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Edmonton Oilers “Leaving Door Open” On Cam Talbot Extension

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The Edmonton Oilers seemingly made a decision on which goaltender they felt would lead them next season when they handed out a three-year extension to Mikko Koskinen just days before firing former GM Peter Chiarelli. Now things aren’t so clear. Frank Seravalli of TSN reports that the Oilers have recently had a conversation with Cam Talbot and are leaving the door open for a possible extension. Talbot is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year. Seravalli does note that the Oilers are facing imminent cap issues with the improving health of Andrej Sekera, and moving Talbot’s $4.17MM cap hit is an obvious way to clear some room.

An extension for Talbot would be a very surprising move, given how he has struggled this season and how much money the team already committed to Koskinen. With $4.5MM already assigned to the big Finnish netminder, Talbot would need to come in much lower than his current price in order to avoid making an extremely expensive duo. The Oilers already have more than $70MM committed to next season, with plenty of work to do to turn around their fate.

It also would be a surprising move given that the team doesn’t have a GM in place at the moment, instead letting Keith Gretzky run the daily operations. The team is taking their search for a new GM slowly, but there are obviously decisions to be made before the trade deadline. It’s hard to imagine the team wouldn’t have a shot at re-signing Talbot in the offseason though even if they did trade him, unless a late-season surge forces whatever acquiring team to retain his services. After posting an .894 save percentage through 27 games this season, it doesn’t seem like that surge is coming.

Somehow though, the Oilers need to clear some cap space in the short-term. Sekera is nearing a return to the ice and with it his $5.5MM cap hit will come off long-term injured reserve. Edmonton doesn’t have enough room for that to happen at the moment, and certainly not if they are hoping to add any pieces at the trade deadline to take a run at the playoffs this season.

“No Rush” In Edmonton Oilers’ GM Search

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Even with the trade deadline looming, CEO Bob Nicholson and the Edmonton Oilers are not expected to move quickly in the search for their new general manager. During TSN’s “Insider Trading” segment, Darren Dreger states that there is “no rush” to fill the position and that the team will take their time in vetting all options.

Dreger goes on to say that “the Oilers know that they need to get this one right”, which is a major understatement. Recently-fired GM Peter Chiarelli left the team in a tough salary cap condition and without enough talent on the roster following several poor trade and signing decisions. His predecessors, Craig MacTavish and Steve Tambellini, were at the helm for a near decade-long postseason drought. So long as Connor McDavid is an Oiler, Edmonton will have a chance to make the playoffs year in and year out, but they haven’t helped to improve those odds of late and need to put an end to these wasted years of McDavid’s career. Finally solving the GM problem is the most important step toward pointing this team in the right direction.

In the meantime, interim GM Keith Gretzky is more than capable of handling day-to-day operations for some time. Although there continues to be speculation that the Oilers could be buyers leading up to the deadline, they trail five other teams for the final Western Conference wild card spot and could be a short string of losses away from falling it out of the race completely. Gretzky, whose background is in amateur scouting, would be far more adept at selling off impending free agents for picks and prospects rather than trying to add. He would also be very qualified to handle the college and junior free agent markets later this spring. And, if it reaches that point, Gretzky has run drafts for both the Arizona Coyotes and Boston Bruins in the past and would be a fine option for the Oilers on draft day if his full-time replacement has yet to be found. Gretzky was a wise choice by Nicholson and company as interim GM and should be a solid stopgap for the team as they take their time to make a vital decision for the franchise.

Edmonton Oilers Sign Joel Persson To One-Year Extension

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Last spring the Edmonton Oilers executed one of the more interesting transactions in recent history. The team signed Swedish defenseman Joel Persson to a one-year entry-level contract, but immediately assigned him back to the SHL for the 2018-19 season. The team was basically buying his rights moving forward, while leaving Persson to play for his regular team for the duration of the entry-level deal. The 24-year old would become a restricted free agent at the end of this season, but the Oilers would own his exclusive negotiating rights. Now the team has signed Persson to a one-year extension, and Cap Friendly reports the deal is worth $1MM. Despite having never played in the NHL, this contract is not limited by the entry-level salary restrictions.

