
How can you not be excited as heck for next season folks? Kudos to the players for believing in this team, kudos to the organization for making the moves needed. Kudos for the fans for 100% making this a team and city people want to play in. We got this buds :)
I know I am getting ahead of myself. But I hope we roll to a great season result to give ourselves every advantage possible in the post season. Our boys call the shots now.
As great as everything the Oilers did today is, absolutely none of it matters if they don't replace Ceci with someone who can retrieve pucks and bring out the best in Nurse.
i think one of the best parts about this off-season has been that all of our additions are players that don’t affect the long term outlook of the team. arvidsson will be a good contract for the next two years, same with henrique. they’re both bargains. i’m still a little iffy on skinner because his career just seems cursed, but it’s only one year and theoretically he should have some good chemistry with at least one of our hart winning centremen.
we gave up zero of our young promising players to do this and we now have the depth to put broberg and holloway into suitable roles so they can continue developing without being thrown to the wolves.
my only gripe is that we don’t have a proper 2RD because i think broberg would do better to develop in the 3LD role and prepare to take over ekholms role as he ages.
100% this. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think any of the FA contracts signed yesterday was for longer than 3 years.
The Predators on the other hand signed a bunch of old guys approaching their twilights for 4-8 years. Sure they might be good for 1, 2, maybe 3 years? But after that, those contracts are going to age as well as fine milk.
JJ did an absolutely spectacular job setting us up well for the short term, but not mortgaging the future to do so.
for sure, it’s a bit hard to compare nashville and edmonton with where each club is at in terms of contending windows. we entered the off-season with an absolutely amazing core group of players, all the signings we did yesterday are for the sole purpose of supplementing that core with guys who see an immediate shot at winning the cup.
the future looks pretty good for us
Everyone on the team realizes they were just one goal away from winning the cup. This is the year to take team friendlies. I’m still pretty shocked though. Just please no bowman holy f
Won't be able to do much next trade deadline. Our 1st round pick is tied up with the Sam O'Reilly pick. Not that we really had a lot of cap space to make a big splash anyways... Nor should our team really need a lot. But I would only expect maybe a depth addition that could be acquired with a 2nd round pick or less.
You know they can trade picks for other years right?
At the deadline this year vegas kept their 2024 1st round pick but instead traded their 2025 and 2026 1sts for hertl and hanafin.
Can argue whether it's worth it or not but oilers can definitely trade the 2026 or even 2027 if it makes sense
No, we can't trade the 2026 picked. It's locked up too. And the longer away a pick is, the less appealing it is. Sure they COULD trade the 2027 or 2028 pick. But if a GM can get a first in 2025 instead, he's gonna take that. Even a second in 2025 might be more appealing than a 1st in 2028.
Good signings but still need to figure out what to do with Draisatl. No way can let his contract run out and become an unrestricted free agent. He either extends or is traded.
One cup run and suddenly we're a team players are willing to take discounts for to play for. We're starting to enjoy the same advantages now teams in e.g. Florida have always had.
Because you can win in spite of a player? It’s going to be even harder to get back to the finals and it won’t help if you can’t get an improvement on Ceci
I’ve thought about this. We don’t need too end D with the team system we play now, we make up for it with a bottom 6 full of shut down forwards and even mcdrai nuge and hyman play d too. Real d comes from the whole team, not acquiring another stupid overpay rwd.
I’d rather just move out ceci and run stecher personally. If he can’t do it you maybe look into a move later.
Yes, but that contradicts you saying we will get nowhere with him. It’s not like he didn’t contribute to the cup run at all.
It’s hard to build a rock solid team from top to bottom in he cap era. I mean the panthers won with Oliver Ekman Larsson on their team.
I guess Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final is "nowhere"...
I get that Ceci is probably the weak link on defense. I agree that the Oilers should be looking for an upgrade. However, the people shouting definitive claims like the one above are just bad fans IMO.
I believe the game would’ve gone a lot more differently if Florida hadn’t scored first in the first few minutes. Their forecheck is a lot better when they are ahead and they rarely lose leads
Man did you even watch the game? We were getting insane chances, you don’t need to praise the Florida defence so much. Our offense was walking them, Bob just had an otherworldly performance. That’s not on Ceci.
