Free agency: The make or break day for all teams

[TML1967]

Just wondering how quickly a team can turn it around with one good off season. For this im gonna take two signings, and two Islander trades.

Free agents

Mike Santorelli - 1.5 x 1 (1.75 with EDM multiplier)
Daniel Winnik - 1.3 x 1 (1.5 with EDM multiplier)

Trades for
Nick Leddy = TJ Brennan +defenseman prospect Ville Pokka, and the rights to goaltender Anders Nilsson, a restricted free agent who is playing in Russia this season.
- So this is a career AHL D, a mid-ish end D prospect and a mid-ish type Goalie ,whos overseas. All of this can be given without touching any NHL or top end prospects.
Johnny Boychuk = cost two 2nd round picks plus a 3rd rounder if traded to Eastern Conference team this year. Edmonton picks are just as valuable if not more.

Just thinking how quickly a team like Edmonton could turn it around when you give them a much better top pair, and two good possession second/third line guys. All on good contracts, only giving up picks and two medium level prospects.

Perron - Santorelli - Winnik would be hard to play against, and would bump the third line to
Pouliot - Draisaitl - Yakupov giving them more sheltered minutes as you could play the Santo line as more a match against top lines.

D pairs become

Boychuck - Ferrence
Leddy - Schultz

To me this is the difference between a bad G.M and a smart G.M. whos willing to move out futures. All the guys coming in are character guys who give a veteran presence and play hard every shift, all the things Edmonton needs.

What do you guys think? I feel like these moves would have/ could have made Edmonton a MUCH better team, maybe even being able to push for that #7 or 8 spot if they were willing to go after a Goalie as well.

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[Stephen]

Draft day is the make or break day for all teams.

 

[pooleboy]

Imo the oilers lack a goalie, they think 2b goalies will get them there and were all seeing how its working out for them.... If they had a 1b goalie even we wouldn't be having this convo right now

 

[TML1967]

I agree the goaltenders needs to improve, but allot of that is not having the proper D to keep people away from the net, and giving up too many wide open shots and breakaways, once again an issue with having 3 pairings filled with #5 or 6 guys. On top of that, none of the D or depth guys are helping put the puck in the net enough. Just look at their goals for and against.
2.11 goals per game for, 4th worst in the league
3.42 goals against per, worst in the league

They need allot, better defensive forwards (shutdown or match up purposes), better possession forwards, an actual top 4 made of top 4 guys, and a Goalie who can steal games. But the point of this post was more to say how easily the Oilers could be improved with a few smart moves, and that no team should be looked at as dead for multiple years.
Just need two or three smart signings and taking advantage of teams who need to push out good layers for cap space.

 

[Tak7]

The day you start looking for core pieces of your team via free agency, is the day your club starts heading down the road to ruin.

Booth, Santorelli, Winnik, etc., all nice pick ups, relatively cheap, secondary guys on your team to help support the core.

That's the way it should be. Gone are the days where you could establish a team via free agency because teams rarely let their core pieces hit free agency anymore.