Persson turned a lot of heads last season when he exploded onto the SHL scene with 34 points in 51 games. That was good enough for second among all defensemen only behind Lawrence Pilut, who then left for the Buffalo Sabres for 2018-19. With Pilut gone, Persson is now king in the SHL and is tied for the league lead among defensemen with 23 points through 36 games. His 19 assists rank sixth among any position.

There is a chance that the offensive defenseman could play some games for the Oilers this season, but an extension like this almost guarantees that he will see North American ice in 2019-20. Whether he can carve out a role on the powerplay with Edmonton is still to be seen, but the young defenseman has all the skills necessary to be a contributor with the man advantage.

The Oilers still have six other defensemen on one-way contracts for next season, but given the injury struggles of players like Andrej Sekera and performance issues by others like Brandon Manning and Matt Benning, there will certainly be an opportunity in Edmonton. Whether Persson is the answer to that won’t be known until he starts playing against NHL competition, but adding a 24-year old defensemen with plenty of offensive skill is never a bad idea. At worst, his cap hit would be completely buried in the minor leagues.

Snapshots: Mock Draft, Arizona State, Jokinen

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Itching for the NHL Entry Draft already? Several fan bases are, as many teams are beyond a reasonable shot at the postseason as the unofficial second half of the season begins. After a recent rash of mid-season draft rankings were published, NHL.com writers Adam Kimelman, Mike Morreale, and Guillaume Lepage tried their hands at a mock draft of the first round for the upcoming draft. They did not conduct a lottery simulation nor did they try to predict how the playoffs would unfold, so the mock is strictly the current standings inverse. However, each of the trio made their own selections and interesting trends can already be spotted. Of course, all three had the Colorado Avalanche, using the Ottawa Senators’ first-rounder, taking U.S. National Team Development Program phenom Jack Hughes first overall. Regardless of who picks first, Hughes is the unanimous pick to go No. 1 in any scenario. There was also a consensus for Finnish winger Kaapo Kakko going second to the New Jersey Devils and Russian winger Vasili Podkolzin going third to the Los Angeles Kings. However, there was not much agreement the rest of the way. Western Hockey League centers Dylan Cozens and Kirby Dach and USNTDP forwards Alex Turcotte and Trevor Zegras went early for all three writers, but no two agreed on the fit for any one team. There was also dissent over the first defenseman taken and where, as Kimelman placed Swedish rearguard Philip Broberg at No. 6 to the New Jersey Devils, while Morreale and Lepage had Canadian blue liner Bowen Byram going No. 7 to the Florida Panthers or No. 8 to the Edmonton Oilers, respectively. One of the biggest surprises was Morreale’s selection of wunderkind goaltender Spencer Knight to the Panthers. While many consider Knight to be the best draft-eligible goalie prospect in some time, no keeper has been taken in the top ten since Carey Price in 2005. The other two writers had Knight at No. 14 to Colorado and No. 24 to the Vegas Golden Knights. Later in the round, opinions differed greatly on OHL defenseman Thomas Harley and hyped overage forward Brett Leason as well. There is still a lot to be decided about the upcoming draft board, not to mention the draft order and the impact of trades, but it is interesting to get a good look at this point in the season as the picture becomes more clear for both the teams and prospects.

  • Arizona State University continues to make waves this season in college hockey. In just their fourth year of existence as an NCAA program, ASU is currently ranked No. 17 in the country and could push for a spot in the NCAA Tournament. As AZ Central’s Jeff Metcalfe writes, the play of forward Johnny Walker and goalie Joey Daccord is making all of the difference and beginning to draw national attention. After blanking the immensely talented Boston University Terriers 3-0 on Saturday night, Walker’s two tallies put him in the NCAA lead for goal scoring, while Daccord’s shutout was his NCAA-best seventh of the year. Daccord, 22, was a seventh-round pick of the Ottawa Senators back in 2015 out of Cushing Academy and it is beginning to look like the Sens’ late-round waiver on the long-term project could pay off. Daccord is a junior and could be enticed to turn pro this off-season if Ottawa hopes to avoid him becoming a free agent after another year. Walker, 22, went undrafted as a Phoenix native playing in the NAHL and is only a sophomore at ASU. However, that won’t stop NHL teams from trying to pry him away from college to get a look at his near goal-per-game pace at the pro level. A tournament run by Arizona State would only further amplify the status of these unlikely heroes of the collegiate campaign.
  • Veteran forward Jussi Jokinen has been unable to find NHL employment this season. The fact is somewhat amazing considering Jokinen played in 14 or more games with four different NHL teams last season. The well-traveled 35-year-old signed a PTO with the Detroit Red Wings this summer, who would have become his tenth different NHL team, but it did not pan out and no one else has come calling. Finally, Jokinen has decided to move on. Finnish reporter Pasi Tuominen reports that Jokinen is set to sign with Karpat of the Liiga in his native Finland for the remainder of the season. Jokinen will be a valued mentor for top NHL prospects like Rasmus Kupari (LAK) and Aleksi Heponiemi (FLA) while with Karpat and may even lead the first-place team to a championship. Regardless, it is highly likely that Jokinen’s days in the NHL are done. The well-liked and respected forward leaves a great legacy behind him in North America, but will surely continue to play overseas for a few years to come.

