Tomorrow the Edmonton Oilers open their season in Vancouver to take on the Canucks. Expectations are high for the Oilers this year with many pundits picking them as Cup favorites or at the very least a contending team. Regardless there is an expectation from the fanbase that this team needs to win. Anything short of a Cup is now utter disappointment and fans are going to be fired up.
LAVOIE AND JANMARK DEBATE That is why there was such a backlash over the weekend when Edmonton announced that they were putting Raphael Lavoie on waivers. There is a reason why the team had to do it. Marcus Niemelainen got injured during the pre-season and while the defender is not making the team, they cannot send down a player who is injured.
Because Edmonton is right up against the cap, that meant that they needed to send someone else down in order to be cap compliant. That is why Ken Holland risked sending Lavoie down. Luckily the 6'4 shoot first winger did clear waivers.
That was a risk I did not like and I felt that Edmonton should have instead risked Mattias Janmark on waivers. The winger has a 1 million dollar cap hit and by my own eye was the 5th best LW in training camp: Kane, RNH, Foegele, and Holloway above him. Last season the Oilers also put Janmark on waivers and sent him down and he was not claimed.
Janmark is a fine 4th line option. He has some good defensive instincts and he can score some goals. He also did play a fair amount on the PK but he wasn't a PK savant. As I outlined in a previous blog, RNH and Janmark actually performed worse together when killing penalties.
To me it is all about the player's ceiling. We all know exactly what Janmark is; a 4th line defensive player. We do not yet know what Lavoie is. He could be a miss and never be a regular NHLer. But he could also be a top nine or even a top six winger and the Oilers are severely lacking in forward prospects that are projecting that way.
Fans will disagree on what the right call was in this situation. Ultimately it did not matter because Lavoie cleared. What does matter is Ken Holland's words after this:
In short, Holland said he expects Lavoie to get between 10-30 games this season and that the Oilers can only carry 12 forwards and need guys who can play and that they cannot go through growing pains.
That last statement in particular I vehemently disagree with.
The beginning of the season is exactly when the Oilers should be going through their growing pains. Have Lavoie playing games, have Holloway in a top 9 role, see if Holloway and Foegele can kill penalties, play Broberg with Ekholm, see if RNH can play goal. Everything (except that last statement) should be on the table for Woodcroft.
Let me run through a very plausible scenario. The Edmonton Oilers have Lavoie sent down. They have Janmark, Ryan, and Erne on the 4th line. They play together for a large chunk of the season until an injury occurs and Janmark is out of the lineup. Now the team is trying to replace Janmark on the PK and have someone else playing impactful minutes on the 4th line. Lavoie gets the call up in February but the coach doesn't trust him so he gets 7 minutes a game and obviously isn't making a difference in that time and now we are approaching the deadline and Holland has to spend assets to bring in someone that should be able to be replaced internally.
Maybe Lavoie can score 15+ goals and maybe he can't. All I am saying is it is far better to find out in October and November that he isn't ready than February and March.
ADAM ERNE's A CONTRACT (PROBABLY) Quickly on Adam Erne. We don't have confirmation but it's looking like Ken Holland is going to sign the forward, likely to a league minimum contract. This narrative writes itself; Ken Holland signs a player he knew of from Detroit who doesn't bring much in terms of production but he hits a bunch and has played in NHL games so obviously that means he is good. Erne really didn't do much by my eye to earn a spot, especially over the likes of Pederson and Lavoie but here we are.
PRIDE TAPE
It was a huge disappointment and a massive step backwards by the NHL when the announcement came out this weekend that the league was banning the use of pride tape this season. The rainbow coloured tape has been around for several years now and used throughout Hockey is For Everyone month around the NHL as a way to state that members of the LGBTQ+ community are welcome in the hockey community.
For those who weren't aware, Pride Tape originated in Edmonton, specifically with the University of Alberta but quickly grew when NHLers like Andrew Ference, Connor McDavid, and other notable figures in hockey like Brian Burke started to advocate for it. Soon all NHL teams had adopted it.
Last season there were massive debates and arguments as players like Ivan Provorov, Andrei Kuzmenko, and Eric and Marc Staal refused to participate in warm-ups where the rest of their teammates were wearing Pride jerseys. I was dissapointed in those players decisions. Those who were in favor of them stated that players should not be forced to wear something they don't believe in.
"Forced," is exactly what the NHL has now done by stating they are banning Pride Tape. It is no longer a matter of allowing those who do not wish to participate to sit out... instead it is blocking those who do want to participate from doing so.
I hope that there are still teams and players around the NHL who will stand up to this ruling and risk the fines or punishments and use Pride Tape proudly. The NHL still has the gall to try and promote "Hockey Is For Everyone" while at the same time signaling it in fact is not.
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Looking forward to discussing the Oilers vs Canucks tomorrow!