With Edmonton Oilers not only closing in on Vegas in the Pacific but also lurking as the overall No. 1 seed in the National Hockey League with only four losses in the last seven weeks going into Thursday’s game in Denver, maybe it’s time to ruminate over a few items.
1. Things we think we know:
John Klingberg’s agent is banging the drums for his client, coming off double hip resurfacing and unable to play for the last 14 months, as he should. He’s trying to drum up a bit of a bidding war for a free-agent right-shot, offensive defenceman. The Oilers are kicking tires, doing their due diligence because it won’t cost them any draft picks or any prospects to get him, just a cheap pro-rated contract, maybe in the $800,000 range.
But are they really looking at him as a panacea, top 4 partner for Darnell Nurse, with his hip issue and not playing a game since last November? They may just see Klingberg as a No. 7 add on the blueline at low money, possibly better in their eyes than Troy Stecher. They really like the right-shot Troy Emberson in their third D pair as a No. 6, as they should.
Things we know:
Klingberg really wouldn’t get any power play time here with Evan Bouchard running the show from the point for 90 seconds of every power play. His history suggests he’s a strong puck-mover, when healthy, and he hasn’t been healthy since he was with Dallas in the bubble. He’s got a bit of the nasty Sergei Zubov head fake smarts at the opposition blueline, all good, but he’s never been a rock-solid defender.
What the Oilers need is Mattias Ekholm-type player in their top 4. Tough to replicate that. But a long-body like Marcus Pettersson in Pittsburgh, or a steady Ivan Provorov in Columbus, both unrestricted free agents at the end of the year or a younger healthier, nasty version of Joel Edmundson, currently in Los Angeles.
Dallas needs Klingberg more than the Oilers. Their other three right-shot D — Matt Dumba, Ilya Lyubushkin and Nils Lundkvist — haven’t scored a goal all season long. He wants to play on a Cup contender and wherever he signs, he’s in audition mode for next season.
2. Things we think we know
Jeff Skinner has been a healthy scratch four times in the last 10 games, which must be grating on a guy with 1,000 plus games, but would he really go to Oiler GM Stan Bowman and say trade me, waiving that no-move contract he got in his one-year $3 million deal he signed July 1?
Doubtful when he’s never played a single playoff game, which is one of the two reasons he couldn’t find a pen fast enough to sign, along with the now hollow pitch that he was going to play left wing with Leon Draisaitl.
While a team like, say, Utah with tons of salary cap room and possibly a need for a top six winger, might take him in a deal for the full contract. They’re scrambling to make the post-season. So, Skinner will keep showing up with a happy face in the dressing room and maybe some forwards get hurt in the top 9.
Things we know:
Skinner would gladly take a third line left wing spot but Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch clearly likes his playoff third line with Mattias Janmark on left side with Adam Henrique and Connor Brown. He’s tried Janmark as fourth line centre with Skinner as third line left wing, but having Janmark as a fourth-line centre doesn’t really jibe with Knoblauch’s usage of the Swede.
So Skinner either sits or he plays less than 10 minutes a night on the fourth line where he’s like a pair of brown loafers with a black tuxedo. Knoblauch likes Kasperi Kapanen as fourth line left wing because he kills penalties in his third PK pair with Vasily Podkolzin. If he takes out Kapanen and sits him then he has to find another penalty-killing forward. That could be Derek Ryan, but…more on that later.
3. Things we think we know:
The Oilers brought back Noah Philp from Bakersfield to see if he can latch onto the fourth-line centre spot as a needed right-shot guy. In their game in Minnesota Wednesday he won four of five face-offs, had some offensive jump and didn’t look out of place in his 10 shifts.
But, what they really need is a 20-game test drive for Philp. If he can handle it, with maybe a taste of PK work thrown in, maybe they don’t have to trade for a veteran fourth-line centre (maybe Nick Bjugstad) because Ryan seems to have become like Kris Russell was on defence in his last season here — a valued gamer, but not an every night gamer in the coach’s eyes even if he’s won 60 per cent of his 229 face offs.
Things we know:
Ryan worked his butt off to get to the NHL at 29 and he’s fashioned a terrific story, playing 603 games. Huge props to him but he’s 38 and while he was very good in the first PK pair with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins last season, his spot has gone to Henrique this year. And Podkolzin and Kapanen are the third forward pair, for the last while. If Ryan can’t kill penalties regularly (11:26 total PK work in 33 games), his role is diminished (9:25 average ice-time).
4. Things we think we know:
With the hockey world seeing the Milky Way of stars in Denver — Connor McDavid and Draisaitl for Edmonton against Avs’ Nathan MacKinnon and linemate Mikko Rantanen, we’re going to talk money, not points.
While Draisaitl became the NHL’s highest-paid player signing an eight-year extension for an AAV of $14- million in September, McDavid, whose contract is up after the 2025-2026 season, could get as much as $20 million AAV if the salary cap gets to $100 million. Player AAVs can’t be any higher than 20 per cent of the cap ceiling. McDavid may well take a bit of a hometown haircut ($18 million maybe), to fit other players into the salary equation, but what about the fantastic soon-to-be unrestricted free agent winger Rantanen, who is in the top 5 in NHL scoring?
Rantanen, 28, currently on a $9.5 million AAV, is probably looking for Draisaitl money, even though he doesn’t have a scoring title or an MVP or three 50-goal seasons on his resume. Why not shoot for the moon though?
He does have two 100-point seasons, and is well on his way to a third, with one 50-goal year. He might be the best right winger in the game, with apologies to Mitch Marner in Toronto and David Pastrnak in Boston.
Things we know:
The Avs probably have an internal salary cap and MacKinnon, the reigning Hart trophy winner, is their highest-paid player at $12.6 million AAV. Now, MacKinnon signed his extension in 2022 and the cap is going up, but it seems unlikely they would give Rantanen $14 million when MacKinnon is the driver on that line. The Avs reportedly offered the Finnish winger $11.25 million AAV over eight years earlier but if they did, that’s a low ball pitch.
The clock’s ticking loudly. Rantanen knows he’s never going to find a linemate like MacKinnon elsewhere, so much hardball will he play to move on? It seems unfathomable the Avs would trade the forward at the deadline for a collection of warm bodies and first-round picks because Rantanen is better than any single player they could get. But teams have already called Avs’ GM Chris MacFarland to talk deals. Can’t see the Avs entertaining any, but they won’t get Rantanen for a cent less than MacKinnon’s $12.6 million AAV.
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