It’s a Thanksgiving Monday and that means we’ve got a holiday edition of the Mailbag to help you get your week started and also to make sense of everything that’s happening with our beloved Edmonton Oilers! This week, we’re looking at season Brendan Perlini’s vs Ty Rattie, Kassian’s fight, preseason takeaways, and more. If you’ve got got a question you’d like to ask, email it to me at baggedmilk@oilersnation.com or hit me up on Twitter at @jsbmbaggedmilk and I’ll get to you as soon as we can.

They aren’t remotely close to the same player or same situation. Perlini has produced playing with Shore and Turris. He isn’t getting goals due to 29 and 97. He is also bigger, stronger and a better skater than Rattie. I don’t think anyone expects him to produce like this in the regular season, but he is playing well and outplaying guys for his spot in the lineup. He’s earned a spot on the opening night roster. What he does from there is up to him.

Different players. Different circumstances. Noting that Perlini has exceeded expectations in terms of contributing offensively and that he’s secured a job in the bottom six shouldn’t be considered news — or hype — at this point. What commentary are you referring to exactly?

I mean, probably a little bit. The main difference though is that Perlini is doing this while playing with bottom-six linemates and he isn’t just tapping in passes from Connor McDavid. Perlini has been very impressive but I don’t think he’s going to score like 20 goals this season. Still encouraging to see a bottom-six winger play this well. If he can score 10-15 goals, that’d be massive for this team.

Brendan Perlini could be the most valuable player to ever wear an Oilers uniform. Case. Closed.

If he is in the top-six he needs to produce. That is the role when you play there. If he struggles to produce I expect he will be moved to the bottom six. If he scores 15-18 goals it will be a successful season.

Stay healthy, be hard on pucks, create turnovers and get in and out around the net. Let’s see another step or two along the learning curve — he turned 23 just two weeks ago.

I’d like to see Yamamoto get around 20 goals if he’s playing next to Leon Draisaitl all season. If he can be around the 20-30-50 mark then I’d consider it a good year for Yamamoto. He needs to find his scoring touch if he wants to stay on one of the top two lines though.

I’d like to see him at somewhere between 40-50 points if he’s going to play with Leon Draisaitl, and if he’s going to make that stick, he’ll need to convert on some of those chances he keeps getting. I believe in you, Yamo.

I don’t think all fans are the same. Some opt to find the negative and live in the past while others will focus on the now. Edmonton has made playoffs the past two seasons, what happened from 2007-2019 matters less than the past two seasons. Edmonton will be good this year. If they can win in the playoffs is yet to be determined, but how they play in the regular season will give a decent indication if they can win at least one round.

Let’s avoid attaching a term for a serious health issue to a period of losing hockey. Bad form. . I think a lot of fans are hopeful about this edition of the team.

Winning cures all! This team needs to win a playoff round and then the bandwagon will really fill up. They’re good enough to go deep but they also still have some significant flaws on their roster. They aren’t a perfect team by any means so I can see why some fans are nervous heading into the year.

Sometimes I boil water just to let the rolling boil explain my rage in visual form. Boiling water. Anger. That’s hot. Honestly, I’m the guy that drinks the Kool-Aid every single year so you don’t have to convince me to get fired up about another season.

If he thinks it is, then I don’t see why not. Kassian plays best when he is engaged and when he is engaged and physical the odd scrap will occur. His next 10 fights might have no issues. No one can say for sure.

If Kassian is going to be at his best and play the way he needs to, he’s going to have to back that up by being willing to fight. I’m not sure he needs to get into the “wanna go?” stuff off a face-off like what happened with McEwen too often at this point, but he has to be willing to answer the bell in the heat of the moment.

I don’t think it does. He needs to be hard on the forecheck, hit everything that moves, and provide some offence in the bottom six. I get that part of his role is protecting his teammates, so he’ll have to drop the mitts from time to time, but I’d like to see him in fewer fights going forward.

I think fighting is going to be a part of Kassian’s game provided that he continues to play the style he does. And since I don’t see him morphing into a different player any time soon, the best we can do is hope that he doesn’t get hurt again the next time around. Weird thing to say but I’m not wrong either.

They have more depth. They are better overall defensively as a team. I expect they will have a much better start this season. I say they win seven of the first 10 games.

Better balance, more scoring depth and more options up front. That bottom six doesn’t look like it’ll get caved in even-up like we saw last season. Also of note, Mikko Koskinen has looked very sharp.

My two biggest takeaways are that their powerplay is going to be absolutely lethal and there will be a lot of high-scoring games this season. I think their PP% could be higher than 35%.

Connor McDavid still rules. Zach Hyman will be a crowd favourite by Halloween. Warren Foegele is a runaway train. They kept Nuge forever.

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