Eakins Talks Roster

On Wednesday, Edmonton Oilers coach Dallas Eakins met with the media for around 20 minutes, and as always had some rather interesting things to share. One of the things Eakins brought up on Wednesday was the Oilers off-season, now under a dozen games away and coming up fast for the eight spring in a row.

Eakins had some interesting quotes regarding his young core, and how the Oilers need to build to improve the team moving towards the 2014-15 season. This isn’t earth shattering stuff, in fact it has been discussed on this blog and on many other blogs around the Oilers blogging world. That said, it is certainly nice to see it coming from the mouth of one of the men building this team. Here are the quotes, thanks to OilersNation and Lowetide.ca for them:

We still have a lot of work to do around the core. We need to supplement this group with probably some veteran leadership, some guys who can make plays, and not so much a toughness aspect but guys who are going to win battles in this conference… During the summer Craig and I have got to sit down and make the right decisions for our hockey club, to add and subtract what we need to move up in our conference.

Hallsy is able to take on the heavier load against those bigger opponents and D men. I can keep Hallsy away from Shea Weber, but I think Hallsy can handle Weber. But Nuge is in a different realm for me. Nuge just isn’t there physically yet. And I mean ‘yet.’ He’s getting there. The habits of our core guys, the guys who are going to be the difference-makers in the future, are improving.

As I mentioned above, this is not ground breaking stuff. Over the weekend, I put up a piece looking at how many pieces away the team was, and specifically mentioned adding veterans in key areas to help the young players learn to win, and improve the Oilers chances in a tough conference.

Even deeper than that, many blogs, including this one, have looked at the Oilers struggles to win battles and the Oilers struggles with knowing how to win and battle hard. To hear Eakins mention that the Oilers need to add veterans that can lead and win battles is sweet, sweet music to my ears, and should be to yours as well.

I’ve gone over it before, but the Oilers weakest two spots are center and defense. The Oilers have one good veteran center in Boyd Gordon, and out of position winger in Ryan Smyth playing center, a struggling young player in Sam Gagner and a developing star in RNH. The team will need veteran help there, and I suspect the rumored Gagner trade will pave the way for a veteran center. David Legwand anyone?

Heck, I would not be shocked if the Oilers added two veteran centers (lines two and four) and a veteran winger or two to help add size, leadership and skill in terms of winning battles. We saw Edmonton go hard after David Clarkson last summer, and I suspect players like Daniel Winnik will be the targets this time around.

Same goes for the defense. MacT mentioned at the season ticket luncheon on Monday that the team wanted another stop-gap defender, which screams veteran leader that can win battles. Andrew Ference, Jeff Petry, Martin Marincin and even Justin Schultz is a good start for a blue-line, now add in some veterans that compete and win battles, and you might have something in this spot.

What the Oilers sorely lack on the blue-line is a calming veteran presence that can play 20-25 minutes a night and play in all situations. It’s something they have lacked since Chris Pronger was on the roster in 2006. The Oilers don’t have that kind of player, and badly need one, or at least some veteran that can win battles and lead the way.

What Dallas Eakins is saying is exactly right. The Oilers need veteran leaders that can win battles, and they don’t necessarily need to be tough guys. If Edmonton were to add players like Winnik, Legwand, or even guys like Iginla up front, they would be a much better team because of it. Same goes for the back end. Adding veterans that can lead the way must be top priority for this team this off-season, and I believe these comments suggest it will be.

Tough decisions, both free agent wise and trade wise await the Oilers. Just like in the summer of 2013, we will say players like Boyd Gordon, David Perron and Andrew Ference added instead of guys like Ben Eager, Cam Barker, Darcy Hordichuk and Nikolai Khabibulin.