Line Combos: Line combos for the 17\18 season

[McBigYak]

He is 2 million overpaid because he wasn't going to take more than 4 million less than McDavid.

He is a 6.5 mill player being paid more due to the apparent "budget friendly" contract McDavid signed. If McDavid wanted to be here there is no reason we couldn't of signed him for 10-11 mill. Period. Instead we overpaid him so we had to overpay Drai too.

Lol. No. Absolutely not. You don't get arguably the most talented hockey player on planet earth for less than we got him for. I can't believe you actually think at his price point he's overpaid.

Draisaitl, sure he's overpaid, and I called it before the contract was even signed on here and got eaten alive for it. But Mcdavid at that price is an absolute bargain. Prices are driven by the market. Mcdavid gets to RFA status next year and there is 30 teams lined up to give him the league max. He took much less than that.

If Edmonton starts playing at a semi-decent level he could win his second Art Ross trophy before he is even 22 years old. I don't know people think he should be doing the team a favor. Crosby took the same percentage on his 2nd deal and they won a cup. It's up to Edmonton's management to build a winning team now, and it's been proven it can be done.

 

[t0nedeff]

He will become overpaid if Kucherov re-signs for less 10.5 a year.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Honestly I wish they would run all 3 of McDavid, Drai, and RNH on the first unit. Much like they do on the 5 on 3 PP. (Seriously why are those two different things anyway?!?!)

Nuge typically sets up on the LW side now a days and it would allow you to actually QB the play from that side occasionally too (imagine someone actually setting up Drai or McDavid for a shot instead of it always being the other way around. Not to mention it gives you another puck carrier for that unit. Add in Benning so you still have a RH shot.

As for the second until let Strome and Puljujarvi run it from the LW side with Klefbom and Cammy as your shooters and Maroon/Lucic in front

Lucic/Maroon-Draisaitl-McDavid
Nuge-Benning

Puljujarvi-Strome-Lucic/Maroon
Klefbom-Cammy*

*Sub in Sekera for Cammy once he's back.

 

[Del Preston]

Larsson is again not on the ice.

 

[FlameChampion]

Honestly I wish they would run all 3 of McDavid, Drai, and RNH on the first unit. Much like they do on the 5 on 3 PP. (Seriously why are those two different things anyway?!?!)

Nuge typically sets up on the LW side now a days and it would allow you to actually QB the play from that side occasionally too (imagine someone actually setting up Drai or McDavid for a shot instead of it always being the other way around. Not to mention it gives you another puck carrier for that unit. Add in Benning so you still have a RH shot.

As for the second until let Strome and Puljujarvi run it from the LW side with Klefbom and Cammy as your shooters and Maroon/Lucic in front

Lucic/Maroon-Draisaitl-McDavid
Nuge-Benning

Puljujarvi-Strome-Lucic/Maroon
Klefbom-Cammy*

*Sub in Sekera for Cammy once he's back.

Wouldnt hurt. Thing that bugs me the most about the PP is that they are unwilling to try different things. If its not working out, maybe its best to just put all your best offensive players on a unit. Cant hurt to try. What they are doing now, doesnt work and its painfully obvious.

 

[Da McBomb]

I still don't like Lucic with McDavid. I don't know how many chances McDavid has set him up and he doesn't finish. At least Maroon can bury a few of those passes.

I also don't like how Todd always demotes Pulju, even when he is clearly working hard.. like last night. Can't Draisaitl play LW instead of RW or something? Maybe 29-97-98?

 

[FlameChampion]

Larsson is again not on the ice.

What has Cama really done to secure a spot? Hes a veteran so TM goes with him?

I dont mind Cagguila sitting out.

Strome sure gets shuffled around on this team. He hasnt been that great this season, but he probably doesnt even know whats expected of him at this point.

Why not let Khaira play higher up in the lineup? He might spark Drai or RNH.

 

[FlameChampion]

I still don't like Lucic with McDavid. I don't know how many chances McDavid has set him up and he doesn't finish. At least Maroon can bury a few of those passes.

