It’s a rainy Saturday here in the capital city and that means your ol’ pal Baggedmilk is back with another dose of Random Thoughts. As I do every week, I’ve emptied my brain into this here blog post with all of the hockey thoughts that have been rolling around in my head over the past week and I invite you all to join me for a leisurely tour through my idea factory.

On Friday afternoon, news broke that Darnell Nurse had signed an eight-year extension that carries a $9.25 million AAV and will kick off at the start of the 2022-23 season, leading many to worry about what kind of cap situation the Oilers will be in a year from now. Considering this team had no cap space then plenty of cap room back to none has been a rollercoaster follow, and this Nurse deal only adds to the intrigue. Needless to say, Nurse being the second-highest-paid player on the team behind only Connor McDavid is a big ticket to cash, and it means that the pressure will be on Darnell to fill the big shoes he just stepped into. Fairly or unfairly, being paid $9 million per season means that people are going to expect that he performs and produces at a very high level and it will be up to him to make sure that happens. To me, there’s no doubt that he is the best defenceman that the Oilers have on their roster and he’s going to need to be, but this contract will be something we’re probably arguing about around here for the next decade.

Cruising through Oilers Twitter over the last couple of weeks, the biggest red flag for Oilers fans seems to be with the defence and in net as Ken Holland placed some expensive bets on some key positions, and I’ve got a feeling that this coming October is going to be about as important as any month we’ve ever seen around here. I mean, it’s not exactly uncommon for new guys to take a minute (read: month) to get used to their new team and we’ve got at least two of them in Keith and Ceci that won’t really be afforded the time to figure it out. Now, in fairness to both of those guys, there’s also a chance that they come into camp and wow everybody, making all of this worry nothing more than words on a blog post, but that’s still a hefty dose of risky business from the GM that could either pay off or crumble like a house of cards. Now that we’ve all had some time to think about it, how are you feeling about the defence and goaltending situations?

Now that we’re starting to see some way too early line projections popping up, I have a hard time believing that this forward group won’t spend more time in the offensive zone than previous iterations. I know I just spent a paragraph worrying about the defence and goaltending, but if the bolstered forward group can do a better job of not just holding on for dear life when McDrai aren’t on the ice, then I think that will help to ease the stress on the blueline as well. I don’t think I’m talking out of school — in fact, I know I’m not — when I say that the Oilers have been getting carved when Connor and Leon are on the ice and I’m hopeful that the upgrades made to this forward group will help to alleviate that problem.

On Friday, Bob Stauffer was talking line combos on Oilers Now and he mentioned that he could see Connor and Leon playing together 30-40% of the time, so I started thinking about what that looks like. If we looked at it on a nightly basis, both players averaged around 22 minutes in TOI in 2021 and 40% of that would work out to be about nine minutes per night, which isn’t exactly crazy for them considering they’re stapled to each other on powerplays and late in the game if the Oilers are in need of a goal. And if they play 30-40 games together during the regular season, I’m also not sure that I’m as worried about it as some folks seem to be even if I’d absolutely prefer that they centre their own lines. Maybe it’s just that I’m bullish on having Hyman and Foegele as new forward options that it makes me want to what all kinds of different combinations look like. Who knows, maybe Hyman and Nuge work like magic together? Not to mention, watching Connor and Leon do their thing together is always a good time, so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how close Stauffer was in his estimate.

Despite me saying that Ken Holland is playing a little bit of Risky Business with his offseason bets, I’ve gotta admit that I’m starting to get antsy for a new season to get going and that I’m ready to let the sweep go to start looking ahead. We’re just over two months out from the 2021-22 campaign, and I know that means I’m only a few weeks away from really starting to get into McDavid highlights on YouTube and checking out mashups of Leon Draisaitl being a general warlord in anticipation of what’s to come. I’ve already done a deep dive on Zach Hyman and Warren Foegele’s highlights from last season so the seeds have been planted and I’m ready to get back to work. Anybody with me? As much as this team frustrates me and drives me crazy, I am absolutely ready to get hurt again.