News Article: Oilers ranked 5th for best offseason

[Oilhawks]

I don’t understand how people keep thinking this way. Last year the Oilers had Puljujarvi and Yamamoto taking up $6 million in cap space. Kostin’s at $2 million would have been at least equal bang for the buck. The team could have and would have signed him for that amount. The problem is that Holland gave away all the money to Nurse and Campbell. That’s it. The end.

Yup. They didn’t have the cap and he wasn’t willing to take a discount to stay. It wasn’t about fit

 

[Bryanbryoil]

When’s the last time a third liner got this much uproar when the oilers moved on from them

Glencross? How'd that play out?

 

[Drivesaitl]

Glencross? How'd that play out?

Half the posters here are too young to know who Glenncross was. Its the trouble with youth is not having had much learned experience with things.

I was thinking again about past coaches and going back to the Ronnie Low 100hits a game regime I loved so much and just thinking about how much Kostin would bring on a team like that, and how much the contribution would be respected, because it always was back then.

Nowadays you get these new fangled analytics coachs and they don't think hits, blocks, fighting, playing hard hockey is of any importance. Well it is and SC winners show that every season. Big hard hockey wins, it still wins, invariably.

 

[Drivesaitl]

What was stopping him from taking something like $1.5M for a year and getting paid afterwards? Instead he’s going to the Yzer10yearplan and got paid. He would have had a good spot here, there he’s going to struggle to get minutes. Sure, Woody didn’t give him much but the competition for that kind of ice team will be even worse there



He’s a bottom 6 player, there’s nothing wrong with that. Do you think he’s being paid to be a top 6 RW on the Dead Things?

Maybe you've heard more than me but I don't think that 1.5M was even on the table here. Holland throughout maintained the two camps were very far apart. That leads me to think the Oilers were offering 1M or maybe a little more in that Kostin signed for 2M. I don't think Holland would be saying it was so far apart if the diff was .5M.

I don't see that Kostin is going to have more trouble fitting in Detroit. Its pretty much a given he's going to be seeing more minutes and usage and he brings a lot of intangible a young team can use. If one believes that hitting, fighting, heavy hockey, and contributing some goal scoring still matter, and I do, then theres lots of room for a player like that. A guy we had here ages ago, Mike Grier, was very much a similar player. Good speed, good forecheck, and would dominate physically. Kostin is basically the same guy without the shoulder injury history. Mike Grier had the edge in forecheck and physicality but Kostin far better shooting mitts.

 

[Oilhawks]

Maybe you've heard more than me but I don't think that 1.5M was even on the table here. Holland throughout maintained the two camps were very far apart. That leads me to think the Oilers were offering 1M or maybe a little more in that Kostin signed for 2M. I don't think Holland would be saying it was so far apart if the diff was .5M.

I don't see that Kostin is going to have more trouble fitting in Detroit. Its pretty much a given he's going to be seeing more minutes and usage and he brings a lot of intangible a young team can use. If one believes that hitting, fighting, heavy hockey, and contributing some goal scoring still matter, and I do, then theres lots of room for a player like that. A guy we had here ages ago, Mike Grier, was very much a similar player. Good speed, good forecheck, and would dominate physically. Kostin is basically the same guy without the shoulder injury history. Mike Grier had the edge in forecheck and physicality but Kostin far better shooting mitts.

I agree, it wont be hard to crack the Yzerplan lineup. He could do very well there. His biggest weakness in his game (defensive play) won’t matter as much on that team

 

[SwedishFire]

Should never have qualified McLeod. Should have signed Kostin instead.

Kostin has a very bad consistency. McLeod is to soft. They may thaught that McLeod is easier to solve than Kostin. At least I feel that way.

The problem with Kostin is that he has so many good tools, yet he struggles?
I would like to reunite the Janmark Nuge Kostin line, it took the best out of both Janmark and Kostin.
But apperently they prob saw that Kostin was a one hit wonder.

