Could happen. But don't you think other teams would make a better offer than $1.8 mil?

I think it's possible for other teams to offer more money, but not to offer a better opportunity. IMO Bura needs to play for his next contract, and he couldn't ask for a better situation than Edmonton next to Connor.

I think that if you have Burakovsky on your top line, your team is in more trouble that you think.

Could be, but they played well together in junior. And Burakovsky has some skill, he has scored 12 goals in each of the past 3 seasons, I think he can do well given the right situation. He isn't getting the opportunity in Washington. And the team is designed so that the 4th line takes more of the tough D-zone minutes to free up the top 2 lines for offense.

True. I really like what you've done here. Do Draisaitl and Nugent-Hopkins have any experience together? And who is Benson, is he really capable of playing top 6?

Burakovsky is horrible at D and is not physical. All that he has is offense, and he is is only so-so with that. Insanely streaky. Will put up 6 points in 7 games, then vanish for a month. Burakovsky has gotten plenty of chances in Washington, and he blows it every time. He earns his line demotions.

Great! I'm glad I set it up the way I did then. It should work out just fine.

Thanks! It's not easy improving this team without major cap dumps and still have cap space left over. Holland has his work cut out, but it's certainly do-able.



Not much, really. Less than 10% of their 5v5 time in the past 3 years has been together. But in the nearly 300 minutes they spent together they've done really well: Leon with over 3 points/60 and Nuge with about 2. I think they could score at an average 1st line rate.


Benson is the AHL's best rookie this year, 21 years old and a 2nd round pick from 2016. He scored 66 points in 68 games in his first pro season (+21), and has added 5 in 7 playoff games so far. His 5v5 p/gp this season is ahead of prospects like Sam Steel and Max Jones, and well ahead of names like Nylander and Kyrou. His AHL 5v5 scoring compares with JT Miller, J-G Pageau, Kapanen, Toffoli, Johanssen, Granlund and Connolly.

The Draft Analysis had this to say about him leading up to his draft:

"To say Benson has done it all at the amateur level would be a bit of an understatement. Not only did he smash all critical scoring plateau’s in Alberta’s Major Bantam Hockey League, but he was also the top pick in the 2013 WHL Bantam Draft, one of the league’s top rookies, and an oh-by-the-way dominant performance on Canada’s top line at the 2015 Hlinka. Players can be assessed as complete players – that doesn’t mean they exceed the standard in all areas of the game. Benson, on the other hand, comes pretty darn close, almost in an Eric Staal (when he was dominant) kind of way. He is a nightmare to defend because he is as physically punishing with the puck as he is without it. There are only a few of his 2016 draft-eligible peers (Auston Matthews in particular) who makes successful on-the-spot corrections once a chance to create offense in a specific area of the ice is no longer an option. Benson is very shifty with tremendous balance, meaning he can continue to move if he gets hit at the same time he decides to change direction. Possessing the kind of vision and IQ he owns makes it no surprise the CHL came close to giving him “exceptional” status to play a full season as a 15 year old (cut short by a knee injury). And while some felt his production last season (45 points in 62 games) was unbecoming of a CHL’er almost honored in the same manner as John Tavares and Connor McDavid, his ability to swarm the puck and do something with it thereafter makes him a highly-dangerous prospect to overlook. We’re still not sure whether to classify him as a playmaker or a scorer because he can be both, sometimes off the same cycle, when he will either create quality chances for others, or grab the puck and wire a heavy, accurate shot with a quick release. The sky’s the limit for the Edmonton native, and as far as the CHL is concerned, we think he’s almost there."

You can add Kadri and Tatar to the list of players who scored at similar rates at the same age.

Well, now! Thanks for the thorough response.

We won't have an answer to that question at this point. But will say this, Benson is the most promising to come out of Oilers post-first round draft in a good while. He has good instincts. He could certainly make the team after training camp, but if he gets serious top 6 time now or in 2 years, it's hard to say

I would prefer Draisaitl with McDavid. Together they are too good, and could play with any 3rd. Just give Nuge and Benson a good RW

I love having them together too, and it's probably the default the next HC uses. But I'm trying to create a second 1st line here, and Draisaitl actually scores at a higher rate when with RNH than with McDavid. And McDavid scores just as well with Puljujarvi as with Drai, so there won't be a drop off for the first line. Now, these statements are made off of relatively small sample sizes, but I'm taking numbers from 3 years and combining them, so it shouldn't be too far off.

As an opposing coach, how do you deploy your best defenders if the new McDavid line is scoring just as well as the 2018-19 1st line, and the newly created 2nd line isn't far behind? This set up should create serious headaches for opponents.

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Have you guys seen this? What do you think?

I like it just not sure it happens but I'd still give bura 2.25 x 2 if we need tbh he an McDavid had chemistry

I like it. Slim chances of Washington just letting him walk though. But if it does happen, I would welcome it. Also sign a guy in the top 6 for 3M and give Benson some more seasoning year. Everything about Holland screams he wants 2 full years of AHL experience before promoting him.

Yeah, I've got $3.8M in cap space, so paying him another $400K isn't a problem. Also, if he's willing to sign this contract with Edmonton I'd be willing to trade a 3rd for him. So even if the exact scenario above doesn't happen, the roster on the whole is quite doable.

If Bura is willing to sign here, I would be open to trading a mid-round pick for his rights. The conversation needs to happen first though, or maybe the trade would involve a conditional pick, conditional on signing here. Nobody is going to trade an asset to WAS knowing that the player could just refuse to sign and become a UFA (unless you truly think he's worth $3.25M).