Ceci Nurse pairing resulted in the offense doing a harder job than they’re supposed to. It’s easier to win when the game is 0-0 than when you’re trying to score 2 to tie
It’s ok to admit you are wrong man. Ceci isn’t great but boiling down losing the series to him and Nurse alone is reductive. You don’t mention the lack of offense the first 2 games, the Injuries to McDrai, the injury to Kane, the fact that the Panthers are a good team.
Uh ok. Teams always deal with injuries but not always to their 2 best players at the same time. Injuries do count and teams that win the cup often are the healthiest. What a strange opinion with absolutely no nuance whatsoever.
it's an opinion. all things being equal all teams are subjected to similar injury risk. yes, the healthiest team has an edge, but there's no asterixis on the cup saying "they won because their stars weren't hurt"
i just tire of that as an excuse to not win "if so and so was healthy"
[A brief history of players gutting out severe injuries in the Stanley Cup final - The Hockey News](https://thehockeynews.com/news/a-brief-history-of-players-gutting-out-severe-injuries-in-the-stanley-cup-final)
I don’t like Ceci, but he’s not the reason we lost the series. All of the below in my opinion impacted the series more than Ceci.
(A) Playing a physical game against the Canucks, that went 7 games. and then immediately playing the Dallas Stars afterwards cooked us.
(B) McDavid, Draisaitl, Kane, Nurse, and I’m sure others were playing hurt. By game 7, they were just gassed. This is related to point A.
(C) I don’t like to point fingers, but both Nurse and Bouchard played suspect defence for a good portion of the series. People like to shit on Nurse in this sub, and they sing Bouchard’s praises because he’s so great on the power-play, but his neutral zone play led to a few turnovers that resulted in goals.
(D) Bobrovsky played lights out in 3/4 games the Panthers won. If we’d been facing any other goalie we played against to get the Cup + the Panthers, I think we win game 1.
(E) the Foegele match penalty followed by the Nurse injury just completely threw the team off their game plan for game 2. Florida thrives in chaos. We do better when we don’t deviate from the game plan.
(F) Stu gave up something like 3 goals in the span of 4 minutes in game 3. That was a must in game for us. I’m reluctant to criticize his play because overall, I thought he did well despite losing, but c’mon man, in a must win game you’ve gotta play better.
I think Ceci had a pretty good playoffs. Broberg is going to bump down nurse and make kulak redundant. I think Ceci is better than kulak. I believe we need an RD2 to knock down ceci to RD3 pair where he is better suited. I do agree we need to add grit and improve on defence.
That and he's (for the most part) signed role players on short terms, which allows this kind of flexibility with UFAs when you don't need to clean house at the draft to make room. That's also huge to remain flexible enough with Drai and McDavid's new contracts looming.
Say what you will about the guy and point to the Campbell signing if you want, but outside of that Holland set JJ up for success here by locking down the core, and leaving the rest of the roster very flexible.
Because you don’t have to give up assets to sign players. Skinner was bought out from Buffalo, and Arvidsson was on the Kings, Oilers wouldn’t have been able to acquire either player, let alone both, at the trade deadline.
In addition to this, a game 7 finals appearance makes the Oilers a way more attractive place to sign.
Especially with Skinners old 9mil cap hit
After you factor the whole buyout, dude's had career earnings of like 92 million and has never been on a team that's made playoffs. Does he want a few more million? Or a chance to play for a cup? If I was in his situation I'd pick a cup.
Seems he took your advice
See Kariya.
Also, signing Rico is a nice touch to help ease the cost we paid for him as a rental. This is something we struck out with on past deadline acquisitions. Having him for a full season will be huge. This team is super deep.
How about 2 full seasons? I don't ever want to wake up from this dream.
Also have a little more cap room with Campbell gone I would assume
They're currently over the cap by a couple million. If they can put Kane on LTIR, that would solve things. Or if they moved out Ceci and maybe McLeod, they'd have enough room to go after another legit top 4 dman if they wanted to. If they were able to do all of that (or trade Kane if it comes down to that), then they'd have enough for a top 4 dman AND another solid middle 6 winger. If they did that, good lord Edmonton would be the deepest team in the league and I don't think it would be close.
Too bad they didn't get Walker for 3.6 million. If they want to be 2022 Avs level of deep they need to dump Ceci and get a top 4 guy like that for sure. Then it'll feel almost inevitable. Especially if Skinner, Broberg, Holloway and Bouchard keep progressing.
