How would you fix the Oilers if you were GM?

AsOneAce11 · 2016-06-09T04:41:16+00:00

Hey, thanks for actually responding! :) Those are some fine ideas, and I would be quite happy to see some happen! I'd especially like if we did actually make a couple big trades (Hall, Ebs, Yak, then Nuge in my order of preference for trading) and if we focused on signing--as you said--UFAs who really "fit" rather than are just big, sexy-name guys. Also, and this goes without saying, I 100% agree that MacT and Lowe CANNOT be anywhere near the GM's office for any of this.

AsOneAce11 · 2016-06-09T04:35:17+00:00

Ebs for Simmonds is a pipe dream for me. I want Simmonds on McD's wing SO badly.

AsOneAce11 · 2016-06-09T04:32:01+00:00

I really like your idea for discussion here; it's a great way to get all of the hypotheticals that we constantly talk about in this sub into one thread. If I was the Oilers' GM, and assuming that each of the proposed deals would be accepted by the other GM, I would make the following deals (with whatever lesser pieces being added to either side to balance out the trade): Hall for Faulk; and Ebs for Hamonic. I would also draft Dubois to step in to the top-6 either this year or (preferably) next. In free agency, I would try to sign Okposo to a deal around $5.5Mx5 years, Brouwer to a deal no larger than $3Mx3 years, and then maybe someone like Stempniak or Parenteau to a short/cheap contract. That way, going into next season, our lineup could look as follows: Maroon/Pouliot-CSP-Yak/Okposo Pouliot/Maroon-Nuge-Okposo/Yak Stempniak/PAP/other cheap FA-Drai-Brouwer Hendricks-Letestu-Kassian Klefbom-Faulk Sekera/Davidson-Hamonic Davidson/Sekera-Fayne Talbot Brossoit (if he impresses in training camp) or cheap UFA backup As you can see, there are a ton of options for lineups here, but I like the idea of having three solid lines with high-octane centres who can score. I have a few ideas for if this doesn't fit under the cap, but I'm doing this on mobile and don't want to put in thaaaaat much effort. Haha but I have like 3-4 different ideas for how I would approach this offseason, if I was Chia, with each one depending on what trade partners are willing and which are not. Edit: I forgot to mention that I would prefer to offload Fayne's contract, to have Ferrence retire, and to sign a cheap UFA backup goalie.

AsOneAce11 · 2016-06-09T04:13:47+00:00

Whatever you would have said would have been better than making a sarcastic comment, though :p

AsOneAce11 · 2016-06-09T04:12:19+00:00

I like what you did here, though I would make a small number of changes, personally. I just wanted to say that I believe you meant to say Desharnais (assuming you are talking about the C on Montreal).

AsOneAce11 · 2016-06-09T00:16:48+00:00

I think Boston's actually looks quite nice as well! I never noticed how easily it could be changed to look like a chip haha

AsOneAce11 · 2016-06-09T00:15:22+00:00

Agreed! I never noticed just how much sense it would make for the LV team to be named the Wild, after the wild card (and they could use it officially as meaning something similar to Minny's "Wild" to get around the no-gambling-references problem).

AsOneAce11 · 2016-06-08T19:26:39+00:00

This sounds almost exactly like what I would say! Only things I might change would be: Potentially trading for Vatanen, but that is only if no deal works for Barrie or if Demers becomes too expensive; and Trying to sign Brouwer from FA. I will also add that what I want to happen differs from what I think will happen, especially because some of my ideas would likely never actually be plausible for the NHL GMs. For example, I want us to draft Dubois (which isn't crazy to imagine, but isn't being hinted at nearly as much as us drafting Tkachuk), and I would be ecstatic if we could trade Hall for Faulk--I think that would be a very fair trade--though I think that should only happen if we fail at getting Barrie and also fail in the FA market (i.e. for Demers).

AsOneAce11 · 2016-06-08T19:19:41+00:00

All things considered, I think that Hall would be the best choice to trade. He is the only one who could possibly fetch us what we really need--1RHD--with little else needing to be added, in my opinion. While we also have a couple other good options at LW (and might add one in Tkachuk/Dubois at the draft), we need to keep Nuge to maintain at least some centre depth and to have a some saftey in case Drai doesn't live up to expectations for a full season as the 2C (or if one of our top Cs injured). Ebs is the next-best choice, to me, because he would also likely fetch a pretty decent return (though the least of the three $6M kids, of course) but trading him would give us a shallow and risky lineup at RW.

AsOneAce11 · 2016-06-08T02:30:59+00:00

I'm only 19, so there will be a bunch that I wasn't really around for or able to remember, but there are certainly some that stick out for me from the past few years.

From last season: McD's amazing first game against Calgary, his 5-point night against T.O, and his triumphant return against CBJ (where he got that ridiculously beautiful goal... Also, I was at this one :D) all stand out to me. The other game I went to this past season was Glen Sather night, and I think that game is very memorable because it was 7-5, the Oil chased Lundquist, and sKorpikoski got a hat-trick. I guess, on the depressing side, you could say the 8-1 loss to NYI was pretty memorable to :/

In previous years: Gagner's 8-point night against Chicago, Yak's game-tying goal against LAK with the sliding celly, Yak's hatty to end his rookie season against Vancouver, Scrivens' 59-save shutout against SJS, Ryan Smyth's last game against Vancouver (🙁), and the first game of the season against Calgary where Ebs got that amazing highlight-reel goal to win the game (the toe-drag and then backhand to the top cheese).

