Joined: Feb. 2019
Posts: 130
Likes: 27
Starret will definitely be resigned after his season in Bakersfield.
Some Oiler media is now saying expect 8 or 9 new players. Trades are going to be hard & salary cap won't help. They will need to chase underappreciated players.
Goalies
They're not going to spend $10M on goalies. Look for a vet like Niemi, Elliot, Kinkaid or Nilsson to be signed. They might take a flyer on a Jack Campbell/Jake Allen type.
Defense
After Ken Hollands comments yesterday, there's no way Bouchard plays more than a handful of NHL games this year. Bear, Persson or Jones will play before EB. They might go out for a guy like Pionk or Colin Miller.
Manning will be buried in the AHL, traded or bought out. Trading will be hard but packaging a mid round pick with BM for a pick a round or 2 lower might do for a team like the Rangers or Ottawa.
The wingers, outside of Leon & Dzingel will be challenged to score as you have. That would be a huge fail in summer #1.
The bottom 6 has too many slow skaters, especially down the middle.
I realize they aren't going to be able to add a bunch of high profile UFAs like Nyquist, Johansson & Ferland, but they can add one, whether its Dzingel (like you have) or Donskoi or Nyquist. They need to add couple/few bottom six that could surprise (like Chaisson). They pass on Rattie to sign a couple of guys like Aggostino, Pirri, Tyler Ennis or Ryan Carpenter. Maybe they pick up one or 2 guys like Connor Brown and/or Erik Haula from teams that have to cut payroll. I like Gelndenning in Detroit to find his way to Edmonton.