Good morning, everyone, and a happy Monday to you all. As per tradition, I’ve got a brand new mailbag set to go after taking your questions and sending them to the crew for their takes. This week, we’re discussing Connor McDavid’s offence, the goaltending, Tristan Jarry, and more. If you’ve got a question you’d like to ask, email it to me at baggedmilk@oilersnation.com or on Twitter at @jsbmbaggedmilk, and I’ll get to you as soon as I can.

Before the trade deadline most likely, but I don’t see a massive need to rush it now. If the right player, at the right price is available, then yes they can look at it. They can give Matt Savoie and Isaac Howard a chance along with Vasily Podkolzin to see if they can produce more. If not, then they should have a lot of cap space to acquire a scoring winger, or two, before the deadline.

Yes, I believe they want someone that has shown consistent scoring throughout their career, too. Giroux would’ve been a good one season stopgap, but with Nugent-Hopkins and Hyman getting older, I’d look to acquire someone in their mid-to-late 20s instead.

It wasn’t my top priority of the off-season, but after scratching off other items on the to-do list, it’s what Stan Bowman has to consider. As I wrote yesterday, I’m content with Isaac Howard getting a legitimate look in the top-six. But they have to weigh the options. DeBrusk? No thanks. Tippett? Perhaps.

Absolutely. I think they need more consistent scoring in the top six. Not someone they HOPE can score 20 goals, but a proven killer.

They take their time and see if an obvious duo emerges. Jarry and Andersen’s recent injury history suggest having three healthy for an extended time could be unlikely.

My hope, more than a prediction, is that Jarry bounces back and challenges for the #1 role. He’s much better than he showed last season.

I think injuries will probably even it out so it doesn’t feel as onerous as three-goalie creases tend to. My hope is Levi challenges and becomes a legitimate option as opposed to getting pity starts. There will be struggles, though. If and when the Oilers go on a losing streak, the three goalie thing will not be looked upon fondly. It was a big issue for Buffalo this past season until it wasn’t.

I think it rolls as a three-headed monster for a while and then either Jarry or Andersen gets moved, waived, or traded. Maybe? What do I know?

I expect DJ Smith will use the regular season to find different combinations and see who finds chemistry. Walman needs to stay healthy and be in great shape when the season begins. His conditioning wasn’t where they wanted it to start last season.

I think it’s more interesting in how the Oilers’ defensive pairings finish the season, rather than how they start. Mattias Ekholm is a question mark too. How is he aging? Ryan Shea was a great signing just to add more stability to that left side.

Am I sure? Far from it. But as we pencil lineups amidst flash floods and mosquito bites, $49 million dollars figure into it. I’m hoping Shea is a Brett Kulak-esque acquisition where on any given night, he might be the LD with the most or second-most ice-time, depending on how the games play out.

I like this question because it suggests more versatility with Shea than maybe we know. I’ll admit, I haven’t watched him a whole lot, but it definitely seems like they found a guy who can move up and down the lineup as needed.

Goalies are voodoo. Writing one off after a bad season or anointing one the next great goalie due to a great year is equally risky and often leads to incorrect analysis. Jarry needs more consistency, but he also needs the players in front of him to be better. If they do, his stats will improve, and if he improves his own game, he could have a very good bounce-back season.

Yes, the belief is Jarry is gone, which isn’t unreasonable. The point I keep making is that he had a ..909 SV% in Pittsburgh and then a .858 SV% during his time here. To me, that shows more flaws in Edmonton’s system than in Jarry’s performance. Hopefully Babcock can turn around the defence and, therefore, help the goalies.

I’m lukewarm on Jarry. There’s a good chance that the tailend of last year was his rock bottom, but I’m glad the Oilers didn’t hitch their season’s hopes squarely on him in the crease. The issue is he has a history of setbacks whether it’s injury or performance that make him hard to rely on.

If the Oilers can tighten up defensively, I’d actually bet that Jarry bounces back. He’s a good goalie, we just didn’t get to see it.

I’ve heard that story a lot, but it doesn’t pass the smell test. Go look at most players in the 1980s and early 1990s. Their peak, outside of Gretzky and Lemieux, was six years and then they started to drop. Yzerman ended his first decade in the NHL with six consecutive 100+ point seasons. He was injured the next season, but still scored 82 points in 58 games, which prorated to 115 points. Yes, he didn’t produce as much when Detroit won the Cup in 1997, but he was 31 years old and in his 14th NHL season. His best offensive days were behind him. Sure, he became a bit more defensive, but mainly because he lost his high-end offensive game. He also had Brendan Shanahan, Sergei Federov, Nick Lidstrom, Igor Larionov, Larry Murphy and Mike Vernon on his team. When you have seven future Hall of Famers, your odds of winning improve.

I don’t believe McDavid has to sacrifice offence; he just needs to not press and feel he has to score on every shift. Less will equal more. Less ice time, less pressure, less urgency will help him. The Oilers went to two consecutive Cup Finals and in 2024 he scored over 40 points and outscored opponents 28-14 at 5×5.

McDavid is going to find his points. He’s too good not to. But maybe McDavid needs to reduce his time on ice and take more pride in his defensive game, from time to time.

It was hard not to laugh at the Yzerman reference in the press conference where Babcock talked about not his accomplishment, but the accomplishment of the father of the man sitting right beside him.

Nevertheless, there are moments, whether it’s the firewagon three-on-three overtime, or in crucial in-game situations, where McDavid can have his defensive lapses that lead to losses. Same with Draisaitl. They are fantastic players, but there is room to grow defensively. If a team’s best players are committed to playing the right way without the puck, it’s much easier to get buy-in from the rank and file.

McDavid will get his points. But do we really care if he gets 120 instead of 130 if it means the Oilers are better overall? I don’t.