Josh Winquist may return to action tonight for the Bakersfield Condors. Reports have several forwards suddenly ready to go and that may mean some prospects feel the squeeze.
First look at @Bobbyklink at morning skate chatting with @Frdy11. #Condorstown pic.twitter.com/3lBayrYxUs
— Bakersfield Condors (@Condors) January 15, 2016
Back in the old days, guys like Klinkhammer would be called ‘good, honest players’ and that remains true. Suspect the Oilers wanted a little more offense from their fourth-line winger (Klinkhammer has averaged 9.4 goals per 82 games in a 192-game NHL career) and with Kassian up someone had to face the music. He is 29, and it is possible that his final NHL game has been played, but I would not count him out.
#Canucks Benning: “Tyler Pitlick – WE COMING FOR YOU!!!” pic.twitter.com/YDm6DFpPhO
— Mike Martignago (@MikeMartignago) January 8, 2016
Pitlick has been soundly defeated by the injury bug since turning pro and this season he has been in an AHL game only seven times. If Benning is going to trade for him, he has to stay healthy.
FORWARDS:
Hamilton – Winquist – Miller
Klinkhammer – Khaira – Ford
Roy – McRae – Pitlick
Moroz – Currie – Jones
— Bakersfield Condors (@Condors) January 16, 2016
Interesting position for Winquist tonight, the young man was very productive before injury and has a chance to earn an NHL contract if he can shine in the second half. Bob Green may have found a gem here, but like Pitlick, he needs to stay healthy.
#RT #Oilers @OilersNation Hey @Lowetide your guy @JoshWinquist looks ready for action for #Condors tonite + McRae back from ValleyFever
— Scott Zerr (@scottmaxfight) January 15, 2016
I don’t know much about Valley Fever but the Mayo Clinic scared the hell out of me.
DEFENSE:
Reinhart – Oesterle
Simpson – Musil
Betker – Gernat
IN NET: The man they call LB, @LBrossoit.
— Bakersfield Condors (@Condors) January 16, 2016
The defense has a new member too, Ben Betker who has been playing in the ECHL and is now deemed ready. Edmonton has a bunch of rookie prospects in the minors, who isn’t playing tonight?
CONDORS ROOKIE SCORING
- LD Joey Laleggia 40, 4-9-13 (Not playing)
- C Kyle Platzer 28, 4-7-12 (Not playing)
- R Greg Chase 19, 1-6-7 (Norfolk)
- C Marco Roy 17, 4-1-5 (Playing tonight)
- L Anton Slepyshev 20, 4-1-5 (Injured)
- L Braden Christoffer 27, 1-3-4 (Not Playing)
- C Alex Loiseau 12, 1-2-3 (Norfolk)
Something to watch, these kids need to play. Loiseau and Chase are better off in Norfolk getting playing time. Game starts at 8pm Edmonton time, updates at TheAHL.com.
(Christoffer photo by Mark Williams).
Is he a C? How is his FO%? Foot speed?
Sports net just said oilers did offer nuge for Jones. If Johansen is considered by the rest of the league as better than nuge that concerns me. Time to implement NAS
Spec said Poile wanted Johanssen cause of his size for the west
Johansen has better size, goals, assists, points, face-off percentage than Nuge, and costs considerably less than Nuge.
Nuge has intangibles and unmeasurables that make him the superior C obviously only Edmontonians can truly appreciate.
I really like RNH but his contract is way to high.
On a contending team he would be a 2nd line center.
Most teams wont play 6M for a 1st or 2nd line centers who cannot get his team close to a playoff spot.
He is untradeable so hopefully he plays well when McDavid returns and increases his value.
You can’t separate Nuge’s production from his contract.
Year 1 – 0.83 ppg
Year 2 – 0.60 ppg
Year 3 – 0.70 ppg
Year 4 – 0.73 ppg
Year 5 – 0.65 ppg
Johansen
Year 1 – 0.31 ppg
Year 2 – 0.30 ppg
Year 3 – 0.76 ppg
Year 4 – 0.86 ppg
Year 5 – 0.84 ppg
If I was Poile and I had to sell it to my fanbase, which looks better? A big young centre who is improving statistically every year, or an undersized former #1OV who has never led his team to the playoffs and peaked statistically in his rookie season?
Maybe Chiarelli is feeling some heat for not making this defence any better so they float some stories that he was right in there for both Hamilton and Jones. They just didn’t want to deal with Chiarelli. It’s not his fault.