I like to reunite Janmark and Nuge though, and I think Kane Nuge Janmark could be an awesome line.

Hyman McDavid Brown
Fogele McLeod Draisatil
Kane Nuge Janmark
Holloway Pederson Ryan

I don’t understand how people keep thinking this way. Last year the Oilers had Puljujarvi and Yamamoto taking up $6 million in cap space. Kostin’s at $2 million would have been at least equal bang for the buck. The team could have and would have signed him for that amount. The problem is that Holland gave away all the money to Nurse and Campbell. That’s it. The end.

16 millions tied up in Nurse and Campbell costs a cup...
I promise Campbell isnt worth that contract, and should get traded, even if he bounces back.
He just isnt a top5 goalie.
Physichal Ds like Nurse is hard to get, so they should keep the guy.
Unless Broberg gets better, and a team trades a A+ goalie for Nurse.
Then you get a 1A goalie and capspace.

 

[Broberg Speed]

Kostin has a very bad consistency. McLeod is to soft. They may thaught that McLeod is easier to solve than Kostin. At least I feel that way.

The problem with Kostin is that he has so many good tools, yet he struggles?
I would like to reunite the Janmark Nuge Kostin line, it took the best out of both Janmark and Kostin.
But apperently they prob saw that Kostin was a one hit wonder.

I like to reunite Janmark and Nuge though, and I think Kane Nuge Janmark could be an awesome line.

Hyman McDavid Brown
Fogele McLeod Draisatil
Kane Nuge Janmark
Holloway Pederson Ryan


16 millions tied up in Nurse and Campbell costs a cup...
I promise Campbell isnt worth that contract, and should get traded, even if he bounces back.
He just isnt a top5 goalie.
Physichal Ds like Nurse is hard to get, so they should keep the guy.
Unless Broberg gets better, and a team trades a A+ goalie for Nurse.
Then you get a 1A goalie and capspace.

Easier to find a McLeod replacement than it is to find a Kostin replacement. McLeod is a little above replacement level, and while Kostin is a flawed player good luck finding what he brings on the trade market or free agency... we lucked into Kostin then gave him away for 400K of Yamamoto buyout suckage.

Yamamoto should have never been qualified. Mistake of the past. McLeod should have never been qualified, mistake of the present.

Nurse and Campbell are sunk costs. Trade them if you please but you're just left with glaring holes.

Some posters insist you will but you won't find a cheap goalie to replace Campbell, as an equivalent goaltender, after you buy him out or trade him and you won't find a cheap defenseman to replace Nurse. It's a f***ing paradox.

Holland isn't in it to win it he's in it to keep the Oilers from winning. Any other non-Canadian franchise as close as the Edmonton Oilers are to winning the Stanley Cup would push through but Holland is here to sabotage the franchise Bettman style. As long as there is revenue sharing this will be the fate of Canadian franchises.

 

[SwedishFire]

Easier to find a McLeod replacement than it is to find a Kostin replacement. McLeod is a little above replacement level, and while Kostin is a flawed player good luck finding what he brings on the trade market or free agency... we lucked into Kostin then gave him away for 400K of Yamamoto buyout suckage.

Yamamoto should have never been qualified. Mistake of the past. McLeod should have never been qualified, mistake of the present.

Nurse and Campbell are sunk costs. Trade them if you please but you're just left with glaring holes.

Some posters insist you will but you won't find a cheap goalie to replace Campbell, as an equivalent goaltender, after you buy him out or trade him and you won't find a cheap defenseman to replace Nurse. It's a f***ing paradox.

Holland isn't in it to win it he's in it to keep the Oilers from winning. Any other non-Canadian franchise as close as the Edmonton Oilers are to winning the Stanley Cup would push through but Holland is here to sabotage the franchise Bettman style. As long as there is revenue sharing this will be the fate of Canadian franchises.

The more you look at it, the poorer the yamamoto/kostin trade is. A buyout of 400k? Someone had to go anyways, and it landed on Kostin.

