What’s next for Connor McDavid and the Oilers? | Tyler Yaremchuk Joins the Show | GS OFF ICE
hey everybody how’s it going welcome in a gloomy Monday here in the Mile High City but it is draft week we’ve got a bunch to get into we’re going to be joined by Tyler Yarmachuk from Daily Face off in Oilers Nation i’m Jesse Montano megan Angley will be with me in just a moment like I said got a great show for you guys but of course want to start today by reminding you guys about our great friends over at Trustedamean Mortgage head on over trustedamean.com right now they want to help you lower your interest rate get a better monthly payment and uh hey if you go right now to uh trustedamean.comsports see if they can maybe even help you defer that uh refinance payment on your mortgage for a couple months trustedamean.com see how much money they can help you start saving today hello and welcome in please do not leave your luggage unattended on the station [Music] [Applause] welcome to the show hello everybody welcome in welcome to the show guerrilla Sports Off Ice i’m Jesse Monttoano that’s Megan Angley uh Megan it was blistering hot all weekend uh sun was out blue skies little bit of a change up today are you like me does this just affect you from the moment you get out of bed to have the the gloomy overcast you know I didn’t check the weather so that’s why I’m dressed in such bright colors and I walked outside and felt like I did not match the weather for today and I’m embracing it but it does affect me for sure i was hoping to be met with sunshine while looking like sunshine and I just have to cope i uh I actually I did this a simil I mean I’m wearing colors appropriate for the weather but like I stepped outside the door and I was like uh do I need sleeves no uh no no I’ll be fine by the time I got to the office it’s always a little bit chillier in here yeah i was like mistake mistake mistake um Megan the the Stanley Cup has been awarded uh we are officially it’s draft week Friday Saturday we’re going to talk a lot about the draft um in in you know in the leadup this week we were just saying right before it kind of snuck up on us um just given the fact it’s decentralized all the teams are going to be in their own buildings um I don’t know uh just before we get into all of it we’re going to talk about it later at the end of the show just real quick are you are you feeling prepared for the draft no because I don’t know how to prepare when they only have so few picks so late rounds what am I supposed to be doing right like you’ve got the draft guide Elite Prospects comes out with one there’s no predicting who’s going to be available what is it fourth and a seventh round pick so and and should I even be preparing in that sense right um are they going to make a trade and just acquire more draft capital or will this point to a roster move so anyways I don’t feel prepared because this actually feels more uncertain than past draft years where they’ve got you know a couple picks at least within the first round or thereabouts and you can kind of guess the top 100 players then and just start sorting through there but I don’t even have that i I’m with you and like you said the ABS the ABS holding two single picks across the seven rounds I do think has added that a bit for me um but yeah we’re going to talk a little bit about uh the the the the draft the implications for the ABS where they may uh be able to bring some of those picks back into the fold we’ll get into that today tomorrow we’ll have a couple special draft episodes of Real Sports Off Ice this week uh do you care if I go ahead and break the news to everyone no pucks and procco this week it is a draft focus week uh so we’ve got some great content coming your guys’s way but Megan we talked uh Florida Panthers at the end of last week we teased that we’re going to maybe be getting into Edmonton Oilers this week and where they go and in just a few minutes we’re going to have Tyler Yarmachuk daily faceoff and Oilers Nation joining us to get some great insight from him always love chatting with him just uh for you broad strokes i talked about it last week that it felt like um unfortunately they came up a little bit shorter this year than it felt like from the year before where they lose in seven games i guess just your kind of broadstrokes thoughts on the Oilers before uh before Tyler joins us yeah I think it was Mick David but one of the players had kind of the exit interview type comments around how last year it was heartbreaking and this year they’re just angry they were just angry with the way this exit happened because last year you know it was scratch and clawing um their way to force seven and this year they kind of got punched in the mouth on the way out and didn’t really have an answer for it so I understand the anger because I’m sitting here wondering what is next for the future of the Edmonton Oilers they have a lot of questions to address with players at the top of the lineup like McDavid but honestly they just need a phil philosophy conversation around all right they load up on the forward depth that didn’t really help them especially from a scoring perspective in these games towards the end of the cup final and they still have huge issues to address on the back end in goalending so I think a total overhaul of the philosophy around the Edmonton Oilers is needed in order for this team to really stand a chance and that feels weird saying because they just went to the cup final backto-back years on paper that sounds like it’s a great thing but what you’re seeing is the roster construction is quite literally what is causing them to fall short so a serious re-evaluation is needed here yeah it’s it’s like you said it’s so interesting to talk about um and you know really we were even having that discussion going back to the first round with the ABS and the Stars of like you know one of these teams has to lose and it feels a little bit crazy to be talking about like do major changes need to come for one of these teams that has to lose you know in that first round series and then to your point just now we’re talking about a team that has run to the Stanley Cup final two years in a row um but they’re just and and that’s part of the reason why I’m excited to get Tyler’s perspective on it there was just something about it this year that just yeah it just didn’t feel I don’t know if it was as threatening or or or just maybe maybe the other part that might be a little bit unfair and all this thing maybe the Florida Panthers are that good like and like we’re not giving enough credit to the fact that the Florida Panthers might just be uh that good but uh with that let’s go ahead and uh go to uh our guest for today [Applause] all right and we welcome in Tyler Yarmachuk daily Face Off Oilers Nation uh Tyler I’m super excited you’re able to make some time i’ve I’ve been on your show a few times happy to be able to uh return the Favier thanks for making some a few minutes here yeah no problem and the production side of me what a sweet transition that was too that was dope hey thanks it’s new so I’m glad you liked it uh Tyler well I mean you just heard us a little bit I’m sure talking about the Oilers and just where things stand i’m going to start with the lowest hanging fruit uh because this is the number one thing on my mind uh we hear the interviews from Conor McDavid both uh on the the the night that they lose game six and the exit interviews i’m just going to start here and I’m I’m sure Megan’s going to dig in with much better more rich questions but where are you at with Conor McDavid and what’s ahead for this summer yeah I I think it’s so funny that people are making such a big deal out of those comments and I’m seeing a lot of like oh man that has to have Oilers fans feeling worried about this summer and it’s a lot of people just like projecting these insecurities onto you know Edmontonians and Oilers fans that Conor McDavid has just always