Category Archives: Management

Oilers Get Their 3C – Sign Riley Sheahan

Word is that the Oilers have signed Riley Sheahan to team friendly contract.

Sheahan should be a good fit on the Oilers at 3C and just maybe fans can start thinking about the possibility of fighting for a playoff spot.  Here are Sheahans career numbers:

Are the Oilers about to sign Derick Brassard?

According to Big George the Oilers are about to sign Derick Brassard to a one year deal. 

I would be on board with a Brassard signing for 1 year, presumably at a low cap hit. He would fit right in at 3rd line center.

2018 NHL Draft

Oilerhockey Draft Rankings 11 – 20

This is a follow up to Oilershockey’s Top 10 Draft Rankings – April to list the players I’ve ranked from 11 – 20 for the upcoming NHL draft.

11 C Rasmus Kupari 6’2 183lbs – FIN – Shoots Right

League: Liiga – 39gp 6g 8a 14pts NHLE: 12.8

Kupari is a strong skilled skater with an above average shot. While his NHLE number doesn’t look great we need to be aware that Kupari’s minutes were limited after being called up and he did have a strong performance at the U18 tournament picking up 7 points in 4 games.
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Vegas Knights

Who Will The Oilers Expose In The Upcoming Expansion Draft?

The NHL will hold an expansion draft on June 21st of this year in which the Vegas Golden Knights will pick one player from each team to build its roster for the 2017/18 season.  Each team will have the ability to protect a list of players from the expansion draft but are required to expose a minimum number of players who meet certain criteria.
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Oilers trade Nail Yakupov for Cap Space and a Pick

The Oilers have traded Nail! Sad days.

Nail Yakupov to the Blues for Zach Pochiro and a conditional pick.

There has been all kinds of speculation that Yakupov had asked for a trade and that the Oilers were close to trading him last season but honestly we’ll never know for certain how much truth there is to this stuff. What we do know is that Peter Chiarelli has now traded two of the wonder kids from the previous administration and in both cases cap space was a large part of the decision.
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Will Peter Chiarelli Make Bold Moves?

The Edmonton Oilers have given full control of the Oilers to Peter Chiarelli, naming him President of Hockey Operations and General Manager. Chiarelli is going to take a few weeks to assess the team and players to see exactly where his positions of strength and weakness are before making any moves, but he will make moves. Given his track record of making big trades in Boston I think we can expect a big trade or two this summer.

The Weaknesses

The weaknesses on the Oilers are pretty obvious, they need a starting goalie and they need a couple of top pairing defensemen if they want a shot at making the playoffs next season. They may have an opportunity to get a piece or two via free agency but typically that requires an overpayment and I’m not sure thats a good idea in Edmonton so I expect Chiarelli to make a couple of trades to fill these areas.
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Will Bob Nicholson Clean House?

Yeah. I thinks so.

If Nicholson had finished his evaluation of the current management group and concluded that they were the right group going forward he would have made that announcement by now but it was clear in his press conference that he wants to wait until the playoffs are over.

The only reason to wait for the end of the playoffs before an announcement is he has decided that the current group just isn’t getting the job done but hasn’t settled on the replacements yet. There may be potential pieces to this puzzle who are currently working for other teams and Bob hasn’t yet had the chance to recruit them.
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