Random Thoughts: Nugent-Hopkins Negotiations, Jake DeBrusk, Expansion Draft, and More

Saturday morning means another chance for your ol’ pal Baggedmilk to dump out the hockey thoughts that have been rolling around in my head over the past week.

On Monday of this week, Gregor gave us an update about the @Ryan Nugent-Hopkins contract negotiations being back underway and while there hasn’t been any movement on a potential deal, it made me think that we’re going to see something get done here rather than letting the guy walk for nothing. I mean, we know there’s a gap between the organization and player, but the fact that they’re back at the table has to count for something, right?

Then, on Tuesday, Elliotte Friedman dropped his weekly 31 Thoughts article at Sportsnet that included a point about RNH that simply said, “Edmonton and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins are grinding to find common ground.” Now, neither of these tidbits suggests that anything is imminent, but I’m thinking that neither side would be working this hard to make something work if they weren’t going to eventually get it done. Am I wrong? It’s happened before.

With Seattle getting set to pick their lineup at the expansion draft a little bit later in the summer, I can’t help but wonder how much different this version will be over the last such draft when Vegas joined the party. The Golden Knights made 15 trades during their own expansion, and the product of that work was responsible for the way they were able to make waves in their inaugural season and beyond. Will the 31 other GMs look at the way things played out and learn anything, or will we see some of the same mistakes once again? Will Seattle get the same help as Vegas did? Will everyone conspire to throw anchors at Vegas since they’re already good and don’t have to lose anyone in expansion? Either way, I’m sticking with my guess that the Oilers lose either Caleb Jones or Tyler Benson when all is said and done.

As much as I understand why @Jake DeBrusk’s name is flying around the site these days, the idea of trading for a hometown kid that’s coming off a bad year makes me nervous. It’s not that I think DeBrusk is a bad player or anything — I really don’t — but I do think it would be risky to trade assets for him and expect that he’ll be part of the solution in our spotty top-six. Maybe it’s the ghosts of Joffrey Lupul coming in for one unsuccessful year before bouncing that has me feeling gunshy about trading for the kid, especially after coming off a season that saw him score only five goals and 14 points in 41 games, but I can’t help but think about this being a risky bet. That’s not to say that DeBrusk won’t rebound — I actually think he’ll probably land back somewhere between his 19-27 goal season — but I don’t think the best place for him to do that is here. Maybe I’m overthinking it? It’s not exactly like we’re easy on skilled guys around here, and that goes doubly so when they’re from Edmonton.

This past week, we celebrated the 15th anniversary of Fernando Pisani’s OT winner in Game 5 of the 2006 Stanley Cup finals and while the trip down memory lane was certainly a good time, it also made me realize how old I’m getting and how fast it’s happening. When Pisani scored that goal, I, a fresh-faced 21-year-old Baggedmilk, was watching the game with some friends at a bar in St. Albert and the tensions were incredibly high — I was sure that the Oilers were going to lose after taking a penalty early in overtime. Then, as we’ve all seen countless times at this point, Fernando Pisani intercepted a pass at the blue line and ripped a beauty of a shot up and over Cam Ward’s glove, pulling the Oilers back to within a game of tying the series at three. It was the kind of goal that we’ll be seeing forever and one that I hold dear to my heart. We all know the story. That said, this is the kind of shit that is starting to make me feel really old. Can Pisani’s goal really have happened 15 years ago? Come on? Where did the time go?

Listen, I’m about the last guy on the Internet that will run to defend Corey Perry and it even feels weird writing this now, but I have no idea what the NHL is doing with their referees when crap like this goes unpenalized. Not only did Perry take a high stick from Jonathan Marchessault but he was also split wide open, and yet, there was still no penalty on the play despite all of this happening right in front of one of the officials. I know that refs are human and bound to miss things from time to time, but the obviously missed calls have been happening all playoffs long and the fact that the NHL doesn’t seem to care is endlessly embarrassing for a league that can’t figure out what it’s often a laughing stock.

I’m sure everyone has already seen the pictures of Jeff Petry’s bloodshot eyes from Game 2 of their series against Vegas, but I felt like they deserved another look. This is the kind of look that will haunt a person, man, and it was a mighty bold of Petry to summon the demons ahead of his series debut. Of course, we know that Petry is fine and his eyes will bounce back eventually, but that doesn’t make it any easier to shake this horrifying image from my brain.