Ryan Whitney skated today, perhaps a good sign although we'll have to wait and see how he feels tomorrow. The club is off to Jasper for team building, with Andy Sutton off to his house to spend some time with the newest addition to the family.
I think a good way to look at all of these waiver blue is this: does said player have more potential to help the Oilers win games than Taylor Chorney?
With that as the line in the sand, it'll be interesting to see if the club sees anyone on the waiver wire worth claiming.
Peter Harrold waived in Jersey as well.
ReplyDeleteI don't know much about these kids and don't have any idea if they are any better than what we have bubbling under.Unless something really outstanding hits the wire I think we stand pat-what you see is what you get.
That is a great way to judge players to decide if we should pick them up or not. I fully approve of taking anyone better than Chroney.
ReplyDeleteHarrold looks interesting. He shoots right and has 150 games of NHL experience with LA over the past few seasons.
ReplyDeleteThat's got to be better than playing a left shooting AHL defenseman out of position, right?
Matt Lashoff is an above average NHL Defenceman. I think adding him would be a smart move. I watched him play several times, and I would decribe him as a solid 2 way D-man. What are we waiting for?
ReplyDeleteI would agree that Chorney is the 'mendoza line' for waiver pick-ups. Too much fretting over whether or not a guy can step into top-4 minutes on this team is over-thinking it. The fact of the matter is, Chorney is two injuries away from possibly having to do just that. And if there is something better to be had, take him!
ReplyDeletevinginess - too much vinegar on your fries
Harold is aninteresting one. he is 28 yrs old, has played really well in the AHL and is a right handed shot (as mentioned). he is small for a dman at 6'0 184 lbs, but he does bring more offense then anyone we could play other then maybe Gilbert and Petry (with Barker in the conversation due to PP time).
ReplyDeleteAnd I still like Lashoff as an upgrade on Potter or Chroney. if you add Lashoff and Harrold, you improve both the NHL team and also the AHL team. They won't do either, but it would be great if they picked up one of them to help the team, allowing us to demote a younger player who will be better off being in the minors and playing bugger minutes.
Hey Lowetide what do you think about moving Paajarvi to defense? he has the size,mindset and he played D as a teen if I recall correctly. That would really help this team in a lot of ways if it worked out.
ReplyDeletehockeyman: I think LT (and others) have tackled that question in one of the last threads. He's played wing for a while now and he has the speed to have a real impact there.
ReplyDeleteIf the Oilers are desperate for D, then they should make a trade/seek out waiver options - provided they exceed the Chorney line (love that measure, LT).
I see no one on waivers worth the pick up. Lashoff is an AHL Dman that we would be forced to keep on the NHL roster or re-waive. What would be the point of doing that?
ReplyDeleteHarrold doesn't seem to be much better... A smaller offensively minded D who struggles to put up numbers and stay even.
Whitney - Gilbert
ReplyDeleteSutton - Petry
Peckham - Potter/Barker
If Whitney is good to go for the season opener, then I think that's what we're looking at. Does picking up a Lashoff or Harrold improve the above lineup? Or does it just take Potter out of the pressbox and into the AHL?
I agree that Smid's minutes will need to be replaced, but Smid will be back at some point.
I also agree that we should probably be looking for an upgrade on both Smid and Barker, but that wasn't going to happen in the offseason before the injuries, and it's certainly not going to happen now that we're down a few men.
If it were me in Tambelini's shoes, I'd have done a lot of things differently on defense, and I'd certainly be watching the waiver wire closely now. I'm just saying don't expect much.
Keep in mind that any player that we pick up on waivers basically has to stay in the NHL otherwise the team could/would lose him on waivers or back to the original team (who could then demote them to the AHL)
ReplyDeleteI trust that Tambo will be evaluating the situation.
ReplyDeleteMatt Lashoff is an above average NHL Defenceman.
ReplyDeleteI don't know that I have ever seen him play, but 74 NHL games split over 6 different years with three different teams doesn't scream "above average" to me.
Isn't the guy who is better than Chorney named Potter?
Gilbert, Barker, Sutton, Teddy, Petry, Potter, with Chorney on the flight deck. If one of Whitney or Smid is due back in the next two weeks, that should do.