I suggest you read the SN article. Nine scouts who had no ties to Edmonton, Nashville or Columbus were surveyed. Five said they would choose Nuge. Also, because he is locked up for the next few years he actually has abetter contract than Johansen. Johansen’s advantage is that he is a little bigger and is a rightie. To say that Nuge is untradeable might be the dumbest thing I have read on here in the last couple months and there has been some doozies.
So why wasn’t he traded.
Think about it and you we see that I have a point.
Eevidence will be when he is finally traded. Oiler fans wont get as much for him as they would like.
With the leak that he was offered as a trade the Oilers will now have to trade.
Don’t get me wrong, for the last few years Hall was my favourite player with Nuge as a close second.
Just another player that Oiler management has managed to screw up.
He is not playing as well as he did two years ago
Sad for him
Do you want the better two-way player with lower output or the offensive centre with a higher offensive ceiling? Since Nashville has a strong defensive team, the offensive C makes more sense. They need more goals.
Johansen has superior size (6’3 to 5’10), has shown considerable growth since his rookie season(0.31 to 0.83, while Nuge’s best year was his first), his points in a season is superior (71 to 56) and his FO% is superior (51.5% to 45.1%). It is a lot more than being righthanded.
Nuge is tradeable, but he may not bring the return that Edmonton fans think he should.
Do you want the better two-way player with lower output or the offensive centre with a higher offensive ceiling? Since Nashville has a strong defensive team, the offensive C makes more sense. They need more goals.
Johansen has superior size (6’3 to 5’10), has shown considerable growth since his rookie season(0.31 to 0.83, while Nuge’s best year was his first), his points in a season is superior (71 to 56) and his FO% is superior (51.5% to 45.1%). It is a lot more than being righthanded.
Nuge is tradeable, but he may not bring the return that Edmonton fans think he should.
trude Dat,Have you ever read the drivel that spews from verdad2.0 Top of the heap most days.
But 1 injury and Letestu or Lander is your 2nd line centre. It wasn’t all that long ago that most fans complained bitterly about center depth.
I’m pretty sure they both make 6mil a year unless RJ’s contract doesn’t kick in until next year? I think what this says is that we ALWAYS overvalue our players here and outside of Hall and McDavid, there isn’t as much star power or players to build your team around as people think. Remember everyone saying Schultz was as good as getting another #1 pick? He might be on a PTO next year. How about Draisatl? He’s this big center that we need…ya he might be over 6ft but he is soft as butter, avoids any physicality and gets knocked off the puck very easily….not to say I don’t like him as a player but let’s not make these guys out to be something they are not.
Johansen, is bigger, had 1 more productive season,3 coaches disappointed in his play and have scratched or benched him, gets paid the same money as RNH next year then Nashville will have to negotiate with what has been a difficult player in the past, seems uncommitted to fitness and pro training. Columbus knew RJ was not with them long term and got what they could for him.
He’s had two seasons better than Nuge. In 2013-14, he scored 33 goals and had 63 points. Last season, he went 26-45-71. Both of those were done without wingers as good as Hall or Eberle.
He didn’t fit in well with Torts. That’s not the biggest strike in the world. He has been a difficult player in Columbus, but the team has been terrible. Not every player is as comfortable losing all the time
I have read that he is not as committed as he should be, as have fans and observers in Nashville. The feeling so far is that Nashville has a lot of veteran leaders; Johansen is not being asked to be a leader, just to score.
I’m personally not convinced. If he lacked the commitment in Columbus, you’ll likely see that lack of commitment in Nashville. But even with his warts, Nashville preferred him to Nuge.
There were a few things against Nuge. His best season for ppg was his rookie season. If you look at most players, they build upon their rookie season and you see growth in their game. Nuge didn’t. His best point total was 56 points.
His contract was an issue. The sales pitch to Oiler fans when Nuge was given his big deal was that at some point, it was going to become a value contract. $6m for a couple 56 point seasons is underwhelming. A team trading for Nuge will have to pay him $6m when his numbers don’t scream deal.
The last thing is Nuge has the losing stink on him. Everyone here can appreciate that he’s been one of the best players on the ice every night, and that it’s not his fault the Oilers defence has been terrible for a decade. This is not trading for 22-year old Saad with two Cups beside his name. This is Nuge playing for a team that’s been the worst in the league since he started, and hasn’t gotten any better.
