A Sunday Read! Defence, trades and the pipeline!

A happy Valentines Day to you and your one true love, the Edmonton Oilers. Sometimes you fight, sometimes it can be hard to love the Oilers. At the end of the day though, you love them through thick and thin! Let's look at what we might see tomorrow vs the Jets!

Some positives to note from the practice lines this morning as JP is back on the top line and Ethan Bear is in the lineup! Bouchard is playing on his off side which I don't love but I won't be too quick to judge because maybe he has done this before? Maybe in junior he did this and was successful. However the fact that Tippett believes that Caleb Jones is the 9th best d man is a bi of a joke to me. Look in his small sample size this season, Caleb Jones has had one of the better CORSI % of the all the defensemen on the team. He is just not being given a chance to show that he is valuable to this team. Now I will say that William Lagesson has emerged as a solid defensemen this season. I have always been told that if you don't notice a defensive defensemen, he is probably doing a good job! Lagesson has not been flashy and he hasn't made an egregious mistake! Which leads me to what the Oilers should do with this log jam of defensemen.

TRADES:

I struggled with this all day, what in the heck should the Oilers do on the back end! I think Nurse-Barrie actually has been very good. There are so many people right now calling out Holland for the acquisition of Barrie. He has finally come into his own, both on the powerplay and 5 on 5. Part of the reason being is that he is put in a position to succeed. Playing with the Oilers number 1 defensemen Nurse always helps! So what should the Oilers do? Honestly at this point there is a log jam on the right side, I will list them in order of importance...

Bear

Bouchard

Barrie

Koekoek on his wrong side

Larsson

Adam Larsson has not been a good defensemen this year. His CORSI for is the lowest of his career at 44% and his decision making has been poor at best. Defensively, right now I think Kris Russell has been better, Evan Bouchard has been better and Caleb Jones has been better. So why does Tippett continue to put Larsson in the Lineup? That is a question I still don't have the answer to. So let's say, hypothetically, that Adam Larsson has been traded and everybody esle stays the same. You get a 4th round pick for him and his contract to just leave. Here is what it looks like.

Nurse-Barrie

Laggesson-Bear

Jones-Bouchard

K.Russell

You can move Russell in and out of the lineup as you choose. Bear can take the right side on the PK or heck even Caleb Jones can do that job as well. If Tippett keeps putting Larsson in the lineup it is not only going to hurt the 5v5 it will also continue to hurt the 23rd ranked PK in the league. Which is not acceptable.

Pipeline News:

Some good news out of the Oilers draft picks! Check this stat out of Wisconsin!

This was going into last nights game, plus he played today and scored a beauty! In 13 games he has scored 8 goals and 25 points! Those numbers are Hobey Baker award calibre! Last year for Wisconsin he scored 17 points in 35 games, which was good enough to get him drafted in the 1st round by the Oilers. Now putting up these numbers, can we maybe see him in the Oilers Lineup as early as this year? Kyle Turris has not been as advertised so maybe bring in the 19 year old and see what he has? It worked for Cale Makar and the Avs! Give it a shot, the last regular season game for the Badgers is March 6th. Assuming they make it far into the Big 10 tournament, he can pay as early as late March!

Raphael Lavoie

He has also been very good playing in Sweden! 32 points in 42 games, yes he is playing in the 2nd best Swedish league but it is nice to see him laying well. Staying in Sweden, Philip Broberg has 11 points and is a +10 after coming back from injury!

Carter Savoie

The 19 year old was a 4th round pick in this past years draft. If you weren't a follower of the Sherwood Park Crusaders or around the city of St. Albert and said you knew this kid was going to be a great scorer, I'd call you a liar. In 20 games for the University of Denver he has 11 goals! Not too bad for the 5'9 forward! However if you did follow him before getting drafted, you would know that he can shoot the pill. Get this, before this year he played for the Crusaders in Sherwood Park and scored 53 goals! That is good for 3rd all time in Crusaders history! Before that he put 31 in the back of the net. Not too shabby

Will the Oilers have a Goalie of the future? Hopefully! Ilya Konovalov playing over in the KHL has a 2.62GAA and a .912 sv%. He has cooled off since his crazy hot start but the sv% is still above .900 which is great!

Next game is Winnipeg tomorrow!