Équipe: 2022-23 Oilers d'Edmonton

Date de création initiale: 28 mars 2022

Publié: 28 mars 2022

Mode - plafond salarial: Basique

2022 NHL Entry Draft:
#28 (via CAR): (RC) Jimmy Snuggerud (USNTDP, USDP)
#32 (via COL): (RC) Ryan Chesley (USNTDP, USDP)
#145: (RD) Vladislav Sapunov (Moskova, MHL)
#177: (LD) Elias Pettersson (Orebro, J20 Nationell)
#209: (G) Jan Spunar (Olomouc, Czechia)

There's an argument of quality versus quantity with the Coyotes. I think there's a great fit for a team in the 14-18 range to trade down with the Coyotes for their late firsts. I'd like Edmonton to be the team to achieve that. RC and RD are areas of want for the organization and I think some quality ones exist in the USDP that the Oilers would LOVE to have bubbling under.

I spent a lot of today reviewing goaltenders. Specifically, I weighed their GSAA over the past 3 seasons (0.500, 0.333, and 0.167) to establish a "recency bias". Edmonton is a team built in a manner where it must find forgiveness via goaltending: the structure and systems appear such that they need a goaltender that performs above the norm. For context, the 2021-22 Oilers ran Koskinen and Smith (GSAA of -5.802 and -1.635 respectively) and visually we can confirm that the Oilers "just don't get THAT timely save" on a nightly basis. With the salary cap posing so many issues for next year's Oilers, I think Driedger represents both an excellent buy-low candidate and one that can be had at a discount. The tandem of Driedger and Skinner (3.912 and -0.220 GSAA) runs 11.128 GSAA higher than the current Oilers duo and would have the Oilers more comparable with the Capitals and Predators in both differential and likely points. There are some spooky things happening in Seattle, all of which have compounded in goals against and I think any player rescued from that tire fire normalizes next season.

The Seattle trade is merely structured as a hockey trade but with equivalent caps going both ways. Seattle upgrades at a position of dire need (RHD) and I think Driedger's save percentage gives Seattle an optic victory. I think Barrie-Eberle and Driedger-Kassian are already relatively fair swaps; Chiasson finds his way to the Seattle system for Driedger's retention.

Absolute shot-in-the-dark trade with Los Angeles here but with their riches at RHD, Durzi needing more time and money, and one of Spence or Walker being more suited to the third pair, I really hope there's an opportunity here for Edmonton to bring in an actual shutdown top-4 RHD to babysit Nurse. Some limited feedback suggested the Kings want right-handed forwards: I think Yamamoto is still the more expendable asset in that category while also representing actual NHL value. A quality pick in next year's draft is also sent to Los Angeles. I'm fine with an inter-divisional tax that sees Edmonton cough up their first but only if the Kings' fourth rounder goes back to Edmonton.

Anaheim being cash-poor makes the insured Klefbom deal desirable for the Ducks and a nothing pick two years down the road is exchanged in order to reach the cap floor. Smith might retire or he can have a final hurrah in Arizona. Edmonton takes back an AHL deal to be rid of his hit while the ASU Coyotes eek closer to the cap floor. The primary return here is Edmonton's ability to accrue cap space: if there must be no return for Klefbom and Smith, then so be it.

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