Rumor: Trade Rumors & Proposals Thread | Free Agent Frenzy, Will Oilers Fans Have Any Good Oilers News on Canada Day?

[iCanada]

I fell for the Durzi thing a year ago too. He was awful inthis season, and in playoffs, just awful, get off the ice awful. McLellan was widely critiqued for playing Durzi so much. I felt he was admirable year before playoffs but the dropoff, severe.

Kupari has never done a thing and isn't likely too. Too peripheral, too cute. Makes some nice looking moves with puck that fail. Don't think he's going to put it together.

Iafallo is in decline and injury problems. Regression imminent.

With Dubois its possible he'll be better in the right environment and team. Vilardi just can't stop gettting injured.

Going with older Talbot kind of a weird move. LA are really, really old, bang on that one.

Movarare is better than Durzi imo. But hasn't got much looks. They have a replacement right there. Its arguable Spence is around what Durzi is. In anycase this season Kings have Gavrikov instead of Durzi, thats a win.

Idk I think it's always a bit of a red herring to say a guy who hasn't gotten the opportunity to play those kind of minutes would be better than a guy that is playing those minutes. Maybe they will, but you just really don't know.

I agree, Durzi has been fairly pedestrian in the playoffs, but he's there playing those minutes against guys that will beat you and will make you look silly. Nothing against Movarare, just think until you see top 4 action in those situations you don't really know what you have. Most defenseman will look leaky when they're being tasked for the McDavid or Draisaitl matchup for 7 games, and frankly outside of a few pizzas Durzi's raw scoring chances and possession numbers were better than a number of the Vegas defenders. Durzi just didn't get the benefit of saves.

That's not to say that Durzi is amazing, but he's a piece of their depth that's been fire tested, and you can't just assign value, particularly on young defender's until they're for tested. I'd point to a guy like Bear who many here thought would make losing a guy like Russell relatively moot, but when push came to shove Bear got buried in those situations.

I don't know that Iafollo is slowing down just yet, last year was his most productive ever. But he is getting older for sure and has some hard miles on him. That's fair enough.

I also agree that kupari isn't a huge loss. Like yams or pulju here, not likely he'd have shown much more than he already has. But I do think his inclusion in an already lopsided deal just makes it more lopsided.

In any case, I do think the kings have taken a step back and not forward. But maybe that's just me.

 

[Fourier]

Reilly Smith stopped being significant to vegas quite awhile ago and was snakebit pretty much all playoffs. At age 32 he's far past peak and even though one of the Originals it would be a mistake to retain him at the cost of losing elsehwhere in the lineup.

Sometimes you have to cut bait with a player. He's not integral to their club.

Smith was fed constantly and blowing chances all playoffs. If other guys didn't heat up that would've been a problem for Vegas.

Smith scored 26 goals for Vegas last year and had 56 points. 20 of his goals were either ES or short handed. He was also one of their key pk'ers. I am not sure how you get that he stopped being significant.

 

[Macblender]

Idk I think it's always a bit of a red herring to say a guy who hasn't gotten the opportunity to play those kind of minutes would be better than a guy that is playing those minutes. Maybe they will, but you just really don't know.

I agree, Durzi has been fairly pedestrian in the playoffs, but he's there playing those minutes against guys that will beat you and will make you look silly. Nothing against Movarare, just think until you see top 4 action in those situations you don't really know what you have. Most defenseman will look leaky when they're being tasked for the McDavid or Draisaitl matchup for 7 games, and frankly outside of a few pizzas Durzi's raw scoring chances and possession numbers were better than a number of the Vegas defenders. Durzi just didn't get the benefit of saves.

That's not to say that Durzi is amazing, but he's a piece of their depth that's been fire tested, and you can't just assign value, particularly on young defender's until they're for tested. I'd point to a guy like Bear who many here thought would make losing a guy like Russell relatively moot, but when push came to shove Bear got buried in those situations.

I don't know that Iafollo is slowing down just yet, last year was his most productive ever. But he is getting older for sure and has some hard miles on him. That's fair enough.