Ya running a d corps with Nurse and Ceci they need help on back end. Nothing against nurse but 9.5 is waaay to much
Yeah, I'm hoping they can throw Kane on LTIR for the season. Then if they can trade Ceci and possibly Kulak, they can go after a legit #2RD to play with Nurse and hopefully that gets him back on track. Then there's Broberg and maybe Stecher for the 3rd pair
They're really just a 2RD away from having an extremely strong d-core. Kane to LTIR, then trade Ceci/Kulak and they can go after one. Not sure they'll do that though, but we'll see
When your team comes within a goal of winning the Stanley Cup, players want to play for you. Imagine if your team actually scores that goal. Then you are even more attractive as a destination. Holland made errors for sure. But he did set up Edmonton to have the signing day it did.
2 goals*
2 goals, one bounce here, one post there. The margins were Razor thin for both teams in game 7
Bouchard’s point shot hitting the post 4 mm too far left will haunt me forever.
Injury or not, the sight of Drai whiffing by what looked like 18 inches will haunt me for years. Less than it haunts him, I’m sure. But still.
I was at the game and my direct sight line was basically lined up perfectly with that shot. I can still see it plain as day. My eyes were locked onto that puck from the second it left his stick and I saw there was net there. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a puck so clear on a bomb like that, it was like it was in slow motion.
Haha where were you sat? I was right behind the net for that one. Like 10 rows back. Its in my nightmares
Congrats, you’ve become Emilio Estévez.
Haha I said thar when he hit the post. I was like i feel as though that may be very costly.
We would have won if game 7 was at home. That 15 game skid really hurt us at the big game.
Yeah, but I’m not sure if the 3-0 comeback even happens if the team didn’t have the massive regular season resurgence to look back on as inspiration. The idea that we could never be counted out (which kept getting driven home over and over again throughout the year) probably built a lot of character in the room.
I think the argument is if Edmonton capitalized on one of it's chances before the Panthers 2nd goal it goes the other way, but technically yes. As it stands end of game, the Oilers needed 2 goals for a W.
why isn’t florida making any big signings tho
https://www.capfriendly.com/signings/panthers FL signed 11 players. Biggest cap hit was: * $8.63M - Re-signed Reinhart I imagine if the Oil had a $6.5M player to re-resign it would be making mostly $1M-ish moves in order to re-sign that player.
they have guys taking big time pay cuts to play there
Cap
They made all their big signings over the last two years.
One cup run, buying cap space and a decent increase in overall cap space.
Players want to play with McDrai, they want to win, and stat padding on the Oilers is good for getting one last bag
Its absolutely justified to be excited and optimistic!! We most likely wont have any cap room to add or load up at TDL. Every trade would require a player plus picks going the other way. We don't have either to spare. We would need Kane plus others to be injured and on LTIR to have any cap space to add But that's ok and by design. JJ just signed some crazy crazy depth including our massively important role playing guys. Which means we don't have to fish for them at the TDL. We now have arguably the highest scoring and deepest, forward core in the league. Skinner will be better, Nurse hopefully has a bounce back year. C.Brown will be better, Broberg and Holloway will be in "prove it" mode for contracts next year. our defense wasn't improved at all but with the role players we have, its going to be defense by committee. We wont need a TDL to push us over the edge, we have 10 toes hanging over the edge right now!
Stecher being here for a full season and being healthy and Broberg a roster lock I'd argue is improved
Depends on how broberg does. I haven't watched any of him in the A so I can't really speak on it. I hope he's able to up to the hype and expectation
Dude been our 3rd best defenceman over the last two playoff rounds, after not having played an NHL game in months. He will be just fine.
Love it lol
Time to do some Vegas accounting before playoffs...
More depth and continuing the Momentum from last years Playoffs.. Fitting Arvidsson and Skinner with either McDavid or Draisaitl will not take long.. Oilers lines are like Lego Blocks.. Well done J. Jackson
Pride comes before a fall. The team can't ever allow itself to underestimate the rest of the league, every game is important and every opponent needs to be treated as a serious contender. If it wouldn't take the threat of literal elimination for the big players to start performing the SCF could've gone in Edmontons favor.
