Monday Mailbag – Yeah, we need a new GM but what about the coach?

Welcome, Nation, to another edition of the award-winning Monday Mailbag! Here we are on yet another Monday and the Oilers are hanging on to their playoff lives by the skin of their teeth. Once again, the mailbag is here to help you kill off a few minutes of company time with 3000 words of pure wisdom. How’s that for an early gift? As always, this feature depends on you so please send me your questions by email or Twitter for next week and I’ll try to sneak you in. Until then, I hope you all have a wonderful week and please enjoy the free learning opportunity.

Yes. They need to trade for a top-pairing, right-shot, power-play quarterback.

They will likely need to move one of Sekera or Russell to free up some cap space. I would kick tires on Rasmus Ristolainen. The Sabres might be willing to part with him. Teams have given up on young Dmen often in the past. I don’t think they need a top pair RD who has to be on the PP. Their PP is good. They need to upgrade their blueline’s ability to move the puck quickly. Maybe that will be Joel Persson in a third pairing role. I like Larsson more as a second pair defender than a first, and that’s why I would call Buffalo and see about Ristolainen.

There’s definitely room for upgrades. The team still lacks a true puck-moving, offensive weapon who can play on the power play. Evan Bouchard can be that player but expecting him to jump into the role in 2019-20 is ambitious.

I think they should definitely look, but I do believe their priority will be to upgrade their forward group. If they believe that even just two of Caleb Jones, Evan Bouchard, Ethan Bear, or Joel Persson will be regular NHLers in the next season or two, then it doesn’t make sense to go out and use your big assets for a defender, when you can get a skilled winger instead. They have their current crop of six defenders all under contract for next season and while part of me believes they will deal one of Sekera, Russell, or Benning for cap relief, another part of me thinks they might just hold onto this group and focus on upgrading the top six.

I don’t think this group of defencemen is good enough on the right side. They’re fine with some combination of Oscar Klefbom, Darnell Nurse, Andrej Sekera on the left, but the right side simply isn’t good enough. Kris Russell doesn’t cut it for the second pair.

I disagree with you. I think acquiring a top pairing right shot power-play quarterback would make them more successful. I think our own defensive core has played very strong lately, and on good days, I would be happy with what we have. But if the cards fall into place, and whoever our GM is pulls the trigger on a top-named defenseman, I won’t be upset. It will create even more depth on our back-end and make us even stronger.

The Oilers definitely need upgrades on defence. Just because the healthy squad is passable doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement.

Well, if it wasn’t lack of confidence at the start, it certainly is now. You cannot go this long with no sniff and have any confidence at all. His shot rate is way down and his shooting percentage has never been stellar at the best of times. Not a great combination.

No offensive confidence. None. It has built throughout the year. He also needs to go to the scoring area, around the net more. He has been too much on the perimeter in the offensive zone.

You have to think it’s in his head now and he’s lost all of his offensive confidence. He’s still a great skater he does a fair amount of things well. I don’t think he just randomly forgot how to shoot and score.

I don’t think he is an NHL quality player anymore. He skates fast and can kill penalties but he rarely creates a good offensive opportunity and honestly, I barely even notice him out there on most nights. One simple way to look at it: he doesn’t hurt your chances to win a game, but he does absolutely nothing to help.

Probably a combination of luck and or confidence. He’s not this irrelevant at the NHL level.

I think he’s playing well for somebody with zero goals. He has the most extreme form of snake bite syndrome and in the NHL, when you have no confidence, you’re nothing. I truly feel bad for him cause he seems to be doing everything right out there but nothing’s working for him.

Dude has a demon living inside of him that just won’t come out. At this point, all we can do is head out into the wilderness to find a sacrifice for Xenu and hope that he lifts the curse.

There is nothing not to like about RNH. How can he not be part of the core? How many other proven forwards who you can count on for 50-60 points do the Oilers have?

He is better as a C than a winger, but the problem is Draisaitl and McDavid are better centres. They don’t have enough good wingers to have RNH on the third line making $6mill. It is only his first season, and he hasn’t played on the wing a lot, so maybe more time on the wing will allow him to get more comfortable. It is a different game when you are standing still more as a winger as opposed to always moving as a centre. RNH thinks the game very well. He is reliable because you know what you will get. That is hugely important for a coach. I guess he could work on being more comfortable as a winger, but in order to do that he needs to play consistently on the wing.

He’s an interesting one because he only has two more years left on his contract after this one and it’s difficult to say whether the Oilers will be competitive in that window. You have to at least consider moving him for a younger asset, I think. That, again, is a tough one because he’s finally rounding into the two-way pro we all hoped he would become when he was drafted. But, given the team’s roster composition, could they afford a $7 or $8 million contract to RNH in 2021?

He should 100% be a part of this core moving forward. He might notch 70 points this year if he stays on McDavid’s wing, but even when he isn’t with 97, he’s a great second line centre. This was a big year for RNH and I think they should be looking at how they can help him this offseason. If he had a skilled winger with him, I think we could see Nugent-Hopkins set another career high next season. Offence aside, he’s very responsible in his own end and is a player that can be used in any situation whether it’s a tough 5v5 matchup, on the PK, or on the powerplay. He’s versatile. dependable, and dynamic. The Oilers need more guys like that.