Re: Benson, I thought about signing Vanek to a 1-year deal, there's plenty of cap space to do it but I thought 2 35-year-old former Wings was enough. If Benson goes back down for another year, that leaves $4.6M to sign another LW.

I can see your reasoning. You want both your lines to be winning. At the same time, any McDavid-Draisaitl line will be winning in most games, regardless of what defenders are on the ice. This year should be a testiment to that. The Oilers has indeed had problem with secondary scoring, but I think that's moreso because RNH has had 0 capable wingers. If he played with anyone but Lucic, Rieder, Puljujärvi, Yamamoto, Kassian.

Benson, RNH, Dzingel doesnt nearly as bad as any combination of those mentioned above.

I think there is potential that Benson could be in Edmonton by mid-season, and I'm not sure they need to add a $3,000,000 player in order to make big improvements.

Personally, I think Holland knows his team has three centres who are 1a, 1b, and 2. I hope he attempts to build three lines around those centres before he defaults to combining any two of them on the same line.

Last season, was peculiar. Edmonton had at least five players who managed career-best offensive numbers, and yet the team had 7 forwards not named McDavid, Draisaitl, or Nugent-Hopkins who played at least 50 games and contributed just 60 goals in total. Only one of those 7 was a positive contributor (Rattie was +4). Chiasson and Kassian were the only ones to score goals into double-digits; they and Lucic were the only 3 who managed at least 20 points. The good news is that it should not be difficult, or expensive, to improve upon that roster. Holland doesn't need to sign the top free-agent forwards this summer, he needs to find fast and agile skating forwards with a demonstrated ability to score 10-15 goals in an NHL season.

Holland may feel Kassian can repeat last season's numbers if deployed in the top six, and he may want to give Puljujarvi lots of opportunity to play in the top six as well. If he signed Burakovsky, Holland might feel he is almost half-way to meeting his objective. At that point, a player like Tyler Ennis could be a reasonable gamble for Holland. Ennis is small, and hasn't put up the numbers most felt he is/was capable of, but he is fast, skilled, versatile, tenacious, and can probably be signed for $1,500,000 or less. If nothing else, having a guy like Ennis buys Yamamoto more time to catch-up after a tough-luck first season as a professional hockey player. A player like Brandon Pirri might also be of interest, simply because he has demonstrated scoring ability at the NHL level and can probably be signed to a value contract with limited term. Holland may, or may not choose to look for an upgrade over Brodziak, Sheahan is familiar to him and I suppose might be a good fit.

If he made these transactions, likelihood of Kassian, Puljujarvi, Ennis, and Burakovsy each scoring 15 goals doesn't seem too far fetched if they get a full season playing with McDavid and Draisaitl. Kassian has already hit that mark with limited time beside McDavid. Ennis scored 12 goals last season. Burakovsky certainly has the potential, and Puljujarvi's numbers with McDavid have been quite good (he'd just need to repeat those number with Draisaitl). I want to be clear that when I reference Tyler Ennis, or Brandon Pirri, I am speaking about players like them, and not them specifically.

If Holland isn't sold on Kassian in the top six, he can always play him in the bottom six, and bring in another under-the-radar player who may excel playing with one of Edmonton's top 2 centres.

That's what I think.

I like it. It’s a risk free contract, plus adds some skill/speed into our lineup.

I really like it. I'd definitely be a fan of it.

I like it. I’ve been a fan of Burakovsky’s game for a while and could see him meshing with McDavid.

Dzingel would be a decent add, I'm just always leary of signing 27-year-olds who are coming off a career year - especially when you're talking about decent money and term. Is he going to be a 56-point guy going forward? His previous career high was 41 points.

Anyhow, my thinking when putting the lines together was to create 2 lines that are pretty much as good as the current Draisaitl-McDavid line. On paper it works, but I have no idea if it would in reality.

In points-per-60 for 5v5 scoring over the last 3 seasons combined:

Draisaitl with McDavid: 2.79 (1981:04)
Draisatl with RNH: 3.09 (271:48)

McDavid with Draisaitl: 3.24 (1981:04)
McDavid with Puljujarvi: 3.24 (407:45 - includes TOI with Lucic)

Puljujarvi with McDavid: 2.76 (152:10 - when Lucic is not on the other wing - w/ Maroon, Slepyshev, Caggiula, etc.)

So it LOOKS like removing Draisaitl from the 1st line and inserting Puljujarvi won't affect the 1st line scoring rates at all, and adding Burakovsky to that line (over the likes of Kassian, Caggiula, etc) might actually boost it slightly. At the same time, Draisaitl's scoring rate goes up with RNH, meaning that line should be contributing just as much as the 1st line.

Chemistry is a real thing though, so this is theory and not proof, even though there is a bit of a history to go on.

There are a LOT of potential changes this summer that I chose not to explore on this mock - and many of them I would support and cheer. Recently I have been pushing back at the general thinking around here that the Oilers roster needs to be turned upside down to be successful for 2 reasons: I don't think it's at all true, and I don't think massive, immediate change is a reasonable expectation.

Because I don't think this mindset is accurate, I've been putting together simple mocks, with few, easy upgrades to prove that this team isn't miles away from getting into the 2nd season. So while I might attempt to move Lucic and upgrade Gagner if I was GM, I don't think it is absolutely necessary in order for the team to have success. Hence the simplicity of the mock above: 1 minor trade and 4 cheap UFA signings create a better team. Besides, the real changes happen next summer when a bunch of prospects arrive and a bunch more Chiarelli contracts drop off.

I think I will do a 2020-21 mock today.