Perfection

Team: 2022-23 Edmonton Oilers

Initial Creation Date: Dec. 4, 2021

Published: Dec. 9, 2021

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

Have I created the perfect team? No holes, balance and depth at every position, skill, size and speed abounding. Some will say that goaltending is a weakness and maybe they're right, but Skinner's GSAx/60 is really good so far (he's at +.405, Vasilevskiy is +.414, Hellebuyck +.361, Hart & Samsonov are +.317, Saros is +.261) so I see him taking on a more prominent role next year. Of course, it's way too early to know if that's a reasonable expectation or not, so of course a bunch of people will make definitive declarations on the matter in the comments section below. ;)

Oh, and I've fixed the bottom-6. They won't be giving up a lot of goals I don't think.

Prospects pushing from the minors and ready to grab a job when injuries occur include Savoie (LW), Bourgault (RW), Tullio (RW), Lavoie (LW/RW), Niemelainen (LD), Kesselring (RW) and Rodrigue (G). Some of these will provide cheap contracts the year following when the Keith bonus cushion disappears, and will replace guys leaving via free agency.

Some will say that it's unlikely Keith retires, but it's too soon to know that at this point. If his skills erode further I don't think he'll stick around. I'd give him a 50/50 odds to retire next summer based on what we see right now. If you're adamant that he won't retire, feel free to make your own AGM with Keith included.

Trades:
Vancouver is really struggling and Lagesson may not be happy with his deployment (we know his agent isn't), so I could see something like this happening. I've seen some Canucks fans express interest in Kassian as he brings physicality that they're lacking.

Montreal desperately needs more offense from the back end, can somewhat shelter Barrie due to having Petry there. The term is identical and the money nearly so. Interestingly, if you look at their production over the past 1.25 seasons they're identical: both have scored 61 points when you combine 2020-21 with 2021-22.

The Minnesota trade features two young players who are having down years production-wise and maybe need a change of scenery.

As for the following year's roster when Keith's cap bonus disappears, I have $14.5M coming off the cap and a bunch of those holes will be filled with high-end prospects. I fully expect Savoie and Bourgault to fill top-9 jobs effectively from the start of the 2023-24 season, if not before, while Broberg and Samorukov can move up to cover for Gio.

1.

2.

3.