This in from TSN insider Darren Dreger from The Nielson Show, news that Oilers GM Stan Bowman is upping his aggression when it comes to acquiring another d-man for the Oilers.
Said Dreger: “Defensively, I think that’s going to be an area of concern probably for a good chunk of the year. I think that Stan Bowman probably initially for the first five or six games of the year said, ‘OK, everybody just pump the brakes here. It’s not about our five, six, seven d-men, it’s in fact about our top guys not performing. In certain cases that still applies… but the word on the street is he is working more aggressively to try and find some help, right? And other teams now are as well, with injuries and other situations. I don’t think there’s anything magical now coming from the General Manager’s office, but I do think that the ingredients are there for this team to be much better than what we’ve seen here.”
My take
1. Edmonton has two d-men who are excelling, the top-pairing of Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm, with two d-men who are doing well, the third-pairing of Brett Kulak and Ty Emberson. Darnell Nurse’s defensive mistakes continue the trend we saw in the 2024 playoffs, coming far too often, not close to an acceptable rate for a Top 4 d-man. Troy Stecher has done OK alongside Nurse, at least in his own end, while Travis Dermott has struggled in a limited role.
2. The Oilers lack speed and aggression just now. Can they find a d-man with those traits to pair with Nurse in the short-term? Good luck making that kind of deal. Such a player, at least if he can also pass the puck well, will cost the sun, the moon and all the stars. Perhaps a better bet would be to try Kulak and Emberson in heavier minutes as the second pairing. Either that or finally have one of Kulak or Nurse commit to playing the right side, and pair up Kulak and Nurse there. As Nurse is the one struggling, maybe move him over, as he’s not having the necessary success as things now stand.
3. The good news is that if Edmonton is looking for a left shot d-man (which would be a possibility if either Kulak or Nurse can make a go of it on the right side), there are a number of decent players who might be available. On The Athletic’s most recent trade target list, the top name is left-shot d-man Ivan Provorov of Columbus, followed by left-shot Cam Fowler of Anaheim, then right-shot Timothy Liljegren of Toronto, with right shot Cody Ceci seventh overall and right shot Rasmus Ristolainen eighth overall. Some of these players have contracts that will be too rich for the Oilers, but perhaps deals can also be made to have other teams eat some of that salary against their own caps.
4. At forward, call-ups Drake Caggiula and Noah Philp are coming not a moment too soon. The Oilers lack speed and aggression up-front and it’s easy to imagine Caggiula and Philp stepping in and providing that on the fourth line, with Corey Perry and Derek Ryan sitting. The two veterans have had good moments, but it’s too much to ask them to play every game. The old vets don’t bring enough in the speed and aggression department to make up for Edmonton’s deficit in those two qualities.
5. No news yet on Connor McDavid’s injury, and obviously much rides on that. Perhaps we’ll hear more on Wednesday.
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