They could let Ceci go with yam and go with a
Ekholm Bouch
Nurse VD
Kulak Broberg

And have
Hyman McDavid Brown
Kane Draisaitl Fogele
Kostin Nuge Janmark
Holloway McLeod Ryan

 

[OilerTyler]

The more you look at it, the poorer the yamamoto/kostin trade is. A buyout of 400k? Someone had to go anyways, and it landed on Kostin.

They could let Ceci go with yam and go with a
Ekholm Bouch
Nurse VD
Kulak Broberg

And have
Hyman McDavid Brown
Kane Draisaitl Fogele
Kostin Nuge Janmark
Holloway McLeod Ryan

What makes you think a team would want Ceci with Yamamoto?

Also, making our defence worse than it already is seems like a bigger problem than losing a bottom six forward.

 

[SwedishFire]

What makes you think a team would want Ceci with Yamamoto?

Also, making our defence worse than it already is seems like a bigger problem than losing a bottom six forward.

Bigger chunk of salary gone. And Broberg can play.

 

[Drivesaitl]

What makes you think a team would want Ceci with Yamamoto?

Also, making our defence worse than it already is seems like a bigger problem than losing a bottom six forward.

In what universe is Ceci fixing any of our D or cap problems? I would put Broberg in all day instead of his tired ass. Ceci wasn't much before he landed here and he's worse now. I suspect in fairness being played too far up the lineup hurt him, but I don't see him getting his game back under present coaching.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

In what universe is Ceci fixing any of our D or cap problems? I would put Broberg in all day instead of his tired ass. Ceci wasn't much before he landed here and he's worse now. I suspect in fairness being played too far up the lineup hurt him, but I don't see him getting his game back under present coaching.

Because he’s much better than both VD and broberg right now

 

[SwedishFire]

In what universe is Ceci fixing any of our D or cap problems? I would put Broberg in all day instead of his tired ass. Ceci wasn't much before he landed here and he's worse now. I suspect in fairness being played too far up the lineup hurt him, but I don't see him getting his game back under present coaching.

He was a good defenseman in one year, then he couldnt follow that up.
Hes a #4 with a stable defenseman, Nurse is a bad partner for Ceci.

There is some teams that would take Ceci, Im sure. An OK experied NHL player on a low salary (3,2 is low in NHL for a vet in his prime years)

 

[Kerberos]

Badly need an upgrade on Ceci.

 

[Deas]

Which teams that finished above the Oilers got better this offseason? Keep in mind some of these teams are already in LTIR and wont be able to accrue cap space.

Boston is considerably worse.

Toronto is worse and in LTIR.

Vegas is worse and in LTIR.

NJ is worse.

Carolina is the only team that improved.

Obviouslt replacing Gostisbehere with Orlov and adding Buting were good moves but they didnt really address their weaknesses either.

Disagree somewhat on Toronto and definitely on Vegas and NJ. They look great.

Vegas went with Barbashev over Smith but you can’t look at a deadline team over the cap and not see that as a bonus status of the roster and then act as if it’s a loss or a story said roster doesn’t fully carry over to next season.

 

[Juxta Position]

Everyone bitching about "sunk costs" with Campbell and Nurse are not looking at the big picture.

The Oilers are by far a net positive in salaries when you take into account players performances vs cap hit.

Yes, Nurse, Campbell and Foegel together are overpaid by about 6 million a year total, but Hyman, Nuge, Draisaitl, and McDavid are underpaid relative to their performance and point production by about 9 million when looking at market value. The depth players on this team, minus Foegel are neither underpaid or overpaid, excepting maybe Ceci, relative to his performance last year, but 2 years ago, he was an outperformer.

Almost every single team has bad contracts, but having bargin contracts balances it out. It would be almost impossible to have an entire roster of NHL players outperforming their cap hit. Yes I know its frustrating when looking at Campbell and Nurse and thinking what the Oilers could afford with that 5 million in savings, but if the those other players were on market value contracts relative to their point production, the Oilers absolutely do not get Kane and Ekholm on this roster, and Kane himself is a bargin of about 1.5 mil a season.