been chomping at the bit to get out of here and he can’t wait to go somewhere else and it’s like you know Conor McDavid the first opportunity he had coming out of his entry level contract signed an eight-year deal with this team at a point when things didn’t look all that great they had just missed the playoffs like it wasn’t like there was this big beaming bright future except for the fact that they just had Conor McDavid so again his comments the other day could he have maybe came out and been like “I love being in Edmonton.” And said something along those lines sure he could have been a little bit more direct in that but he talked about how he wants to be on a winning team well the Oilers are a combined three wins away from a Stanley Cup the last two seasons like totally they’re just as closer to winning or just as close to winning as anyone not named the Florida Panthers and number two he talked about doing what’s best for him and his family being here in Edmonton him and his wife have bought millions of dollars of real estate downstairs for his wife Lauren Kyle McDavid to open up her now third business that’s owned and operated out of the city his best friend signed last year his longtime agent runs the team his coach from junior is the head coach like all of these things connect at some point i think it’s a lot of and like Oilers fans aren’t running around in the street right now being like “Oh Conor McDavid might leave.” Everyone seems to think that there’s some panic and some insecurity from Edmonton there’s not i’ve never been worried for a second that he’s leaving like he’s signing a likely eight-year ticket probably in August no your your your point of the wanting to be on a winning team well hey you’re you’re on the winningest Western Conference team for the last two years so so so there’s a good start i know some of the conversation too has shifted to big game players score in big game moments and the way in which Edmonton stars were contained in this cup final kind of a point of emphasis in an elimination game the lone goal scorer is Vaseli Pod Coulson what do you make of this and how is that something that gets addressed if it’s needed yeah there’s a couple things one to almost tie that into the McDavid thing you know it’s not like Conor McDavid in game seven last year this past season had five points in the games the Oilers were eliminated and their goalending was atrocious like he’s been held in check it in pretty much all of the 13 Stanley Cup final games they’ve played he had the two really big performances last year and that’s kind of it so they need more from guys not named Conor McDavid and Leon Dryidle so that when there are stretches where the big guns are held in check by Bararkovs and Reinhardts and these elite defensive players on the other side that someone else can do the scoring and they’re always seems to be this conversation with the Oilers that they’re so topheavy and they can’t be this topheavy their depth needs to be better but I don’t think that’s the case at all i think they’re missing more true difference makers up front like you look at Florida how many players do they have in that forward group that make more than $6 million a year you got Barkov Kachchuck Reinhardt for Haggy count Marshand in that and then go ahead and count Sam Bennett in that as well six players that make north of $6 million on their deals or will be by next season the Edmonton Oilers have two forwards who make more than $6 million and it’s Conor McDavid and Leon Dryettle and that’s really what defined this series is that the top two lines for each team could saw each other off and when it got to the third line Florida had Brad Marshon and Edmonton had Connor Brown with a broken foot like that’s the coughing baby versus hydrogen bomb meme that you see go around all the time like there’s just there’s no contest there the Oilers need to find a way they have no assets they have no cap space they don’t got a whole lot of anything but they somehow need to find more difference makers to add to this forward group well and in terms of different difference makers having Zack Heyman in that final ah that maybe would have helped a little bit as well but uh no I I I like that call out the the finding some of those difference makers up front we’ve talked a lot about uh just during the cup final and after Evan Buchard Matias Ekholm I I think they have given the Oilers such quality minutes at different times and I think Matias Ekholm was a really nice ad to compliment next to Evan Buchard but we were talking at the end of the that series there did feel like Evan Bousard got a little bit exposed um on the defensive side of things i guess where you at with him is is he one of those players like I felt this way with Tyson Barry when he was still with the ABS like how you live with the lumps because of what the you know Evan Buchard brings i guess where are you at with with him and and what that next contract might look like yeah my line on him is kind of like listen there’s going to be eight or nine times during a season or a playoff run where you go oo I don’t like that play but there’s also going to be five or six times where you go whoa we won the game because of that guy and you can go back through the last two playoff runs against Vancouver in 2024 he had two game winners in a series that went seven games don’t win you can keep rolling through a whole bunch of a whole bunch of different things like these last playoffs there was no Matias Ekholm the first three rounds basically Evan Bousard was a number one 25minute a night defenseman who learned how to penalty kill on the fly and became their best penalty killing defenseman like he’s a superstar defenseman and I think there is the tier with Mar and Hughes and then there’s a tier below it and that’s where Evan B there’s probably a blank tier in between like Billy Bean and Moneyball like Hughes Macar 50 ft of crap every other defenseman in the NHL evan Bousard’s in that group though right below the 50 ft of crap uh he’s that good and you pay that guy and you worry about the captain things later and I go back to a quote that Peter Sharelli had when he drafted him and it was you can’t acquire those players via trade so you better draft him and they drafted one and he fits in perfectly and you pay them and you worry about the bottom of your roster later cuz to go back to my last answer now the Oilers need more difference makers they did not lose that series against Florida there’s a handful of reasons why they lost but number one they didn’t have enough difference makers Evan Buchard can beat that all All right I got to ask about Trent Frederick then i love the tryhards the versatile competitive bottom six guys that are just grinders but the news of this next contract for him eight years somewhere north of three and a half probably south of 4 mil that’s a lot of money can you kind of walk me through the value of this player and what he adds to the the lineup i mean he had a pretty bad high ankle sprain for his entire time in Edmonton so I feel like we don’t even know who Trent Frederick is yet in this city but you look at the box cars from Boston and it’s like okay 17 goals 18 goals scoring more goals than he gets minutes per game and that’s always kind of an interesting metric I like to look at for bottom six guys it’s like hey he did a lot with what little time on ice he got in Boston i just talked about how the Oilers need more difference makers though and I look at him and go he’s not a differencemaker he’s a nice to have but not a true driver so why do you want to sign up for eight years of this guy like I I really like the player and there’s certainly more there but if you’re going to go eight years with a bottom six player who’s 27 years old there better be significant upside and I think his ceiling is a third line center who kills penalties and chips in a little bit of offense again you need guys like that to win a Stanley Cup