Monday Mailbag – Should the Oilers start negotiating a Talbot extension?

Welcome, welcome to the 2000th edition of the Monday Mailbag here at the Nation! Alright, so I made that number up but I feel like we’ve been starting our weeks together for ages now and I’m just so thrilled that you’re here. As always, I’m giving all of you an opportunity to learn a little something from our panel of deep thinkers and pillars of Oilers’ entertainment. If you’ve got a question, you can email it to me at baggedmilk@oilersnation.com or hit me up on Twitter at @jsbmbaggedmilk. Now sit back, relax, and enjoy.

I’m not. They have all season to negotiate with Talbot. It would be wise to see how he and Koskinen play before signing any extension. There are many goalies who currently are scheduled to be UFAs next summer including Bobrovsky, Rinne, Varlamov, Lehner, Howard, Neuvirth, Kinkaid and others. I don’t see it as a big deal.

No, not concerned. As for Talbot, why would he want to start negotiations after a down season? It’s a two-sided process. Makes sense for him to talk when he’s put together another solid stretch of hockey to start this season. If Talbot picks up where he left off at the end of last season, they’ll start negotiating.

I’m not generally concerned. The team should absolutely start negotiations with Talbot soon and they should be lowballing him until he starts bouncing back. The problem is Chiarelli seems to pay more than market value for a lot of his deals so I’m probably overestimating his ability to negotiate. There are more decent goalies than there are NHL starting jobs. Goalies become available often.

No. Talbot had a poor year and it didn’t make sense for either party to sign a contract at this time. Talbot isn’t old at 31, but you want to be sure what your getting into when he’ll be 32 to start his next deal. There’s always a ton of goalie options available and they never go for as much as people think. Grubauer was the top goalie available and he returned a second and Colorado taking Orpik’s contract back.

I wouldn’t be opposed to the Oilers trying to buy-low on Talbot. He didn’t have a great year and they could probably get him locked up for another few years at a lower rate if they go now. If he bounces back next season he’ll be looking for a lot more than what’s possible at this point.

Left wing has a lot of NHL experience with RNH and Lucic. The right side is still a concern, but Rieder has a lot of NHL experience. The bigger concern for me is team defence. Can they limit goals? Scoring wasn’t their downfall. Allowing goals was. Can the defence core, goaltending and overall defence zone play return to 2017 levels? If so, they will be a playoff team.

Need to see if Sekera and Klefbom are physically good to go and can get back up to speed quickly.

Still hoping the team moves one of Russell or Lucic this year before they need to find new homes for BOTH of them at the same time and the job goes from extremely difficult to near impossible. Other than that, I’ve resigned myself to embrace the opportunity this roster gives to young players. The wings are huge question marks and the defence is only improving via health and Nurse’s development.

Maybe a veteran winger or center added on a PTO. They won’t have much cap space once Nurse is signed.

How are the young wingers going to respond to the added pressure of needing them to produce is a fair question. I actually wrote about that on Saturday, and it’s an area of concern to say the least. That said, I’m trying to be optimistic.

I’d guess it is wide open. I don’t see a dominant team. Vegas will come back to earth. They will be competitive, but I don’t see them as a 109-point team. The only playoff lock I’d say, and not sure of where they finish, would be San Jose, because they always make the playoffs. After that it is just a guess. I see Oilers, Flames, Kings, Ducks, Vegas all in the mix. Vancouver will be at the bottom. Coyotes will be in the mix as well, if Raanta stays healthy.

Can’t make an educated guess the third week of July. People are waiting for Arizona to turn a lot of good young talent into a climb in the standings, but they aren’t a playoff team. I’m also curious to see if Ilya Kovalchuk is enough to prevent the L.A. Kings from sliding — I see them as a team on the decline. I wonder if Vegas drops off enough to have either San Jose or Anaheim finish ahead of them.

I think the Knights fall back to earth and that helps everyone, but a good number of teams improved (even just a little). Edmonton is worse today than they were a year ago.

ANA > SJS > LAK > CGY > VGK > EDM > ARI > VAN

Top three close, middle four close, Vancouver dragging behind

San Jose

Anaheim

Vegas

Los Angeles

Calgary

Arizona

Edmonton

Vancouver

I’m going to go with San Jose, Anaheim, Edmonton, Calgary, LA, Vegas, Arizona. Why? I have no idea, I’m guessing. LA is getting old, so is Anaheim, but they’ve still got good players. Vegas is going to fall back to earth and I won’t believe anything otherwise until they go and prove me wrong again.

I think Yawney will help the D corps a lot, and Gulutzan and Viveiros will also be good new voices. I think the coaching changes will help, especially the D zone at 5×5 and on the PP. Because of #97, I’d say Oilers are a playoff team.

I didn’t expect big changes this off-season based on the cap corner Peter Chiarelli painted himself into. A return to the playoffs hinges on a return to form by Cam Talbot, Milan Lucic and Oscar Klefbom, to name three, as much as it does to adding any magic bullet acquisition. Those three don’t even need to be as good as they were in 2016-17, they just need to be better than they were last season. Don’t discount the coaching changes, either.

Nope. However, if Talbot becomes a Vezina finalist, Klefbom’s shoulder is 100%, McDavid is his usual self, Sekera’s knee is great, and both Yamamoto & JP have breakout seasons, THEN it could happen!

I’m leaning towards no. They’re relying on too many unproven or underperforming wingers. Their right side on defence still needs improving and Talbot should recover but will that be enough? I’m skeptical of their scoring outside of McDavid/RNH and Draisaitl.

I think it’s also important to remember how many things went wrong last year because if some of those things even out, like the special teams, then the Oilers will be better by default. Playoffs, though? I certainly hope so but it won’t be easy.

McDavid leads the NHL in goals.

If the Oilers get off to a good start in the first 10 games people will declare all off-season fears unfounded. If they struggle, the I-told-you-so folks will deem the season lost and the firing of Chiarelli imminent. Not really that bold, actually. I do think Vegas will be a story again and I think they’ll be good enough to stay in contention for top spot in the Pacific.

Vegas will be awful. I don’t know how bold that is but it’s my guess.

Columbus trades both Sergei Bobrovsky and Artemi Panarin before the trade deadline.

Jesse Puljujarvi will score 20+ this year and a lot of people will have to shut their mouths. Also, McNuge will be hot fire all season long and McLellan will keep them together.

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