It would be fantastic to have every player outperform their cap hit, but that just is not realistic in professional sports, and we have to look at the big picture, the Oilers have a good team, with a lot of good contracts that will allow them to compete for a Cup for the foreseeable future.

 

[Mr Positive]

Badly need an upgrade on Ceci.

I totally agree but there is little avenue for it. I heard from Cult of Hockey that the talk is that Ceci was playing injured most of the season and for all of the playoffs, so there is some hope that it won't be so bad to stick with him.

I was hoping last deadline that we would get a better partner for Nurse. Instead, we got Ekholm (who I thought maybe we would try with Nurse). I wonder if we could have got more retention on Ekholm actually, like seriously was it worth it for Nashville even to use up a whole retention slot on 250k? Could we have added a bit more to that trade and get more off of it? But anyway, I think its a smart bet to get a big upgrade on Ceci for two reasons:

1- we get all the benefits of the upgrade, whatever style of Dman that is. Ceci is kind of a bland, smart Dman who you can play anywhere. If the cap didn't matter he'd be a dream third pairing guy actually.

2- the possibillity that Nurse finally meets and exceeds the value of his cap hit. We can't move Nurse, but we can try things to maximize him, just like how teams will often upgrade a defense to get more out of their goalie.

But, I do like Ceci a lot and in this cap era it's great to have someone who can do the top pairing job at such a bargain. It has allowed us to add Ekholm to the team, and unlock Bouchard. Also I'm not sure how we can upgrade Ceci and stay cap compliant going forward. Imo, Holland staying pat with this situation is the smart bet, and we can look again at the deadline.

 

[tardigrade81]

The Leafs acquired some of the best handshakers in the league.

You judge a man by the grip of his handshake

That’s why Toronto is known as the p***y of the league

 

[McDoused]

I totally agree but there is little avenue for it. I heard from Cult of Hockey that the talk is that Ceci was playing injured most of the season and for all of the playoffs, so there is some hope that it won't be so bad to stick with him.

I was hoping last deadline that we would get a better partner for Nurse. Instead, we got Ekholm (who I thought maybe we would try with Nurse). I wonder if we could have got more retention on Ekholm actually, like seriously was it worth it for Nashville even to use up a whole retention slot on 250k? Could we have added a bit more to that trade and get more off of it? But anyway, I think its a smart bet to get a big upgrade on Ceci for two reasons:

1- we get all the benefits of the upgrade, whatever style of Dman that is. Ceci is kind of a bland, smart Dman who you can play anywhere. If the cap didn't matter he'd be a dream third pairing guy actually.

2- the possibillity that Nurse finally meets and exceeds the value of his cap hit. We can't move Nurse, but we can try things to maximize him, just like how teams will often upgrade a defense to get more out of their goalie.

But, I do like Ceci a lot and in this cap era it's great to have someone who can do the top pairing job at such a bargain. It has allowed us to add Ekholm to the team, and unlock Bouchard. Also I'm not sure how we can upgrade Ceci and stay cap compliant going forward. Imo, Holland staying pat with this situation is the smart bet, and we can look again at the deadline.

I really like our defence outside of Ceci. If Ceci rebounds to his 1st year here we are set. I hate to say it but sometimes the best move is the one you dont make.

 

[Broberg Speed]

TSN has Edmonton ranked as having the 5th best offseason as well... 5th best offseason of the Canadian teams

 

[duul]

TSN has Edmonton ranked as having the 5th best offseason as well... 5th best offseason of the Canadian teams

Yep. Fact of the matter is you'd have to be Pejorative Slured to think we've had anything but a failure of an offseason. Weren't able to move on from Foegele, Ceci, Kulak, Campbell. Weren't able to add anyone without severely hindering another prime year for our club next season. Lost the two guys who scored all of our bottom 6 goals in the playoffs.