do you need him at 3.8 8 million for 8 years or is that the type of player that a really smart forward thinking organization says you know what we’ll always find that guy for 1 and a.5 2 million on the free agent market let’s not take the risk and tie ourselves to one bottom six guy for the next eight years for $3.8 million or whatever the final number ends up being again if he turns into a rugged physical middle six winger who scores you 20 goals a season this is an amazing value if he takes a step back and the ankle has slowed him down and he never gets that speed and he’s a fourthline left winger who is kind of good on the penalty kill but only scores you 10 goals a year you’re sitting here like the Islanders were with Pierre Angval going why did we ever think this guy would give us eight good years so it’s a risk and I’ll leave it at that i guess I we don’t know if it’s a good or bad risk i guess I’ll come on the show in four years and maybe we’ll have a better idea of it but like right like who knows it feels unnecessary but if it works we’re going to be applauding them so I’ll I’ll caution myself to criticize it too hard feels like Miles Wood and his contract and how it’s aging in Colorado at the moment exactly yeah a little bit uh I want to start what I’m about to ask here by saying I’m a huge Calvin Pickard guy got to know him when he was in Colorado i think he’s just one of the best guys just around the game you have to you know applaud the the the journeyman attitude up and down always stuck with it that said I believe it was Jeff Merik I heard too uh last week refer to him as more of a ball hockey type goalie uh Calvin Figer definitely a bit unorthodox but stepped up in big ways look Steuart Skinner he’s still a young guy and like you see the flashes what was it four shutouts this year in the in the postseason uh you know had the great run uh but it’s the consistency factor that I keep coming back to that I think that’s what you know some of the recent Stanley Cup champions have had more so than goalenders who are out there stealing games or standing on their head it’s that consistent we don’t feel like we’re going to be in trouble here what do the Oilers do going forward with with Stu Skinner and and even Calvin Picker Picker i guess I think they I think both guys will still be on the roster next year but there’s going to be someone in the middle of them or potentially someone above both of them um but like the idea of trading Steuart Skinner for one of the names or in a package for one of the names that’s on the market they all present big risks you can go get John Gibson but he’s now on the wrong side of 30 he’s expensive he’ll cost a lot to get and he’s injuryprone you can go get that Demco but he’s mega injuryprone granted he has Vzna caliber upside and you know the contract’s not as bad there you could go get Jake Allen but he’s 34 years old he’s a free agent wouldn’t cost you anything but who knows when his play is going to fall off a cliff cuz again he’s into his mid30s now anton Forsberg gross alex Lion just as gross like who out there presents the slam dunk as soon as they walk in the room the Oilers goending problems are done there’s not that guy so I think you need to get someone in tandem with a Steuart Skinner who you’re not totally selling off whatever upside you still think Stuart Skinner has as a 26-year-old goalie like he’s still very young by goalending standards the idea that he’s two years away from entering his prime is not far-fetched i would keep Steuart Skinner i’d find someone to ride with him i’d cross my fingers and hope Pickard gets through waiverss and I’d sit there and go “Hey we got a higher floor backup to put next to Stuart Skinner.” If it’s someone like Demco it also comes with a tremendous ceiling he would be my number one target um but there’s just not someone out there like people keep saying Swayman if if Jeremy Swayman comes in here and doesn’t bounce back you just signed up to take on an albatross contract that cripples you going forward don’t make that level of a dumb decision going and getting Demco and then his hips still sucks and he’s out for half the year that would be a bad decision but it doesn’t [ __ ] you for the next six seasons at least right right no I I I like that assessment because you know we were talking about Skinner last week and again he he’s got his ups and downs but I’m with you i think he’s too young and has shown too much upside to just fully punt on uh Tyler we’ll only keep you for a couple more minutes here i know you’ve got you got another show to jump to so we got just a couple more for you uh we got Tyler Yarmach of Daily Faceoff and Oilers Nation joining us here on Guerilla Sports Off Ice i want to get your thoughts on Evander Kane obviously returns to health for this playoff run um but runs into some disciplinary issues and doesn’t maybe have the same impact that you’d hope to have out of this player who’s demonstrated otherwise this is a a roller coaster with a Vander Kane entering his final year with Edmonton are you wanting to get off this ride with Evander Kane yes um the playoffs really were everything that is the roller coaster of Evander Kane when he’s on and he’s playing well it’s like you talk about difference makers that guy is a differencemaker and he gives your lineup this swagger and this energy he’s so much fun to watch when he’s on when he’s just a little bit off it’s bad penalties poor Dzone play looks disinterested even though it’s the Stanley Cup final like he there’s just it’s too wide of a gap and the Oilers with where they are capwise they can’t afford the highs and lows anymore they got to move on from him and if I were to make this a sell to a team who’s maybe looking at Evander Kane what do we know about Aander he cares about his bottom line and he’s heading into a contract year and if this season goes well for Evander Kane he probably gets a 4×4 somewhere he probably gets himself another $20 million in career earnings when all said and done if this season goes bad he’s signing a one-year prove it deal and has to be on his best behavior for another season so all that to say I think whatever team gets Evander Kane cuz I don’t think he’s staying in Edmonton whatever team gets Evander Kane is getting Evander Kane on his best behavior and what we saw from him that first playoff run in Edmonton back in 2022 when he’s on his best behavior he is a special special one-of-a-kind player i think the Oilers need to stop with the volatility they need to use that money elsewhere they need a different look but I think another team would actually be like relatively smart to kind of put their hand up and be like “Hey we’re not trading you anything for him but we have the cap space we’ll take this free bullet.” Yeah um he’s an interesting player like you said when he’s on his best behavior definitely not one you shake a stick at last one here for you Tyler and uh we’ve been talking about the Florida Panthers are enjoying themselves uh since the cup win as someone who’s like you said an Oilers uh backer just what have you thought seeing of all seeing all this i mean the F McDavid chants are a little bit much um maybe some maybe the line is somewhere there but if if you win you get to spike the ball you get to be cocky they’re backtoback champs they can really Brand Marsham putting the loser sticker on like do it all up man they won they they beat the Edmonton Oilers they deserve to do whatever they want for this two weeks i love watching people get publicly drunk especially athletes who are really letting themselves loose it seems like a ton of fun i wish I was doing that after an Oilers Stanley Cup alas I’m not and I’m not going to sit here and do like the pouty yo they’re classless like no they won and they’re drunk i do dumber stuff when I’m drunk and I haven’t won [ __ ] totally we like we we also thought that the F McDavid that h that’s probably right around the line i don’t know