I also agree that kupari isn't a huge loss. Like yams or pulju here, not likely he'd have shown much more than he already has. But I do think his inclusion in an already lopsided deal just makes it more lopsided.

In any case, I do think the kings have taken a step back and not forward. But maybe that's just me.

Big thing I agree with here is taking the views of Durzi vs our team where he was forced into some pretty tough matchups with a 37 year old Edler.

I dont think he is that bad but he is better than some of their remaining D IMO so net out for not much is a loss but probably not an astronomical one.

 

[Anarchism]

I love how you have LA betting on internal growth but likely being better than the Oilers, because the Oilers are looking for some internal growth.

Bravo.

They have alot more and higher quality youngsters playing and a far better farm than us?
they have a D almost ready on the farm and a high end forward who will make a big push at training camp/
Lavoie nor Bourgault is ready and we don't have a D (Kemp) pushing hard.
Broberg is improving but at a turtle pace and Desharnais has been knocked hard on his ass.
Hoping Hollywood is a huge factor by the end of the year though and makes me eat at least some of my words.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Smith scored 26 goals for Vegas last year and had 56 points. 20 of his goals were either ES or short handed. He was also one of their key pk'ers. I am not sure how you get that he stopped being significant.

I'm not sure how you didn't see my comments that this season his scoring was outlier and that he'd struggled with finish for years and again in playoffs. Reilly Smith was on a staggering snakebit run even this playoffs until he got lucky against us. I like the player but he's in some decline at 32 I would say. He won't score 20 ever again. Book it.

Vegas pk were AWFUL in playoffs. I'm not sure how being on that unit is a plus. the NHL solved this problem for Vegas by stopping giving us any PP's.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Idk I think it's always a bit of a red herring to say a guy who hasn't gotten the opportunity to play those kind of minutes would be better than a guy that is playing those minutes. Maybe they will, but you just really don't know.

I agree, Durzi has been fairly pedestrian in the playoffs, but he's there playing those minutes against guys that will beat you and will make you look silly. Nothing against Movarare, just think until you see top 4 action in those situations you don't really know what you have. Most defenseman will look leaky when they're being tasked for the McDavid or Draisaitl matchup for 7 games, and frankly outside of a few pizzas Durzi's raw scoring chances and possession numbers were better than a number of the Vegas defenders. Durzi just didn't get the benefit of saves.

That's not to say that Durzi is amazing, but he's a piece of their depth that's been fire tested, and you can't just assign value, particularly on young defender's until they're for tested. I'd point to a guy like Bear who many here thought would make losing a guy like Russell relatively moot, but when push came to shove Bear got buried in those situations.

I don't know that Iafollo is slowing down just yet, last year was his most productive ever. But he is getting older for sure and has some hard miles on him. That's fair enough.

I also agree that kupari isn't a huge loss. Like yams or pulju here, not likely he'd have shown much more than he already has. But I do think his inclusion in an already lopsided deal just makes it more lopsided.

In any case, I do think the kings have taken a step back and not forward. But maybe that's just me.

Bear is exactly who I was thinking of when considering Durzi's play. No loss.

iafallo had a series of injuries as has Vilardi. Its why ultimately they are both gone. LA might have some insider info on both. But yeah, Kings have ridden Iafallo a lot. I liked the player, don't get me wrong.

Sadly for LA Kupari wasn't even ringing Yams or Pulju bells and thats gotta be depressing. More as well as McLellan this season and playoffs failed to get much of anything from his youth bottomsix depth. They were just adding nothing in scoring. Guys like Byfield too, patience seems to be running out in LA for prospects. man are they old now.

They have had an odd offseason. That said they still have a lot of good players.

 

[Fourier]

I'm not sure how you didn't see my comments that this season his scoring was outlier and that he'd struggled with finish for years and again in playoffs. Reilly Smith was on a staggering snakebit run even this playoffs until he got lucky against us. I like the player but he's in some decline at 32 I would say. He won't score 20 ever again. Book it.

Vegas pk were AWFUL in playoffs. I'm not sure how being on that unit is a plus. the NHL solved this problem for Vegas by stopping giving us any PP's.