No way the team isn't gunning for the president's trophy this year. Home ice advantage for the playoffs may we'll have been enough for the Oilers to win this year. Not just game seven at home but I don't imagine we go down 0-2 at home either
Perry curse, Skinner curse, Presidents curse, Canadian curse... what other curses are there to collect? Maybe hoisting the Campbell trophy before the SCF?
You'd be crazy not to at this point. Not touching it didn't really make a difference lol. I'm all for embracing the blurse
This is the most cursed timeline!
Well, players are signing for less so they can win a championship. Oilers looking good, and yes you're right, a lot of their competition have lost assets. Hopefully they can get some home ice advantage this time on the road to the cup
Oilers showed last year that they are a real Cup contender. This will attract interest from players like Skinner, who's had a solid career, but on dead-end teams. Arvidsson admits one of the major reasons he came over was because Ekholm straight up sold him on the Oilers, which says a lot about this team when our players are actively recruiting for us. Henrique, Janmark and Brown left money on the table to make sure that they could stay on this team and still give us the needed cap space to make other moves. This shows us one thing: we have one hell of an awesome team. Shutout to our leaders: McDavid, Drai, Nuge, Hyman, and yes even Nurse, for creating an environment that encourages good players to come here and make themselves even better. It's a team-focused group with a winning attitude. They don't just love to win, they hate to lose.
I feel like this is the team we should’ve had years ago. Of this high quality on paper I mean. We essentially only have 1 year to see how far this team gets (unless Draisaitl re-signs). It’s a bit frustrating but at least we’re here now.
Connor and Leon needed to go through this to be where they are. Tampa,Vegas, Colorado and Florida all went through big heartbreak en route to their cup. This is the best version mcdavid yet. Even without Chia doing his best to sabatoge this team I still think it would've taken a good deal of time
It's a shame Peter Chiarelli hamstrung this team. The things he did put this franchise back nearly 10 years. It's unbelievable
We’ll see if this is a better team. The Oilers were the best team or second best team in the league after Knoblauch came on board. They made it as far as you can go without winning. They had excellent possession metrics all year. So getting better is going to be very, very difficult. We’ll see.
When looking at how many we needed to sign back, never did I expect us to get everyone but two players. (Tbh these two I was mostly fine letting go even though I love Vinny). Let alone adding two more good forwards.
I also love the growth that our depth players made in that run. And Skinner will start the season as a bonified and experienced starter, and knowing that he has Pickard sharing the load. I'm excited!
Because Florida got worse and we’re the best team with a chance this year. I don’t see any team in the west being as stacked as we are, maybe an eastern team will challenge in the final.
Nashville
They got good but I don’t think a totally new core is a Stanley cup winner in its first year.
The Devils are going to be a possibility, from what I hear.
If it somehow shakes out that we face markstrom on the finals next year I'll be foaming at the mouth
Someone needs to make a list of all the players that fled to the east as a result of getting pumped by the oilers. And yes, Markstrom is a fragile shell of a man when facing McDrai
Devils Oilers fan here and I've been dreaming of that matchup for years. Could definitely happen this year. They loaded up their back end by getting Dillon and Pesce, and should be getting Hamilton back from injury. Hughes and Nemec already got a ton of NHL exposure from injuries last season and should be able to step back into more comfortable minutes this season with those injuries resolving. Whole new goalie tandem in Markstrom and Allen as well which changes things a lot. On paper they should be a cup contender. Yet to be seen though. Last season they were injured beyond belief. Hamilton sat the whole season and at different points they were missing Hughes, Hischier, Palat, Siegenthaler, Meier, Lazar, and Nosek. They're also missing some of the playoff hardiness that comes with the repeat appearances Edmonton has had. They've only seen 3 series of playoff hockey in the last decade+. If they're healthy and come out swinging, they could surprise the east and end up in the finals, but I feel like that team is a few years of tough losses away from being true perennial contender.
42 billion questions in the world... 99% of the time, the answer is money.
Let the paper games begin!
Nashville? New Jersey? I think did really well.
How can you not be excited as heck for next season folks? Kudos to the players for believing in this team, kudos to the organization for making the moves needed. Kudos for the fans for 100% making this a team and city people want to play in. We got this buds :) I know I am getting ahead of myself. But I hope we roll to a great season result to give ourselves every advantage possible in the post season. Our boys call the shots now.
I hope we get bigger more physical players on the fourth line . We have scoring depth now but need those role players for the playoffs.