if that is the line but that’s that’s at least close uh Tyler Yarmchuck daily faceoff Oilers Nation thanks so much for parking some time yeah we’ll uh we’ll meet up again this summer and uh we’ll we’ll get further thoughts and then again we’ll get on the calendar four years from now we’ll check in on Trent Frederick yeah yeah I’ll put it on my end to uh chat with you soon thanks for having me thanks thanks [Applause] all right that was Tyler Yarmachchuk uh Daily Face Off Oilers Nation big thanks to him for stopping by always love chatting with him uh a lot of great great insight there um on just where the Oilers are at going forward right now how they kind of took uh everything from that series um I guess let’s just start with the McDavid stuff pretty confident that hey it’s all fresh for McDavid it’s emotional it’s all that stuff but uh I get that same sense i don’t think the Oilers are actually overly concerned about this maybe fans in small pockets might be wondering wishing that he had said something a little bit more clear but I don’t think that he’s really at crazy risk of leaving yeah I want to read the comment to people it was if I feel that there’s a good window to win here over and over again then signing is no problem that is pretty innocuous but the if I feel there’s a good window to win here is what I think people have really attached themselves to because the if is big in that sentence and that’s what has people going a little bit crazy i’m not going to lie to you nathan McKinnon’s game seven postgame comments about you know we they they were missing their best player i don’t know what happens from here we also in our own fan base saw that it’s a difficult time to talk to a player after they’ve been eliminated from the playoffs but especially game six in the Stanley Cup final backto-back years to the cup final and not getting that winning result i think for that being McDavid’s kind of general takeaway so immediately in the aftermath it’s not that weird to me that a player is despondent and even given that I don’t think it’s that despondent and I imagined you know was it Freriedman who pitched the possibility of short-term contract options that seems more realistic than jumping to a future where Conor McDavid isn’t an Edmonton Oiler where he’s going to like play out the season and like yeah let’s wait and see yeah but I do think it is important this next season is going to be so huge for Edmonton to kind of alleviate some of these growing concerns about this now very fragile window that they are in to prove that they have the team that can actually get this done in the cup final not just get there right they’ve arrived but there’s so much more to do at that destination and Conor McDavid is a huge part of that and he needs to believe in that too so I think that he does right i don’t think these comments immediately point to the fact that he doesn’t believe in that but he’ll need to demonstrate that he does in this next year especially as a captain as a leader um and kind of leading his team in this new direction that Edmonton inevitably does need to go in i I thought his comments about the Trent Frederick contract you know without trying to bait him into that you’ve anchored yourself to a Darnell nurse contract that you don’t like it just hasn’t aged well why run the risk of anchoring yourself to another contract that might not age very well and limits you and what you’re able to do tinkering with the rest of the lineup that has genuine needs so anyways Edmonton has a lot of questions to answer next year and honestly like so few of them are to be answered by just Conor McDavid alone yeah to his point there are so many things around McDavid that need to support him staying there as an Edmonton Oiler in the future and that’s why I do because you know you you read will you read the quote again from McDavid yes if I feel there’s a good window to win here over and over again then signing is no problem cuz to Tyler’s point like I I I I don’t think that that is as much of like a threat as maybe there are some people who are who are out there kind of running with it um and I think everything you just said is spot on while it also does leave Conor McDavid like the the 5% wiggle room that if they start getting into all this and he’s like “Whoa whoa what are you doing handing out that size contract to this player what are you doing?” You know hamstringing our stuff you know our ourselves like this it gives him some wiggle room where he says “Oh if I don’t like what’s going on I can leave.” But I Yeah I I don’t I think that was him making sure you know he wasn’t just going out and say “Yep I’m signing an eight-year deal this is still a contract negotiation each side has to maintain a level of leverage leverage right a thousand% i think every player up for a contract who has every intention of staying with his team still has to sound as if the door is open to try and and milk for the max value of that contract yeah yeah um I also liked a lot of what Tyler talked about with with Evan Buchard and again when when undersized defenseman offensive defenseman were first you know starting to have their day in the NHL i remember feeling that way with Tyson Barry where it’s like yeah you don’t have anyone else like this you live with the fact that it’s a little up and down in his own end um and to Tyler’s point he scored some big goals for that organization the last few years um I do still look at Man it’d be nice if you get someone a little bit more steady paired with him um I guess not more steady matis Ahol’s a very good defenseman but you know what I’m saying it is interesting because Taves wasn’t even Devonte in New York right like coming here is sort of where he assumed his true full form and it was beneficial to Macar um but Macar was beneficial to him as well and I think that’s maybe the difference maker of what Taves is to Mar versus Echome to Buchard i think it’s kind of a one-way thing in that I don’t know that might not be fair to say but what I am saying is Ekkom obviously has a positive influence on Buchard and I think Buchard needs a defensive defenseman like Ekim alongside him but I don’t know that we’ve seen the same kind of growth from Ekham he’s kind of stayed what he is um and so I don’t know if there is a player that there can be a more symbiotic relationship between the two the other thing too is the the live with the ups and downs then drives an emphasis on rounding out the rest of your decor to paper over when some of those inevitable downs are going to happen and that’s where I think they’ve missed on how that backend comes together um you know it’s like I I thought I was surprised Clingberg could still play as a third pair option it was intriguing but that’s where there’s greater emphasis than on what your second and third pair look like when your top pair is just not going to be as strong as other top pairs around the league like Taves and Macar then you need to bolster the rest of your decor in loading up second third pair and that’s where I think these limitations we’ve talked about around what they can do within cap constraints around the rest of the lineup there needs to be an emphasis then on the back end well and and to that point again something Tyler talked about of like yeah they they did a decent job of like building their depth but like you need difference makers and to your point like not trying to just take this as a opportunity to be constantly sideswiping at John Clingberg but like okay John Clingberg like that that should be a guy who’s like a nice option for you somewhere down the the depth chart but when you’re asking that guy to be a regular part of your lineup and I know that’s that’s you know the back end not not the forward core that that Tyler was talking about but like yeah you you want to have Florida had how many players with 20 points like you want to have as many guys that you can count on contributing as possible and it did feel