Rumor: Oilers among teams with serious interest in Ben Hutton

User1996

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Jun 24, 2020
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You're right, five years ago is not relevant. It's just funny to see you come in and make a useless, off-topic post for no reason at all and then raise a big stink because I said GA instead of GA/G to point out the "shattered" defensive group actually outperformed your own team's again last season.

The thread is about Hutton. Have you made a single post about him or are you just here to cause a stir?
Fair enough. The initial post was definitely trollish. So in the spirit of adding value to the conversation:

My point being, I don’t think another 5/6 guy will help the Oilers, my impression is they have a whole bunch of those already. Depth never hurts but the problem in Edmonton is top end talent on the blue line. I like Bear, but right now relying on Nurse to be a number 1 is going to be the Oilers downfall. Barrie is a good add, but I still think he doesn’t add much defensively. I like the offence, but they’re going to have to outscore their problems on the blue line. Who knows, if the D is good enough to get the puck up into the forwards hands quickly and efficiently the Oilers should be a fantastic team. I think they’ll get into trouble when asked to actually defend as a group.
 
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Del Preston

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Fair enough. The initial post was definitely trollish. So in the spirit of adding value to the conversation:

My point being, I don’t think another 5/6 guy will help the Oilers, my impression is they have a whole bunch of those already. Depth never hurts but the problem in Edmonton is top end talent on the blue line. I like Bear, but right now relying on Nurse to be a number 1 is going to be the Oilers downfall. Barrie is a good add, but I still think he doesn’t add much defensively. I like the offence, but they’re going to have to outscore their problems on the blue line. Who knows, if the D is good enough to get the puck up into the forwards hands quickly and efficiently the Oilers should be a fantastic team. I think they’ll get into trouble when asked to actually defend as a group.
Fair enough. Good chat. :cheers:
 
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User1996

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Player who scored 26, 41 and 30 points in his last 3 seasons. Yeah I'll take him.
Genuinely hope that works out for you. When the two Alberta teams are good hockey fans win.
 
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Raised Fist Republic

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May 3, 2010
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Most likely for the taxi squad, but he does put a little pressure on Lagesson to keep his spot.

Plus the Oil do need some depth on the left side, as most of their key prospects at the position will be staying in Europe this year.

My guess at the depth chart

Nurse-Barrie
Jones-Larsson
Lagesson-Bear

PB: Russell
Taxi: Hutton, Lennstrom
AHL(?): Bouchard, Kemp
Europe: Samorukov, Broberg, Berglund, Niemeläinen

If the AHL doesn't get off the ground, I'd expect to see Kemp loaned back to Europe, and Bouchard join the taxi squad.
Oof. Our blue line is a major issue. Need all the help we can get. Any idea what the chances are that a D prospect makes an impact?
 

DingDongCharlie

Registered User
Sep 12, 2010
11,316
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Markstrom? Dude who had one good season and made a fortune?

Too be fair.

They also "upgraded" Brodie to the top pairing stud who never misses games to injury, must be made of adamantium. What's his name...I think it's Chris Tanev or something.
 

Dazed and Confused

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Aug 10, 2007
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Oof. Our blue line is a major issue. Need all the help we can get. Any idea what the chances are that a D prospect makes an impact?

Admittedly I’m higher than most on Lagesson. I think he can be a calming and stabilizing presence on the lower pairings, à la Davidson in 15/16 and 16/17.


Also I think Barrie helps a ton, as he gives the Oil a true OFD for the first time in near a decade. Thus Nurse and the others don’t need to shoulder as much responsibility offensively (something none of them looked natural doing).


Imo the main group is good enough, but they’re paper thin. Bouchard can likely step in for Barrie, but if either Nurse or Larsson go down, the defence is f***ed.
 

biturbo19

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Jul 13, 2010
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Hutton is one of those weird defencemen who isn't really good enough to play a true Top-4 role, but plays the sort of game that can translate reasonably well when he's pressed into that sort of duty on a bad team.

But on a good team, he's not really the steady anchor or physical guy you want on that 3rd pairing, nor is he particularly any sort of "Powerplayer/Offensive Specialist". He's that awkward middleground.

