It’s another long weekend edition of the Mailbag and this week is dedicated to the poor suckers that had to go into work today. This Mailbag goes out every one of you that was roped into to working by the man. This Mailbag is dedicated to everyone that is sitting at their job with absolutely no intention of being at all productive today. I’m here for you, my brothers and sisters. May the clock hands move quickly. 

Biggest weakness is lack of proven top-four defenders. Potential is there, but potential and proven is very different. Greatest strength is McDavid.

The easy answer is the defensive corps so I will let the rest of the gang cover that. I believe the biggest issue is the lack of NHL-ready players coming up to contribute on the big club. Hasn’t happened enough.

There are a few different weaknesses – strength at right wing, puck-moving ability on defence – that stand out. At this point, though, the lack of a fallback plan in the event Cam Talbot struggles/gets hurt is the one with the potential to prove costliest to the Oilers. The greatest strength is Connor McDavid, or more generally the centre position one-through-three, provided Leon Draisaitl stays in the middle.

I think the Oilers have lacked balance since spring 2006. Peter Chiarelli did a lot to improve that area this summer, but that remains the issue. A quality RHD (Trouba in, Fayne out), a 3C who could play a two-way game (Mikael Backlund) and a solid NHL backup (Jhonas Enroth) and this team will go places.

The lack of a right-shooting D-man who can move the puck and work the power play strikes me as the greatest remaining deficiency.  I think the top-three spots at centre are a strength.

Instead of saying defence, I think a big weakness often overlooked may still be the fact that the team is just getting out of a period where they had seven coaches in eight years. Granted all of the players haven’t been around for that long, Todd McLellan AND Peter Chiarelli still only have one year under their belts, not to mention the new front office staff/assistant coaching staff that have been coming in and out. I think it’s still a challenge, having all the players adapt to this inconsistency, as well as the new players coming in this season (Lucic/Larsson) who will have to learn and adapt as well. 

Strength? Definitely our offense. The combination of running three healthy, skilled centres (potentially), and the size that we have now in Maroon and Lucic will do us well in the future. And Connor McDavid.

There are a couple weaknesses for me. The right wing side is weak and so is the right defensive side. The strengths, for me, are the options down the middle. If McDavid, Nuge, and Draisaitl can all play with some consistency other teams are going to have a world of trouble dealing with them.

The Oilers can’t afford a slow start. I put my best shooter on McDavid’s wing and that is Eberle by a long shot. Yakupov has 33 goals in the last three years while Eberle has 77. The Oilers need to win games, not raise Yakupov’s trade value. Yakupov has shown nothing offensively or defensively to suggest he should play on your top line and face the opposition’s best players. It makes no sense to me. I don’t buy the theory of balanced lines either. He cannot produce against “easier” competition — why would he magically start now against top line opposition? McDavid will get all the tough minutes this year. Last year, Hall took a lot of them, but McDavid’s line will see it all season. Eberle and Lucic will start with him. It is the smart move because the Oilers NEED a good start in October.

In a perfect world I would like to see Eberle in that spot. Very strong duo. But if the team struggles to produce I can see 14 sliding down to play with Nuge. Yak could find his way up to the penthouse.

It depends on Todd McLellan. His answer last year was that Eberle was automatic; we’ll have to wait and see if that changes.

I would guess it is about 90 percent Eberle, 10 percent someone else. Yakupov is an incomplete player, but the Oilers could make three scoring lines if Yak was with 97. Easy for me to say, less easy for Todd McLellan to do—if it doesn’t work, the second
guessing would be rampant.

Should be Eberle. What has Yakupov done to earn first-line minutes?

I think Ebs will begin on McDavid’s right side, however I wouldn’t count Yak out. We all know he had some production last year with Connor. So if Eberle struggles, I wouldn’t hesitate to give Yak a try.

I would guess that it’s automatic to start the season. I hope Yak gets a chance on Connor’s wing but I think it’s more likely that he gets stuck in the bottom six and traded for zero, as per tradition.

I wrote it earlier yes I would. I have heard he is open to a PTO now. There are a few teams interested in signing him to a PTO, and I wonder if Richards signs with a more competitive team or if he picks Edmonton because he sees a better opportunity to earn a contract.

No. It doesn’t. I don’t think he has a lot left in his game from what I saw last year. Eight years ago I would have been into it.

There’s certainly room for a depth centre on a PTO. I don’t find Richards particularly compelling; there is almost certainly going to be a waiver claim centre of more interest.

It can’t hurt, and we don’t know how motivated Richards will be this fall. He could come to camp and shoot lights out.

Sure, but that’s not going to happen. I can’t imagine Richards wanting to play with a team closer to the bottom of the standings than the top at this point in his career.

I feel like Richards doesn’t really have anything left to contribute at the NHL level. I mean, it never hurts inviting him though and creating some competition in our bottom six. It depends if Chia wants to run two or three centres. If he wants three, I have no problem with keeping Letestu on our fourth line.

What’s the difference between Mike Richards at this point and Anton Lander? We’re not talking about Captain of the Philadelphia Flyers Mike Richards anymore. We’re talking about a guy that doesn’t produce any offense and has had his wheels fall off. I would invite him on a PTO for depth, but that’s about it. 

Nothing to be honest. They made many key changes to the team outside of the coach.

Find me a team in the league who wouldn’t give Todd a team to coach. Case closed.

Peter DeBoer is a good coach, and that team was upgraded year-over-year. I wouldn’t worry about it, no. 

I think it is natural to think that, but for me McLellan was a successful, proven coach and remains one. Sometimes a veteran team spikes after a coach or manager leaves. The Baltimore Orioles won the year after Earl Weaver left. Damndest thing.

No. Why should that be a source of worry? 

No! I felt bad for Todd cause that’s just the way things worked out. I don’t think it reflects in any way on his coaching abilities. Keep in mind he got the Sharks to the playoffs the previous six of seven.

The year before the Sharks went to the Finals Peter DeBoer missed the playoffs. Doesn’t mean anything in terms of how it relates to the Oilers.

Overall I thought it went fairly well. Speeding up the process would be the biggest benefit.

I think we should get them right out of the game. I don’t like how coaches used them as a time out or to change the flow of the game. Why are we trying to take goals out of the game? Let me guess, “to get it right.” Congrats. You are getting it right.

It’s acting as a suppressant on goal-scoring, which in my view makes it a failed experiment.

Shoot it until it stops moving.

The process needs to be quicker. I also have issues with replays for offside resulting in goals called back because a play was offside by two inches 10 seconds before the puck goes in the net. 

They’ve got to do something about the goalie interference calls. I’m not exactly sure what, but I feel like having to review goalie interference calls TWICE (one for the refs, then for the coaches challenge) is pretty inefficient. Part of me wants them to take out the review for interference, and if the player gets away with it, then good for him. I say that until it happens against Cam Talbot and the Oilers, then I’ll be fuming.

I always find that the best way to increase scoring is to negate as many goals as possible. Makes perfect sense.