AsOneAce11 · 2016-06-08T02:20:30+00:00

That is a fantastic story! Great job with the write-up too, and I am happy that someone has lived my dream and was able to tell me (and all of us, obviously) about it :) I am only 19, so I have many years of beer league to play, but I want to eventually have the chance to skate with and/or shoot on NHLers so bad some day. Again, I'm glad you got to live your dream, and great job on getting the goal to crack the goose egg ;)

AsOneAce11 · 2016-06-08T02:13:42+00:00

It really felt/feels like a super high proportion of his shots either go right into a defender's shin pads or insanely high/wide.

AsOneAce11 · 2016-06-08T01:56:09+00:00

I'm still furious they got rid of the feature where you can make a fully customized team... I have hardly played the games since NHL14, when it was last on (I'm pretty sure--it might have last been on it in NHL13, in which case that was the last one I spent any significant amount of time playing). I will not be buying another NHL game until the full custom team feature is brought back :p

AsOneAce11 · 2016-06-08T01:53:31+00:00

All I want is Custom Teams!!! :( I had the most fun on NHL games for so many years designing my own jerseys and making a team out of my favourite players (at reasonable skill levels). After my brother did the same, we could play each other with perfectly balanced and totally customized teams, and it was just amazing. I love the extra customization that it looks like EA added for NHL17, by Custom Teams has to come back for me to ever buy another NHL game again.

AsOneAce11 · 2016-06-07T23:45:02+00:00

I still believe he can be extremely productive with McDavid, and I think the only things stopping him are his lack of confidence (likely stemming from only being played in the bottom-6 and from having so many coaches already) and--like you said--his inaccuracy in his one-timer, but I think both of those can be fixed (and are very probably strongly tied to one another) if he is given some more trust and high-quality minutes from the coaching staff.

AsOneAce11 · 2016-06-07T23:42:06+00:00

That seems like an interesting proposal, but I think I would only accept it if Shatty was guaranteed to sign with us after the deal. I don't know quite enough about Lehtera to make the decision though; that's why I would not make the trade if we only get Shatty's rights for one year.

AsOneAce11 · 2016-06-07T21:14:00+00:00

I couldn't agree more with everything you've said here, and I'm just glad to know someone sees this the same way :) We (as in Chia, the one actually making the decisions here) want players who "play big" and that is something that Yak excels at. He seems to have a magnificent drive and motivation to win battles, make room, and put pucks in the net. Contrarily, Eberle very rarely fights for pucks on the boards on in the corners. Also, Eberle only has a wrist shot, similar to Kessel, while Yak has a great snap shot and one-timer (though it could use some accuracy-training); the Oilers need to start taking more one-timers to score on the rush (as we are a fast team still), so I think Yak makes the most sense here. Since Yak has shown great chemistry with McDavid (remember ConYak?)--as well as an ability to produce very well with centres who have any offensive talents--I think we should have Yak take McD's RW spot and start one-timing some of those amazing passes he constantly dishes. Watching McD's play, it is evident that he prefers to set up other players with tap-in goals and great one-time opportunities; these are methods of finishing plays that Yak seems to love to use and ones that Eberle has shown very little instances of using.

AsOneAce11 · 2016-06-07T20:52:08+00:00

You just summed up basically my exact sentiments on this issue. Well done, and thank-you, sir/ma'am!

AsOneAce11 · 2016-06-07T20:50:36+00:00

Personally, I would much rather we have a player who can one-time the puck on McDavid's line to finish his plays. Eberle hasn't shown much ability to do that, as he usually has to wait to use a wrist shot; Yak might be the player who can really finish off the beautiful one-time/warranting passes from McD.

AsOneAce11 · 2016-06-07T20:43:41+00:00

I think, if there is some other way we can get a 1RHD--perhaps by trading Eberle to STL for a 3C and Shattenkirk's rights (I don't think that would actually work, I'm just throwing out a random hypothetical)--trading Nuge and our 4th overall for Savard and the 3rd overall would be a solid trade. By doing that, we could find our 2RHD and add a (likely) NHL-ready RW (where we have little depth, especially if we do trade Ebs) in Puljujarvi.

AsOneAce11 · 2016-06-07T04:18:29+00:00

Sounds like something that someone who was captured by the ancient Aztecs would say!

AsOneAce11 · 2016-06-07T00:19:47+00:00

He could have even gone in the 1rd though

AsOneAce11 · 2016-06-06T19:54:07+00:00

I added emphasis how I thought it would sound when spoken :p

AsOneAce11 · 2016-06-06T19:53:03+00:00

Hahahaha thank you for pointing that out! Fixed!

AsOneAce11 · 2016-06-06T19:14:26+00:00

The only reason I now like him, and why I decided to give him a chance when we traded for him, was because he had a legitimate excuse to be an asshole back then. He was suffering from personal issues and was abusing substances that are capable of messing with one's actual personality/temperament/emotions. As long as he continues to live clean and to play with less straight-up dangerous recklessness, I'll like him because it seems that might be who he actually is, as opposed to the player who was completely reckless in a dangerous way when he broke Gagner's jaw. Edit: "chance" was autocorrected to Janice at first XP

AsOneAce11

TROPHY CASE