 

New York Rangers Almost Traded Ryan McDonagh To Edmonton In 2016

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In his most recent 31 Thoughts column earlier this week, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman mentioned that now-former Edmonton Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli was close to making a blockbuster trade back in 2016, just days before he traded Taylor Hall to New Jersey for Adam Larsson. Friedman, however, had no knowledge of the details of that blockbuster. However, New York Post’s Larry Brooks got a confirmation from multiple sources that the trade would have been with the New York Rangers.

Brooks reports that just before pulling the trigger on the Hall-Larsson deal, Chiarelli was close to a deal that would have sent the 2016 fourth-overall pick (used to take Jesse Puljujarvi) to the Rangers for defenseman Ryan McDonagh. The belief is that New York was interested in drafting Clayton Keller of the U.S. National Development Team with the fourth pick to begin the rebuild process then. Brooks adds there were other pieces to the deal, but points out that after the team’s first-round exit to Pittsburgh that year, the team felt it needed to re-tool their team with McDonagh being the most marketable player on the Rangers at the time.

Instead, Chiarelli turned the deal down, took Puljujarvi and sent Hall to New Jersey for Larsson, while the Rangers instead packaged Derick Brassard to Ottawa in a deal to get Mika Zibanejad. The team did discuss McDonagh with other teams at that time, including a deal with Colorado for either Nathan MacKinnon or Gabriel Landeskog, but the Avalanche weren’t that high on McDonagh’s value.

Considering how Puljujarvi has turned out in Edmonton thus far and how successful Hall has been since leaving the Oilers, the trade could have altered the outcome for Edmonton as well as Chiarelli, as McDonagh could have helped stabilize the team’s defense. However, there is no guarantee that Chiarelli still wouldn’t have moved Hall later on anyway.

Of course, the Rangers team may look quite a bit different with Keller on their team now as the 20-year-old put up a 23-goal, 65-point campaign in his rookie season last year and currently has 11 goals and 35 points this year and would have been a great piece to build around. Instead the franchise held onto McDonagh until last year’s trade deadline when they sent him and J.T. Miller to Tampa Bay in exchange for Vladislav Namestnikov, propects Libor Hajek and Brett Howden as well as a 2018 first-round pick (Nils Lundqvist) and a conditional 2019 second-rounder.

 

Poll: Which Team Is Under The Most Pressure To Make The Playoffs?

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When the NHL’s unofficial second half kicks off this week, there will be substantially fewer teams with playoff hopes than when the first half began back in October. Of course, no team has been statistically eliminated yet, but a quick look at the standings can help to rule out more than a handful of the league’s bottom-dwellers. In fact, The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn had seven teams with less than a 5% chance of reaching the playoffs in his latest model: the Ottawa Senators, Detroit Red Wings, Los Angeles Kings, New York Rangers, New Jersey Devils, Chicago Blackhawks, and Philadelphia Flyers.

On the other hand, there are also quite a few teams whose first-half success has given them near certainty of playing beyond the regular season this year. Luszczszyn’s projections give eleven teams an 85% chance or better of qualifying for the postseason: the Tampa Bay Lightning, Calgary Flames, Winnipeg Jets, Nashville Predators, San Jose Sharks, Toronto Maple Leafs, Vegas Golden Knights, Pittsburgh Penguins, Boston Bruins, Columbus Blue Jackets, and New York Islanders.

This leaves 13 clubs remaining – the “fringe” teams – who are vying for a possible five playoff spots. Eight of these teams will miss out. Who least wants to be part of that group?