like when you got Edmonton’s depth both up front and on the back end up against Florida’s once you got to a certain point it was just like yeah they’re they’re just much much much more effective on Florida’s side than Edmonton’s side where it just did feel like they’re you got into some areas uh where kind of you know a rag tag group of players that decent depth on paper they’re not productive they were just a roll too high in the depth chart that they should have been like R Koulak was a pleasant surprise but he should have been the pleasant surprise on a third pairing and they still need a real solution then for what that second pair should be and that’s sort of where I’m at and honestly like not so different from the conversations we’re having around the ABS and what the back end will look like for them we need to evaluate you know the health and longevity of Josh Manson because he obviously adds a physical impact that shouldn’t be understated but are we getting the most out of the mobile puck moving defenseman that is Sam Gerard whose production is kind of waned a little bit and I feel like ABS are in a much better room if you’re talking Gerard Manson as the second pair but it does point to why that’s important still you can’t punt just because you have really good high-end talent on that top pair like Buchard obviously brings a lot in terms of production then you really need to emphasize defensive defenseman the rest of the way through and they also need to be able to skate with the Edmonton Oilers which is where a guy like Clingberg I think couldn’t quite hang with what they were trying to accomplish i don’t I don’t know and shame on me for for not knowing before I speak on it I don’t know where Edmonton’s front office falls in terms of analytics um part of the reason why I think the ABS have been able to find players that fit really well not it’s not hasn’t been unanimous but there’s been a lot of players that they brought in and Josh Manson I think is uh that one made me laugh too and I think Josh Manson is a great example of like a player that you brought in at at face value for people who weren’t intimately familiar with Josh Manson’s game it was like uh he’s a very different player than who they normally get can he hang can he but it was actually because of of his analytic metrics that the ABS pro scouting was saying “Yep this guy does a lot of sneaky things in his game that are going to fit really well.” I do wonder just re what you were saying how much of that the Oilers embrace or if it’s just h if it’s you know if it’s a name that we like get them in here i don’t know if they look at that do they fit in this role is it what we need to back up and again I’m saying that as an Oilers person get in the chat here and be like “Yeah they’re heavily in tune with that every I don’t know.” So I could be a little bit off base here but I do wonder if that’s maybe something that like you said the way they like to play do they get players that are typ cast that effectively well I’ll at least reinforce on the forward side that’s exactly the appeal of Trent Frederick right like it’s kind of the body of work prior to this season that is what appeals to Edmonton about what he can be and what that ceiling might be um and they’re probably hoping that there’s more growth potential for him so my hope would be that they would do the same then with the back end but I think that they anchored themselves too much to the forward depth side of things and I don’t mean you know at the top of the lineup is where this was too heavily invested in i mean like the Adam Henrik sweep stakes going back a couple trade deadlines and then the Jeff Skinner uh you know chance that they took on him that really rounded out their forward depth but it didn’t quite you know answer really any scoring problems at the end of the day and their injuries at play right like not having Zack Heyman definitely affects the bottom line of the depth matchup that Tyler was referring to with the third line by third line is really where both these teams were kind of exposed so I don’t blame Edmonton for having that priority then around the forward depth but it’s definitely come at the expense of some other areas of the lineup that I think require priority going into next year because to to Tyler’s point again not to devalue Trent Frederick specifically but I do think that there are guys that can round out your bottom six a little more affordably um and so you don’t need to get in on whatever equivalent of the Adam Henry you know trade deadline sweep stakes and the Jeff Skinner contract like even Aander Kane and like technically Cory Perry but he played above expectation once Hyman was out so I’ll give him a pass that’s where you don’t need to be throwing out the bigger contracts though prioritize the back end well and then let’s talk about the net um I really do I I was I actually texted Chloe cuz her and I had uh just that that morning of game six we were in the office and her and I were talking what we’re hosting the rookie showcase what colorado to host the 2025 Rookie Showcase at South Suburban Sports Complex yes yes five minutes from my house yes i was just thinking about this cuz we’re going to be content planning for Def Camp which is rolling right after the draft this weekend and I was like “Well I want to sit down with Brian Wily okay they don’t let him talk to us that much i want to talk to this man should I try to do it now or will I get a chance at rookie showcase but I don’t know where it’s going to be will I get to travel yes I will get to talk to Brian Wily in my own backyard and I’m super hype can I I’m going to use this as a I want to get back into the Oilers goalending no I’m just kidding i’m just kidding um I’m going to use this as an opportunity to I don’t know if I’m I’m breaking any news here i’m just passing along what I was told this event being at South Suburban the new South Suburban Sports Complex i heard at one point last season and I reached out to a couple other people to see if there was any other people who could give me any level of confirmation on this and I got kind of the same response from everyone maybe that’s what I’ve heard but we’ll see there’s a chance the ABS will be moving to South Suburban Sports Complex new facility for their practice facility uh while the construction under downtown phase one of that new project uh does start to roll out uh I believe at some point in the next year but I do wonder if this is maybe the first um sign that we’re going to get here Megan that uh the ABS will be using the new South Suburban Sports Complex as their uh new practice uh home practice home sure uh the ABS will be playing in the rookie showcase rookie faceoff Friday September 12th against uh the Utah Hockey Club saturday September 13th versus the Vegas Golden Knights and then Sunday September 14th also versus the Vegas Golden Knights interesting um so three games as part of that rookie showcase but uh wow what a fun weekend i’ve been lucky enough to have been to uh several uh of those rookie showcases i know you’ve been to multiple as well they’re a ton of fun they’re fun hockey to watch it’s guys who really care uh there’s a lot of scouts in town there’s a lot of hockey personnel really fun weekend uh tickets will be made available to the public in August uh you can go to colorado avalanche.comsalert and they’ll give you some updates there’s a free plug for them to get some tickets sold um awesome great news to break here uh on the show uh love it edmonton’s goalending i had texted Khloe after the uh I believe it was the second Sam Bennett goal where it was the rebound that Steuart Skinner gave up that was like what are you doing um and I told Chloe I said that that’s a bad enough goal against that that might get you traded i like Tyler’s suggestion bring in someone who can maybe even play ahead of Stuart Skinner bring in a 1A don’t keep Steuart Skinner don’t don’t fully pull the rip cord