Lots of Europeans have come over and straight to the NHL
That's kinda what I've been wondering with Edmonton in particular. It's been a total disaster for the past 3 seasons, and this one will most likely be no different. So why not give a couple of young(ish) players from Europe a shot? It's not like Edmonton has anything to lose by a 1 year 900k "show me" type of deal or three.
Take for example the Finnish national team that won the world championship this year. With a 100 % no-name team, they won against teams with 20+ NHL players, including hacks like Kucherov, Malkin, Ovechkin, Voracek, Stone, Kane, DeBrincat, Draisaitl, Vasilevskiy, Murray, etc.
For example, the D-men from the champion team:
- Henri Jokiharju is currently relegated to AHL by Chicago, and they don't seem to want him anymore. Could get him quite cheaply, for sure.
- Petteri Lindbohm is currently in Switzerland on a 1 year 756k USD deal. Could probably get him signed affordably.
- Miika Koivisto is in Switzerland on a 1 year deal (unknown value, but certainly less than Lindbohm).
They are more than good enough for NHL as-is (not to mention compared to Edmonton's AHL D-men), and the first two do have a handful of NHL games in the past (Chicago and St Louis).
And they should
really keep an eye out for Sakari Manninen, who will be an UFA from KHL after the 2020-21 season. He could be a good 2nd liner for Edmonton. He's a bit like Blake Wheeler - started slowly around age 20, but has improved steadily year after year, and now at 27 he's very good and ready. Undrafted in the NHL, and has 0.77 ppg in the KHL, which I guess would translate to around 0.5 PPG in the NHL, which would place him on a shared #4 spot in the Oilers 2018-19 roster.
