Off-Season Targets: Oilers Overview

It’s that time of year again my friends, time to forget about another lost hockey season and focus our attention on the upcoming off-season and player movement. For the Edmonton Oilers, the summer of 2016 could be a very interesting and active one. The Oilers finished 29th overall in 2015-16, and although they improved their win and point totals, it was a disappointing campaign.

Last summer, Edmonton brought in veteran GM Peter Chiarelli to oversee the turnaround and brought in veteran coach Todd McLellan to add stability to the coaching position. Now, after a year of evaluation and a year of assessing both on-ice play and off-ice accountability, the Oilers are poised to make some massive changes.

During the Steve Tambellini and Craig MacTavish eras, the Oilers simply changed their fourth liners and third pairing defenders. They figured that it would be enough to push a young team with no defensive help and helpful veterans forward. They were wrong.

After watching Peter Chiarelli work in Boston for a few years, I can comfortably say that we will not be looking at minimal change in Edmonton this summer. Chiarelli and McLellan are going to mold the Oilers into their team. That means painful and major changes that result in balance and a different style roster.

We won’t love everything that the Oilers do this summer, but we will find it interesting and somewhat fun.

LeBrun: “I don’t think there’ll be a busier GM, at least if he has his way, than Peter Chiarelli in the entire league.” #Oilers

— Chris Nichols (@NicholsOnHockey) April 11, 2016

Usually, there isn’t much smoke when it comes to the Edmonton Oilers. The team usually has a few rumors surrounding it, but the media and the team usually sells that there will be minor changes and that the core will get a chance to figure things out. That doesn’t appear to be the case this time around. With that being said, the series will be longer this year and feature more players than ever before. You can expect some bigger names too.

Oilers’ GM Peter Chiarelli on need for a top defenceman: “I am reasonably confident I can address it in a meaningful way.” #oilers#nhl#yeg

— Marty Klinkenberg (@globemartyk) April 11, 2016

Peter Chiarelli specifically addressed fixing his defense and doing it in a meaningful (which to me suggests top-four or above) way. We’ll look at some higher end defenders in this series both via trade and free agency. I will warn you now, however, that the prices are likely to be dear and that you may not like what I suggest is going out the door.

The List:

Last week, I posted my shopping list for the Edmonton Oilers this summer. You can read the full piece here, which goes in-depth, but to begin the process, let’s re-visit the items we are looking for this summer. I’ll be using this as a guide to determine which players we should be targeting.

1.) A top pairing RHD to play with Oscar Klefbom/Andrej Sekera

2.) A second pairing D who can play on the PP

3.) A third line center

4.) An NHL level goaltender

5.) A top nine winger

We start tomorrow (Monday) and will be going throughout the Stanley Cup playoffs. This is a major summer for the Oilers, they cannot afford to spin their wheels with Connor McDavid on his entry level contract. We talk about it every single summer, but this truly is an extremely important off-season for the Oilers. The pressure is on, for real this time.