on it but bolster that your thoughts well I agree with the concern around the names being floated out there right john Gibson older goalender still a great goalender who can hang in this league but if that return is Brand New Jen Hopkins which was the name I just saw being floated out there not only then are you losing some of your critical top six picture but you’re doing so for an aging goalender that still like I’m not sure that that really resolves the issue in net in the same way that I wasn’t crazy about Gibson being the solution for Colorado for similar reasons it’s like I think you buy a year of an answer in net before you’re asking the same question again and so I do think if you’re going to resolve this issue take the route of the Colorado Avalanche save yourself some time and some heartache and some draft capital probably and just do it once and for all so go with a goalender who’s a bit younger a bit more upside and has the upside though that isn’t such a risk that it he could assume it hello he could assume a 1A 1B position goalenders aren’t human i don’t know if I’ve established that um now here’s the one thing that I will say and I I didn’t want to ask Tyler and you know I’m sure people who cover the Oilers are sick of talking about it but like there’s been twice that I know of the ABS and the Oilers have been after the same goalie and the ABS have won out both times um one was Darcy Keer and we know how that went for the ABS the other I’ve been told was Mackenzie Blackwood that the Oilers this was a goalender of the excuse me that the Oilers were sniffing around to your point aren’t you tired of having to be part of these goalender sweep stakes every year don’t you just want to go get someone and just be done with it i like Tyler’s suggestion of Thatcher Demco here’s an injury-prone guy but like here here’s a guy who raises your floor a little bit and your worst case is you have to deal with the tandem that you had this year but can you get someone who not only raises your floor but gives you a higher ceiling I’m with you on the I just really wish that Demco could stay healthy it actually makes me so sad to have that reaction because he is such a good goalender but that’s the other reason too why I think there’s incentive for Vancouver to be considering this too is they kind of need to answer their own goalending questions with I think she’s a really good young goalender i don’t think they’re comfortable enough to like move on from Demco and just elevate Sheilops just yet so I don’t know i think they’re in a weird room um San Jose that’s Olympian Archer Sheilops to you i don’t want to hear about this this goalie or I I just brought him up voluntarily but I don’t want to hear about him anymore no but I think Vancouver moving on from Demco makes a lot of sense for Vancouver um I think they need a more solid solution to to back up than the injury-prone goalender um which stinks then and so maybe it is a safer bet where there’s at least a Stew Skinner alongside an injury-prone Thatcher Demco like that can kind of weather some of those moments where maybe he’s absent uh rehabilitating an injury well and and you know as not a goalie myself but I know a lot of goalies and and I I try to understand that position as best I can i don’t know that that also is a hey Stuart Skinner you’re not the only guy you’re not the guy you’ve got to earn your starts and you do just wonder can that push a team or excuse me a player um hey my my minutes are suddenly in jeopardy here i got to perform well enough to even get a start might be good for him it made Alexander Gorkv in year one I think contributed to the results that he had because of a pavlo fros right behind him who was a very qualified goalender in his own right so I could see it bringing out the best of many goalenders having that kind of competition behind you honestly a Pavle Frano’s type is exactly what I’m picturing right now for Edmonton if he Yes if he could still be healthy and playing that would have been a perfect solution for them 100% if uh or like a Scott Wedgewood type oh wait the ABS got him too um hey you just mentioned Alexander Gorgv’s out there he’s free agent you just pick him right up i I just I don’t know you know I was trying to tee up Megan to say something mean but I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to do it um what are the thoughts you have on the Oilers that’s it let’s talk about Trevor Zris yeah yeah we are going to talk about that a little bit but um Oilers are definitely going to be one of the most for me interesting intriguing teams this summer um because you have been to the Stanley Cup final two years in a row isn’t this funny and this we can move on after this but like they’ve been to the Stanley Cup final two years in a row steuart Skinner for all intents and purposes starting goalender take his team to the cup final two years in a row totally um I did also find it funny you know what Tyler was talking about of like the city of Edmonton and the Oilers have done a lot to appeal to Conor McDavid um and like you know it would be crazy to see him move on for those same you know for those reasons but like for everything that the Oilers seemingly have going for them two years in a row Western Conference champs uh it just doesn’t feel great around them no and beyond every one of us projecting our thoughts onto McDavid’s comments it still feels bad right like they still couldn’t hang with the Florida Panthers and that will need to be addressed well and it was the and like I said this is a a very niche argument that it’s different teams with different players and different coaches and all that stuff so this it’s not super fair but four years in a row the Edmonton Oilers have lost to the eventual Stanley Cup champion and with the exception of them having to come back from down three nothing against the Florida Panthers none of those series have felt particularly close so they’re getting there but there there does seem in my opinion there does feel like still a gap between the Edmonton Oilers and the teams that are winning Stanley Cups i’m going to be really curious to see where they go this summer um when you have Conor McDavid Leon Dryidle you’re always in the fight yeah just h it makes me salty about the way the West shook out and just some of the the earlier teams eliminated because it was such a blood bath to get out of rounds one and two that come the Western Conference final it just felt like I don’t know if any who can score the most yeah I don’t know if any of these can hang with this version of the Florida Panthers yeah you started saying that from the second round um let’s talk about uh we’ll we’ll end with our our initial kind of leadup to the draft and again we don’t have I was going to say a ton we don’t really have any ABS draft preview coverage for this year because the ABS are barely participating in the draft this year uh so we’ll talk a little bit about it uh in the leadup this week but Megan there was some NHL news and it was a player who I’m not going to say we had on our board for keep an eye out the ABS might be bringing this guy in but it was a guy that we had on our board of hey there were rumors flying around the ABS were maybe interested in this player last year uh if the ABS are looking to really shake things up this could be a name he ends up going for really a much lesser value than I think some people were expecting um you’ve had the girl standing across the street from the burning building grin on your face all day uh Trevor Zegris sent uh out east to the Philadelphia Flyers reunited with friend Jamie Ddale in exchange for a second round pick a fourth round pick and Ryan Ping i’m I never feel confident pronouncing that last name paling paling uh a player who I do think will actually fit pretty nice with the Anaheim Ducks it’s a great return right like you get some center depth replenished maybe more of a third line capacity but really versatile and