Keep in mind that any player that we pick up on waivers basically has to stay in the NHL otherwise the team could/would lose him on waivers or back to the original team (who could then demote them to the AHL)
ReplyDeleteI don't see how this is such a bad thing. We rent a Lashoff or Harrold or whoever until Whitney or Smid get healthy. Send our rental back through waivers when we're done with him, giving his former team first shot at him. Worst Case scenario we end up with an extra contract and some extra AHL depth if they aren't claimed when we send them down. If we end up using him for two weeks or two months, it doesn't really matter as long as our NHL team is more competitive while they are here.
Kert- I agree that it is not a bad thing. I was just indicating that we can't pick up a player with the goal of helping to fill AHL depth for NHL callup duty.
ReplyDeleteCactus: Bufuglien has an impact at forward too if he was an oiler would you put him on the wing?
ReplyDeleteWe have other options at wing not so much at D.
@hockeyman99
ReplyDeleteI might be concerned with his backwards skating, particularly his lateral movement, and whether or not it's been developed to a high enough level for an NHL level D-man with his skill set (i.e. not a physical D-man).
My concern w/not doing anything before the opening game would be if they decide to rush Whitney back before he's ready. In previous threads it's been pointed out that this injury takes up to a year - and we're just over 9 months since this happened.
ReplyDeleteTo just step right back in when you're not 100% would be a big risk.
Realistic to expect that Smid's injury could have him on the shelf 8 weeks.
Given this, a trade would not surprise me when Gagner comes back - especially if RNH and Lander force the issue. That's when they address the blue.
I don't understand how everyone seems to think Potter isn't worth being on this team? From what I watched he had better camps then Chorney,Smid and Peckham. He's played on the PP and he looked good doing it.
ReplyDeleteIf the Oilers pick up a d-man it better be better then Potter if he's the one who goes down to the AHL to keep him.
I don't think anyone is asking for Potter to go down. He's proving useful in limited minutes. But the Chorney line is one that we need players to hit above. Potter does that. Chorney does not.
ReplyDeletePresuming Chorney / Potter would make it through waivers, picking up a waiver wire d-man makes sense because it leaves our AHL team better stocked.
ReplyDeleteWe don't need a d-man for offence (Barker, Gilbert and Petry should be able to handle that) we just need a steady body. I see Lashoff as filling in the way Dean Arsene did.
LT: how do you feel about having to close threads and me not having anything to do with?
ReplyDeletewhat does this portend?:)
Dennis: It's an ill wind she blows. :-)
ReplyDeleteMike, on Potter making it through waivers, I think that is a big presumption. Especially after rustling from someone else' herd. Why risk it to exchange hiim for the same player or worse?
ReplyDeleteUnless someone comes up on waivers who is clearly better than the present stable of D, I see no reason for a waiver pluck. The only Dman waived so far, who might have qualified on that basis, is Morrison.
The Oilers have 6 healthy defensemen currently. So even if they claim no one it'll force a callup (unless one of the injured players is ready).
ReplyDeleteThe ready player--Chorney--would also be the flushed player. Should they lose him to waivers, so be it.
Don't know why that last thread was closed, I thought it was pretty well argued, pro and con... I'm assuming there's a post or two deleted where things went off the rails.
ReplyDeletetinfu: an advanced style of hand-to-hand combat developed from fighting with soup cans.
It sounds like Smid will be going through therapy rather than surgery so he might be ready.
ReplyDeleteWe don't really know time frames whereas the Oil do... Tough to second guess.
Or they might want to give at bats to Teubert or Plante.
maybe this latest malady will unlock 5's scoring potential!
ReplyDeleteLT: I plan on showing the kids how it's done: I'm just sitting back and waiting for someone to talk about how great that Penner trade is/was.
Dennis: We'll see,
ReplyDeleteOh and it looks like Whitney skated today, regular contact and no pain, according to Gregor. Good news that, and it takes the pressure off making a waiver guess.
ReplyDeleteI would dearly love for the Yankees to lose this game.
ReplyDeleteEdmonton doesn't need another 6-7 defender. They need a top 4 defender.
ReplyDeleteTrade Gagner.
Nation citizen? Greatest ball team ever assembled?
ReplyDeleteI think the ump wants the Yankees to lose as well.
Verlander. Lordy.
