Speculation: Next season’s defence

Klef *should* be back. I doubt he'll be effective, but he'll get a shot.

I also wouldn't be super surprised to see Larsson back, but odds are they'll go for a cheaper option. I still think they'll need a physical shutdown RHD. Perhaps Hamonic continues his Western Canada tour?

Start of next season...

Nurse-Bouchard
Klefbom-Bear
Lagesson-Hamonic(Larsson)

But by the new year, I'd hope for...

Nurse-Bouchard
Samorukov-Bear
Lagesson/Klefbom/Hamonic

The ideal would be by New Year's 2023 having a defence of...

Nurse-Bouchard
Samorukov-Bear
Broberg-Klef/Lagesson/vet RHD. I admit, this is the spot where I would love to have Larsson.

 

Oilers have spent a lot of high drafts picks and development on dmen, so I think they feel pretty comfortable with the talent level and mix going forward. I doubt they go big game hunting now because of that. I think they want to make sure they get that stud 3rd line (unless Haas miraculously develops into one)centre, and for sure, the number one goalie.

 

Rich Pilon is retired...

 

Why not just keep the status quo if they continue playing well? I like what we have right now.

Nurse-Barrie
Klefbom-Larsson
Koekkoek-Bear
Lagesson-Bouchard
Russell-

Still in the system:
Broberg-Bergland
Samorukov-Kemp

That leaves the team with a wide range of age from veterans to young guns on defense. We have tough stay at home and offensive minded mix.

Depending on how everyone pans out, we can then start moving pieces for a goalie and draft picks and keep the pipeline full of gold.

I don't see a need to move pieces or overpay in free agency to bring in pieces we already have or are already developing.

 

I honestly would still rather have Larsson in the lineup over Bear; I say this as someone who had Bear as their favourite prospect. Larsson still has better defensive IQ, is able to clear bodies, and has an underrated first pass under stress in the D-zone. I wasn't expecting much from Barrie, but if he continues his play, he would be welcome with open arms, if the Oilers can afford him

RD, to me, should be

Barrie
Lars
Bouch

 

Nurse-Barrie
Klef-Bouch
Lags-Bear

 

If this was the case, Bear would not have played more than Larsson last season.
We seem to have short memory. Bear was better than Nurse last year and a clear upgrade over Larsson.

I would keep Larsson as #7 Dman even if he costs 3M

Bear and Bouchard would be making 3M combined.

Nurse-Barrie
Klefbom-Bouchard
Samurkov-Bear
Larsson/
Losing one of Russell/Jones/Lagesson to expansion

 

Had he not been injured at the beginning of last season, he likely would have and Bear wouldn't have gotten his big break.

 

I still think that having a Larsson playing at his current level is more valuable than Bear when it comes to playoff time; Bear is a great d-man and has a higher trade value than Larsson

 

Bear took the break an ran with it. Played 22.5+ min last season and over 20 this.
Larsson avgd 19:15 last season and is hovering around 17 this season.

There is value in keeping Larsson as physical veteran to mentor upcoming players. It wouldnt be to replace Bear.

 

Same goes for Bouchard. Larsson would better in playoffs but Bouchard has more trade value.

Why are we talking about trade value when we need to keep the quality .

 

Larsson is handling those minutes a lot better than Barrie did earlier in the year and a lot better than Bear would. Larsson is playing a role. He's playing low impact minutes with inexperienced partners. Considering the youth in this lineup particularly on D, that player is extremely valuable. Bear is an opportunist right now holding a highly coveted role.

If Klefbom is healthy next season, I have no problems standing pat with Bear and potentially moving on from one of Barrie or Larsson. But it's far too early to make any assumptions.

Short-term this roster needs to add an NHL-ready LD. So I'm not convinced that we will know what this roster will look like in July for some time.

 

Lets see how Bouchard-Bear pairing does.
It clicking could change everything for better this season and beyond.

 

But Bouchard brings a much needed transition game during playoff games when Mc or Drai are on the ice; something that was woefully absent during the play-in series against Chicago with a seasoned Bear. I just brought up trade value for next season when Bear won't want to be behind Barrie (?), Bouch, and Larsson.