competitive player to to plug in the bottom of the lineup there i think makes a lot of sense yeah yeah part of the return no real complaints i do think the idea of Trevor Zegris is worth more than a second and a fourth but I think the reality of Trevor Trevor Zerris the last two seasons this feels like a pretty appropriate return i mean that’s a second and a fourth in a roster player um so I don’t know i I think that’s weighted pretty well i mean there’s obviously concerns as to why it didn’t work out in Anaheim right like this was a player with high draft pedigree that was expected to be more of a core player a franchise turning player for Anaheim and it just didn’t quite pan out um for reasons and you know I suspect it’s kind of attitudinal reasons i shared this with you earlier though this is a sport where almost every player who makes it to the NHL level is told that they are the best at every level and then they get to the NHL and they’re no longer the very best but they’ve been told their whole life just how good they are and there’s a lot of humbling that needs to happen to really have success at the NHL level despite being very good and being told you’re good your whole life and so I want to make something clear about Trevor Zess i find him very fun i find him very fun to watch but if hockey players were apps Sydney Crosby would be LinkedIn i think Nathan McKinnon would be like Reddit it is definitely a little concerning at times but lots of useful information kale Macar would be Google very useful trevor Ziggress is Tik Tok all right he’s super fun he’s super fun to watch but you have to be discerning and ask yourself “What am I looking at periodically?” You have to ask yourself right is this bad for my brain you have to ask yourself and so I love Tik Tok okay i love watching Tik Tok i don’t want Tik Tok on the Colorado Avalanche i don’t want my life to revolve around Tik Tok um not only because I I so wholeheartedly agree and I don’t even think it’s exclusive to hockey but like pro athletes from all sports were the best player on their team for the vast majority of their life i do find it funny every now and then you’ll see these pictures of like oh the Toronto Marl Bros 8 and under team featured Steven Sam coach John Diverus PK Sub it’s like okay all right maybe you weren’t always the best player on your team um but I I so wholeheartedly agree with that of like these are athletes who have been exclusively lifted up and made exceptions for and uh put on a pedestal and told you’re our best player and get out there and and that’s especially true I think of a player like Zegris whose skill set shines shines in game action at pretty much every level leading up to the NHL where the the hands and the skill and the the the moves and hockey in a phone booth right the Michigan the to like all of all of that stuff is just fodder for young coaches coming through the ranks oh my gosh Trevor oh you’re the we just just give the puck to Trevor just get out there we’re down by one give the puck to Trevor and then yeah you get to the NHL and it’s like guess what everybody’s really good everybody’s fast everybody has hands every defenseman can stand you up and I think there’s an adjustment period there and I think you’ve got to have the right stuff between the ears to be able to make a change like that and I think when you watch his first year first full season it was really exciting here’s a player who’s going to be able to tr his game’s going to be able to translate trevor Zris feels to me like the league saw it was in awe of it learned it understood it and now it’s not really much of a threat i think he has to build other parts into his game because I I think the high skill still shines through in moments um you know he’s an incredibly creative playmaker and his puck skill is off the charts but you’re right the NHL is a little more wise to it now and I think you know today’s defensemen are evolving to better anticipate this type of player and so you have to round out your game and find other ways to make an impact and you have to be willing to do that open up the game and you know step aside from how you’ve always played it because how he’s always played it has brought him success but there has to be more you know I talk about players being more dimensional that’s all it is for Trevor Ziggress but I say that as if it’s a simple thing you talk about stuff between the ears you have to be really bought into that and it can be a humbling experience I’m sure well and and part of the reason why I thought he would have been an interesting fit next to Nathan McKinnon was all right you’re going to be you know you you could play on a line with someone that all the attention’s off of you trevor Zaggress kind of becomes an afterthought if you’re skating with Nathan McKinnon um and I think part of what I’m gonna be interested in in this fit in Philly is one do they put him next to Matt Bay Mitchoff and two can that have a similar effect now I don’t know that might be two players that are a little bit too young still have a lot of parts of their game to be developed to be putting them together but like I don’t know power plays yeah late in games you need offense ozone starts could putting those two players together take some of the attention off a guy like Trevor Ziggress where it is going to free him up to be a little bit more creative and um great playmaker as well you know slipping passes through through seams and um you know beating guys one-on-one is that going to maybe make it a little bit easier for him we’ll see um but I I I the more this trades me the more I think it makes perfect sense especially when you consider a player that Trevor Zaggress was outspoken about being upset about having lost in Anaheim and is what he called his very best friend they peed together and slept together was what he said uh Jamie Drydale in Philly I think there’s a lot of this that makes sense yeah I think now underocket this is definitely a necessary coaching change to work with a player like Ziggress and not so different from a player like Mitchkov who also I think is unchanged with a different direction in coaching and so I think players like Mitchkov and Ziggress can really anticipate each other and feed off of the other pretty well um but there is going to be need to be the adult right like in the same way that CBrini and Smith have Tofoley they’re going to need their version of Tofuli to help sort of ground them and get them acclimated to this league which feels weird because Zeros has been around this league for a while so that’s where the you know the having the egoless approach to this really will help him to have success in Philadelphia because I think that their their forward picture is starting to come together like they signed No Keats to an extension i talked a lot about this player around the deadline um and so I think they’ve gotten better with the addition of Zegress but they are going to still need the adult in the room to help kind of settle that down and channel it into something productive yeah we we’ll talk um we’ll talk on our Philadelphia Flyers podcast right today’s the Edmonton Oilers show we’ll have our Flyers cast coming soon um no i I would just say we’ll we’ll talk about the Flyers and and where they’re kind of at cuz they’re another team they are desperate for goalending desperate for goalending and then I I do also want to revisit something that you talked about before the show of like there’s starting to be some type of symbiotic relationship between the Ducks and the Flyers um that’s maybe just something to half keep an eye on as you just mentioned the Flyers are desperate for goalending these have suddenly become two teams that have dealt a lot with each other in the same way that the ABS are suddenly starting to build this you know relationship with the Sharks and it’s a very well doumented relationship with the Blue Jackets and it is funny just when you start to notice