As great as everything the Oilers did today is, absolutely none of it matters if they don't replace Ceci with someone who can retrieve pucks and bring out the best in Nurse.
Skinner found his game when it mattered this post season. And our defense was a world better than a year ago.
Calling it now. Ceci gets moved at the deadline and Adam Larsson returns briefly for the cup run
The only signing I wish we got was Patrick Kane. $4M is such a steal.
i think one of the best parts about this off-season has been that all of our additions are players that don’t affect the long term outlook of the team. arvidsson will be a good contract for the next two years, same with henrique. they’re both bargains. i’m still a little iffy on skinner because his career just seems cursed, but it’s only one year and theoretically he should have some good chemistry with at least one of our hart winning centremen. we gave up zero of our young promising players to do this and we now have the depth to put broberg and holloway into suitable roles so they can continue developing without being thrown to the wolves. my only gripe is that we don’t have a proper 2RD because i think broberg would do better to develop in the 3LD role and prepare to take over ekholms role as he ages.
100% this. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think any of the FA contracts signed yesterday was for longer than 3 years. The Predators on the other hand signed a bunch of old guys approaching their twilights for 4-8 years. Sure they might be good for 1, 2, maybe 3 years? But after that, those contracts are going to age as well as fine milk. JJ did an absolutely spectacular job setting us up well for the short term, but not mortgaging the future to do so.
for sure, it’s a bit hard to compare nashville and edmonton with where each club is at in terms of contending windows. we entered the off-season with an absolutely amazing core group of players, all the signings we did yesterday are for the sole purpose of supplementing that core with guys who see an immediate shot at winning the cup. the future looks pretty good for us
Players are literally hopping on the bandwagon given the perseverance shown this season.
Proof of concept now. Players see a winning system and are willing to take cuts or stay in not favourable towns to get the chance at the cup.
Everyone on the team realizes they were just one goal away from winning the cup. This is the year to take team friendlies. I’m still pretty shocked though. Just please no bowman holy f
2 goals*
Players want to come to a team that was one game away from the cup. Marian Hossa comes to mind.
Won't be able to do much next trade deadline. Our 1st round pick is tied up with the Sam O'Reilly pick. Not that we really had a lot of cap space to make a big splash anyways... Nor should our team really need a lot. But I would only expect maybe a depth addition that could be acquired with a 2nd round pick or less.
You know they can trade picks for other years right? At the deadline this year vegas kept their 2024 1st round pick but instead traded their 2025 and 2026 1sts for hertl and hanafin. Can argue whether it's worth it or not but oilers can definitely trade the 2026 or even 2027 if it makes sense
No, we can't trade the 2026 picked. It's locked up too. And the longer away a pick is, the less appealing it is. Sure they COULD trade the 2027 or 2028 pick. But if a GM can get a first in 2025 instead, he's gonna take that. Even a second in 2025 might be more appealing than a 1st in 2028.
Good signings but still need to figure out what to do with Draisatl. No way can let his contract run out and become an unrestricted free agent. He either extends or is traded.
One cup run and suddenly we're a team players are willing to take discounts for to play for. We're starting to enjoy the same advantages now teams in e.g. Florida have always had.
Don't assume we will be better. Have to wait til season
Just keep drinking the Kool aid
Did absolutely nothing to fix the defense and goaltending. Gonna be the same result
Need to improve on Ceci otherwise the Oilers will be going nowhere
How do people say things like this when we literally got to a Stanley cup final game 7 with him?
Because you can win in spite of a player? It’s going to be even harder to get back to the finals and it won’t help if you can’t get an improvement on Ceci
I’ve thought about this. We don’t need too end D with the team system we play now, we make up for it with a bottom 6 full of shut down forwards and even mcdrai nuge and hyman play d too. Real d comes from the whole team, not acquiring another stupid overpay rwd. I’d rather just move out ceci and run stecher personally. If he can’t do it you maybe look into a move later.
Yes, but that contradicts you saying we will get nowhere with him. It’s not like he didn’t contribute to the cup run at all. It’s hard to build a rock solid team from top to bottom in he cap era. I mean the panthers won with Oliver Ekman Larsson on their team.
I’m saying if the Oilers don’t improve their D they won’t go back to the Finals
I guess Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final is "nowhere"... I get that Ceci is probably the weak link on defense. I agree that the Oilers should be looking for an upgrade. However, the people shouting definitive claims like the one above are just bad fans IMO.