He's a decent depth defenceman. He's just an awkward fit. And doesn't necessarily seem to thrive with intermittent action. More of a, "builds confidence as he plays more" type.
 

jd22

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Aug 16, 2008
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What an uncharitable take. It's great when you start with your conclusion and work backwards.
So he doesn't get credit for drafting a potentially franchise D man at 7th overall. And he doesn't get credit for waiting while the hair on fire crowd in Vancouver were freaking out and leveraging our minimal cap space to get a good top pairing D for a 3rd round pick. Got it.

Now just imagine how Benning might have been able to leverage 24 million of dead/replacement cap to eat some bad contracts this year. Or acquire good players.

It is not out of the realm of possibility that along with Schmidt, Canucks could have acquired Hall and D. Toews while keeping Toffoli. And still eaten a bad one year contract for a kings ransom on top of it.

So you tell me, who's being uncharitable now?

Hughes was a good if obvious pick. Credit to Detroit as well for taking Zadina. I addressed the Schmidt acquisition - which I am happy with - but it's telling that Vegas only got a 3rd round pick. D are always in demand, 6 million d-men in an off season with extremely minimal available cap are not. There was very little interest in acquiring his cap hit for any sort of asset.
 

jd22

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Aug 16, 2008
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Can hardly blame him for "throwing away" a Ben Hutton at $2.8 million for his qualifying offer, as a bottom pair guy. Quinn Hughes and Alex Edler had the top 2 left-side D spots locked up, just like "throwing away" Stecher came at a time when they were prioritizing re-signing Tanev (ultimately getting Schmidt instead) along with Myers. I doubt that that group of overly-hyphenated-yet-underachieving, undersized-yet-overhyped-depth D-men really had as much value as you're arguing they have (Corrado and Biega were good but undersized depth, Fantenberg had to go since Juolevi is starting to look ready and, while I like Luke Schenn, he's not irreplaceable either). For Troy and Ben, it's about maximizing cap by retaining what's truly important. At this point, neither of them are high enough on the team's hierarchy to demand being put as a primary option.

I agree with pretty much all of this - it's just the asset mismanagement that burns for all of this. Surely some of these guys would be worth a B prospect or late round draft pick. Or maybe it is just Benning that pays late round draft picks for assets about to hit the 'free' pile.
 

TGWL

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If it's around a million i would have preferred him over Jack Johnson.
 

Raised Fist Republic

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May 3, 2010
351
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Admittedly I’m higher than most on Lagesson. I think he can be a calming and stabilizing presence on the lower pairings, à la Davidson in 15/16 and 16/17.


Also I think Barrie helps a ton, as he gives the Oil a true OFD for the first time in near a decade. Thus Nurse and the others don’t need to shoulder as much responsibility offensively (something none of them looked natural doing).


Imo the main group is good enough, but they’re paper thin. Bouchard can likely step in for Barrie, but if either Nurse or Larsson go down, the defence is f***ed.
Ok your breakdown makes sense and I agree. It’s good enough, but too thin. Wait, no more Russel constant starfishing? That’ll be nice.
 
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TFHockey

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May 16, 2014
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Fair enough. The initial post was definitely trollish. So in the spirit of adding value to the conversation:

My point being, I don’t think another 5/6 guy will help the Oilers, my impression is they have a whole bunch of those already. Depth never hurts but the problem in Edmonton is top end talent on the blue line. I like Bear, but right now relying on Nurse to be a number 1 is going to be the Oilers downfall. Barrie is a good add, but I still think he doesn’t add much defensively. I like the offence, but they’re going to have to outscore their problems on the blue line. Who knows, if the D is good enough to get the puck up into the forwards hands quickly and efficiently the Oilers should be a fantastic team. I think they’ll get into trouble when asked to actually defend as a group.

The biggest issue with the Oilers back end, in my opinion, is their lack of ability to move the puck out of the D zone and to the forwards. Klefbom being out for the year hurts, but I suspect Barrie will replace him on the PP and have a massive year... maybe even a career year. The Achilles heel of the Oilers is 5v5 play with the 3rd and 4th lines. They had their heads caved in last season.

Getting an additional 5-6 guy is not a bad move for this team. I think there will be more injuries this year because of the condensed schedule and having a guy who can bounce into a 3-4 slot for a few games and then move back to 5-6 is a nice card to have.

At least the team knows how to kill penalties and how to dominate with the extra man. Last year the Oilers had the #1 PP and the #2 PK. Try and keep that in mind when discussing the line up!
 

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