How did you manage to turn one of the most productive RHD in the past three years, a quality third line LW, and a pair of midround picks into two replacement-level players?

Furthermore, why?

Smith will be on LTIR, not merely IR. That cap hit is freed up. Literally zero incentive to make two-thirds of this AGM.

A lot of Oilers fans seem to want Foegele gone. But I think they gotta get rid of Barrie. They have too much offence from the blue line. Need to re-enforce the defence. More balance is needed. Trading Barrie for a guy that can help make the bottom 6 harder to play against. Not to mention he definitely chips in on offence as well and you free up cap space. I feel like you know absolutely nothing about the moves needed for the team. Especially after getting spanked by the Avs. Couldn’t beat them in a back and forth battle. And couldn’t beat them in tight scoring games.

If a Barrie trade happens, it'll be at the deadline. Edmonton needs another defenseman coming back in any deal that sends Barrie packing. Foegele is the easiest player to move right now because his skillset can be replicated for a fraction of the price by one of the remaining free agents or internally by Holloway.

Nobody internal to the Oilers system is ready to step up and replace Barrie's minutes.

Anaheim has the same problem on Defense, too much offense, not responsible enough on D, thats why we get burned and Gibson gets to face 40+ each night.

We have one spot on our D for a responsible defensive minded veteran D, Barrie isnt it, and we certainly wont be paying for him with a 50% retained grant.

Anaheim is willing to eat salary and still in a rebuilding mode. But that is fair enough of a statement to point out. I was more so thinking Anaheim sells Shattenkirk elsewhere though.

Edmontons biggest problem last season was literally goaltending and defence. The acquisition of Campbell isn’t going to matter much if he doesn’t get that defensive support in the playoffs. You just completely ignored the Ruhwedel addition. He played 78 games this season and was easily one of Pittsburghs best defensive defencemen. He plays the top 6 very well and a strong penalty killer. That’s the guy to replace Barrie with. I don’t get why you’re so high on Barrie. It’s so funny it’s sad.

Its a possibility that we could, but he seems to be hated by AGM's from every other team for some reason. at 3.9 I think he is perfectly adequate, at half that he would be a stud.

But he has been with us a few years and is decently responsible in his own end, so we would need to make another trade to move him out. If we wanted to it probably wouldn't happen until next season when he is a rental.

EIther way, Barrie is your cap dump, so if you want us to take him, pay up with picks.

Anaheim is looking to trade Derek Grant last I seen. It would be a decent one for one trade in my opinion. But Anaheim isn’t looking to compete right now. So I don’t see why Anaheim doesn’t do this trade. They could get more future assets(probably mid round picks) if a team is looking for a defencemen like Barrie.

I hadn't heard that yet but it's possible, based on last year he is a good bottom 6 on a good price tag. Just not sure a hockey trade for Barrie is a match, let alone best we could do.

That's exactly why Pittsburgh won't trade Ruhwedel for a 4th.
While I agree that Barrie isn't the best fit hockey wise and we need more of a shutdown dman for a smaller cap hit, I don't think he's gonna be traded anytime soon. If you deal Barrie you have to replace him and a replacement isn't easy to find at this time of the year (or do you think Subban is an upgrade over Barrie?). So you probably downgrade the blueline if you're not ready to pay up for a quality (and cheap) replacement.
And Barrie seems to be well liked in the locker room and brings post season experience and arguably a history of elevating his game during the post season. Foegele is more expandable given the depth of LWs.

