They want to outscore their problems. With Karlsson, maybe they can do it in the playoffs too if they get stellar goaltending.

Just seems illogical...but I guess doubling down has some logic...

Good luck with Gavrikov, he wants to go to a team where he can extend long term. And that's not happening with any Canadian team. As he won't sign long term in Canada.

Trust me that doesn’t work for long

At most it leads to 2nd round exits

Don’t say the Oilers did that last year as Mike Smith actually played good until the conference finals

Well if they add Gavrikov, does that make them a favorite? Probably not, the defense would probably still be too weak.

I think the real reason to get Karlsson is to make 97 and 29 feel like they aren't on an island, and I think it would reduce the chances of Draisaitl leaving. Broberg and Skinner are some very bright spots in terms of young players who will likely be impact players in the next few years. I think getting Karlsson would show the stars that they are trying to get better now, rather than later.

I don't think it needs to work, getting Karlsson buys Holland some more time even if they go out in the 2nd round. He's finally been able to build a decent top six between last year, and he tried to improve the goaltending in the off-season. Next step is defence, but for them to get that shutdown defender or strong two-way dman is going to take some time. He just needs to make sure that he doesn't take up too much of the cap with Karlsson.

That being said the Pacific division is still relatively weak, so they can possibly still make it to the 3rd round even if they get swept again. Pretty much all of those LA teams have some goaltending problems.

I'm with ya if karlsson cost the ungodly amounts people on here are tossing around. Personally I don't think he gets close to what people are thinking so it's not as far fetched that it happens.

Yeah, to be frank for the Oilers to even be able to get anything out of Karlsson, they need to retain at least 2-2.5m, and I think that just gets them maybe 2 1sts+a good roster player like Barrie and maybe a young former 1st rounder like Yamamoto or Puljujarvi. So how much is another 1.5-2.5mx4? Probably a young player with a lot of upside like Bouchard, but I think it would be replacing one of the 1sts.

Bouchard+2023 1st + Puljujarvi/Yamamoto+Barrie looks a lot to me like the Horvat return+ another roster player. The question would be whether or not the Oilers would want to be willing to part with Bouchard, so they might need to send a prospect back to the Oilers similar to how there was a 1st sent back with Jones in the Jones trade.

Has this been reported somewhere? Is there a reason reported?

If they think they can outscore their issues, and last year's run is any indication, they haven't been paying attention.
They gave up 4 or more goals 9 times out of 16 games and barely won 1 of those (in OT).
They didn't get swept by Colorado because they only scored 2 goals in games 2 and 3.
They lost because they scored 11 goals in games 1 and 4 and still didn't get a win.

If your strategy is to score a lot, but you still lose when you score a lot. Your strategy is flawed.