Monday Mailbag – In Brossoit we trust?

My friends, Monday is here again and that means it’s time for your ol’ pal Baggedmilk to give you an opportunity for some free learning from your friends at Oilersnation. As always, I’ve taken five of your questions and sent them out to our writers to get the all of the worldly wisdom that you’ve always been looking for. I still need questions for next week, so if you have something you’d like to ask you can email me at baggedmilk@oilersnation.com or hit me up on Twitter at @jsbmbaggedmilk.com. 

He didn’t provide any real insight beyond the obvious, although his death by 1,000 cuts got lots of play. No really solid takeaways from it.

His one line of death by a 1000 cuts was only thing that stood out. He spoke a lot without saying anything to profound.

The general manager sounded like a man who was frustrated by the team’s lack of success but feeling the solution was going to come internally. So it came off as possibly unsatisfying but suspect he was delivering the state of the team as he saw it.

The death by 1000 cuts line seems pretty accurate, though he avoided mentioning that they were self-inflicted cuts for understandable reasons. I liked that he was challenged with some questions by local media on things like team speed. Overall it was OK but left me wondering how much future he would be willing to give up to save this season.

I think he sort of shares the same frustrations that we do. He’s pretty clearly frustrated that the internal solutions he banked on haven’t come through at this point. Though the difference is we’re frustrated because many of us saw this coming and we don’t have any indication that he did.

Unsurprisingly we didn’t learn anything at all from the presser. Every one of his answers were very political and revealed nothing. NO FUN!

He said basically nothing which is what I expected him to say. I was surprised that he specifically called out a few players like Talbot, Caggiula, and Slepyshev but aside from that it was par for the course. He tapdanced when he needed to and said even less in other areas. Pretty standard Chiarelli presser, if you ask me.

Safe to say, after that uneven win over Calgary, some consistency would be a place to start. He’s been terrific and then terrible in the same period too often.

He was shaky in first 10 minutes vs. the Leafs, then made six great saves to keep them in the game. In Calgary he was fine in the first two periods, but then let in two really bad goals and didn’t challenge on another. Captain obvious notes he can’t have those massive swings of ability. He needs to find level ground. He doesn’t need to be fantastic. In his next few starts if he can hover around .910 to .915sv% they would be happy. I expect Dustin Schwartz (goalie coach) and him will use the extra practice time this week wisely and try to find some consistency in his play. I don’t expect him to be great, he just can’t continue to let in obviously weak goals.

I think he’ll never get a better opportunity to establish himself at the NHL level. I hope he runs with it, but don’t have expectations one way or another. He has been consistent for about four years now, so he’s ready for the challenge.

I am not a big Brossoit fan at all. He doesn’t appear to be an NHL starter. Maybe not even an NHL backup, to be honest. I think the Oil should be actively looking for his replacement.

Not much, really. I don’t think the Oilers are all too high on him either considering how much they’ve been riding Cam Talbot this year and last.

I love Brossoit and I really hope he succeeds in his career but he’s had a terrible start this year with the Oilers. He makes a lot of good, key saves in a game but then he let’s in some awful goals. I’m sure this is an experience thing and he’ll learn over time, but we need him to play well asap! Then again if we score six goals every game we shouldn’t have an issue.

Right now, LB is just really inconsistent and that’s a problem. That third period in Calgary saw some soft goals and it almost caused them to blow a five goal lead. I don’t think I have to tell you guys that that just can’t happen.

He should and I suspect he will.

He could try, but there aren’t many out there. People mention Pickard in Toronto. Why would Leafs trade him? If Andersen gets injured then they’d be in the exact spot Edmonton is in. Chiarelli will try, but I don’t see many available. Please don’t mentioned Eddie Lack. Brossoit admitted he lost his focus in the third. If he proves he will learn from it, then he might be good enough to keep them in the race until January.

I think there’s a real chance PC makes a trade if Brossoit doesn’t look ready for the role. It’s also possible a trade falls in his lap or an attractive option hits waivers.

