Do you seriously think adding a minor-leaguer and a 3rd pairing D who can't defend will solve the defensive woes in the Oilers bottom 6?

LOL well nothing is working currently. I want Ennis in the lineup as I like Ennis, but he is hurt. Our D are a mess. Just brutal

Khaira, Turris and Chaisson shouldnt even be in the league. Throw Patrick Russell into that mix as well.

Other than Nurse-Bear, yup. But this makes things worse, not better.

Russell? He seems to play well any time he's in the lineup. Can't disagree on the others - Turris has fallen off a cliff since last year. I imagine he'll get a few more games to get his rhythm, but he hasn't been good at all.

Russell actually does nothing. He cant even score if a puck hit him in the head. Chaisson who cares if he is gone, as long as he is gone. And Jones for Dunn seems pretty fair. Dunn is young and played in a fantastic Defense system. Maybe he can understand what it takes on D better than this mess. He can probably move the puck better

3rd line is bleeding!!!!!

I think Tippett needs to stick with pairings a little longer. He's too quick to shuffle and that's when the trouble starts. These guys need a little time to get used to each other and develop chemistry. It's just one stat, but here's a look at the 5v5 xGF% of the 5 most common partnerships:

Nurse-Bear: 62.19 (115:04)
Jones-Larsson: 51.71 (50:13)
Koekkoek-Barrie: 51.55 (37:24)
Koekkoek-Larsson: 37.88 (40.22)
Russell-Barrie: 37.82 (69:22)

Notice anything wrong with this picture? The worst pairing has the 2nd most TOI. Now, I'm not going to hang my hat on xGF% entirely, but from that aspect it looks like there are three pairings here that work.

Its time to give Evan Bouchard a look, too.

Kris Russell is terrible. For some reason and I could be wrong, but I think Jones and Larsson never fit well together just from a visual thing. Yes time for better puck movers. Bouchard!!!

I thought Ennis, Turris, Kahun etc were all going to be huge contributors?

Ennis is hurt and apparently has been the whole year. Turris is ^%%&% terrible and Yes everyone thought Kuhun was going to contribute. Barrie I was never sold on. But he is as bad as last year 1st half with the leafs.

I do think Baertschi can still put up points in the NHL. Chiasson would likely get sent down with a healthy Canucks roster.

Would you be interested in Gaudette and/or Virtanen? Both are 3rd line/middle-6 players who can put up a decent amount of points. Ideally a youngish defenseman would be the return, but I'd take Puljujarvi as well.

Dunn was the 2nd most sheltered 3rd pairing defenseman in the league last year. His coaches don't trust him to defend - at all. He's not an upgrade on Kris Russell defensively. Dunn is a year older than Jones & Bear, he's not young. I'm not sure if he has more puck-moving ability than Jones, but Jones outscored him last year at 5v5: 0.82 P/60 vs 0.71.

You STILL haven't got the context. Wow.

Of course you would. They aren't trading their 1st line RW for any bottom-6 types though.

Dunn is great by the analytics. Baertschi made no sense tho lol

Of course - he's massively sheltered. I doubt he's better than Jones and he's a year older and twice the price.

Baertschi is there until Ennis gets back into the line up and I am sure he is better than Chaisson anyways. A water cooler is better than Chaisson

Unfortunately, Baerschi is not better than Chiasson. He's an AHLer. And look at his cap hit, way too high.

His numbers were great against elite competition
73.9 GF% and 50 CF%

He puts up 19 goals per 82 gp in the NHL. He can score.

Check out his PDO though. 3x shooting percentage compared to most of his teammates... its not remotely repeatable. 50% corsi when you get so many OTF starts isn't great either.

Your context was all those guys were going to give the Oilers awesome depth to help lead them to tops in the league. I said the team is terrible defensively, their depth still sucks and their goaltending is suspect. Seems one of us was pretty bang on.

I’d rather ride jones. He had great numbers on third pairing like Dunn did and is cheaper.