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A Deeper Dive Into A Fantastic July 1st |
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A "win" to me yesterday for the Edmonton Oilers would have been finding a way to bring back Janmark and Brown on the cheap, sign one top six forward to play with Draisaitl, and maybe a depth centre and defensemen to round out the roster. That is what I expected to be on the table with an Oilers team with limited cap space and no true GM behind the wheel.
Turns out having a GM was what was holding the team back all this time.
Let's start at the top of the roster with the two big adds in Jeff Skinner (1 year - 3 million) and Viktor Arvidsson (2 years - 4 million per)
ARVIDSSON
Let's get the bad out of the way first. Arvidsson gets hurt. The winger has dealt with a string of different injuries over his career; some related, some not but it seems like every year he is missing between 10-20 games. That is the bad news.
The good news is when he is in the lineup, he is an incredibly effective volume shooter and goal scorer. In 21/22 he had 227 shots on net in 66 games and in 22/23 he had 228 shots on net in 77 games. That would have ranked him third on the Oilers this past season ahead of Bouchard, Draisaitl, Foegele, and Kane to name a few. Arvidsson played only 18 regular season games this past year and still managed 59 shots on goal, that would have played him 12th among all Oilers forwards, ahead of players like Holloway, Perry, Ryan, and Gagner who all played more games than him.
The Oilers desperately need more players with a shoot first mentality who can generate their own chances at 5 on 5. The Oilers were one goal away from potentially winning the Stanley Cup and their best players were shutdown. Having a guy like Arvidsson certainly makes it more difficult for teams to defend.
JEFF SKINNER
Volume shooter and high end goal scorer #2 of the day was Jeff Skinner who was recently bought out by the Sabres. As I wrote yesterday, while Skinner certainly isn't a 9 million dollar player he is absolutely worth more than 3 million as well and this is a steal of a deal for the Oilers.
Last season in 74 games Skinner scored 24 goals on 211 shots, the year prior he scored 35 goals on 242 shots, and the year before that he scored 33 goals on 262 shots. Here is a fun stat from @NHL_Sid on Twitter.
The Oilers added two high end scoring wingers that produce at 5 on 5 and they did so for a grand total of 7 million dollars combined. Skinner is a 32 year old signed for one year while Arvidsson is a 31 year old signed for two years. This isn't the Ken Holland special of signing veteran players for long term deals until they are 37. These players should easily be able to produce at and above what their contract expects of them.
I was looking back at some of the wingers that Leon Draisaitl has played with over his career. We have seen the likes of McLeod, Holloway, Kane, Chiasson, Kahun, Reider, Foegele, Khaira, Kassian, and I'm sure I am forgetting others. Leon has an elite shot on the powerplay but at 5 on 5 he is far more of a cerebral passer. Jeff Jackson just added the two best wingers that Draisaitl will have ever played with all at one time. If part of the plan to get Draisaitl to sign long term is to give him legit talent to play with, this was certainly a step in the right direction.
The Oilers top six may look like this:
RNH-McDavid-Hyman
Skinner-Draisaitl-Arvidsson
That is arguably the most offensively gifted top six group collectively in the entire NHL. I'm actually curious to see if anyone thinks another team has more firepower.
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Now onto the bottom six.
CONNOR BROWN
I expected this one to happen but it was still great to see it get inked. Through the regular season, Connor Brown was always defensively sound but he simply could not find any type of scoring touch until late into the season, ending his regular season shooting 3.7% In the playoffs, Brown alongside Janmark were part of an absolute force on the PK, not only shutting down the best in the NHL, but scoring shorthanded.
The expectations for Brown this season will be that of a bottom six winger and now that he is healthy and not rehabbing, I think he can surpass those. I'm not suggesting he will be the 40-50 point top six option that Edmonton thought they were getting prior to last season, but a 10-12 goal scorer in the bottom six is certainly doable.
MATTIAS JANMARK
As I wrote above with Brown, Janmark was a serviceable fourth liner in the regular season but didn't bring much offense. In the playoffs though on the PK and alongside Brown, Janmark found another level to his game. The Janmark-Henrique-Brown line really clicked for the Oilers in those late round series and they will all be back again.
COREY PERRY
This was the one deal of the day I wasn't wild about. A one year deal at 1.15 (up to 1.45 with bonuses) seemed like an overpay for a 39 year old forward who was scratched for long stretches of the playoffs. It's clear the leadership core of this team and his teammates really like him and considering the other moves Jeff Jackson was still able to make, I will not be too harsh on this. Perry will be a good fourth line forward who will not play every game but will help keep the team level headed throughout the season.
ADAM HENRIQUE
After all of the other signings, I wasn't expecting to see anything else from the Oilers. They had spent their cap space and the roster was looking complete... then the two year 3 million a season contract was announced.
Looking at what other players were making (Wennberg 2 years at 5 mil...woof) I assumed Henrique was going to be priced out of the Oilers range but the veteran forward clearly liked what he saw from this team and wants to take another run at a Cup. Henrique is a versatile player who could play anywhere in the top nine as a centre or winger. We know he had some solid chemistry with Janmark and Brown and I am sure that is the exact trio we will see together on opening night.
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Throw in the additional signings of Connor Carrick, Josh Brown, Troy Stecher and signing RFA's Holloway and Broberg and the Oilers depth chart (not presumed lineup) looks like this:
Skinner-McDavid-Hyman
RNH-Draisaitl-Arvidsson
Holloway-Henrique-Brown
Janmark-McLeod-Perry
Ryan
Ekholm-Bouchard
Nurse-Ceci
Broberg-Stecher
Kulak-Brown
Skinner
Pickard
Delia
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Now you'll notice one name is not on that list; Evander Kane. As of today, the Oilers sit over the cap by 2.4 million. That is not including Broberg or Holloway who are RFA's and still need new contracts. Some work still needs to be done to this roster to make it cap compliant.
Looking at how media individuals, the team, and others are talking, it certainly looks like there is a belief that Evander Kane will not play next season for the Edmonton. Specifically, it looks like Kane might be on LTIR and miss the entire season, dealing with his sports hernia.
Kane is not the same physical power forward he once was, injuries have hampered his career and right now he is more of a liability than an asset. That isn't his fault but the fact remains the Oilers roster is pretty complete without him right now.
Some work still needs to be done. The defense still needs at least one more true top 4 option but that could be a deadline move as opposed to a locked in move right now.
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Overall, Jeff Jackson had a better July 1st and start to the off-season than any GM the Oilers have employed for almost the last 20 years. He doesn't want to be the GM but he is certainly good at it so far.
Thanks for reading
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • 
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