Despite getting Connor McDavid’s long-term extension done early, the Edmonton Oilers are still going to have some tough contract talks to get through next summer. Among the toughest will be negotiations with Patrick Maroon, a pending unrestricted free agent who has blossomed into a serious offensive player during his time in Edmonton. We’re talking about…
2016-17 Edmonton Oilers: No. 77 LD Oscar Klefbom Oscar Klefbom was the Edmonton Oilers’ second first-round pick in the 2011 Draft, taken 18 selections after first overall choice Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Six seasons later, as Nugent-Hopkins searches for a niche on the Oilers roster, Klefbom has established himself as the team’s top defenceman. Klefbom was his…
The Edmonton Oilers’ roster would appear to be mostly complete, but the team still has some money to play with and arguably room for to add one more offensive weapon. When we discussed the remains of free agency on this site a month ago, the comments section overwhelmingly favoured one player over the rest of…
2016-17 Edmonton Oilers: No. 67 LW Benoit Pouliot I should start by saying that I’m a fan of Benoit Pouliot as a player. I like his speed, his offensive ability, his (when he’s playing well) physical game and to some degree I can live with dumb offensive zone penalties as the cost of doing business….
2016-17 Edmonton Oilers: No. 62 RD Eric Gryba I don’t want to exaggerate Eric Gryba’s importance to the Edmonton Oilers. He is, after all, probably best suited to his current No. 6/7 defenceman role. Yet, as a fan of both intelligent cap management and players who solve rather than create problems, it’s really easy to…
2016-17 Edmonton Oilers: No. 55 C Mark Letestu It’s perhaps easiest to think of Mark Letestu less as a hockey player and more as a combination of oddly useful specializations. There are a bunch of players scattered around the league that I’d take over Letestu on a random 5-on-5 shift. But an NHL game is…
The Edmonton Oilers have already started making salary cap sacrifices, and while they’re in good shape for this season it’s likely that they’ll have to make another move next year. In this week’s edition of What Would You Do Wednesday, we ask you which player should be first on the chopping block when the time…
2016-17 Edmonton Oilers: No. 50 G Jonas Gustavsson The career of Edmonton Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli makes it clear that he considers the backup goalie position a place where he can save some cap space. It’s an approach that has worked fairly well for him over the years. In Boston players such as Anton Khudobin,…
2016-17 Edmonton Oilers: No. 54 LW Jujhar Khaira Jujhar Khaira was selected in the third round of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. He has played five seasons of hockey since then, including three years of pro hockey, mostly with Edmonton’s minor-league affiliate. And although he was at the younger end of his draft class, it…
2016-17 Edmonton Oilers: No. 51 C Anton Lander In the end, Anton Lander played 215 games for the Edmonton Oilers, which is a solid return on the club’s investment of the 40th overall pick back in 2009. It’s still difficult not to think of his time with the team in terms of unmet potential. The…
The Edmonton Oilers will start next season without veteran defenceman Andrej Sekera, thanks to an injury suffered in the team’s second-round playoff series against Anaheim. Sekera averaged 21:28 per game last season, the second-highest total on the team, and was leaned upon in all situations. He played critical minutes at even-strength, on the top penalty…
2016-17 Edmonton Oilers: No. 44 RW Zack Kassian As far as bounce back seasons go, the seven goals and 24 points posted by Zack Kassian in 2016-17 represent decidedly modest offensive output. Yet at the end of his first full season with the Oilers, the now 26-year-old winger has gone from reclamation project to mainstay,…
