Monday Mailbag – UFAs, trading the first round pick, and Al Montoya

Happy long Easter Monday, fine citizens. May your day go by quickly if you’re stuck working and, if not, here’s something to read while you waiting for a time that’s socially acceptable to crack a beer. As always, the mailbag is here to help you pass a little bit of time and get you closer to wherever you want to be. This feature is completely dependent on you guys. If you’ve got a question you can email it to me at baggedmilk@oilersnation.com or DM on Twitter at @jsbmbaggedmilk. Until then, enjoy another free lesson from our stable of writers.

I’d day Strome. He has looked solid down the middle and is on the PK and second unit PP. Versatile.

I think it’s Jujhar Khaira, and by a longshot. He checks a lot of boxes — tough, good skater, has some offensive ability.

JJ Khaira is the obvious one because he’s become a fan favourite, but Ryan Strome, taking away his draft pedigree, expectations, and the one-for-one deal aside, has been effective in a third-line centre role. He’s a smart player who can fill a variety of roles and actually has upside.

Not that there was any doubt that he’d be around next year, but JJ Khaira has been my favourite guy in the bottom six this year. Dude has done everything the team needed from him and I really hope he can keep developing and getting better. I’m a big JJ guy.

I’m leery of Karlsson because when his new contract kicks in he will be 29. He likely wants eight years around $11 million. I wouldn’t look too hard at Karlsson.

It’s a phone call I make, but there’s got to be some salary going the other way. Anybody outside of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl would be available for a deal like this one.

There’s no way this would work because you can’t have him and McDavid making a combined ~$24 million on the same team. That said, just for fun, something around Draisaitl could possibly work because of the money that would be going back.

I love the idea of McDavid and Karlsson being on the ice at the same time and pointing in the same direction but I don’t think it’ll happen. Unless Leon Draisaitl is going the other way, or something like that, the Oilers wouldn’t have the cap space needed to keep him. It would be a one and done season and I’m not sure that you’d want to give up assets for such a short sample, but man, would it ever be sweet.

I don’t chase a big-ticket free agent, but I would look at Tomas Vanek on a one-year deal. He is exactly what they need. A proven RW who can produce and on a one year deal I’m not risking signing him past his best due date. I’d also look at Michael Grabner on a two-year deal. On defence, I highly doubt he will be a UFA, but I would sign Greg Pateryn. He is a right shot D who played 19:33 a game for Dallas. He isn’t a sexy signing, but I don’t think he will cost a lot, he made $800,000 this season. The Oilers need another decent RD, and I don’t see any legit top-four Right shot D in free agency.

I place a call to James Neal’s agent and see if he’s interested in playing with Connor McDavid.

You can’t sign a big free agent every year. The Oilers invested a bunch of money in Milan Lucic, Kris Russell, and Andrej Sekera, they need to go after cheap players like Thomas Vanek to fill holes in the lineup. Though I think James van Riemsdyk would be a great fit.

I wouldn’t mind looking closer into Michael Grabner. I’m not sure if he’s going to want a significant raise but if we signed him for around $3M I’d be thrilled. ALSO, Chia has to get Matt Hendricks back here, no doubt about it.

I don’t know how much is left in Mike Green’s tank (he’s been hurt a lot) but I could see them offering him a one year deal to try and help out with the power play. James Neal would be cool but I don’t see it happening, nor do the Oilers have the cap space they’d need to make it work. JVR would also be awesome but, again, it’s not likely to happen. I’m guessing they’ll make minor adds to try and fill out the roster but nothing major.

I see them playing Montoya in 15-17 games. I expect Talbot to have a better start and play 65-67 games.

The Oilers need an actual goaltending prospect in the pro mix. I can live with Montoya as a back-up but there needs to be a guy in Bakersfield who can push the issue behind Cam Talbot. I might be wrong, but I don’t think the Oilers see Laurent Brossoit as that guy.

The market for goalies isn’t all too inspiring. Montoya will have to do.

Honestly, I’m totally okay with having Montoya backup Talbot for another year. I’m expecting a bounce-back season for Cam so Al won’t be playing TOO much. But I think our goalie tandem will be successful next year – I have absolutely nothing to back this up but I don’t care.

Montoya hasn’t had a great year but he has a history of being a decent backup goaltender so we’ll have to see if he rebounds next year. That said, his health is a concern and I wonder if Chia will go kick some tires on another experienced backup in the summer.

These types of trades are rare. Today the Oilers are likely to select 9^th or 10^th, and trades for picks around that number since 2011 have been as follows.

2011: Columbus trades #8, Jakub Voracek and a 3^rd rounder to Philly for Jeff Carter.
2012: Carolina trades #8, Brian Dumoulin and Brandon Sutter for Jordan Staal.
2013: New Jersey trades #9 to Vancouver for Cory Schneider
2017: Arizona trades #7 and DeAngelo Esposito to Rangers for Antti Raanta and Derek Stepan.

The Oilers won’t be trading for a goalie, so if they trade for a proven NHL player they will be giving up the pick, plus another young player and maybe another pick. They’d have to look for a team willing to part with a D-man who is 22-25 and already proven to be a top-four RD. Hard to find.

I’d be surprised if they are able to move the pick for an established RD.

You make it known the pick is available, see who calls about it and find out what they’re offering. It’s never a bad idea to do that unless you’re holding the golden ticket in a year like McDavid’s draft.

No, you need cheap, young players on entry-level deals. Keep the pick and get one of them.

If Chia can pull something like that off I obviously wouldn’t mind it. However I don’t have any faith in the man whatsoever, so it’s probably safer to just draft a prospect.

I think you’d have to package it with something else if you’re planning on trading the pick for an established player. That said, I’d rather they just use the pick to add some skill into their prospect pool.

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