In the three years prior to this year he had 57 goals in 180 games and 117 points. Karlsson had 42 goals and 120 points in 186 games. Over that period Smith was third in total ES goals with 41 behind only Patches and Marchessault. He also had 6 SHG to go along with the 4 he had this year. (Over that period he lead all Vegas forwards in PK TOI/gm). All the while being one of Vegas' Swiss army knife guys. It's not a crippling loss but to say he has not been significant for a while doesn't hold up.

 

[Macblender]

They have alot more and higher quality youngsters playing and a far better farm than us?
they have a D almost ready on the farm and a high end forward who will make a big push at training camp/
Lavoie nor Bourgault is ready and we don't have a D (Kemp) pushing hard.
Broberg is improving but at a turtle pace and Desharnais has been knocked hard on his ass.

I dont know if that is really that true. Who is really notable on the farm or their NHL roster as a high impact piece besides Byfield. Holloway and Bourgault are likely equal or better pieces than many of the young forwards besides Byfield. An

On D, Clarke sure but I would think we see a hell of a lot more growth from a Bouchard this year than a rookie in Clarke who will have growing pains.

 

[bobbythebrain]

LA regressed in my mind - I really dont think PLD is a great player and he disappears.

They didn't regress at all. PLD will put up same if not more points than Vilardi.
They also have Clarke and Spence coming up.

Not sure why ppl are making Vilardis single 40 point season out to be a massive loss for them

Dumping Durzi alone made them a much better team.

 

[syz]

Durzi sucks but it was the Doughty-Anderson pairing that was picking the puck out of their net in the playoffs. Doughty was on the ice for like 60% of the Oilers' goals and he's not gonna be younger next year. Kopitar also got caved but maybe PLD helps alleviate that.

Dunno. Their defense is still bad and their goaltending is now worse.

 

[Fourier]

They have alot more and higher quality youngsters playing and a far better farm than us?
they have a D almost ready on the farm and a high end forward who will make a big push at training camp/
Lavoie nor Bourgault is ready and we don't have a D (Kemp) pushing hard.
Broberg is improving but at a turtle pace and Desharnais has been knocked hard on his ass.
Hoping Hollywood is a huge factor by the end of the year though and makes me eat at least some of my words.

LA had a better farm. Right now it is arguable that it is better than the Oilers. At forward teh Oilers definitely win the comparison by a lot. Beyond Spence and Clarke things are pretty baren since Turcotte pretty much flamed out and the rest of their top guys are already with the big club or were traded.

I am curious who that high end forward making a big push is? Is it Kaliyev because if so he's been on the big club for two years.

Ontario Reign 2022-23 roster and scoring statistics at hockeydb.com

 

[ChaoticOrange]

Yeah but if you've watched Vegas and Smith in recent seasons his this year was an outlier. The almost constant with him for years was blowing scoring chances. he had 4 goals in playoffs on a ton of chances and several basically open net to shoot at chances.

He's a good player, I've liked him lots but a team has to pick and choose usually after a cup win.

Barbashev was a big add for Vegas. Karlson reawakening his scoring touch was good too and frankly Karlsson was such a solid 200ft player the whole season and playoffs. That used to be Smith territory but I feel he's fallen off there too. Karlsson scoring 11 goals in playoffs was huge for Vegas. he found his finish mitts at the right time, and really no bigger time.

Yeah, no, it wasn't.

Smith's last 6 seasons:

60 points
53 points
54 points
25 points (39 point pace)
56 points (pace)
56 points

He's a good - but not great - scorer, and a good - but not great - producer. the one seriously down year was the outlier, not the rest of them. And they lost him for nothing. Vegas is worse today than when they won the Cup.

 

[Macblender]

They didn't regress at all. PLD will put up same if not more points than Vilardi.
They also have Clarke and Spence coming up.

Not sure why ppl are making Vilardis single 40 point season out to be a massive loss for them

Dumping Durzi alone made them a much better team.

So they lost two quasi second liners for one okay one who disappears?

