Who I think should be traded:
- Kassian: Negative whenever he's on the ice. Bad defensively, offensively, and his physicality has taken a dip as well, especially in the regular season. Good locker room guy, but not for $3.2m. There is probably a gm out there that takes him without oilers giving anything up.
- Barrie: Has been better recently, but still a negative defensively, and his offence can easily be replaced if not improved upon with Bouchard. Oilers can't have this many offensive minded dmen, and Barrie is the odd man out. Cap hit doesn't help either. Could get a decent return, potentially look for a replacement on D or a depth FWD.
- Foegele: Hasn't been that great, could use the money on a better player.
Priority players that 100% should be brought back:
- Yamamoto: Good complimentary winger for mcdavid and draisaitl, fast, reads plays well, draws penalties, good defensively. imo we get him long term, worth it in the long run
- Mcleod: strong rookie season, fast puck carrier, good zone entries, still young. With better wingers more production should come. Good defensively too. Bridge deal for a couple years cheap.
- Kulak: Amazing defensively, good physicality as well as stick checking, good in transition, decent offensively. Should be fairly cheap to bring back, Oilers need more dmen like him and ceci.
Players that might come back:
- Puljujarvi: good regular season, wasn't that great after he came back from his injury and into the playoffs. I still think he's a good player and he's still young. Good defensively, and if his finishing gets back to what it was, he should be fine. Bridge deal should work. If there is a deal out there that improves the team then good, but we shouldn't trade him just to trade him.
- Kane: If he asks for more than 5 or 6 million I say we let him walk. Hopefully there isn't that much interest and we can bring him back short term on a cheap deal. I think his numbers are somewhat inflated partially from playing with mcdavid and also going on a good run. He can take some stupid penalties and isn't amazing defensively. He is also a bit older, and I don't think the oilers should commit to him long term. Still a great finisher and good at what he does. The way I see it is that the oilers either resign kane or get a goalie. I think a starter should be prioritized, but I don't know if there's that many out there.
Other interesting pieces:
Keith: Ideally he retires, and if that happens the oilers get 8m in cap space to get a goalie. If not, I think we keep him to play 3rd pair. This keeps some money locked up for next offseason to resign bouchard/skinner/make more improvements.
Smith: Ideally he retires, and the oilers trade for a better tandem goalie, but realistically we run smith-skinner.
McDavid, Connor
$250,000)
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