ReplyDeleteI think Verlander pitches a complete game. Total domination after the first two batters. A Rod might go 0 for series
ReplyDeleteNo jinxies.
ReplyDeleteAll those innings in the past years have caught up to CC.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe he made it out of that inning. Showed some real mental toughness there.
ReplyDeleteBoom Baby!
ReplyDeleteIs there even anyone up in the bullpen?
Left him in too long, don't really understand why he started this inning.
ReplyDeleteI think there's an issue of coaching staff burden to take into account. The time to make moves with incremental upside is when you have spare cycles available to devote to assessment on the ice, and integration into the system of play. This is not a roster or a point in time where the coaching staff has spare cycles; nor do the veterans, either. On a veteran team, a loose cannon with some skill who doesn't know the system of play yet is something they have the experience to rectify or blow off. Our young rookies don't need this, and then how does the coach hold the rookie responsible when the waiver wobbles?
ReplyDeleteRyan, welcome to RNH, and mind the waiver guy behind you, too, while you drive hard to the net.
Christ, half the balls Verlander has pitched this game could've been called strikes.
ReplyDeleteAnd then a 101!
LT.....Are you aware of any website carrying the waiver wire list? Is that list actually made available to the general public, or is it strictly an internal NHL document?
ReplyDeleteThis ball game might force me to consume alcoholic beverages.
ReplyDeleteGardner with a 2B on a 100 mph heater. Hooda thunk it. To coin a phrase, "You can't predict baseball"
ReplyDeleteThe Yankee blogs were going insane "Pinch hit Montero and then silence before the bedlam. They were in shock.
ReplyDeleteNoble,
ReplyDeleteTSN Transactions... Bob McKenzie will usually tweet them too.
Thanks Spoiler
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of not predicting baseball... The Tigers take the lead back.
ReplyDeleteWell if the Yankees beat Verlander tonight you've got to hand it to them. I mean, that's just an amazing pitcher out there.
ReplyDeleteMan, that ump is bad. Four balls and he called two of them strikes.
ReplyDeleteI've been watching baseball a long time, and Verlander this night is memorable. And might not win.
ReplyDeleteIt's like Ali-Frazier.
Popping a century on the 120th pitch is insane. I;m amazed that the Yankees scored four.
ReplyDeleteTigers win it. Best game I've seen in a long time. Yankees could win the WS this year.
ReplyDeleteThat coulda been a shutout with the rught breaks. Verlander was a real joy to watch tonight.
ReplyDeleteUtterly unrelated to the thread at hand - but this Globe and Mail article about the Flames (yikes!) shifting to a Moneyball type drafting strategy is pretty interesting. The guy they hired - John Weisbrod - sounds pretty fascinating as well. First time I've heard of someone going from President of an NBA team -> consulting for a W. Canadian hockey team.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/allan-maki/harvard-wonk-choreographs-flames-quantum-shift/article2189833/
Nice waiver list. "will we be ordering the trash or garbage tonight sir?" Can't believe anyone actually took the time to read it...let alone suggest for one second either of those clowns would be an asset.
ReplyDeleteYes Lashoff is an "above average D man. Totally explains why he can't crack an NHL roster for an extended period.
I think I'll go and slap my head into the paint can shaker at Rona now.
As a Yankee fan, I enjoyed Verlander's pitching as well. Mighty fine pitching.
ReplyDeleteEvery starter struck out at least once and even Cano twice. Yankees season comes down to Crash Burnett tomorrow. 4 and 5 hitters batting 1 for 3 games. Not gruntled.
Inge and Santiago the CC killers, go figure.
Just a great game.
@i am not manimal,
ReplyDeleteThe money quote from the article:
“The Flames have been one of the worst drafting teams in the last 10 years. We have to change that,” Weisbrod said, referring to the fact Calgary has developed only one first-round draft pick for its 2011-12 roster (centre Mikael Backlund).
I'm going to disappear for a week until another game is played, but before I do, there was one more link I wanted to drop, which was brought to mind by yesterday's truncated thread.
ReplyDeleteTeenage Brains
On the highway, I think a lot about the difference between static safety and dynamic safety. Static safety is following the rules of the road--usually while snorgling the tail pipe of car in front of you. You never catch hell for this--at least not until you tick the "Oreo filling" box on your insurance claim form.
