Good morning, everyone, and a happy Thanksgiving Monday to you all. As always, I’ve got a brand new mailbag ready to go after taking your questions and sending them to the crew for their take. This week, we’re discussing Jack Roslovic’s spot in the lineup, Leon Draisaitl’s 400th career goal, Mattias Ekholm’s extension, 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.

They weren’t going to have extra money even without him, all this does is make for more internal competition. Roslovic has two 22-goal seasons thus far, the only other winger with that production is Zach Hyman. I see it as a low-risk move, but I think the one concern is does Edmonton now have too many similar forwards. Skilled ones, who don’t play an overly gritty game. Outside of Hyman, Frederic and Podkolzin, the other wingers aren’t aggressive or in some cases very big.

Need is a funny word I guess. Their forward group was already really solid, but you shouldn’t turn away a quality player on a good contract because you’re content with what you have. I like that Bowman wasn’t afraid to be aggressive here. If this works, then you’ve added a 20+ goal scorer to your lineup for nothing. If it doesn’t then you trade him away. It’s a no-risk move for me.

There’s no such thing as too much competition and too much offence in today’s NHL. The Oilers were one of the better offences as a whole last year scoring the 11th most goals in the league in all situations, but they were closer to the middle of the pack, ranked 14th, in five-on-five scoring. Roslovic had 19 five-on-five goals last year, leaving him tied for 10th with the likes of Zach Hyman, Jake Guentzel, Mark Scheifele, Nico Hischier and others. If Roslovic can provide that at a $1.5-million salary, there’s no argument to be made for poor utilization of the cap.

Stan Bowman talked about wanting to score more even strength goals and Roslovic has a history of doing that. Personally, I think more goals is always better, but I’ll also be the first to admit I haven’t watched the guy play a tonne. At the very worst, it’s a cheap bet with the potential for some real upside.

I don’t know what the future holds, and neither do those claiming it is only three years. What happens in the three years will determine which path he opts for. Personally, I think it is a waste of time to worry about something that might or might not happen in three years’ time. The organization’s goal is to win, and with him in the lineup their odds of winning are higher than without. I view it as a positive they have three years to try and win.

If they win a Stanley Cup in the next three seasons and still have a lot of competitive pieces around him, then he will absolutely sign another contract.

I don’t buy into it at all, to be honest. While hoisting Lord Stanley’s Mug sometime over the next three years would likely seal a long-term deal in place, I wonder if — so long as the team remains highly competitive with multiple trips to the Western Conference Final and/or the Stanley Cup Final — he still signs a long-term deal.

If the Oilers are contenders when the time comes, he’ll extend again. He said his heart is in Edmonton, and now it’s Bowman’s job to give him a team worth playing for.

Becoming a lethal one-timer of the puck, especially from sharp angles. He is a great example of how to work and grow your game.

It’s fascinating because the thinking when he was drafted was that he was supposed to be a defence first, pass first kind of player. Now? Dynamic, elite super start who can shoot the puck at an elite level. He was never really supposed to be a 100-point guy, never mind a perennial 50-goal scorer.

When he was drafted I remember there being talk about him being a Joe Thornton type of player: a big, two-way centre who would be able to play as good of an offensive game as he could a defensive game. Skating was a concern, as we all remember, but I don’t think anybody expected the offensive ceiling that Draisaitl has smashed through. It’s been a treat to watch.

I remember people talking about his skating, his shot, and blah blah blah. But here we are a decade later, and he would easily go #1 overall if there was a redraft. The guy is an absolute unit and it’s been a pleasure to watch him evolve.

Groin injuries rarely become chronic. If in two seasons Ekholm is their #5 D-man, at $4m it will still be good value. The past two seasons Brett Kulak’s $2.75m has taken up $3.21% and 3.125% of the cap. In Ekholm’s second season his AAV will take up $3.53% of the cap (if it remains at the projected $113m) and in his third year it would be $3.30 if cap is $120m. So I don’t see it being a big issue. It just ensures they have really good LD depth.

I guess it’s a year too long, but it has the chance to provide so much value in the first two seasons that I think you just bite the bullet on any fears that you could have about how he ages. Also, by the time the final two years roll around, the cap will be so high that $4m will be normal third-pairing defenceman money.

I could understand the concern about the deal being a year long, but the Oilers were able to keep the cap hit much lower than I was expecting. I thought this was going to be a deal in the $5.5-$6.5-million range, so the fact the Oilers were able to get him for as “cheap” as they did was a steal. It’s worth noting the structure of the deal provides the Oilers some more flexibility as it doesn’t count as a 35+ contract.

I thought it was a year long. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that third year won’t really matter much if the salary cap shoots the moon as it’s expected to. If the cap gets to something like $120m by then, we’re talking about a very low percentage of cap, which could be easily moveable by then.

Andrew Mangiapane will score 25+ goals. What defines a slump? If Hyman only scores around 20 goals due to missing first 12 games (at least) and then recovering from injury is that a slump? If yes, then I’ll go with that.

I was really impressed with how Ike Howard shoots the puck. Once he learns the game a little more and gets his reps in, he’ll be a perennial 20-25 goal guy. I think Savoie is wicked smart as well. He’ll be an NHLer for a long time.

Give me a David Tomášek breakout. His offensive game has really impressed me early on this season, especially around the net on the power play. I have a bit of a hard time picking a slump candidate, but I could see it being Brett Kulak. There were some warts in his game that came out in the playoffs, and I wonder if that carries into this campaign.

I’m a big fan of Isaac Howard’s willingness to shoot the puck. It’s going to take him a minute to figure out that certain things that worked in college may not in the NHL, but I also think he’s going to score a pile of goals with a shot like that.

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