Move back in the draft or keep No. 4?
Either way, the Oilers are hungry for some help on blue line
While there’s persistent talk of the Edmonton Oilers moving back in the draft from the No. 4 hole, they’ve only made that move once in 37 drafts.
They struck out wildly, if you recall the 2003 Marc Pouliot selection.
The Oilers had the 17th choice that June and tried mightily to deal to get into the top 10 for a shot at a defenceman.
“(Ryan) Suter is the guy we really wanted and Kevin (thenOilers general manager Lowe) tried really hard to move up. (Nashville, picking seventh) refused to do it. They weren’t interested,” said former head of amateur scouting Kevin Prendergast, who now works for the Buffalo Sabres.
When fellow big blueliners Brayden Coburn went to Atlanta at No. 8 and Dion Phaneuf to Calgary at No. 9, they missed out on them, too. They liked Kent Nilsson’s son, winger Robert, at No. 15 (looking at bloodlines), but the New York Islanders took him.
When it came time for No. 17, New Jersey came running to the Oilers draft table and offered an extra second-rounder to move back five spots to their No. 22.
The Oilers didn’t think Zach Parise — a college centre, not a winger at the time — was right for them in the middle because he was too small.
The New Jersey Devils thought otherwise and took Parise at No. 17. They were right. The Oilers wound up with the aforementioned Pouliot at No. 22 and forward J.F. Jacques with the additional second-rounder at No. 68.
“It’s one we’d really like back, believe me,” Prendergast said. “(Parise) did not have a good Final Four (playing at U of North Dakota). He struggled with his skating. He wasn’t that big and the league was getting bigger.
“We really liked Jacques (Doug MacLean, then Columbus GM, applauded the pick, as I recall), but his back injury killed him. He was going to be a big guy who could fight.
“We liked Pouliot that year … he was on a crappy team (Rimouski) but he still had 88 points, I think.” Actually, 73. They also felt Ryan Getzlaf could be there at No. 22, the flip with New Jersey.
“Yeah, he was in the mix for sure,” Prendergast said.
But he went 19th to Anaheim. Pouliot, 31, played 192 games for the Oilers and has spent the last four seasons in Switzerland.
The only time it looked as if the Oilers would give up their firstrounder entirely was in 2013, when they coveted Vancouver Canucks goalie Cory Schneider.
They offered their No. 7 and either a second-rounder or a young player, but the Canucks wouldn’t move him to a rival, taking Jersey’s No. 9 overall instead.
In 2002, the Oilers tried hard to get the No. 4 overall pick from Philly to take D Joni Pitkanen, but the Flyers got him for winger Ruslan Fedotenko and two seconds.
“There were three defencemen in that draft (Jay Bouwmeester at No. 3, Pitkanen at No. 4 and Ryan Whitney at No. 5),” Prendergast said.
Boumeester went to Florida, Whitney to Pittsburgh.
So now we have the 2016 draft and here are four scenarios for the Oilers: 1.
Moving from No. 4 to No. 3 to take Finnish winger Jesse Puljujarvi.
This is who the Oilers really like, but they lost the lottery and Columbus GM Jarmo Kekalainen says he’s had two good offers (probably Edmonton and somebody else) for the pick. It doesn’t appear he’s budging “Jarmo’s Finnish and so’s Puljujarvi. He loves him and he’s not giving up a Finn,” one longtime amateur scout said. Puljujarvi has been overshadowed in recent weeks by Matthew Tkachuk and PierreLuc Dubois, but he’s a cut above them. He can play in the NHL this fall on right wing, a weakness for the Oilers. The 6-foot-4, 203-pound Puljujarvi had 28 points in 50 games and nine in 10 in the playoffs in Karpat in the Finnish Elite League this year. He turned 18 on May 7. Chances: Very slim. 2.
Trading the No. 4 pick in a package to get a ready-made, Top 2 NHL defenceman.
Unless it’s the Montreal Canadiens’ P.K. Subban and they flip the fourth for the Canadiens’ ninth and we’re talking Top 6 forwards such as Taylor Hall or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins going to Montreal, this is probably a non-starter. They’re not moving the No. 4 for Carolina’s Justin Faulk, a No. 2 blue-line likelihood but not a workhorse like Subban. Montreal would be very interested because they’d like to take centre/winger Pierre-Luc Dubois, and there’s no way he’ll be around at No. 9. Chances: Slim. 3.
Trading back from No. 4 to No. 6 to get Russian D Mikhail Sergachev.
I like this idea, actually. This would involve the Oilers getting another second-round pick from somebody to go with their No. 32 pick or a good, young prospect from another team. “Sergachev is the best all-around defenceman in the draft and (Finn Olli) Juolevi is probably the smartest defenceman,” one veteran amateur scout said. The Oilers like Tkachuk and Dubois, but Sergachev is close behind. Arizona appears to like Juolevi better, but would Buffalo pass on Sergachev at No. 8? I say no. Chances: Fair. 4.
Keeping the pick at No. 4, only the second time ever (Jason Bonsignore, 1994) they’ve had that number.
