Monday Mailbag – How did the Oilers do at the NHL trade deadline?

Happy Monday, Internet friends, and welcome to another brand new Mailbag to help get your week started and keep you updated on all things Edmonton Oilers. This week, we’re discussing how the Oilers did at the trade deadline, the Vegas Golden Knights’ cap trickery, free agency, and more. If you’ve 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.

Yes I did. Outside of Tanev, there wasn’t another top-four RD that Edmonton would have been interested in, and Calgary was never going to trade Tanev to their archrival. Henrique and Carrick make Edmonton’s roster deeper and they both add dimensions the team needed.

I’ll give it a solid A-. Sacrificing a first-round pick is a lot, but I love that Holland was able to extract as much value from this deal as possible. They got an extra piece on top of Henrique, got both players retained, and scooped up a 7th round pick. I liked it from pretty much every angle.

8/10 for me. I fully expected a forward move after Chris Tanev was moved to Dallas. The options on the blueline were slim after he was moved.

I’m giving it a solid C+ and the reason for the grade is because I’m happy with Henrique, Carrick, and Stecher, but I just wish they would have got another defender for the top-four.

Edmonton is a good team. They’ve been the best team in the NHL since Knoblauch arrived. Pickard is only a story if Skinner gets injured or struggles mightily, and if he does, the series is likely over by the time they go to the backup. It is the same defence, but also more experienced. Bouchard is better this year than he was last. Same with Desharnais. Every team has a few concerns, but I don’t see Edmonton’s as more than Vancouver, Colorado or other teams in the Western Conference.

I would have loved one more move. There were some quality RW’s on the market and I would have liked to see Holland add one more impact piece to the forward group. The market for d-men was underwhelming and the goaltending market was expensive, as shown by the Jake Allen deal. But there were good forwards out there and I would have liked one more move.

Pickard has done everything to inspire confidence in this fan base and we need to believe in him more. As for the blueline, I am not sure the upgrade was out there as much as we all like to pretend there was.

I would have loved to see the Oilers get that Toffoli deal done, but we obviously don’t know if he was in on that action or not. I also would have loved an upgrade on Cody Ceci, but I don’t know how many RHD options were available after Calgary opted to send Tanev to Dallas instead of Edmonton.

I don’t declare winners or losers, since too much is unknown. Carolina addressed their biggest need, top-end scoring, but I can’t say for certain how well Kuznetsov will perform. If he plays like he is capable he and Guentzel should really help them. Colorado added a lot, but didn’t get a backup. Will that cost them home ice in the Central?

Playoff success will depend a lot on the first round matchup. Some teams matchup better v. others, and right now the only two spots that seems a guarantee is Vancouver to finish 1st in the Pacific and Toronto to finish third in the Atlantic. But the other 14 spots are still undetermined. If Vegas keeps struggling, Vancouver might get them in the first round.

It sounds like LA was close to landing Linus Ullmark, but he vetoed the trade, and that could cost them in the playoffs.

Winners: the Vegas Golden Knights and the Florida Panthers. The big splashes from the Golden Knights were not fun to see from an Oilers perspective. I also like that Florida added two solid pieces without giving up anything more than mid to late round picks. The losers: the Boston Bruins and Los Angeles Kings. The Kings did nothing and are going to be doing into the playoffs with very shaky goaltending. The Bruins overpaid for Peeke and didn’t add an impact centreman. Not good. The Leafs also had an underwhelming deadline.

Winner – Vegas for acquiring three good players without subtracting.

Loser – LA Kings for not adding a goaltender.

Winners: Vegas, Winnipeg, and Carolina. All three teams picked up players they need, and got a whole lot better in the process. Losers: The Los Angeles Kings. They’re running down the stretch with Dave Rittich and Cam Talbot as their goaltending tandem, and that’s probably not going to work in the playoffs.

Holloway will be back for sure. The Oilers would like to re-sign Desharnais, but I could see why he’d go to market. There aren’t many 6’7”, RD available and he could cash in. Perry would be the only UFA I could see returning. Foegele likely has priced himself out of Edmonton.

I honestly think all the UFA forwards walk. If Foegele could be had for the same cap hit, I’d be open to a conversation about him coming back but everyone else is probably going elsewhere next season. Holloway will probably sign a short-term bridge deal. Desharnais wants to be in Edmonton so I think they could find common ground. Pickard will probably go elsewhere and they’ll look for a better backup.

I would guess Holloway and Desharnais for sure. Desharnais maybe for $2 million and no more. Everyone else I would guess moves on.

I’d love to re-sign Foegele if possible, but I’m guessing his priced himself out of the Oilers’ plans. On defence, I would like to see Desharnais get re-signed but I can also understand why he’d want to test the market and see how much money he can get. His progression has been remarkable over the last two years.

Paul, that is incorrect. Only Mark Stone was on LTIR at the time of that Tweet. Players on IR count against the cap. If Stone returns, only his $9.5m salary will be extra, not Hertl, Martinez or others. It is disappointing when members of the PWHA. like Mikey Stephens. tweet out false information. It is misleading and spreads inaccurate information. We have enough of that BS in politics, we don’t need it in sports. Also, it is important to note that while Tomas Hertl has a $6.75m cap hit listed with Vegas at Cap Friendly, Vegas will only pay $1.4765m this season. They only have to pay the final 42 days of his salary. This season was 192 days, so you divide the total salary by 192 and that is their day rate, and then multiple that by 42 to get the actual cap hit Vegas has for Hertl.

Yeah, it’s very easy to fix it. Have the salary cap roll into the playoffs. It would fix this whole issue.

It’s probably time to look into it. There’s conversation about bringing the salary cap into playoffs but maybe that should be for the guys on the ice rather the entire roster.

Maintain the salary cap in the playoffs and this isn’t a problem. The NHL pretends to care about having a level playing field, but they leave these kind of loopholes open. I don’t blame anyone for using the league’s rules to their advantage, but it certainly is annoying to watch.

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