Yesterday, we took a look back at the Chicago Blackhawks and how they were able to win three championships in seven seasons. Today, we’ll look at how the Oilers can implement the same plan.
KEEP YOUR CORE PLAYERS
The Edmonton Oilers BC, (Before Chiarelli) had established their core as Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Sam Gagner, Nail Yakupov, Justin Schultz, Ryan Whitney and Devan Dubnyk.
Today, that core is more similar to the Chicago Blackhawks. You have your impact forwards that cannot be replaced in Connor McDavid, Milan Lucic, Jordan Eberle and Leon Draisaitl, along with defenders Oscar Klefbom, Adam Larsson, Darnell Nurse and a starting goalie Cam Talbot.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jesse Puljujarvi could be added to the core players in the future on forward as well as a young defenseman like Brandon Davidson or Matt Benning.
The Oilers will have to ask themselves if they can find another RNH at cheaper than his $6.0m cap contract, and if they believe they can, the Nuge will be moved.
SIGN VALUABLE PLAYERS TO VALUE CONTRACTS
Here’s where I alluded to Oscar Klefbom and Adam Larsson’s deal as the best examples. Both players may not be top-pairing guys as we speak, but they have the potential to be. Klefbom and Larsson could be worth a paycheque of $6 million plus by next season, but the contracts they signed will keep them outplaying their cap hit. That’s a good thing.
Leon Draisaitl’s next contract will be something to keep an eye on as well. With Connor McDavid’s next contract sure to be over $9million, it would be in Chiarelli’s best interest to lock Leon Draisaitl up to a long-term deal with a smaller cap hit. Getting the Deutschland Dangler’s cap hit to be below the $6million that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is currently making is ideal.
The Oilers will need more deals like Patrick Maroon’s current deal than Benoit Pouliot’s current salary if they want to ice a potential Stanley Cup winning team.
DRAFTING IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT
One thing that has always hurt the Edmonton Oilers is management’s complete inability to find talent beyond the 1st round of the NHL Entry Draft.
Since 2010, the only players the Oilers drafted to make an NHL roster beyond the first round include Brandon Davidson (2010 6th round), Anton Slepyshev (2013 3rd round) and Tyler Pitlick (2010 2nd round).
Martin Marincin (2010 2nd round), Tobias Rieder (2011 4th round), and Erik Gustafsson (2012 4th round) are all currently on NHL rosters, but not for the Oilers.
To put it into comparison here’s a list of players drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks after the 1st round since 2010 that are currently in the NHL:
2010 3/90 LW Joakim Nordstrom, CAR, Bottom 6 Forward
2011 2/36 D Adam Clendening, NYR, 5/6 Dman
2011 2/43 LW Brandon Saad, CBJ, Top 6 Forward
2011 3/79 D Klas Dahlbeck, CAR, 5/6 Dman
2011 5/139 C Andrew Shaw, MTL, Top 9 Forward
2012 6/169 C Vince Hinostroza, CHI, Top 9 Forward
2013 4/121 C Tyler Motte, CHI, Top 9 Forward
MAKING DEALS
So far, so good for the most part on Peter Chiarelli’s trade record. Forget about the overpayment on Griffin Reinhart, and look at the deals he pulled off to acquire Patrick Maroon and Zack Kassian. He gave up a young defenseman now playing in the Czech league, a 4th round pick and a goaltender now toiling in the KHL.
Stan Bowman had to trade off a lot of talented players, but he made sure he got something to work with in every single deal.
The best example of finding value didn’t come when he traded a player for a prospect and instead got a roster player back; the Brandon Saad deal.
Saad was sure to get a payday upwards of $6million the Hawks couldn’t afford, so Saad was sent away to the Columbus Blue Jackets where the Hawks finally got something they had coveted for a while surprisingly; a second line centre.
Saad was dealt along with B-level prospects Alex Broadhurst and Mike Paliotta to the Blue Jackets for a package containing Marko Dano, Jeremy Morin, Corey Tropp and of course Artem Anisimov.
The Oilers need to be able to make deals like that one to succeed. The Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson deal was similar in the way that the Oilers dealt something they had a surplus of to obtain something they did not have.
ESTIMATED 2018-19 CONTRACTS
Lucic ($6.0m) – McDavid ($9.7m) – Eberle ($6.0m)
_______ ($3.5m) – Draisaitl ($5.8m) – Puljujarvi ($4.5m)
Slepyshev ($2.4m) – ______ ($1.5m) – Kassian ($1.8m)
________($0.7m) – _______ ($1.0m) – ________ ($0.8m)
Klefbom ($4.1m) – Larsson ($4.1m)
Nurse ($3.7m) – ________ ($3.0m)
Sekera ($5.5m) – ________ ($1.2m)
Talbot ($4.1m)
_______ ($1.3m)
These estimated cap hits add up to $70.7 million which is a manageable number going forward considering the cap fluctuates around the $75 million range.
The Oilers will need to find cheap replacement players for particular roles currently played by Benoit Pouliot, Patrick Maroon, Mark Letestu, Kris Russell and Matt Hendricks.
Looking at the blank spots, one can assume Patrick Maroon could continue to play 3rd line minutes at the salary I guessed for Anton Slepyshev and have Slepyshev take the 2nd line left wing spot.
The Oilers will need young prospects like Jujhar Khaira, Kyle Platzer, Tyler Benson and Drake Caggiula to eventually take on bottom six roles on their cheap contracts.
On defense, it would be ideal for the Oilers to get out of the Andrej Sekera contract, but it would not be easy. Sekera is a good defenseman right now but we know he won’t be worth his salary a few years down the road. The Hawks had a similar issue with Brian Campbell and moved his $7.1million to Florida for Rostislav Olesz and his $3.8m cap hit and the remaining three years. Olesz had become a sparingly used player and was eventually used as a compliance buyout option. The Oilers will likely have to make a similar deal to get out of the contract.
Kris Russell could very well be signed to a deal between 3 and 4 million over the next three years to replace his current defense partner.
Brandon Davidson will have to stay healthy, but there’s a good chance him or Griffin Reinhart gets plucked by the expansion Las Vegas franchise.
Jordan Oesterle, Matt Benning and further down the road Ethan Bear or Caleb Jones will have to take a spot on the main club with a value contract.
LOOKING AHEAD
The Edmonton Oilers have built a decent team for the current season, but they will need to be crafty to build a contending team on a budget.
Connor is going to get paid. Leon is going to get paid. Darnell is going to get paid as well. When that time comes, the Oilers will need to be making quick and vital decisions that will affect the outcome of the franchise.
The Chicago Blackhawks proved it could be done and yes, winning three Stanley Cups over the course of seven years is a dynasty in the Salary Cap world no matter what anybody says.
How many cups can the Oilers win with Connor McDavid????
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