Clarke a rookie in woohoo. Sure he could be good but counting some chickens before they hatch as we really dont know how he will play and rookie d for the most part tend to have some pretty decent growing pains.

Their goaltending is worse, their D is flat to slightly better but Doughty is another year older. kopitar is also another year older for that matter

Their forwards are flat but less depth so if PLD is off it will hurt.

I just dont see how they are any semblance improved next year as a match against us. They dont really scare me more than last year. None of the west does at this point.

 

[ChaoticOrange]

So they lost two quasi second liners for one okay one who disappears?

Clarke a rookie in woohoo. Sure he could be good but counting some chickens before they hatch as we really dont know how he will play and rookie d for the most part tend to have some pretty decent growing pains.

Their goaltending is worse, their D is flat to slightly better but Doughty is another year older. kopitar is also another year older for that matter

Their forwards are flat but less depth so if PLD is off it will hurt.

I just dont see how they are any semblance improved next year as a match against us. They dont really scare me more than last year. None of the west does at this point.

Yeah, buddy's going to have a hard time convincing me that an LA team that lost Vilardi, Iafallo, Kupari, Durzi, and Korpisalo and replaced them with Dubois and Talbot is better today than they were last year. Clarke is a really good prospect but their D is average at best and that goaltending situation is really iffy.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

They didn't regress at all. PLD will put up same if not more points than Vilardi.
They also have Clarke and Spence coming up.

Not sure why ppl are making Vilardis single 40 point season out to be a massive loss for them

Dumping Durzi alone made them a much better team.

they lost 45 goals in Vilardi, Durzi and Iofalo and gained 36 goals in PLD and Lewis...now banking on rookies to get it done and an aging and slowing Kopitar to repeat
their defense is worse
their goaltending is worse

no, LA isn't better at all

 

[iCanada]

Big thing I agree with here is taking the views of Durzi vs our team where he was forced into some pretty tough matchups with a 37 year old Edler.

I dont think he is that bad but he is better than some of their remaining D IMO so net out for not much is a loss but probably not an astronomical one.

I think the thing with Durzi is he's good enough and has a cap number low enough that you don't want to kick him, you want to supplant him and drop his place on the roster. Fewer minutes and easier opponents and suddenly Durzi is getting the same praise that Kulak has been getting here.

Like sure he's overmatched playing 23 minutes a night against McDavid. But what does he look like playing 16-18 minutes against McLeod? Those are two very very different things.

 

[K1984]

Again difference being Vegas won their cup. Thats the goal of any franchise. After a cup win there will be players moving on, invariably. Still bums me out we lost to them and only won 6 playoff games this year with the two best players in the world. Moreso the reason and way we lost.

Barbashev has a career shooting $ of 17%. Barbashev had two complete seasons where his shooting % was 23%. he lights the lamp. Its his strongpoint calling card. I don't see him falling off the map.

The Contract isn't so bad for Vegas because they are renewing Barbs at prime, age 27.

The bolded is wrong.

He's never lit it up like he did in the playoffs, but whatever.

Point stands that they had two top 6 scoring wingers and now they have one, so now they are worse off which was the point of the post.

 

[FlameChampion]

Really thought that would be more trades. Especially teams like Calgary and Winnipeg.

What a boring offseason.

 

[Forgot About Drai]

Really thought that would be more trades. Especially teams like Calgary and Winnipeg.

What a boring offseason.

Need to bring in the soft cap/luxury tax or this will continue to happen IMO

 

[KCC]

they lost 45 goals in Vilardi, Durzi and Iofalo and gained 36 goals in PLD and Lewis...now banking on rookies to get it done and an aging and slowing Kopitar to repeat
their defense is worse
their goaltending is worse

no, LA isn't better at all

They will go as far as their trap system will carry them. The second they open it up they are in no man’s land.

 

[McDoused]

I didnt realize that LA is actually over the cap right now. They are going to be in a world of hurt if they have to run a 21 man roster with 2 rookie defenceman and 36 year old goaltender.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Yeah, no, it wasn't.