I "ignored" the Ruhwedel addition because he's about half the defenceman Edmonton actually needs right now. Edmonton's true need is a top-4 RHD. Adding a third-pairing guy isn't actually improving the Oilers if he's only playing 15-17min per night. The current structure of the Oilers' blueline needs to be considered within the context of itself:

1. Nurse is Edmonton's best defenceman.
2. Cody Ceci is a second-pairing RHD that can move up or down the lineup as needed.
3. Barrie, while really good offensively, is a poor-man's top 4 RHD.
4. Kulak should be paired with an offensively-minded puck-moving defenceman as it complements his skillset.
5. Bouchard is not currently ready for top-pairing 5v5 minutes but may get there by season's end.
6. Broberg and Samorukov are rookies and will need some early sheltering until they emerges as bonafide NHL talents.
7. Barrie and Bouchard should not be paired with Broberg/Samorukov as they cannot shelter either man adequately.

With consideration to these points, logic forces us into these pairings:

Nurse - Barrie
Kulak - Bouchard
Broberg/Samorukov - Ceci

It's not that I believe that Barrie is an excellent top-4 RHD nor do I believe his placement on the top pair is warranted, it's simply necessary. Ruhwedel would be able to pair alongside one of the rookies but it still leaves us running the suboptimal Nurse-Ceci pairing. It also forces the rookie to be the primary puck-mover on that unit as Chad is neither an excellent skater nor puck-moving defender. He's your meat-and-potatoes stay-at-home defender. You haven't improved the roster, you've merely exchanged player deficiencies.

If Edmonton moves Barrie, it should be for another top-4 RHD to strengthen the core as a whole, not merely to swap one-dimensional talent for another. At best in what ultimately amounts to a Barrie-for-Ruhwedel swap, you break even. Flipping Foegele is easier to accommodate and the incumbent winger may even outperform ol' McLovin. Higher chance to wind up better in that deal than merely shipping a vital part of the locker room out for another warm body.

And it would be hard to find a top 4 defencemen to take Barrie’s place because his defensive deficiency kills a lot of his value. You’d have better luck with Tyler Myers at the same cap hit as Barrie. Ethan Bouchard is ready I think. And yet you seem to ignore that as well. And you act like Ruhwedel is a bad addition? The guy may be a top 6 defencemen but the game he brings is pretty valuable and Pittsburgh doesn’t really have the need for him anymore. He wasn’t even supposed to be a full time player in the line up. And yet he played himself in to that role for a reason. He was consistent defensively pretty much every game. He isn’t the flashiest player at all and that’s what makes him so good at the the game he plays. Who cares if he doesn’t have excellent foot speed or a puck carrier. He gets the job done and his defensive game allows his defensive partner to do work offensively. Speaking about Matheson in the matter if you don’t know. Ruhwedel literally played a role in helping Pittsburgh with a Stanley cup in 2017. Providing the same kind of defence to win a Cup. Something that Edmonton didn’t have against the Avs

I feel like there’s a reason Subban is still available. Even at a lower cap hit teams probably aren’t finding it a good idea to sign him. Only way I’d bring him in is if it’s on a league minimum. He’d probably only be playing top 6 minutes still though

Ruhwedel played 6 games en route to the 2017 Stanley Cup. I hardly count that as playing a role. Those are spare parts numbers. Since then, last year was the first time since his professional career began that he got essentially a full NHL season. You don't seem to understand that Ruhwedel is not the kind of piece a serious contender runs full-time. The Penguins may not want him right now because they've replaced him with better, younger options.

Pittsburgh hasn't done a damn thing in this league since winning in 2017. Those successes almost don't matter in the scope of today's teams: it's been half a decade and the game has continued to evolve since.



I'm not ignoring anything, I'm merely not pushing a player out of their comfort zone before we recognize that they're completely ready for it. Your proposal to get Bouchard top-pairing minutes as soon as possible is almost in-step with the flawed philosophies of the 2010's Oilers management, where young players were put in marquee roles without the proper support or insulation. It's beyond foolish. Where's the contingency if it goes wrong?

You seem to think Barrie would be the only piece moved in acquiring a better RHD. I'm disinterested in arguing this point with someone weaponizing their incompetence: he's the cap-piece that goes back in such a deal that maybe saves a team from having to retain on the traded contract. You package him with picks and prospects for the piece desired, not one-for-one.