Talbot is out for two weeks but there are rumours it might be a month. I would like to think that if it’s a month then the team will make a move for a real goalie. It’s hard to find worse than Brossoit right now.

It appears Talbot is going to be out longer than expected, and based on the Toronto and Calgary game and how little margin for error the Oilers have the rest of the way, Chiarelli should be seeking an upgrade.

I think they’ll ride it out unless we lose a few in a row due to bad goaltending. It also depends on Talbot’s timeline. Two weeks? Maybe we ride it out. If it’s a month? Then we should probably seek help. I think Ellis will get some games in and you never know, between the two goalies we might be able to salvage this time of Talbot’s absence.

He should have looked for one in the summer, but I completely understand why he’d want to give LB a chance. With Talbot out, the Oilers need someone to step up to the plate and I’m just not sure if Brossoit can handle that on a nightly basis yet.

Where are these rumors you speak of coming from? Start there.

If they acquire a fair trade, sure you can look at it, but Chiarelli can’t afford to downgrade in skill if he moves RNH. You can move him for the right deal. I’m intrigued how RNH is perceived in Oilersnation compared to Hall and Eberle. RNH is on pace for 57 points, right around his career high, but not out of this world and people talk like he is untradeable. You don’t want to lose the trade, so maybe it is fear fueling the narrative, but if Chiarelli can acquire pieces to actually help the team, then I could see a move. He just can’t afford to downgrade in skill again.

Teams often trade from strength to address weakness but dealing RNH when he’s having such a strong season would be difficult to justify.

Heh. I don’t think that has stopped Chia from trading even better players before. What I think about it doesn’t matter at all, but to me it would be nuts. Nuge is fantastic and ought to be an Oiler for a long time.

It’s never just noise when Peter Chiarelli is your general manager. If he wants to make a trade, he will. And no, trading Nugent-Hopkins doesn’t make much sense because he’s easily worth his cost-controlled $6 million contract. He’s evolving into an excellent second line centre and I’m very unsure why you would get rid of a player like that.

Haha, did it make sense to trade Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson, or Jordan Eberle for Ryan Strome? No, trading RNH makes absolutely no sense at all. As much as I love Patty Maroon, he BETTER be the one to get traded before Nuge is. I’m hoping this is all noise anyways, or Nuge’s return must be top notch.

I’ve seen the insiders all talking about Nuge in trade rumours and the whole thing pisses me off. If Chiarelli moves him considering the kind of season he’s having then he shouldn’t be allowed to make any more trades.

Too early to say. I think the Oilers will get better, not worse, the rest of the way. Where will that put them at the halfway mark?

Still to early to say they should be sellers. They are 4-2 in their last six. They are playing better. The only UFAs they have are Maroon, Letestu and Cammalleri. The latter two won’t get you a lot. Trading away young RFAs, because you are frustrated, for picks would be idiotic. The Oilers aren’t as bad as their record. They need some consistent goaltending and their special teams need to wake up. The Oilers are 5th in 5×5 GF. They aren’t as unskilled as people suggest. Their most skilled players are in a funk offensively on the PP. The PK has been a disaster for over a year, which makes me question more the PK coach, than all the players who have worked on it. Trading away young RFAs for picks would be a loser mentality at this point, and if often why bad organizations remain bad.

It is looking like that’s going to happen but there’s still some time left before we can confirm it. A strong December could turn around the conversation.

They should be sellers right now if the expiring contracts they have aren’t worth committing to or if they can’t afford them next season. So, yes. Maroon and Strome are tops on my list.

Patrick Maroon would net a great haul and if the Oilers are out of it they would be dumb not to sell come trade deadline time. Unfortunately the team is built to be active at the deadline with its open cap room, but it’s hard to say if they’ll be in a spot to capitalize on it.

It’s tough to say. I imagine them being in the race for a wild card spot so we might have to do what’s possible to give us that extra push.

I think they’ll have to be unless they can go on a run here. I’m sure there are some expiring contracts that other teams would be interested in.

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