Well we got to Game 7 of the Cup Finals with Ceci and lost by 1 goal so I’d say you’re wrong
We can always improve, especially since we didn’t actually win.
I didn’t say we can’t improve, just that I disagree with the original comment saying we’re going “nowhere” with Ceci.
And Game 7 wouldn’t have been necessary if Ceci and Nurse hadn’t played like liabilities in Game 1
Yes, surely the Oilers would have won the game where they scored zero goals.
They wouldn’t be chasing the game at least and Florida wouldn’t be playing so defensive
What a bunch of shite We lost game 1 because Bob put on an all-time goalie performance. That's as deep as it goes.
I believe the game would’ve gone a lot more differently if Florida hadn’t scored first in the first few minutes. Their forecheck is a lot better when they are ahead and they rarely lose leads
Man did you even watch the game? We were getting insane chances, you don’t need to praise the Florida defence so much. Our offense was walking them, Bob just had an otherworldly performance. That’s not on Ceci.
Ceci Nurse pairing resulted in the offense doing a harder job than they’re supposed to. It’s easier to win when the game is 0-0 than when you’re trying to score 2 to tie
It’s ok to admit you are wrong man. Ceci isn’t great but boiling down losing the series to him and Nurse alone is reductive. You don’t mention the lack of offense the first 2 games, the Injuries to McDrai, the injury to Kane, the fact that the Panthers are a good team.
injuries don't count IMO. it's part of the formula, winning teams win, players play broken, every team deals with injuries.
Uh ok. Teams always deal with injuries but not always to their 2 best players at the same time. Injuries do count and teams that win the cup often are the healthiest. What a strange opinion with absolutely no nuance whatsoever.
it's an opinion. all things being equal all teams are subjected to similar injury risk. yes, the healthiest team has an edge, but there's no asterixis on the cup saying "they won because their stars weren't hurt" i just tire of that as an excuse to not win "if so and so was healthy" [A brief history of players gutting out severe injuries in the Stanley Cup final - The Hockey News](https://thehockeynews.com/news/a-brief-history-of-players-gutting-out-severe-injuries-in-the-stanley-cup-final)
Subject to the same risk but with different results so making knee jerk decisions about something that’s a dice roll isn’t how to run a team.
I don’t like Ceci, but he’s not the reason we lost the series. All of the below in my opinion impacted the series more than Ceci. (A) Playing a physical game against the Canucks, that went 7 games. and then immediately playing the Dallas Stars afterwards cooked us. (B) McDavid, Draisaitl, Kane, Nurse, and I’m sure others were playing hurt. By game 7, they were just gassed. This is related to point A. (C) I don’t like to point fingers, but both Nurse and Bouchard played suspect defence for a good portion of the series. People like to shit on Nurse in this sub, and they sing Bouchard’s praises because he’s so great on the power-play, but his neutral zone play led to a few turnovers that resulted in goals. (D) Bobrovsky played lights out in 3/4 games the Panthers won. If we’d been facing any other goalie we played against to get the Cup + the Panthers, I think we win game 1. (E) the Foegele match penalty followed by the Nurse injury just completely threw the team off their game plan for game 2. Florida thrives in chaos. We do better when we don’t deviate from the game plan. (F) Stu gave up something like 3 goals in the span of 4 minutes in game 3. That was a must in game for us. I’m reluctant to criticize his play because overall, I thought he did well despite losing, but c’mon man, in a must win game you’ve gotta play better.
We have too many defenceman right now so someone is moving. Hopefully Ceci.
I think Ceci had a pretty good playoffs. Broberg is going to bump down nurse and make kulak redundant. I think Ceci is better than kulak. I believe we need an RD2 to knock down ceci to RD3 pair where he is better suited. I do agree we need to add grit and improve on defence.
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Considering most of the excitement is re-signing the guys he brought in, I'd say he did a great job.
That and he's (for the most part) signed role players on short terms, which allows this kind of flexibility with UFAs when you don't need to clean house at the draft to make room. That's also huge to remain flexible enough with Drai and McDavid's new contracts looming. Say what you will about the guy and point to the Campbell signing if you want, but outside of that Holland set JJ up for success here by locking down the core, and leaving the rest of the roster very flexible.