Well, the team who has been a member of the early off-season club the longest would certainly like to change things up. The Carolina Hurricanes have gone nine seasons since making a postseason appearance and have come close the last few years but fallen short. The team could crack 90 points this season for the first time in eight years, but it might not be enough in the tight Eastern Conference wild card race. The two other teams who are desperate to get back to the playoffs are the Buffalo Sabres, who are on a seven-year drought, and the Arizona Coyotes, who are six years out from a postseason appearance. The Sabres got off to a hot start this season and looked to be a surprise playoff team, but have regressed recently, with three wins in their past then games, and are now tied with Carolina for ninth place in the East. The Coyotes have been resilient in the deep Western Conference wild card race, battling injuries and inconsistency to stay in the mix, but Arizona has their work cut out for them the rest of the way.

Then there are the teams who have made the playoffs recently but not performed. The Blue Jackets – who have never won a playoff series in franchise history – will almost certainly have another shot this year, but what about the Florida Panthers? Many have dismissed the team this season, but the Panthers have plenty of talent and have fallen short of expectations until recently. They face an uphill battle to make the postseason but if they do, the team would have a chance to snap the league’s longest streak without a playoff series win. Florida has not won a round since 1996, a whopping 21 seasons without postseason success and longer than the Blue Jackets have even existed. That’s a substantial mark on the franchise. It’s been a decade now since the Colorado Avalanche have won a postseason series as well and now that they are armed with one of the league’s best forward lines, have a chance against anyone if they can win a spot. The Avs looked like a legitimate Stanley Cup contender early this season and with some trade deadline reinforcements could be a factor this spring. However, recent struggles have plummeted them into the thick of the wild card race in the West and they are in danger of missing the playoffs entirely.

Then, there are teams that simply entered the 2018-19 campaign with high expectations and need to meet them. The defending champion Washington Capitals are of course part of this group. Among the most likely fringe teams to make the postseason, it is nevertheless hard to ignore the disastrous play of the Capitals of late. Three wins in their past ten games, including a number of blowout losses, has begun “Stanley Cup hangover” talk and has legitimately injured Washington’s playoff odds. The team needs to right the ship soon or risk falling out of the current playoff picture. A team on the opposite trajectory are the Minnesota Wild, who have improved their play of late and have pulled away in the race for the final Central Division berth. Minnesota is another team that entered the season with high expectations and are still searching for the franchise’s first ever Stanley Cup final appearance. With hopes reaching new highs this season, a collapse for the Wild would be devastating.

Unlike the Capitals and Wild, there are also teams with high expectations who don’t have promising playoff outlooks right now. The Edmonton Oilers and the league’s best player, Connor McDavid, sit atop that list. Edmonton is currently in 13th in the Western Conference and in danger of dropping out of the playoff conversation sooner than any fringe team. The organization has already fired their head coach and general manager this season amid another year of disappointing results and face slim odds that this campaign will end any differently. McDavid and company maintain that the Oilers are a playoff-caliber team, but something has to change with this team down the stretch for that that hypothesis to be tested this postseason. The St. Louis Blues and Dallas Stars certainly look like playoff teams on paper, but both have been mediocre at best this season. The Blues, a popular dark horse Stanley Cup pick before the season, have been disappointing in every regard and there has been talk that the team could blow it up this season. A recent improvement paired with the struggles of others in the Western Conference playoff race have revived postseason hopes, but few expected that making the playoffs would be this difficult for St. Louis this season. The same goes for Dallas, who has had highly-publicized feuds between ownership, coaches, and players alike this year as the team continues to fall short of expectations. The Stars currently hold the top spot in the wild card race, but a recent history of late season collapses casts doubt over their ability to hold on to that spot.

There are still many teams whose playoff futures this season remain in question. These franchises all have varying degrees of desperation based on history and expectations. Of the 13 “fringe” teams, which team is under the most pressure to make the playoffs?

Mobile users, click here to vote.

Kelly McCrimmon Drawing Interest From Edmonton, Seattle

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The Edmonton Oilers find themselves without a captain to lead the ship at the moment, instead handing off daily GM duties to the rest of the front office including Keith Gretzky and CEO Bob Nicholson himself. Firing Peter Chiarelli was a move many saw coming from a mile away, but it now leaves Edmonton in a midseason search for his replacement. Hockey insider Pierre LeBrun spoke to TSN’s Ryan Rishaug about who might be of interest to the Oilers management group, and Kelly McCrimmon’s name came up once again.