Smith's last 6 seasons:

60 points
53 points
54 points
25 points (39 point pace)
56 points (pace)
56 points

He's a good - but not great - scorer, and a good - but not great - producer. the one seriously down year was the outlier, not the rest of them. And they lost him for nothing. Vegas is worse today than when they won the Cup.

Every team that wins the cup experiences attrition. Name one team that hasn't lost players post cup win. Vegas are still gonna be stiff opposition. Especially playoffs.

Pace doesn't mean a lot when a player is increasingly injured or not in the lineup. As others have said its not actual pts. Vegas have a deep lineup at every spot.

its funny that I find myself on this side of the argument as I always liked Reilly Smith. Just lol bad finish sometimes. if there was a trophy for firing high and wide with an open net Smith would win it. The good news is his pace and anticipation gets him so many scoring chances. he's like Nuge in that regard. In right spots a lot of the time.

In the three years prior to this year he had 57 goals in 180 games and 117 points. Karlsson had 42 goals and 120 points in 186 games. Over that period Smith was third in total ES goals with 41 behind only Patches and Marchessault. He also had 6 SHG to go along with the 4 he had this year. (Over that period he lead all Vegas forwards in PK TOI/gm). All the while being one of Vegas' Swiss army knife guys. It's not a crippling loss but to say he has not been significant for a while doesn't hold up.

I'll take back the wordage. Could have worded it better. Didn't think it was a point people would hang on being an out of town kind of thing. heh Its a slow news day here.

 

[Drivesaitl]

He's never lit it up like he did in the playoffs, but whatever.

Point stands that they had two top 6 scoring wingers and now they have one, so now they are worse off which was the point of the post.

Scoring 26 G in an 80 game season with a 23% shooting percentage is certainly lighting it up to the same or greater degree than he did in 21 playoff games scoring 7 goals. Really the one thing Barbashev was known for was wiring the puck and being able to one shot score. The guy can score. The guy needs to get more SOG though. knock on Barb is he kind of disappears but doesn't seem like it in playoffs.

 

[FlameChampion]

Things could still change. I think a lot of trades could still be made. Especially for teams like Winnipeg and Calgary.

Vegas is more or less the same team that won the cup to me. Sure they lost Smith, but thats about it really. We rarely see teams repeat though, so hard to say what Vegas will be after their cup hangover. I think they will still make the playoffs though but they likely wont have the same drive that took them to a cup.

Not sure on LA. I think they are worse but we will see. I personally dont care for PLD so I think they have less depth than they did before (without much of a talent upgrade). There goaltending is pretty awful. But I dont really know if the Kings are done, I could see another move or two from them. I think LA has more talent that then are given but as long as McLellan is their coach, I think they are always going to fall short.

Seattle will be interesting. I discounted them all year. They made the playoffs with very poor goaltending. They were more impressive in the playoffs than I probably gave them credit for. Probably will still be a playoff team, but I dont think I really consider them a threat.

Calgary. They will be worse and are a mess. Some trades are probably coming. Even if their players werent leaving and they were running back, I still dont think much of them. I guess they could be a wild card because I dont see much from the Central outside of Colorado, Dallas and Minnesota.

Vancouver - I think if Demko is healthy, they could pass Calgary but thats not saying much. Nothing team but they do have some talent.

Anaheim/SJ - Wet fart noise

Central is pretty woof. Colorado and Dallas really the only two teams to note. Minnesota cant beat anyone else but could probably hex the Oilers. Who knows with Winnipeg - there are a lot of shoes to drop there but they are probably a mess. Nashville is a nothing team. I could see St. Louis improve and maybe be a wildcard team (but thats more because all the other teams are mess), I think they are a non factor. Chicago and Arizona ... wet fart noise.

 

[Paralyzer]

I didnt realize that LA is actually over the cap right now. They are going to be in a world of hurt if they have to run a 21 man roster with 2 rookie defenceman and 36 year old goaltender.

Yep. I've said as soon as we eliminated them, they will be in a world of hurt from the cap next year. Only thing I didn't foretold, was the dumb trade they did to get PLD and trade away their forward depth. Now it's even worse than before.