I’m back home in Edmonton after my lengthy trip to Atlantic Canada and I would like to thank everybody who stepped up and added Oilers coverage while I was away. While I was away the world did not stop. The Oilers just don’t cease operations waiting for me to return. And so we have a lot to talk about. Here, below, is a comprehensive list of all the moves the Oilers made while I was gone.
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OK, well. I looked into it and the Oilers didn’t do anything while I was away except for a few community initiatives. I guess there was also the announcement that all 82 Oiler games would be televised by Sportsnet but this is 2015 and frankly I expect every game on TV. As someone who covers the Oilers all year round (including the preseason), the fact that only 1 preseason game will be televised makes me sad.
It means that I’ll be streaming the games via the sometimes (always) questionable Oiler online feeds. But summertime is for happiness and hope so maybe this season everything will be that much better. At the end of the day almost 44% of Edmonton’s games will be televised nationally and that means a lot of people are going to have their eyes on young Connor and the group that Chiarelli has collected.
As I said before the Draft, Chiarelli was going to have his team all but set by the middle of July and that’s what it looks like today now that we are in August. There IS still room for one or two changes though, especially with players like Franson still out there waiting to be signed.
It would necessitate another move late but Chiarelli has experience making last minute transactions before the season starts. We are very late into the summer and both of Ehrhoff and Franson are still unsigned. If the price drops on them it might start to make sense for the GM to boost the Defense more. As of right now the Oilers only have 2.88M in Cap Space (as per General Fanager) which means there’s a tiny bit of wiggle room now. By the trade deadline that number will be much larger should they find themselves in the position to actually be buyers.
In the event that the Oilers would be sellers then that space can also be helpful because it would allow them to retain 50% of the remaining salary on players like Nikitin and Purcell. As much as I want the Oilers to keep making their Defense better, there’s no question that the little bit of Cap space that they do still have is an asset in itself. Using that space really should only be if management is sure it is upgrading a spot and since there is a new General Manager and a new Coach we can’t be sure they know exactly what they have in place right now.
We know the coach has a legitimate resume and is in the prime of his career. We know the GM is an astute guy with a solid track record and has himself already built a Stanley Cup champion as the man running the show. But once we get to the roster the amount of question marks we still have is concerning. I imagine it will take a couple of months before Chiarelli and McLellan really feel comfortable with their assessment of many Oiler players.
And so we continue to wait.
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