The last couple days have made the Oilers bottom six look a little less crowded, heading into next season. Devin Shore was signed to a two year deal worth $850,000 a season and Joakim Nygard and Gaetan Haas have signed six and five year deals respectively overseas. Nygard never seemed to make any headway with the Oilers but losing Haas hurts a little as many times he was the Oilers best bottom six centre. Skating for miles, it was Haas' forechecking abilities that made him a valuable asset. Like many in the Oilers bottom six, he didn't bring much of a scoring touch and hopefully a replacement is brought in who meets those needs.

Throughout these playoffs, we are seeing teams moving on that have scoring depth throughout their lineup. The Avalanche were thought to be a Cup favourite this season but have just been eliminated by the Golden Knights. MacKinnon struggled to produce in the last few games and that hurt the team mightily. For the Golden Knights in their last game it was guys who aren't exactly household names like Nick Holden and Keegan Kolesar who produced. To say a team like the Avs had depth issues, and then look at the names in the Oilers bottom six says about everything that needs to be said about the work Holland has to do.

On the flip side, the Canadiens have gotten further than essentially anyone expected, from a combination of excellent goaltending and a team defense system that has 100% buy in. The Islanders play a similar game but have more offensive weapons to deploy as well. Once again people are expecting the Golden Knights to walk over the Canadiens. I wouldn't count Montreal out yet.

Whether Holland brings in players who are responsible at 5 on 5 in goal prevention or brings in players who produce strong numbers in limited time at 5 on 5, additions need to be made. As I stated in my last blog, Devin Shore is a fine depth player but he does not accomplish either of those above details to any successful degree. Over a game or three sure, but not as a constant in the lineup player.

The Oilers ranked near the bottom of the league in terms of depth scoring. Go through the remaining playoff teams, guys like Kyle Palmieri, Alex Tuch, Travis Zajac, Josh Anderson, Blake Coleman, Yanni Gourde are being utilized as third line players. Each one of these players well surpasses anything the Oilers have in their current bottom six and some are improvements on options in the top six as well. Ken Holland absolutely needs to be looking at these teams. This is the bar for what the Edmonton Oilers need to have in order to be a team with the ability to make it to the final four.

Ken Holland has a near blank cheque worth of cap space this off-season. A single top six winger, a couple of Europeans to replace Haas and Nygard and a bottom six centre are all pieces that need to be addressed but even with those this is still a team with far too many holes. Some options can be addressed from within but I hope Holland is watching these playoffs and realizing that waiting for Holloway and Lavoie to be ready is not a competitive strategy.

The clock continues to tick away.

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