I don’t think he’s been one of the best players on the ice. He would not be a top 2 centreman on most of the top NHL teams. He would probably be a top 6 winger on a good team. Needs to bulk and strengthen up. Clearly physically looks like a Junior player on the ice. He’s good in OT 3 on 3 however. Would do very well in the Swedish Elite League.
He has been one of the best Oilers the last three years. This season he hasn’t performed as well as previous years, but he is still better than most on the Oilers.
He’s not a number 1C except here and Columbus.
LT,
Totally unrelated to your post hear but can you say what happened to your weekly radio visits with Dennis King. Seriously miss listening to the two of you guys, and hope to hear him at some point again.
Cheers
Unrelated to your post “here” rather
Nuge needs to bulk up. Maybe spend a little less time on hobby racing horses. The guy clearly looks and plays undersized. Giving him such a big contract just to make him equal to Hall and Eberle was obviously a mistake. In hindsight a smaller bridge contract may have provided this guy some extra motivation. I suggest hitting the gym harder in the off season and get in some protein smoothies, creatine and extra calories….
THE big takeaways from the Nuge trade offer is not that it didn’t happen, but what it says about the organization:
1. That chia IS not sitting on his hands
2. That chia IS prepared and IS allowed to trade one of the “core”
3. That chia considers Nuge expendable. This will be a huge blow to Nuge defenders and to Nuge himself I suspect. I wonder what impact it will have on the room.
3. That chia was prepared to go with mcdavid and drai as the 1/2 centres – with a combined number of games less than 100.
4. That chia valued Nuge as equal to jones. Bob stauffer won’t like eating that crow.
Eggs have been broken. The narrative has been changed. Even though no omelet has been made.
Yet.
So maybe the really question here is why did the Oil leak this information to Spector? Was this from freelancers in the org that owed Spec a favor? Somehow I doubt this.
More likely this was orchestrated by the Oil to send a message to the “core” that things are changing and no one should assume they are untouchable. Ultimately the objectives is to win hockey games, which the core has not been able to deliver
Stauffer’s reaction to this will be interesting, probably the world’s biggest RNH fan.
As i have said on other posts i believe the day Oilers drafted Mcdavid that Nuge would be gone.I am a Nuge fan and would have been happy to see him play in Edm for 10 years .That being said there is no way we can pay anybody on the 3rd line 6mil .He will be trades for defence or Jenner type center plus some add .The trade for Kassien proves the type of players Chia is looking at size and skill next target Hamonic perhaps Savard and Jenner
Only reality is that Chiarelli didn’t get it done.
But the bizarre sentiment on this board is that RNH is actually that good? For $6 million? Hardly
Would Calgary trade Gaudreau for RNH? Never.
Would Calgary trade Gaudreau for MacDavid? Probably not.
Ponder that, especially when he rips up the Oiler up the Oilers tonight.
Finally when the Oilers watch the Calgary defense one can only ask what in the world did Chiarelli do all summer?
Apart from Sekera, functionally nothing.
I think Cgy trades gaudreau for McD in a heartbeat. Ridiculous to assert otherwise
Chia also got two goalies and a few other pieces.they won’t all work out. But he has been active and – trying to get jones qualifies as being active. But you know that.
Changing a roster doesn’t happen overnight. And it is fraught with peril. One thing is for sure every move he makes (or doesn’t make) – without exception – will have supporters and detractors.
The verdict will be on the ice, in the point totals and in the playoffs – over the next three to four years.
this is stupid, even for you. gaudreau for macdavid? give your head a shake. seems to me that when macdavid actually played the flames, he was the one ripping up the flames. ponder that genius.
Out of curiosity.
What sort of dollar are you anticipating Gaudreau getting on his upcoming contract?
I bet he gets 7mil X 8 yrs
I doubt Gaudreau gets more then the 6 mil a year Hall and the boys are getting. Him being an RFA, the Flames hold the hammer in negotiations.
With our loonie being the way it is now, they are not going to overpay.
The Oil have changed out at least half their defence since last year. Ferrence, Nikitin and Maricin out and Fayne is a part timer.
Omg, I can’t stay silent in the face of this drivel. I bet Calgary would offer Mon and Gaud for McDavid if EDMONTON would take it.
Lowtide, Laleggia has a serious rib injury and may be done for the season.
LB!!!!!!!!
Too bad about Pitlick.
Time to cut the cord.
Nuge has to pick the top corner glove side from the edge of the circle on the PP ,his net front support is solid and is consisantly making the goalie PEEP and move off the post,he has time and he has room.Nice to see him on that side of the ice.