I also don't like how Todd always demotes Pulju, even when he is clearly working hard.. like last night. Can't Draisaitl play LW instead of RW or something? Maybe 29-97-98?

Agreed I dont understand why Lucic and McDavid are together.

29-97-98 would be an interesting line. No creativity though from the coaching. Why not 97-93-98 ?

 

[BarDownBobo]

What has Cama really done to secure a spot? Hes a veteran so TM goes with him?

I dont mind Cagguila sitting out.

Strome sure gets shuffled around on this team. He hasnt been that great this season, but he probably doesnt even know whats expected of him at this point.

Why not let Khaira play higher up in the lineup? He might spark Drai or RNH.

Stauffer just said on OilersNow that Strome was rotating with Cammy, and Strome could be the actual guy there. Said they broke away from line rushes very fast and moved to PP/PK so he might've missed who went first.

 

[Yablo21]

I think Lucic finally has started to play well, hes winning puck battles in each zone and making passes on target vs 5 feet off like before. Cagguila, Gryba and Strome were the 3 worst players last night so it make sense they are out, I think going forward this should be McLellan's strat each game, you play poorly, you sit. Cammy I've been ok with, he is trying out there at least, maybe trying to do to much, more then anything else.

 

[nexttothemoon]

Lucic-Draisaitl-Puljujarvi
Khaira-McDavid-Kassian
Maroon-RNH-Slepyshev
Walker-Strome-Cammalleri


That would be my 4 lines... basically the best GF/GA players should be in the lineup on the top lines and the "talent" should be spread around to make line matching for opponents as difficult as they can make it.

 

[nexttothemoon]

On D:

Nurse-Auvitu
Russell-Benning
Davidson-Gryba

Again, put the players that are best ion terms of GF/GA together.

Make much better use of Auvitu for his offensive skills by pairing him with Nurse who is solid defensively.

Russell-Benning would be the best 2nd pairing they have right now. Russell and Benning are both at or above water in GF/GA and although both have their deficiencies, they get the job done adequately at evens.

Davidson-Gryba are a decent 3rd pairing option with a decent mix of toughness/defense in a 3rd pairing reduced minutes role.

I'd sit Klefbom as he is a net deficit out there currently and I assume he has an injury/illness that makes him a negative on the ice currently.

 

[Aerchon]

Maroon McDavid Strome = Strome to help McDavid with face offs.
Lucic RNH Jessie = A line I really liked.
Cama/Walker Leon Slepy = A good third line but prefer anyone over Cama or Cagullia
Kharia Lets Kassian = Our best line recently

 

[FlameChampion]

Maroon McDavid Strome = Strome to help McDavid with face offs.
Lucic RNH Jessie = A line I really liked.
Cama/Walker Leon Slepy = A good third line but prefer anyone over Cama or Cagullia
Kharia Lets Kassian = Our best line recently

I have advocated that TM play McDavid - Drai - RNH down the middle for some time because I believe it plays to the Oilers strengths. That being said, I do sort of feel like McDavid needs to play with a centerman because he is so terrible on faceoffs.

 

[Da McBomb]

Top 2 lines I'd try:
19-97-98
27-93-29

This 3 centre experiment is not working as far as I can tell. Just stack up the top two lines.

 

[Oilfan2]

If Chia is still here this off-season, the team will look a lot different (worse) next season.

RNH and Maroon for magic beans..again.

 

[FlameChampion]

Top 2 lines I'd try:
19-97-98
27-93-29

This 3 centre experiment is not working as far as I can tell. Just stack up the top two lines.

I wouldnt mind seeing:

19-93-97
27-29-98

for a couple games

 

[Aerchon]

The cap's probably going to force Chia to play hardball with Nurse a bit. That sucks imo, since he should be getting a clone of the Klef deal. It could mean we trade Nurse eventually. ughh

If Chia is still here this off-season, the team will look a lot different (worse) next season.

