Yesterday a couple of reports surfaced about the Oilers that are worth addressing further. First Elliotte Friedman reported on the interest of the Flyers for Oiler defenseman Jeff Petry and then Steve Simmons (I know, I know) reported on the Oilers' apparent interest in Mark Messier as their Head Coach if Eakins falters.
PETRY
5) so it's tough to check, but word is he's staying for now. PHI has interest in EDM D Jeff Petry, but not cap room to make it work now.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) October 26, 2014The Flyers are desperate for NHL defensemen but they have a serious Cap problem. They only have 550k available to them right now and that means talent has to come out of the lineup for other talent to come in. Jeff Petry makes 3.075M this season which makes things very difficult in terms of making a swap of any kind. However, Friedman is the cream of the hockey reporting crop and if he says the Flyers are interested then we can believe they really are.
The Oilers would either have to take salary on from the Flyers or they would have to retain salary on Petry. Barring Philadelphia doing something unexpected like making Streit or Voracek available in an effort to cut salary, I think it's more likely and better that the Oil retain 50% of Petry's salary. The club can afford it, it's only for one year, and it makes his value significantly higher.
Petry is a pending UFA and because he is on a 1 year deal he cannot be extended yet. Any team that would take him now cannot "officially" begin negotiations on the next contract. I'm not so naive to think these kinds of things can't be skirted around, but it still stands that a team trading for him has no guarantee of keeping him beyond this season and UFA defensemen tend to get paid well.
With half of his Salary retained Jeff Petry is only a 1.5M Cap hit and the possibilities become tantalizing. With additional pieces added from the farm or next year's draft the Oilers might set their sights on Schenn or Couturier. Both names would represent the very high end of the spectrum of possibilities, I believe. Both are relatively young and will still be under club control after their current deals end. For other teams the thought of trading either would be far fetched, but the Flyers have never been afraid of moving quality pieces.
From an Oilers perspective a Center who can slot into Draisaitl or Arcobello's spot would be ideal. Unfortunately for the club, Jeff Petry has been an important cog in their defensive machine. When the coaching staff re-ordered the ice-time for their pairings over the last 3 Wins it's been Jeff Petry who has seen the most ice. By playing time only, Petry is the club's 1D right now.
Moving him might net the Oilers something they want, but it will rob them of something they likely need.
MESSIER
Steve Simmons is a professional shift-disturber so everything he says should be taken with a big grain of salt, but he notes here that the Oilers were/are extremely close to replacing Eakins with Mark Messier. The early season struggles apparently created enough panic that the club believed that was a viable option. Something to keep in mind, this isn't the first time we've heard the Oilers were interested in Messier.
Now it seems as though the Oilers would be the only NHL team that would consider appointing Messier into a Head Coaching position at this level without having any kind of resume to support it. It has been conjecture for some time that Messier walked away from the Rangers after they decided to go with Vigneault (a coach with an impeccable resume filled with actual coaching). He seems to believe that he doesn't actually need to do any of that silly coaching stuff in order to be a coach.
I'm probably not being fair. 4 years ago Messier coached the Spengler Cup team to a loss against the Russians. So he has 4 games on his resume (in which his decisions were questioned greatly). That's 4 more games than me so at least if both of us were evaluated based on our prior coaching history he would blow me out of the water (even though I think I could coach the Spengler team to a loss too). The problem is that he's not going up against me. He's going up against actual coaches...who have coached...a lot.
Needless to say, I disapprove greatly with the team even considering Mark Messier as a coach unless it's for the ECHL team, because I wouldn't remove Nelson for Messier either. It's completely preposterous that Messier would even think he deserves to be a Head Coach in the NHL without ever being one anywhere else before. If the greatest player in the world couldn't translate into a successful Head Coach I don't see how the Oilers could bank on Messier doing it.
The facts are that the Edmonton Oilers have missed the playoffs for 8 straight years. This is no time to hand the reigns over to a guy who has no clue what he's doing just because he used to be one heck of player and teammate.
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