The Oilers may be leaning toward Tkachuk, but scouts are divided on Tkachuk and Dubois at No. 4. “I’m a little worried about Tkachuk’s skating in today’s NHL game, especially after watching Pittsburgh, but on the power play, he’s impossible to move and he finds the soft spots to shoot. And he’s got a great shot,” one amateur scout said. “Dubois plays a better 200-foot game, can play all the forward positions and is a better skater. He’s not going to fight, but he’s aggressive — and big.” The Oilers need a defenceman more than a winger, but it’s tough to pass on the very talented Tkachuk or Dubois. They need the 210-pound Sergachev more from an organizational standpoint, but is he any better coming out of junior than Darnell Nurse, who went No. 7 in 2013? Chances: Good.
SHORT SHIFTS
The Oilers certainly had salarycap room (at least $10 million) to take on Bryan Bickell’s $4-million contract for next season to get centre/winger Teuvo Teravainen from Chicago — Teravainen could have been plugged into the No. 3 centre hole — but that would have given them 15 signed forwards for 2016-17, barring trades. It’s expected they’ll move Nail Yakupov’s $2.5-million at the draft and might want to find a taker for Lauri Korpikoski’s similar salary, but that might be difficult. If they trade Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle or Ryan NugentHopkins, we’re not sure what’s coming back, either. Carolina is way under the cap, with just $48 million for 18 players, so taking Bickell was no problem for them.
The Oilers have been on the Sabres for a long while to see if they can acquire defenceman Rasmus Ristolainen for a winger (Eberle has probably been pitched), but it’s a non-starter. Buffalo needs wingers, for sure, but Ristolainen is untouchable. Probably even for Hall because the Sabres already have a similar player in Evander Kane.
Smart move by Carolina to re-up goalie Cam Ward at a very manageable $3.3-million cap hit. He’s only 32, still has some game left and were there better freeagent signing alternatives out there besides James Reimer?
The Blackhawks didn’t want to give up Teravainen, but their best forward prospect is University of North Dakota junior centre Nick Schmaltz (46 points in 37 games last year), so they have someone to take his place in the near future.
If the Oilers opt to protect eight skaters and one goalie in the expansion draft next June, here’s how it could look before any possible June trades are made (like Yakupov) with Connor McDavid and Darnell Nurse not having to be protected as two-year pros: Cam Talbot (G), Oscar Klefbom (D), Andrej Sekera (D), Brandon Davidson (D), Leon Draisaitl (F), Hall (F), Nugent-Hopkins (F), Patrick Maroon (F), Eberle (F). It could all be derailed by deals or free-agent signings. They would probably have winger Benoit Pouliot ($4-million salary) and D-man Mark Fayne ($3.5 million) available for their salaries and maybe the versatile Mark Letestu.
If I’m the Oilers, I’m not so sure I wouldn’t make a bigger push for the Islanders’ unrestricted free agent Kyle Okposo, a right winger, on July 1 than Milan Lucic. Both are 28, but the Oilers need right side help more.
The Flames, in need of a goalie, definitely won’t give up the No. 6 overall pick for Anaheim’s Fred Andersen, but I keep coming back to Pittsburgh’s Marc-Andre Fleury with Matt Murray holding the fort in their Stanley Cup run. The Pens have serious cap issues. What if they offered Fleury’s $5.75-million salary (three more years) to Calgary for, say, Boston University offensive D-man Brandon Hickey, who has caught a lot of peoples’ eyes, a secondround draft pick or goalie Joni Ortio and somebody like Joe Colborne or Michael Ferland off the Flames roster? Calgary really likes Ben Bishop, too, and with Andrei Vasilevskiy’s play for Tampa in the playoffs, he could be in play, but Tampa wants Sam Bennett. That’s probably a nonstarter.
Tomas Hertl’s new deal will probably be four years in the Jakob Silfverberg Anaheim range ($3.75 million a year) after Hertl made $925,000 last season in San Jose. Hertl missed the final four games of the finals with a sprained right knee.
The Habs are picking ninth and have only had the No. 9 slot once before, back in 1975 when they took Edmonton Oil Kings defenceman Robin Sadler, who didn’t want to be an NHLer. He had a brief WHA camp look with the Oilers, went to Europe and for years has been a realtor in Vancouver.
The Florida Panthers, now heavily into analytics, fired almost all their pro and amateur scouts, including Kent Nilsson. They did keep Peter Mahovlich as a pro scout.
The rich contract fourth-line centre Casey Cizakas got from the Isles (five years, average of $3.35 million per season) makes it dicier for the Wings trying to resign UFA Darren Helm and for other teams July 1, if it gets that far. Helm is a third-liner, very fast, versatile, but with very average hands (72 goals in 443 games).
With Mike Yeo brought on board to replace Ken Hitchcock in 2017-18, he’s the St. Louis Blues official head-coach-inwaiting. Last one I remember was John Muckler with the Oilers. When Wayne Gretzky was sold to the Los Angeles Kings in 1988, Glen Sather said he’d stay on as Oilers coach for one more year because he didn’t feel it was fair to step aside with No. 99 gone, right then and there. Muckler took over in 1989-90 and won a Cup right off the hop.