RNH and Maroon for magic beans..again.

Trading RNH period after the way he has played I will join the fire Chiarelli train.

Maroon is useless outside of playing with McDavid (intentionally exaggerating) I expect his contract negotiations to firmly price himself out of Edmonton.

If the cap goes up by as much as rumoured Chiarelli will have to try hard to make the Oilers significantly worse next year. His current contracts will look good if the cap goes up by that much.

I was expecting the cap to stay stagnant/barely go up. My biggest complaint is how much he paid McDavid and Leon, that goes away with cap growth.

 

[nexttothemoon]

As far as I know... Vegas isn't even being used as part of the cap calculations yet. I'm pretty sure I remember reading there was going to be a transition period where they would be left out so they wouldn't be altering the cap "artificially" while their franchise gets its footing in the league.

I assume though with the success they are having that they are likely doing at least as well as any average NHL team in the southern US in terms of revenue generation... so if they include Vegas in the cap... they likely will not hurt the cap calculations at all... if anything they may help it rise up slightly.

 

[McDaddy]

Next year (hopeful):

Benson - McDavid -Pulju
Lucic - Draisaitl - Yamamoto
Strome? - RNH - Slepy
Khaira - Caggiula - Kassian

Nurse - Larsson
Sekera - Russell
Klefbom - Bear/Jones

Talbot
Backup

What if?

 

[russ99]

Next year (hopeful):

Benson - McDavid -Pulju
Lucic - Draisaitl - Yamamoto
Strome? - RNH - Slepy
Khaira - Caggiula - Kassian

Nurse - Larsson
Sekera - Russell
Klefbom - Bear/Jones

Talbot
Backup

What if?

We have a golden opportunity to retool on the fly with cap room for impact moves if we:

Move Maroon for futures
Move Nuge for a top 3 younger RHD
Trade or renounce rights of RFAs Strome, Caggiula and Slepyshev
Sign Nurse to a 3 year $3.5M bridge deal.

Ends up with:
Lucic - McDavid - <impact shooter $7M)
<young better shooting LW $2M> - Draisaitl - Puljujarvi
Khaira - <two way C - $3M>- Kassian
Walker - <defensive C $1M> - <bottom 6 PK RW $1M>

Klefbom - Larsson
Nurse - < RH D>
Sekera - Russell

Talbot
<inexpensive backup>

Looks a lot better than this year.

 

[t0nedeff]

Maroon-Mcdavid-JP
Lucic-RNH-Slep (this line was looking good be fore slep got injured again)
Cammaleri/Khaira/Drai/Strome
Cammaleri/Walker/Khaira-Letestu-Kassian

I don't know why they haven't atleast tried the Maroon-Mcdavid-JP line cause Lucic has absolutely sucked so far with his bump up and atleast Maroon looked useful/engaged when on a line with Connor. The 2nd line saw a bunch of success before Slepy got hurt again just try it again. I think Khaira could potentially work really well with a guy like Drai. Khaira can cycle and so can Drai.

 

[slim2001]

The last 3 games have not been great, time to shake things up:

Khaira-McDavid-Puljujarvi - on the rush offense, two big speedy wingers to drive the net
Lucic-Draisaitl-Slepyshev - cycle line
Maroon-RNH-Strome
Caggiula-Letestu-Kassian

Nurse-Larsson - shutdown pairing
Sekera-Klefbom - offensive zone pairing
Russell-Benning - above average 3rd paring

1-3-1 PP: (70-90 sec)
Draisaitl
Puljujarvi-RNH-McDavid
Klefbom

Spread PP: (30-50 sec)
Lucic-Maroon
Strome
Benning-Sekera

 

[lakai17]

Lucic-McDavid- Khaira/Strome
Cagguila-Draisaitl -Kassian
Maroon- RNH -Strome/Khaira

or

Maroon-McDavid- Draisaitl
Cammalleri- RNH-Strome
Lucic-Khaira- Caggiula/Kassian

Play Pakarinen on the 4th line