Monday Mailbag – New Year’s Resolutions, defence, and Jay Woodcroft

Happy Boxing Day, campers, and welcome to a brand new edition of the Mailbag to help you start your week and break down everything that’s happening with our beloved Edmonton Oilers. This week we’re looking at New Year’s Resolutions, Jay Woodcroft, the defence, and a whole lot 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.

Very few trades are made before January. The ask is often higher, especially if it is a rental. Adding one D-man won’t magically fix everything either. The fixes will come with the entire group playing more consistent hockey defensively and they have started doing that in the previous two weeks.

Who do you want in and who do you want out? No argument the Oilers need to be better defensively, but “improving internally” is a better option than you might think it is. We’ve seen the players here now be better.

There aren’t very many teams willing to sell in December, so it would take an old-school Hockey Trade to make such an upgrade. The Oilers don’t have enough depth up front to swap a forward for a defender right now so they’ll have to wait until the sellers are willing to sell.

Not much cap space right now, and trades in the first half of the season are typically few and far between. Chatter will start to pick up in the New Year now.

The Oilers don’t have a whole lot of tradeable assets nor cap space to get anything done. At least, in my opinion.

With only one back-to-back set and not a difficult travel I’d say it is 7-3 Skinner, maybe even 8-2.

Starting Tuesday against Seattle, the Oilers play eight of their next 10 games against conference opponents, not nine. Only back-to-back is San Jose and Vegas on the 13th and 14th with at least one day off before the other games. No reason Skinner can’t play a minimum of seven and even eight games if he’s in a groove.

The only back-to-back in the next couple of weeks is San Jose and Vegas, so I could see them rolling with Skinner for six of the next seven games with Campbell getting that one against the Sharks. There’s a big stretch in late January and early February without any games so the Oilers can probably afford to ride Skinner this month.

The Oilers have 44 games left this season. If Skinner played 70%, that means he’ll play roughly 31 of the remaining games putting him at, give or take, 54 games on the year. I think that’s realistic.

Doesn’t matter who the opponents are. I see Skinner handling at 7/10 of the games for the foreseeable future.

I’ve seen improvements. Edmonton has the 7^th most points and 8^th best P% since Woodcroft took over. I didn’t expect them to be as dominant as they were down the stretch last season. He has done a pretty good job overall in my eyes. Hard to win many more games than he has when Jack Campbell is running with an. 876Sv% in 16 of the 38 starts. He has had to work more on trying to maintain the confidence of many players who have slumped.

Mediocre at best? At best, Evander Kane isn’t injured long term. At best, Jack Campbell is at least a competent option in goal. Just allowing for those two factors — now Draisaitl is out — the Oilers are playing at .553. They can be better than that, but the “at best” is hyperbole. Jay Woodcroft isn’t the problem unless you believe he has somehow morphed into a lesser coach since last season.

The coaching bump wore off, which was to be expected. But the Oilers look like a better team this year than they have in previous years despite the ups and downs. Two major factors to their ho-hum record right now as the injury to Evander Kane and Jack Campbell being nearly unplayable. Neither of those two things are Woodcroft’s fault.

The coaching bump has definitely worn off. The Oilers have faced a ton of adversity this year: Jack Campbell’s poor play, Evander Kane’s injury, a banged-up bottom-six for extended periods. I think he’s been a little too set in his ways this season, but he also hasn’t had a plethora of options to work with. Heading into Sunday’s games, the Oilers are in a playoff wildcard spot with a 20-16-2 record and a +9 goal differential overall. Things could be worse.

The injuries to key people like Evander Kane, McLeod for a while, and now Leon Draisaitl certainly don’t help. Jack Campbell coming up with a .900+ save% from time to time would go a long way too.

You look for sure. He is battling to find consistency in his game, which many young players struggle with. If the Rangers are interested on trading him it would be wise to look. I think it is a bit premature to say they are done with him, but it is something to monitor. But Edmonton’s main priority is still adding a D-man, and if I was Holland I’d rather pay a high price for a D-man than a forward.

Guy gets healthy scratched and he’s up for grabs? We’ve had people in a handful of cities speculating in the last couple days about how he’d be a fit on their team. He’s playing behind Panarin and Kreider on the wing. No question he’s not making the impact, yet, you’d like to see. The Oilers could look, but unless the Rangers are actually dim enough to trade a blue chipper who just turned 21 in October, it isn’t happening.

I’d be all for it but I’m not sure the Oilers and Rangers are a great fit for a trade, unfortunately. I can’t see the Rangers being interested in Jesse Puljujarvi as a change-of-scenery project, as he’s only got a couple of years of control left and he’s more expensive.

The Rangers would be foolish to trade him, but I’d absolutely look into it if he’s available.

I would absolutely have time for Lafreniere if the Rangers are going to move him but I don’t see why they would. He’s still on his ELC, is cheap, and is likely to get better so I honestly can’t see it happening. Would I kick tires, though? You bet.

Resolve to be more unified on the penalty kill and get a few more saves from their goalies.

The return of Evander Kane.

Better starts to games. Dictate the play, don’t spend the game trying to catch up.

Jack Campbell finding his game would be a big boost.

Commitment to defence as a group.

Do you want to come with us to Toronto in March for an HNIC matchup that we’ll be watching in a suite? Of course you do. That’s why I’m telling you to sign up for the #NationVacation to T.O. and join us for a weekend that no one will soon forget. Check out the details you need right here.