these little pockets of teams that like to work together um it works a list of besties in the league mike Greer Chris McFarland definitely besties and it uh yeah and I think this is something that we should keep an eye on as we head into the end of the week uh and and and the draft of again are these are these lines to keep the string connected between that is super interesting i don’t want to now start spoiling it but I do think that San Jose has draft capital and there are potentially maybe more depthy p pieces B-grade C-grade prospects that could be of interest to San Jose i don’t know maybe they’re not thrilled with how Nikolai Kavaleno went i think they missed though on how they utilized Kavalinko just I mean he seemed like he started working really well with Celabbrini and then they changed things up up i know there was some injury stuff in there too but I think there was Yeah I think there was a a disconnect between coaching and Kobe does Miles Wood not seem like just the the perfect San Jose Shark honestly honestly uh like he seems like someone who would immediately uh be on that Tyler TFI Mlin Celibbriny Will Smith uh little inner circle he can skate with them i don’t know if he plays with them if that’s where you were going with this um not necessarily but I don’t hate it that they might need an actual adult in that room though so true but like you said um for the Sharks two first round picks two second round picks a third two fourths a fifth and a seventh you can peel off one of those fourths or the third do you need a third why don’t you You don’t need a third take Miles Wood and the fourth that the ABS have and just give him a third that way the ABS get to move up but you and I don’t have to keep dropping any additional draft picks perfect i love it um let’s talk about the draft really fast uh as we wind today’s show down uh yeah Megan it is a fourth uh you know what i was about to say it with a ton of confidence fourth and a seventh okay why for some reason so I also meant to look this up but fourth and a seventh is what I’ve had in my brain this whole time so because I someone said to me last week “Oh some fourth and a sixth.” It is a fourth and a seventh that person got in my head and they messed up the cadence of what I was saying there it is a fourth and a seventh for the ABS this year this is a room that they’ve been in several times since winning the Stanley Cup of not having a lot of draft capital uh what approach do you think they take heading into round one on Friday i don’t see many worlds where the ABS end up back in the first round right um but do you think the ABS add any draft capital here do they get rid of the remaining picks they have uh how do you see this weekend broadstrokes playing out for the ABS um I think they’ve had some luck with some of their later drafts and later round drafts so maybe keep the seventh maybe trade the fourth to turn that into two additional later round picks something like that um I’d like to see them get a little more fun with it though and involve like a real roster player in some capacity kind of like what you were just teasing with San Jose which obviously would see a player like Wood going out but that would open up so much cap space to start then filling in some bottom six needs that definitely still need to be addressed obviously the TA stake has ended but the need for bottom six help has not so that that’s going to be something I think they can address with the draft this weekend yeah I uh that that’s kind of what I see as well i I love I I like what you just laid out about like okay do you do something with that fourth to acquire some more capital yeah c can you can you flip the fourth for a fifth and a sixth then attach that sixth to Miles Wood to get a third and you know can can you do some stuff like that um yeah just to I I don’t what I Here’s what I’m pretty confident in wherever those picks sit right now I don’t know exactly which number the fourth and the seventh are i do not think the ABS will be making those exact picks I I think I think the ABS will make at least two selections this weekend but I don’t think they’ll be the two selections they currently hold right now i like that i don’t I don’t know if it’s going to be better picks worse picks whatever but I don’t think the ABS will select in the two positions that they’re slated to select in right now yeah no I believe that too i don’t think they’re just going to stand pat yeah i I I think I mean look you you kind of have to get a little frisky you you got to just likes to too even if it it feels you know like it’s now just an earlier seventh round pick than the one it was going to be right like I I think it’ll be something it’s something he they like to do you’re totally right they like to do that um you know what I want i want them to hire uh an assistant coach oo okay i want to see some personnel announcements come alongside this draft right like this is the time of year they’re all getting together all the the great minds behind the curtain here they need to make some hires all right doesn’t have to be the assistant for the NHL bench but they need now a head coach and an assistant in Loveland as well i just want to see some personnel announcements come this weekend okay i like that and and hey especially with the the youngsters getting on the ice next week no better time than to get some of those hires filled out um but if you need a coach just give me a call i will go to development camp and help out can you off the very absolute top of your head as I wind this show down i’m fully putting you on the spot this was not at all part of my plan you just you said the Jonathan Tay sweep stakes sweep stakes are done the need for help in the bottom part of your lineup isn’t do you have anyone that comes to your brain of like uh that would be a fun player i don’t I don’t and I’m going through the list so if you don’t that’s fine i don’t but give me 24 hours and I will have a name for you and and we’ll be back at it tomorrow um because I do feel like I’ve been such a hater right no no to Taves no to Zris and so I want to come to you guys with solutions okay that’s only fair i can’t be just saying no to everything nico I don’t hate it but that was also just partially a joke that’s going to do it i don’t have much else olympian that’s right nicom that’s right olympian Nikosterm two-time Stanley Cup champion Nico throw some respect uh BMA Metaf throws Corey Perry’s name out there i know I’ve gotten really prickly around Corey Perry if you want to get back to the cup finals but I can’t guarantee yeah if you want to win [Music] oh no she’s Megan i’m Jesse we got Chloe behind the glass today kicking off the week for us like I said just a couple uh tomorrow will be a draft edition of Gorilla Sports Off Ice uh looking forward to that we’ve got our planning meeting after this for uh dev camp and all that good stuff uh so lots of fun content coming your way she’s Megan i’m Jesse chloe behind the glass thanks so much for hanging out have a great week we’ll see you guys tomorrow thanks for stopping by bye bye
The Stanley Cup has once again eluded the Edmonton Oilers, and now the hard questions begin. Jesse Montano and Meghan Angley are joined by Oilers Nation and Daily Faceoff’s Tyler Yaremchuk to break down why the Oilers couldn’t keep up with the Panthers — examining everything from Edmonton’s ongoing blue line issues, goaltending woes, and what a potential short-term McDavid contract signals about the team’s trajectory. Is Stu Skinner the long-term answer in net? Does a big-ticket extension for Trent Frederic make sense? What’s next for Evander Kane, Jeff Skinner, and the Oilers’ fragile Cup window? This is your must-listen roadmap to Edmonton’s most pivotal offseason yet.
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2 Comments
The social media analogy was AMAZING. I need a deeper dive into that pronto hahaha, maybe on P&P?
Why is this not in spotify yet ?