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Oilers Really Need Another Top 6 F |
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The courtship of Drake Caggiula ended Friday night when the free agent forward from the NCAA champion University of North Dakota chose to play for the Edmonton Oilers.
Yes, those Edmonton Oilers. The ones who love to stock pile young, skilled forwards.
The story goes that Caggiula and Connor McDavid get on pretty well. There is even talk that had he not committed to play at NoDak that Caggiula would have joined the Erie Otters to play junior hockey with McDavid.
Team Caggiula toured several NHL cities in the past two weeks. He toured facilities, heard pitches from GMS, coaches and players. The tour ended Friday night.
I get that Caggiula is friendly with McDavid and all but for the life of me, I cannot understand what motivates the Edmonton Oilers to do what their habitually do and that is draft, or in this case sign, high end forwards and give the no support in net or on the blue line.
When I first heard the news of Caggiula to Edmonton, I thought: who is going to protect the fort and mind the Edmonton end of the rink?
The Oilers were already stacked at forward before Caggiula with Connor McDavid, Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent Hopkins, Leon Draissitl, Jordan Eberle, Nail Yakupov.
Now what?
I'll bet dollars to donuts that Oil GM Pete Chiarelli will be trading forwards-- plural-- at th e NHL Draft. Yakupov and Eberle should say their goodbyes to Edmonton now. I think they are going to be traded.
Maybe Chiarelli will trade his 4th overall pick in exhange for a package of players that includes a puck moving right shot D and a stay at home D.
I can also see a scenario where Chiarelli will use his #4 overall pick to get Sarnia left D Jakob Chychrun. London lefty Olli Juolevi, or Windsor lefty Mikhail Sergachev.
Chiarelli knows his defense is paper thin. So, why glom on to yet another small, skilled forward in Caggiula? That's like carrying four drivers in your golf bag with no pitching wedge, no sand wedge and no putter.
In other words, how are the Oilers going to keep the puck out of Cam Talbot's net next season?
Is Caggiula the panacea to Edmonton's 2.95 goals against average? That's 27th best in the NHL.
The Oilers allowed 242 goals against this past season. Only Arizona, Columbus and Calgary allowed more goals to be scored against.
Maybe Chiarelli intends on outscoring opponents 7-6 or 8-7 every game this season.
Darnell Nurse is good, and may well become great in the yesrs yo come, however, he can't play 60 minutes per game for 82 games.
Reggie Sekera and Brandon Davidson can get the job done, but where is the blue line greatness that the Oil have desperately been missing for a decade? Sorry to break it to you, Todd McLellan. Nikita Nitkinin, Mark Fayne, Adam Pardy and Adam Clendening don't scare NHL opponents.
Just sayin'.
The Oilers can score goals and recruit flashy forwards like nobody's business because the play a fun, uptempo, high octane system on offense.
When are the Oilers going to come to the realization that they need to add 3 or 4 NHL defensemen?
The Oilers will not become a playoff team until their address their blue line in a serious manner. Western bosses LA, Chicago, San Jose, Anaheim, and St. Louis are difficult team to play against in all three phases of the game. Edmonton has been a push over for nearly a decade. They cannot compete for 82 games and the playoffs with the Western stud teams.
There is much work to be done in Edmonton this summer. I'll be watching to see if Chiarelli bucks up and addresses his below average D corps.
Caggiula also considered the Buffalo Sabres, Vancouver Canucks, Chicago Blackhawks, Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, Ottawa Senators and New York Rangers.
Caggiula was an undrafted free agent.
During his final year, Caggiula had a career-high 25 goals and 51 points in leading NoDak to the NCAA national championship. Caggiula was named the NCAA Frozen Four’s Most Outstanding player for scoring four goals in two games.
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