McCrimmon, currently the assistant GM of the Vegas Golden Knights, is a rising star in the NHL. After spending 28 years with the Brandon Wheat Kings of the WHL as owner, GM and coach for various periods, McCrimmon joined George McPhee to build a winner right from day one in Vegas. He did just that, helping craft an expansion draft strategy that saw the Golden Knights put together a team that took them all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals in their first year as an organization. That obviously turned some heads, but it’s tough to believe at this point that the Golden Knights would let him walk out the door in an unfinished second season.

LeBrun notes that McPhee previously told him that he would not stand in McCrimmon’s way, but that was in response to an inquiry about the opportunity that the new Seattle franchise might bring. In fact, LeBrun states that McCrimmon is indeed on Seattle’s short list for potential general managers though that process is still in its infancy. Edmonton obviously has a little more urgency, but there are obstacles in the way.

First and foremost is that the Golden Knights and Oilers are in the same division, fighting for the same playoff spots. Vegas sits 13 points ahead of the Oilers in the Pacific Division, but the two teams will battle twice more in the second half this season. They also aren’t scheduled to be split up anytime soon, given that the Seattle team is meant to push the Arizona Coyotes out of the Pacific when they enter the league. It’s going to be hard for McPhee to watch his right-hand man go to a division rival, and even harder to see it happen during the season.

Kailer Yamamoto, Ryan Spooner Sent To AHL

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The Edmonton Oilers have made a change in the front office, and have also sent a pair of forwards to the minor leagues. Both Kailer Yamamoto and Ryan Spooner have been assigned to the AHL today. The Oilers don’t play again until February 2nd, meaning this could simply be a cost-saving move, though CEO Bob Nicholson indicated in his press conference today that the team wants Yamamoto playing big minutes in the minor leagues in order to continue his development and “over-ripen” before returning to the NHL.

Yamamoto, 20, hasn’t even had much time to prove himself at all in the minor leagues yet. After spending nine games—over a full month—with the Oilers last season, he returned to the Spokane Chiefs for the rest of 2017-18 where he continued his dominance of the junior circuit. This season has been split up between the two professional leagues, playing 17 games with the Oilers and just 11 with the Bakersfield Condors. That’s an unusual development path for a 22nd-overall pick who are usually sent back to the junior level immediately before spending at least one full season in the minor leagues. The faith the Oilers have shown in him is unquestioned, but they now must do the best thing for his development instead of just their NHL club.

Spooner’s case is much different. The 26-year old forward was acquired by the Oilers in exchange for Ryan Strome earlier this season, but couldn’t find any sort of fit under Ken Hitchcock’s system. In 25 games with Edmonton Spooner has just three points, a far cry from his days as a 40+ point player in Boston and New York. Spooner’s contract still has another year on it at a $3.1MM cap hit, meaning more than $2MM will remain on the Oilers books even with him in the minors. It seems likely that the team will look to move him for some sort of a return if he’s not going to play for them moving forward.

Peter Chiarelli Fired By Edmonton Oilers

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The Edmonton Oilers have finally pulled the trigger, firing GM and President of Hockey Operations Peter Chiarelli according to multiple reports including John Shannon of Sportsnet. Keith Gretzky will serve as interim GM as the team begins a search immediately for Chiarelli’s replacement.

It’s hard to find a more disappointing team than the Oilers the last few seasons, and Chiarelli is finally paying the price for that failure. Despite having arguably the best player in the world doing incredible things on a nightly basis, Edmonton now sits 23rd in the NHL and just six points from the bottom of the league. They dropped below .500 yesterday with a devastating loss to the Detroit Red Wings, though the move to fire Chiarelli was apparently made before the game.

That decision also comes just days after the Oilers puzzled the hockey world with a three-year extension for Mikko Koskinen, despite the goaltender having just 31 games of NHL experience. Mark Spector of Sportsnet reports that the extension was negotiated by Chiarelli personally, a deal that was widely derided for being too expensive and premature. Darren Dreger of TSN tweets that the negotiations started in early December, with it being an “organizational plan” to extend the goaltender. CEO Bob Nicholson refuted the idea that Chiarelli completed the extension by himself, and expressed confidence in the goaltender going forward. Koskinen was in net last night against the Red Wings, allowing three goals on 27 shots.

