Yeah, not with that defense core. For your guys sake I'm hoping Ceci has a Pittsburgh year and not a Toronto year

If Kuemper costs that much the Oilers should play Koskinen. No goaltender save for the top-of-the-top should cost that much. Kuemper will have a .900sv% playing in front of this blueline anyways, why give up more draft capital than you need to?

imo goaltending is why EDM isnt getting anywhere. They will need an elite goalie to overcome the defense.

They need something on the Hellebuyck-Vasilevskiy scale, not the Kuemper one. At least until that defense corps proves otherwise.

If Koskinen with some form of retention is currently desired by some NHL GMs, maybe we need to give credence to the idea that he's merely overpaid and not an actual cap dump. It shouldn't cost Edmonton actual assets to move the last year of his deal.

I like Khudobin as a Koskinen replacement better anyways. Never been one for the Kuemper hype.

Is this still too much? https://www.capfriendly.com/forums/thread/495705

See quote in that thread. It's closer imo.

Maybe a true contender for a playoff spot. Depth is a serious issue here, the bottom six looks ugly and the d core has some holes.

This team was on pace to hit 100 points last year. It's a playoff team without any improvements, and the general consensus is that it has improved.

Yeah and they won the same number of playoff games as the Buffalo Sabres. Just making the playoffs is not "contending." Look at every team that has won the Cup ever, they all had depth up and down the lineup which is exactly what the Oilers lack. Having just a strong top six only wins championships in high school.

So you admit that your "Maybe a true contender for a playoff spot" comment was stupid then? Okay...

Depth is less of a problem this year for sure. A 3rd line of Foegele-Ryan-Archibald is pretty decent - all 3 guys should score 10-15 goals over an 82 game season. Benson-McLeod-Kassian as a soft-minutes line could do some damage too. It's not perfect but then the Oilers have a better top-6 than any other team in the league. Holloway and / or Lavoie could bolster the bottom-6 by Christmas, too.

The defense is bigger and more mobile than last year - and more experienced - and the Oilers should get TONS of offense from the backend. Nurse was 5th in the league at 5v5 scoring (among defensemen) this year, Barrie was 8th and Ceci was 23rd. Bouchard didn't play enough to rank in the top-100, but his P/60 was 18th overall (min 175:00).