Monday Mailbag – Why replace only the assistant coaches?

The Draft Lottery is in the books, the weekend has wrapped, and now it’s time to waste company time talking about the Oilers again. That’s why the mailbag is the perfect item to soak up some of that sweet, sweet hockey knowledge or argue with us in the comments section. If you’d like to get in on this segment and ask a question, you can email it to me at baggedmilk@oilersnation.com or hit me up on Twitter at @jsbmbaggedmilk. I need questions for next week so please send them to me. Have a good week, everybody.

Different viewpoints. And to be honest I think there are better options to hire.

By system you mean, PP, PK? If Peter Chiarelli believes strongly in McLellan but not as strongly in his assistants (specifically the job they did this season), then they need to have that conversation. Todd, Jay Woodcroft and Jim Johnson have been together awhile and loyalty sometimes can, and does, get in the way of evaluating staff. That’s one possibility. If it’s a “they go” or “you all go” situation, what would you choose?

I think they wanted to maintain the overall continuity of their head coach but they knew the fanbase wanted blood so they fired the assistant coaches. They also likely saw that better options were out there and just leaned into it.

Todd is running the show but he listens to the opinions of every assistant coach, as he should. Bringing in fresh eyes on the team with different ideas and skill sets is a good move in my opinion.

It is weird, right? But maybe this is exactly what Todd needs to get a new perspective on his players and moving forward with this group. I do think it’s weird for the assitant coaches to go and the coach to not say much about it, but that’s the Oilers for you. Gord love em.

Not at all. He has bonus potential in his contract. And they can sign some vets for close to $1 million. I don’t see them gifting him a spot. If they do, then they haven’t learned from the previous mistakes.

No. We don’t know what the Oilers cap situation will look like five months from now. It’ll depend on what deals are made — salary in and salary out — this off-season.

I imagine Yamamoto will be on the team but it isn’t because of the cap situation. They can easily slide cheap-as-dirt veterans into the lineup that’ll be less costly than Yamamoto’s incentive-laden contract, but I figure he’ll crack the squad because he’s good enough to be there.

I don’t think so. There are many other cheap fill-in players Chia could probably sign or trade for. After an extremely embarrassing season, gifting a player a lineup spot because of his low salary is not a good move.

Unless Chiarelli can move out some money from the backend or Lucic (won’t happen) in order to free up some space for different UFA pieces/trades then I’ll assume Yamamoto is on the roster on opening night. They don’t have many options at RW and they don’t have much cap space to fix that either.

That group was solid in 2017 and struggled this year. I expect Nurse to keep improving and Benning also has room to grow. They can keep all six, and be competitive, but if they want to improve and be more of a threat they need to add at least one good puck moving defender; ideally one who shoots right, but they are hard to find.

I’m not sure what you mean by locked in. Only Sekera and Russell have NMCs. I’d like to see another proven D-man in this group. It’s not deep enough as it stands now. Don’t want to have to rely on Ethan Bear being part of the picture to start the season.

It’s hard to imagine Benning and Nurse not sticking around. The Oilers aren’t going to subtract from their blueline. The only way one of them isn’t there is if they’re moved in a deal for a better, veteran defenceman. With Pistol Pete in charge, nobody is safe from a trade. So who knows!

I think injuries will play a big part in their success, obviously. Sekera coming late into the season played a huge part in our bad record. I feel about 85% comfortable with our current defence group. I do think we need somebody with a big bomb from the point on the powerplays signed.

It’s a fair question when you consider that they weren’t good enough last season and we probably won’t see much turnover heading into 2018-19. That said, Klefbom was injured, Larsson had a horrible personal year, and Sekera’s robot leg wasn’t fully charged by the time he came back to play. I could see there being an improvement in the same group based solely on guys being healthier both mentally and physically.

If he is healthy, no question. He lost 15 pounds in November and that slowed him down for a month. I expect him to be around 120 points this year, and he could be the first player to reach 125 points since Joe Thornton in 2006.

Yes, and reasonably handily. I don’t any reason why he can’t consistently be a 120-point player over the next 7-10 years.

Assuming the team has a functioning power play he really should blow that total out of the water, to be honest.

YES! Connor did it essentially all by himself this season. He is learning to shoot more and utilize his shot as a dangerous weapon for himself. If the whole team is rolling alongside of him next season, he will easily outscore himself again.

I will never bet against Connor McDavid to do anything. He’s playing a whole different game than anyone else and the idea of beating a 108-point season may seem lofty but I also wouldn’t be surprised if he flew past that mark either. The guy is unstoppable. Put him down for 115 next year.

I’ll go Capitals, Sharks, Jets and Lightning. I think the Jets/Preds will be great. Too fast teams who have enough nastiness in their respective lineups to make the games highly entertaining, and the Pens/Caps series because of Crosby/Ovechkin will be must-watch for me.

I like the Vegas-San Jose series. I like the way the Sharks came back in Game 2 after getting waxed 7-0. I see Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, Vegas and Winnipeg winning in the second round.

This entire second round is extremely good. But Winnipeg and Nashville is the marquee series. This should be the Stanley Cup Final.

I think the Preds & Jets both have the potential to play in the cup final. With that said, that is my pick for the best series. My heart wants the Jets to win, but my fantasy league brain wants the Preds to win. I choose Preds in 7. I also choose Pens over Caps, Lightning over Bruins, and Vegas over Sharks.

I took Vegas over SJ and Winnipeg over the Preds in the West. In the East I have Pittsburgh beating Washington and Tampa beating Boston in 7.

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