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 fixes for the Oilers’ goals against problem, Vasily Podkolzin’s offensive ceiling, team toughness on defence, 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.

I still think they need to add another scoring winger to the mix, although they can probably survive without it until the trade deadline. Right now, it just seems as though they’re banking on Ike Howard being ready to take a step forward and for me, that’s not a guarantee. I wouldn’t mind seeing another bottom-six centre added just to have a little insurance.

There are the known areas of potential need with a scoring winger, but what’s maybe a tad bothersome is the lack of a fire starter in their ranks. The Oilers have the dudes to answer, but they don’t have those same pesky, annoying, poop disturbers that become real thorns for the opposition.

Give me another proven goal scorer somehow, please. Vlad Tarasenko is right there in the bargain bin, and I’m almost surprised he’s still available.

I do. I think Babcock will keep everybody on their toes a little bit more and will lead to the team playing more structured throughout the year. That will help and having DJ Smith work on the PK should really help too. I also think the goaltending will be more solid next year which will bring that number down.

I think regardless of Babcock, the Oilers would be hard-pressed to repeat such a poor GA year with this personnel. Now how much it’ll improve will be interesting. Depending on the structural changes Babcock will make, plus his ethos of pressure-pressure-pressure, than the hard-to-quantify motivation factor, the Oilers will improve in that area. How and why that happens, how much that has to do with Babcock and how much players positively regress to the mean, will be fun to unpack during the season.

If Babcock doles out accountability consistently regardless of who we’re talking about (some leashes shorter than others, of course), then I think it’s perfectly reasonable to expect improvement in the defensive zone. That’s a bare minimum expectation, and I think they can absolutely be better than they were last year. Better defence will mean better goaltending… in theory.

If he realizes that he has a very good shot and starts using it more, I really do think that 25+ goals is a possibility. I think the only thing that will stop him from getting 30 goals is a lack of powerplay time but if he’s consistently playing with either Connor or Leon and he starts shooting the puck more, I do believe he can hit 25 goals next season.

He hit 19 goals a year ago and this year he gets 84 games to try. You can’t be wrong with these figures! His ceiling will rely on PP time throughout his career, but he’s going to dine in the 20s for his career, I think. Podkolzin seems to cares about his craft and that’ll be the ticket to a long, productive career. I could envision a 28-goal season one day, while more routinely ranging in the 17-25 goal category through his playing days.

My gut tells me he’s good enough to live in the 22-26 goal range and about 50 points. That would be a hell of a season for Podz, and I absolutely think he has the skill, hands, and shot to do it.

I think they’re fine. Murphy is tough and willing to fight and Jake Walman will throw his weight around a bit too. Ekholm isn’t necessarily a fighter, but he plays hard. I don’t think it will be a big issue. Carolina just won the Stanley Cup and their blueline wasn’t filled with fighters, it was just filled with guys who played hard.

Ya know, Ty Emberson is sort of an invisible man at times, but let’s not forget his fight with Joel Hanley last year in Calgary, one of the best all season for the Oilers.

The era of the 1990s-2000s defencemen, who lay out rushing forwards at neutral, is much more rare today. Dustin Byfuglien might have been the last to really look for them, although Islanders prospect Kashawn Aitcheson is a throwback in that way rising in Long Island’s system. My point being, I think they have the guys to respond to issues when required. I’m more concerned whether they are tough enough to play against, not just on the physical side, but in terms of takeaways, creating turnovers, disrupting plays, etc.

Are we talking about guys playing physical or guys that will drop the mitts? Because if it’s the former, Mattias Ekholm and Jake Walman both throw hits regularly. If we’re talking about fighting, then yeah, Connor Murphy is a man on an island right now. I know Emberson will drop ’em from time to time, but that’s kinda it. Ryan Shea doesn’t fight. Bouch doesn’t. Could be a thing, I guess. Probably won’t be, though.

Honestly, any complaints I have are just complaints that come as a result of being at a lot of games and they are issues that exist in every stadium: the between-whistle games get pretty repetitive and stuff like that. But honestly, very few complaints from me. The Oilers, compared to the other NHL barns I’ve been to, do a great job of keeping the crowd engaged.

A little more wiggle room in the upper deck wouldn’t hurt my expanding waist. I’m going to write a column soon about Enter Sandman and the time to change that as the skate out song. Otherwise, it really comes to cost for people.

Some of the in-between whistle stuff could be better. I went to a game in Montreal last year and they had a DJ spinning tunes during the intermission and people were boogieing everywhere. Otherwise, I think Rogers Place is pretty sick tbh. Drop concession prices so I can have something to eat while I enjoy the game without having to sell a kidney to make it happen.