Countless other moves from Chiarelli have been questioned, most notably the trades of Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle that have not worked out well for the team. Hall went on to win a Hart Trophy with the New Jersey Devils, while the return for Eberle has dwindled into almost nothing with the team’s recent placement of Ryan Spooner on waivers. The Oilers have struggled to find offensive replacement for the talented wingers, and were rumored to be ready to make another deal to address that issue before the deadline.

Perhaps then this move comes as a precautionary measure by the upper management of the Oilers, who have taken the power away from a GM that was fighting to keep his job. Edmonton seemed to be in a playoffs-or-bust mode ever since the mid-season hiring of legendary head coach Ken Hitchcock, another move that has seemingly failed to breathe life into the roster.

Where the team turns now will be extremely interesting, as it’s not all rain clouds when looking towards the Oilers future. Connor McDavid is still just 22 years old and on pace to be one of the all-time scoring greats, while other talented prospects remain in the system. Though Jesse Puljujarvi and Kailer Yamamoto haven’t been able to establish themselves as full-time NHL players, they still have more than enough time to grow into their roles. Evan Bouchard too looks like a solid pick for the team and is expected to be back in the NHL next season.

The biggest question now will be how the team deals with the rest of the 2018-19 season. They are obviously struggling to keep up with the rest of the playoff pack in the Western Conference, and may need to try and reset the roster somewhat over the next few months. The team is pushed right up against the cap and already has almost $73MM committed to next season. Getting out from under some of their big-money deals might be job number one for the next GM, in order to rebuild the roster with a group that can complement McDavid’s speed and skill.

Early candidates for the job have already been speculated on, including Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic (subscription required) listing Kelly McCrimmon (Vegas Golden Knights AGM), Mark Hunter (London Knights GM), Ken Holland (Red Wings GM) and several others as names to consider.

Edmonton Oilers Place Ty Rattie, Ryan Spooner On Waivers

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Tuesday: All three players have cleared waivers and can be assigned to the minor leagues.

Monday: With the Edmonton Oilers continuing to slip out of playoff contention, the team has placed forwards Ty Rattie and Ryan Spooner on waivers. They’ll be joined by Justin Falk of the Ottawa Senators, who is finally healthy enough to resume playing but will be sent to the minor leagues if he clears.

Spooner’s placement on waivers will be the one that dominates headlines for the next 24 hours, given how he came to be part of the Oilers organization. The 26-year old forward was acquired from the New York Rangers for Ryan Strome earlier this season, who in turn had been the entire return for Jordan Eberle when the Oilers felt they needed to shed some salary up front. The idea that Spooner could now be gone for nothing will enrage Edmonton fans that have watched Eberle find success with the New York Islanders while their team struggles to find anyone who can put the puck in the net outside of their top three. The Oilers have even been described as desperate to add offensive touch on the wings, something that basically describes Eberle (not to mention Taylor Hall, another traded winger) perfectly.

Still, it’s not really surprising that Spooner finds himself in this position. The forward has recorded just three points in 24 games since being acquired by the Oilers and has recently spent time in the press box as a healthy scratch. His perimeter game has not gelled with head coach Ken Hitchcock’s system at all, and without regular powerplay time his offensive production has almost completely dried up.

There may be some reason to believe Spooner will be claimed though, given his history as a 40-50 point center in the league. In 2015-16 with the Boston Bruins Spooner recorded 49 points in 80 games while playing more than 15 minutes a night, before settling for 39 and 41 points the next two years while playing on the wing more often. That kind of production is exactly what the Oilers were hoping for when the acquired him, and what another team could take a chance on. With one more year on his contract at $3.1MM though, Edmonton may be forced to try and bury him in the minor leagues for the time being to open up some cap space.

Rattie meanwhile was likely one of the people most upset when Hitchcock was given the Edmonton job, given their history with the St. Louis Blues. The 32nd-overall pick from 2011 was never really able to get into the lineup under Hitchcock, and eventually found himself claimed off waivers by the Carolina Hurricanes. In 30 games with the Blues, Rattie recorded eight points, the same number he has in 29 contests with Edmonton this year.

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