Dynamic safety is where you use available tools to react to the traffic around you. If you don't know what I mean, you've never ridden a motorcycle. When I took a motorcycle safety course twenty years ago, I had an instructor with a noticeable limp. Late at night he stopped for a red light. The car behind him didn't. Not a big impact, but his bike toppled and broke his leg.
If he had anticipated the light and given the bike a controlled goose from a block away, he wouldn't have been sitting there to become a drinking and driving statistic with the hobble to show for it. The cops are always saying speed kills. It also saves, if you're alert. But who is counting accidents that don't happen? There's not a lot of public praise for dynamic safety. When it's your skin never more than the next idiot away from becoming a road pizza, you think different--except for a high turnover population of Smids with attitude.
What the link explains is that teenagers don't seek risk, they seek sensation. Risk happens when a teenager is with his peer group.
Developmentally, static safety precedes dynamic safety; that comes with more experience (unless religiously scrubbed away by the weekly beerwash).
Girls at 15 end up with loser hunks because hunkness is easier to evaluate (it's biological) than loserness, which has more layers than a Spanakopita.
In particular, static hunkness is easy to spot. Later on, young women learn to appreciate dynamic hunkness, which correlates with less epic loserness. Some people make the transition, some people go through life snorgling tailpipes.
The old joke is that some people shouldn't open their mouths. Static sex appeal. "Unfortunately, Randy is a mute" puts Steve Martin into proper restraint. I can't recall the movie where an older man hooked up with a young looker continually says "Hush, baby" as she doesn't have much else to offer and anything she says spoils the view.
Perhaps it's telling to see the Glengarry Glen Ross theory of female puberty advanced in the cause of lynching Mr Dithers.
Loser-hunks are sensation worthy to a young woman at the phase in life of blooming out the thorny bush of show-stoppers. If you can't figure out what a woman is thinking at age 25 (there is some incentive there), can you figure out any better what a GM is thinking at age 50? And no, I haven't forgotten the line "The farm boy did have good teeth, give credit where credit is due." There's a lot of that, too.
DMW: even with an artistic license that last ramble made no sense.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many of the current oilers top 6 D couldn't have theoretically made it through waivers right now. 77 for sure, maybe 58.
The real sad part is when you ask the same question about the top 12 F. They will be the silver lining this season. That and RNH if he's playing on RD.
Actually DMW I was referring to the first post. I don't know enough about women to comment on the second more coherent one.
ReplyDeleteI will eat any post that has spanakopita in it.
ReplyDeleteDynamic safety = defensive driving?
ReplyDeleteYou think the Yankees can win the World Series LT?
ReplyDeleteBurnett is taking the hill next game. The yanks might not play another.
Tuohimaa will be in net for half game today when Jokerit meet the Ducks in Helsinki. I don't know if it's streamed anywhere but just wanted to let you know.
ReplyDeleteOther familiar player for you is Jani Rita who is now playing third line wing for Jokerit... and here is full line-up:
Ruuttu - Filppula - Eaves
Lahti - Kerälä - Pulkkinen
Hännikäinen - Hahl - Rita
Mäki - Tyrväinen - Heino
Nordlund - Dehner
Kivistö - Väänänen
Niemi - Klingberg
Manelius
Kilpeläinen (Tuohimaa)
Jarkko Ruutu is also playing for Jokerit but he is currently injured.
Thank you for this blog. Thats all I can say. You most definitely have made this blog into something thats eye opening and important. You clearly know so much about the subject, youve covered so many bases. Great stuff from this part of the internet. Again, thank you for this blog.
ReplyDeleteMendota Heights Personal Trainer
Oh, Jon. If you'd read the blog a long time, you'd know there's no problem with posting your business link in the comments section.
ReplyDeleteWhy, there's one GD blog from two years ago that STILL gets Japanese replies on things you can buy on the internet.
...And I still haven't received my X-Ray Spectacles and bulk pack of OxyContin! The hell!
ReplyDeleteThe Flames also hired Chris Snow to work on roster analysis this summer. It should be interesting to see what they come up with.
Edmonton Oilers
ReplyDeleteNHL_Oilers Edmonton Oilers
Forwards Gilbert Brule, Ryan O'Marra, Josh Green & Ryan Keller have cleared waivers this morning and will report to the @OKC_Barons
37 seconds ago