I will not disagree that Edmonton's pedestrian defence and dismal goaltending cost them against the Avalanche, but I also won't pretend like the Avalanche aren't the closest thing the NHL has to the GlobeTrotters. The goaltending has been addressed, for better or worse, and the blueline is stronger for not employing Keith in a top-four role. It will get there. Not a single cup-winning team was made overnight. Holland still has some moves to make but ditching Barrie for someone bound to play in the AHL for the rest of their career is immeasurably stupid. Your biases aside, Barrie is a full-time NHL player. Ruhwedel is not. The Oilers will be better off dumping Foegele to become cap-compliant prior to the onset of the regular season. If Barrie is moved, it will be at the deadline or next offseason.

Bouchard’s 5on5 numbers are by far better than Barrie’s. and did I say he should be top pairing? He’ll slot in to top pairing at some point but I was thinking top 4. Top 4 isn’t top pairing man. Jesus. And here’s the thing about Ruhwedel. He’s always been a solid defensive defencemen and he had stepped in some of Pittsburghs hardest games against Washington and had to play against a solid Ottawa team. That’s literally better than nothing. His depth can go quite a ways but this time around he’s proven he can play pretty much a full season. There maybe no Kieth around but it still doesn’t change the Oilers defence much. You lose Kieth but you still have Barrie that’ll be a pylon pretty much. And it won’t help them if they make the conference finals again to play a team like Colorado again.

Is the roster we see today going to be the exact roster the Oilers will ice come the playoffs? Do you think Holland spends over 180 days of the year just sitting on his ass doing nothing?

The entire point of this is that dumping Foegele right now makes a lot more sense than dumping Barrie because one is easier to replace right now. They can move Barrie for an upgrade in February. Doing so for Chad Ruhwedel is not a positive move for the club to make, and you're yet to offer anything than anecdotal nonsense that I've otherwise disputed.

If Chad Ruhwedel was the difference between the Oilers beating the Avalanche and getting swept by the Avalanche then he must be an All-Star because I'll never understand how you think a guy playing less than 17 minutes a night turns the Oilers into bonafide Cup contenders. The next one comes with a trolling infraction, lay off of it already.

You’re facts don’t matter much when you know what you’re going to get from your current defence core. Having a guy that can help the current defence core with its defence deficiencies is a price that probably shouldn’t cost more. Especially seeing that Woodcroft had switched things up for the the team to play a more complete game helped. But right now they are more offensively powered if anything. Because right now currently the only defencemen that really bring defence is Kulak and Ceci. I hear too much mixed things about Nurse but I do believe he has shutdown factor in his game. Bouchard still has some work to do but has potential to bring a strong more consistent two way game. Broberg still hasn’t proven much in the NHL. And Barrie only really brings offence as said plenty of times. The fact you’d rather on hold on to him is hilarious. He is literally more than replaceable. The problem is, teams really don’t need Tyson Barrie or they don’t want him because as said his defensive deficiency. If Edmonton really wants to win they have to have a more stronger defensive core. From both forwards and defencemen. Don’t you see why that’s why they signed Janmark? They want to be more tougher to play against on the defensive end. Having that top 2 of Nurse and Ceci have already proven to be effective. A top 4 of Kulak and Bouchard would be more effective then Kulak and Barrie because you have to shelter Barrie in the top 6 to have more defensive results when in fact it’s Kulak putting in a lot of work on the defensive end. A top 6 of Broberg and it doesn’t have to be Ruhwedel but he’d be a good defence partner for Broberg. But any RHD in the trade market would be a good fit to play with Broberg and help mentor him and play good at defence. And did I say Ruhwedel is game changing? I don’t think so. I’m just saying he’d be helping the team out defensively more. And he’d be a good addition at 800K. And not only does he help 5on5 defence he can also help improve on the PK which is what the Oilers also need.