I understand if I'm in the minority, but Bear seems like the odd man out if Barrie re-signs

 

Nurse - Bear
Klefbom - Barrie
Lagesson - Bouchard

Outside shot Broberg makes it. I think Jones or Lagesson go to Seattle.

 

Making 2M per and RFA after Bear will play where he is told. Doubt it is behind bouchard and Larsson

 

I don't mind keeping Larsson around for the right price. I'd probably go 3 x 2.5 max, ideally lower.

Potential pairings... A decent mix of offence and defensive ability.
Nurse - Bear
Klefbom - Bouchard
Broberg - Larsson
Lagesson / Jones / Samarukov

My dream is to sign Hamilton but a consolation prize would be watching Broberg join the team

 

Maybe they can trade Bear for some goaltending

 

The D will be fine. I'm more interested in next season's goaltending.

 

How can anyone watch Barrie play this year and want to give him term and north of 5 mil per... absolutely shocking to me. Bouchard will easily replace his role on the PP and his production.

This is what I'd like to see:

Nurse - _____
Klefbom - Bouchard
_____ - Bear
_____

The spot beside Nurse will be impossible to fill, he needs a stabilizing partner, Bear is the backup option. Options for top pair are limited. So it's likely Barrie is given a franchise crippling deal.

The bottom pair spot with Bear will be an internal battle between Jones, Samorukov and Lagesson. One of Jones/Lagesson likely gone in expansion.

Extra spot likely goes to Russel, who we re-upped early for some reason?? I think that spot would be better filled through free agency, Koekkoek an option.

* I want to add that I want Nurse gone, but thats completely unrealistic and obviously no replacements... yet. I'm worried we let Nuge walk in order to give Darnell a gross contract.

 

How can you watch this team and think that Bear would thrive on the bottom pair playing next to a rookie defenseman?

Barrie and Nurse are driving offense from the back end better than any pairing has in recent history. If you really want to improve the team defense, fix the bottom six for good. Stop letting them give back the offense our top guys create. Fix the defense by fixing the offense.

 

Him carrying Nurse all year last season, in a top pair role is what make me think he would help stabilize a rookie partner (Lagesson wouldn't be that) in a bottom pair, softer comp role.

 

This nonsense needs to stop. Bear did well considering. But nothing about his game allows him to 'carry' anybody. He survived. The only reason he produced any offense is because he played the majority of his game behind two of the league's best forwards. And that was 21 points and 99 shots. Barrie will cover those numbers in about a month.

On the bottom pairing he'd be drowning. He doesn't have the size to handle tougher physical matchups, he's not particularly prominent at shot suppression and his breakout passes would land on the sticks of forwards on lines that have been horrendous at generating any kind of consistent offense for several years counting.

You're talking about icing a very soft defensive unit and Bear's defensive game is still incredibly raw.

 

Nurse - Barrie have been unsustainable. In their own zone it has not been good, they both roam and can't cover for each other. A lot of the offense has been secondary assists or lucky bounces. Nurse I think has been much better of the two at creating at 5v5 but they are riding massive PDO right now.

It will crater pretty soon. I can't picture any playoff team being able to run that. Your posts at this point have been so anti-Bear and I don't quite understand it. Bear makes mistakes but his puck-moving and more stable game helps Nurse be able to skate up and roam more. Barrie is more roamer than puck-mover.

 

Nurse-Barrie individual scoring may not be sustainable, but our elite guys have been ice cold the past handful of games. That is also not sustainable. You generally don't see a Dman score over a PPG, but Barrie is at least capable of generating that kind of offense for stretches. You're assuming that Nurse-Barrie will 'crater' to Nurse-Bear levels offensively? That's rather odd.

You need to ask what you want your top line to do when they're out there. When you have a two way winger like RNH who is capable of picking up on defensive miscues, it probably helps you having a defenseman that can help generate offense at an elite level.

A Nurse-Bear pairing is there trying to tread water. You can have fantasies about Bear developing into an Ellis/Spurgeon clone three or four years from now. But today that's a green undersized defenseman playing on your top pair with the best player on the planet. It's not a preferable method of deployment moving forward.