Fact of the matter is we upgraded Kailer Yamamoto into Connor Brown at the cost of Kostin. We used our opportunity to max out our salary on the least important position in the entire sport. We didn't use our chips or move space around to improve the obvious areas of need. There was no creativity, just an IOU given to a player who we won't be able to afford next year anyway.

 

[onetweasy]

2 of these are valuable bottomsix players and Bjugstad barely played here being a TDL Acquisition.

Bjugstad last season added 17G, Kostin added 14. You think Connor Brown matches that 31goals?

I'm not even including Yams and never mentioned him.


Why would we when the team is cap crunched? Kostin was not a rental in any way shape or form.

Good luck finding another Kostin. Really. Theres been 3 players like him that the Oilers have added over the last 15yrs. Glencross, Maroon, Kostin. Each time we lose one of these we lose a lot and Kostin is the most talented of the bunch and with most upside. It’s amazing to me that people don't recognize the value in these kinds of dig down players.

Kostin has become the most overrated player on this site in some time.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Everyone bitching about "sunk costs" with Campbell and Nurse are not looking at the big picture.

The Oilers are by far a net positive in salaries when you take into account players performances vs cap hit.

Yes, Nurse, Campbell and Foegel together are overpaid by about 6 million a year total, but Hyman, Nuge, Draisaitl, and McDavid are underpaid relative to their performance and point production by about 9 million when looking at market value. The depth players on this team, minus Foegel are neither underpaid or overpaid, excepting maybe Ceci, relative to his performance last year, but 2 years ago, he was an outperformer.

Almost every single team has bad contracts, but having bargin contracts balances it out. It would be almost impossible to have an entire roster of NHL players outperforming their cap hit. Yes I know its frustrating when looking at Campbell and Nurse and thinking what the Oilers could afford with that 5 million in savings, but if the those other players were on market value contracts relative to their point production, the Oilers absolutely do not get Kane and Ekholm on this roster, and Kane himself is a bargin of about 1.5 mil a season.

It would be fantastic to have every player outperform their cap hit, but that just is not realistic in professional sports, and we have to look at the big picture, the Oilers have a good team, with a lot of good contracts that will allow them to compete for a Cup for the foreseeable future.

Using the above.

The current manager is responsible only for the one value contract, the Nuge contract.

The current manager is responsible for the 3 worst overpays Nurse, Campbell, Foegele.

I think to properly evaluate Hollands impact on cap you don't include the two best contract values, McDrai, that he didn't sign.

So that the calculation then looks like a 1M saving on Nuge and spending 5 million too much on the other 3.

 

[FlameChampion]

I really like our defence outside of Ceci. If Ceci rebounds to his 1st year here we are set. I hate to say it but sometimes the best move is the one you dont make.

I agree. I also just dont think theres a real upgrade out there from what we have heard. Pesce is obvious but who knows if he wants to be here and Carolina still hasnt traded him. Other than that, I dont know. It would be more lateral moves.

Full year of Ekholm/Bouchard should help. Kulak will be playing 3rd pairing. Just gives the team more time to assess if Ceci rebounds and if Broberg/Desharnais take steps. Team should be fine for the regular season. Can always upgrade at the trade deadline.

 

[Soundwave]

I really like our defence outside of Ceci. If Ceci rebounds to his 1st year here we are set. I hate to say it but sometimes the best move is the one you dont make.

You might want to go and rewatch the Avs and Knights series and see how badly Nurse and Ceci got caved in those series.

If you're happy with just getting to a 2nd/3rd round sure, but clearly these two don't have it when it comes to being in a best of 7 series against an actual high end team where they can't hide.

It's clear those types of teams take that pairing to school. I guess as long as the Oilers never have to play a team with any higher end forwards (MacKinnon, Eichel, even a Marchessault) Nurse-Ceci can be fine, but that's not gonna happen through 4 rounds of playoffs.