Inside the Nation: Giving away assets for a goalie, Kelly McCrimmon availability, and Cole Caufield

Another off-season day, another episode of Inside the Nation with Dustin Nielson!

In this episode, Dusty fires through some updates on both the Edmonton Oil Kings and Bakersfield Condors playoff series. See? Even if the Oilers aren’t in the playoffs, Edmonton still has some teams to pay attention to! He also dove into the big ol’ Kelly McCrimmon topic. If Vegas loses tonight, McCrimmon is officially on the market, and anybody would be allowed to interview him, including Bob Nicholson. It would be cool to see the Knights make a run again, but if it means we have a better chance at landing McCrimmon as a general manager, then I will cheer against Vegas. However, if we’re not able to talk to McCrimmon tomorrow, we’ve got to have a backup plan. With that said, if you REALLY want to hire McCrimmon, Nicholson will have to wait out the hiring process until Vegas is eliminated. Nielson also discusses some other GM and coaching options, who he thinks is currently available, and who Nicholson has already spoken with.

Dusty also gets deep into the goalie department again. He asks the audience: “what are you willing to part with to find someone to play alongside Koskinen?” He’s got a pretty interesting answer to this one, and as always, is very passionate about this topic. It’s clear Dusty isn’t over this Koskinen contract, and that’s not going to change in the future. Do we sign a bargain-basement goalie? Do we buy Koskinen out? Do we trade a valuable asset for him? Do we lean on our goalie prospects? So many options.

Cole Caufield is a hot topic in the hockey world right now. Dustin enlightens us on his 67 goals in 60 games with the US development program right now, and he’s currently got 11 goals in four games in the U18 tournament also. Caufield is a small sniper, and could very well be available to pick at #8 in the upcoming draft for the Oilers. Caufield is definitely an attractive target moving forward. The kid knows how to score goals, and it makes Dustin Nielson VERY happy.

Other topics discussed include Auston Matthews playoff wardrobe and the two big game sevens coming up tonight.

Check out the live edition of Inside the Nation on the Oilersnation Facebook page every Monday and Thursday at 3:00 pm MT.

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