This isn't a team with plenty of cap to pass around though. If you prioritize cap in the top six, your improvements go in the top six. Other parts of the roster will suffer as they have historically.
And regardless of pedigree, these are players making $3m+ that are very close to either making more or making UFA. That isn't valuable to a team that needs to improve defensively and in goal.
It's kind of ridiculous that this is the player I'm arguing against because three years ago this is the exact player I wanted the Oilers to target for their top six. But people were dead set on bring back Taylor Hall.
Some things never change though. The focus is still on the top six for some reason.
RNH will not carry a third line. He needs support. And he wouldn't be getting that if Yamamoto, Zacha and Hyman were all in the top six and Kassian and Foegele were being moved to free up cap.
The Oilers need to focus their attention on adding defensively responsible players in their bottom six and focus on limiting the amount of goals the team gives up when the scorers aren't on the ice.
They need to do this because there isn't enough depth in Edmonton's roster to run a 'top 9' scoring system. And more obviously is there isn't enough cap flexibility to fill the forward roster if they hope to have a reliable starter for all 82 games and three pairings of NHL calibre defensemen.
I'm ready to flip Puljujarvi because he's never proven that he can generate offense without the push. And we've seen exactly what happens when the offense doesn't happen for him.
The team is obviously not at a finished state as it moves into a hopeful winning window phase. I thought next year might be when this team was ready/deeper enough to play three rounds of playoff hockey. Still lots of holes but I think the three centre spine can still work. Though budget wise clearly would have to clear out overpaid role players (Kassian, Foegele) and redundancies (Barrie). Finding cheap bottom line high motor, defensive responsible guy(s) should be fairly easy with player types like Curtis Lazar. Ryan, Shore and Malone might be adequate. Woodcroft with his AHL experience might have insight into prospective value types he would like.
A benefit of three centre spine roll out is to spread out the attack but also manage minutes of McDavid and Draisaitl for peak performance. A line roll out could look like Hyman, McDavid, Yamamoto; Zacha, Draisaitl, X (value guy); Nugent Hopkins, McLeod, Holloway. Nugent Hopkins is used to getting dregs for line mates in past years when this team was stretched running the McDavid/Draisaitl stack. He would have two developing size and speed wingers all with strong two-way games. Fourth line rolling with cheap, defensive high motor guys, Ryan, Shore, guy like Lazar.
Key defense scenario is to (reluctantly) move out a redundant Barrie for a long, defensive d-man like Carson Soucy while shaving off salary to be distributed elsewhere. Key signings become a goaltender and ideally Kulak. Not a perfect lineup but moving to a deep, diverse forward group with an evolving defense that is beginning to add length with players like Broberg, Niemelainan, Samaroukov closing in on NHL ready.
All said, nice to see an Evander Kane sighting in Edmonton. And the Puljujarvi situation is far from settled (though I kinda think he's gonna move).
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