The Oilers goaltending and defense has been sorted out quite well during the offseason, but what is to be done with the forwards? This is one of the hardest areas to address for Edmonton, as what they are seeking is another top six winger.
However, in my opinion, they need to load up on their depth, rather than their scoring as they have a good degree of that already. The injury bug is something that haunts every team, and the Oilers need to make sure their bottom six is ready for such an eventuality. For me, these are two low risk players the Oilers should acquire going into next season.
The Kirby Dach Redemption
Kirby Dach was acquired by Montreal with hopes of him becoming a top 6 forward in the NHL. This has not happened to say the least. Injuries have haunted Dach over the four seasons he has spent with the Habs, and he has never been able to find his footing.
Furthermore,the Habs play a high tempo forcheck game, which focuses on love rish plays at the opposing blue line, and dumping pucks with high energy puck retrievals. This does not fit Dach’s game as he is not a fast skater and often does not utilize his size. Also, he’s been a whipping boy for the fans and the media alike, so I think a change of scenery would be ideal.
With the Oilers, he could play the wing on a line with his brother Colton Dach, and perhaps this would spark that emotional, physical part of Dach’s game. Also, Kirby has a tremendous amount of skill, and could slot up at wing on the top two lines should injuries require this or simply to shake things up. A second line of Podkolzin-Draisaitl-Dach would be an interesting experiment, as it would be a line with a lot of skill, size and hockey IQ.
Dach is on a one year, 3.6 million dollar deal, so the risk and cost is low, and acquiring him should be a second to fourth round pick, so I think the Oilers should be all over this.
Bring Back Noah Philp
I know this is a strange request, but I would bring back Noah Philip, who the Oilers quite foolishly lost on waivers to the Carolina Hurricanes last year. I absolutely love how he plays. He has underrated hockey IQ , is great defensively and uses his big body to separate players from pucks. The Oilers need to get bigger and more aggressive in their bottom six, and Philip addresses this.
He is currently a free agent, and I doubt a new deal would be much higher than a two way league minimum deal. Left to his own devices, this guy can play, and I would suit him up for all 82 games. He does not need to score, he just needs to play structured, smart hockey, which he already does.
Other than that, I would not do much. I'd avoid the Tarasenko’s of the world and wait for the trade deadline to see if they can bring in an impact winger via trade as a rental. The Oilers have several good players up front, all they need is defensive tenacity and structure .