I like seeing him on the top power play and using his shot. I’m unsure of his long-term future in Edmonton. RNH is great, but he only has two years left until free agency. How much is he going to get in two years? Players like James Van Riemsdyk are getting $7 million over five years. I’d think about a contract like that, but I don’t know if RNH is a guy you want to pay market value.

Nuge is and will always remain a part of the Oilers core. He’s been through rebuild #2, #3, AND #4 and hasn’t complained once. He continues to improve and I couldn’t be more proud of him for setting a career high. If anyone on the team deserves success, it’s him, and I hope he can find it here with the Oilers.

Nuge is one of the most polished players the Oilers have and he’s gotten there through eight years of working on his game, and I’m pumped for the dude that his offence is starting to round out to go with his two-way game. Is he part of the core? Yeah, I’d certainly hope so because he’s one of only a handful of forwards that aren’t fighting above their weight class (or league).

The new coach will depend on who the new GM wants, as it should be. I’ve got to admit, though, I’m intrigued by talk that Ralph Krueger might be worth a look. I don’t think it’ll happen, but he’s a smart guy who did a pretty good job here when there was less to work with.

To be honest I haven’t thought much about it. I do believe they will have a new HC next season. Joel Quenneville will be first on every team’s list. He’d be ideal. Other than him I wouldn’t look at a previous NHL head coach. I’d go with a younger coach who has had success in junior and the AHL. Rocky Thompson is an excellent head coach. His first year in the AHL he had 42 wins and that was with a split team (Vegas and St.Louis prospects), and this year Chicago is very competitive. He is an outstanding communicator and a very bright coach. He might not be ready just yet, but I have no doubt he will be an NHL head coach very soon.

Ideally, you can bring in a veteran like Joel Quenneville, but given the fact he’s going to be such a  coveted UFA this summer, he might not be a realistic option. I think the one that makes the most sense is Flyers assistant coach Kris Knoblauch, who coached Connor McDavid in the OHL. The team clearly isn’t responding to Ken Hitchcock’s hard style, so they need to go with more of a new-age communicator.

I really like the idea of bringing in Kris Knoblauch. He coached McDavid in Erie and has some NHL bench experience under his belt too. A young, up and coming mind is what the Oilers should be looking at and I think he fits that mould perfectly. He’s also spent time in the city as a player with the Edmonton Ice (WHL) and University of Alberta Golden Bears, which leads me to believe he would be all for taking this job and leaving the bench in Philly. Obviously, names like Quenville, Boucher, and Vigneault will be floated as well, but I’d like to see them hire someone with a fresh perspective.

You have to let the new general manager pick his own guy, so there might be a connection to the new general manager. The general manager comes first and there are some interesting names like Sheldon Keefe and Kris Knoblauch, or veteran guys like Joel Quenneville or Bruce Boudreau might be available.

Honestly, the only coach that I would like out of all available is Joel Quenneville. I really have no idea if he’d even be interested in coming to Edmonton, but he’d be my pick if he is interested. It’s going to be a battle if we’re wanting to sign him.

Coach Q, come on down! Maybe? Anybody? Bah. I have no idea. That said, I do look forward to whoever is next to be thrown on the pile.

Koskinen has been very good and I’d list him as the main reason, but you can’t ignore how good Leon Draisaitl has been either. The team, overall, has been more resilient — even in Saturday’s 3-2 loss to Toronto when they got outplayed most of the way.

Combination of many things. Their goals against are down. They have played better team defence and yes Koskinen has played quite well. It also helps that some of their secondary scorers are chipping in, specifically Zack Kassian.

Andrej Sekera’s presence is huge and Oscar Klefbom is back to playing near 100 percent. Those two are the biggest driving factors behind Edmonton’s good play. Well, that and the easy schedule they’ve had.

Don’t discount the presence of Andrej Sekera. I was nervous about him coming back considering his age, the amount of time he’s been out for, and the type of injuries he’s sustained but he’s come in and looked like vintage Andrej Sekera. He’s given them a more dependable third pairing and it appears as though he’s really helped Matt Benning bring his game back to a respectable level. That’s been massive and the spike in Koskinen’s numbers isn’t surprising considering he now always has at least one reliable NHL defender on the ice.

They’re getting some saves and three of their wins came against Buffalo, Ottawa, and Vancouver. Sekera helps but there’s still major work to be done. A few wins against bad teams doesn’t change that.

It’s 100% Andrej Sekera. And a ton of Koskinen. Sekera’s return creates a balance with the rest of our defencemen, and forwards. He has an excellent ability to move the puck up the ice so guys like Zack Kassian and Alex Chiasson can find some success around the net. It’s amazing how one skilled player can calm down an entire lineup, but Andrej Sekera is doing just that.

Koskinen has been playing very well since Talbot got moved to Philly and, just as importantly, the Oilers have a healthy defensive group for the first time all year. I mean, they’re still not playing Petrovic, a guy Chiarelli traded two assets to acquire, but that’s a story for another day.

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