Edmonton Oilers News and Rumors
MACTAVISH SHEDS SOME LIGHT
Source: Oilers Nation
Date: 2013-05-24
Last night Craig MacTavish held a TeleForum where season ticket holders could call in, listen and ask questions. Since I'm a season ticket holder I was able to listen in. His responses to goaltending and the future of Shawn Horcoff and Sam Gagner intrigued me the most.He was asked about Horcoff and his future with the team. Well, I think that that will be determined as the summer goes along with Shawn. I have a lot of respect for Shawn as a guy that really saw him come into the league. He was a player that played at Michigan State and played in our minor league team and came in and I saw him really develop as a player and as a person over the years. The one thing I will say about pl
Can Oilers successfully dump Hemsky?
Source: The Hockey News Rumors
Date: 2013-05-24
Oilers will try to move Hemsky; Burmistrov wants out of Winnipeg; and more. -
Oilers look to sign Gagner long-term and say goodbye to Khabibulin
Source: Edmonton Journal - Cult of Hockey
Date: 2013-05-24
Oilers GM Craig MacTavish recently answered questions of season ticket holders. CHED’s Dan Tencer transcribed highlights and you can read his post here. What follows is my own take on what I saw as Mac’s key points… On Khabibulin MacTavish on getting a new goalie: “Well, we’re going to be very active in finding at least a couple goalies.” MacTavish added that Nikolai Khabibulin played well but …. “The problem with Nik, from our perspective, is that he’s a 40 year old body who wasn’t able to stay as healthy as what you need.” My take? This is exactly what I wanted to hear. MacTavish nailed it in terms of Khabibulin, that you ne
More MacT Gold….
Source: Putting on the Foil
Date: 2013-05-24
Tencer has a summary of the MacT phone interview with fans from yesterday. Read here. I absolutely love that he was as honest as he was about some things, namely the goalie situation, and to an extent, Shawn Horcoff. I’ve always liked Horcoff, but I can’t help but think he’s replaceable with some names out [...]
Should the Oilers target the St. Louis Blues and Jay Bouwmeester?
Source: Oil Drop
Date: 2013-05-24
With the St. Louis Blues hoping to lock up the trio of Alex Pietrangelo, Kevin Shattenkirk and Chris Stewart to contract extensions prior to the 2013-14 campaign, defenceman Jay Bouwmeester could be made available to free up cap space. Should that be the case, one would think Edmonton Oilers GM Craig MacTavish would be placing a call into fellow GM Doug Armstrong.
The Edmonton Oilers only have one puck possession line
Source: Edmonton Journal - Cult of Hockey
Date: 2013-05-24
Just one line accounted for more than 40 percent of the Edmonton Oilers’ entries into the opposition zone with possession of the puck. There are no points for guessing which line that was. The trio of Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle played less than 30 percent of Edmonton’s even-strength minutes at forward, yet combined for 42.2 percent of the team’s zone entries with puck possession. It’s an indication of both strong play on the part of the kid line, and weak play by many other forwards. Entering the zone with possession is important because the vast majority of both shots and goals come on plays where the attacking team is able to maintain control of the puck acr
THE GREAT COMMUNICATOR
Source: Lowetide
Date: 2013-05-24
Craig MacTavish held a go-to-meeting with the fanbase last night, passing along ‘the plan’ for the summer and once again excited the fanbase. If titillation were a skill, he’d be Gretzky. A few items: Gagner is highest priority re-sign. Gagner could be youngest player in history to be UFA but his goal is for that not to happen. Wants to sign him long term. UFA market is to be approached “cautiously”. Players are often in decline at UFA stage Priority is a center with 7 overall pick MacKinnon, Barkov and Monahan the 3 centers he wants. He’s had many talks about moving up OR down with fellow GMs. “Very doubtful” he would move any of his “
Taylor Hall — Driving the bus at 21
Source: Edmonton Journal - Cult of Hockey
Date: 2013-05-24
2013 Edmonton Oilers in Review: Taylor Hall Taylor Hall entered the 2012-13 hockey season with a $42 million dollar contract in his jeans and a few question marks hanging over his head. The latter mostly coiled around health issues, as the 2010 first overall draft pick had failed to finish either of his first two professional seasons due to injury. Moreover, the shoulder surgery that ended his promising sophomore season was not fully rehabbed by the start of the current campaign. To some extent the lockout came to Hall’s rescue, allowing the Oilers’ star winger time to recuperate as the NHL cooled its heels. A few weeks into the (hypothetical) season, Taylor was finally ready to
NATION PROFILE: FERNANDO PISANI
Source: Oilers Nation
Date: 2013-05-24
During the time Fernando Pisani laced them up for the Edmonton Oilers, he was never the team's best player. Never their best forward, never their best right winger. Why then, do we miss him so? Because of the character of the man and the splendid way he played the game. I believe the reason we loved Fernando Pisani as an Oiler can be summed up in that one stunning goal he scored in Raleigh those years ago: turning to forecheck and force the play as the puck left the opposition zone, using that big brain and moving laterally along their blue and, cheating only a little while remaining stealth and looking for a turnover, and then pure skill with a quick and deadly stick to intercept the p
Horcoff: Compliance Buyouts and Marginal Cost
Source: Mc79hockey
Date: 2013-05-24
Craig MacTavish apparently did a question and answer type segment last night with Oilers season ticketholders last night in which the issue of buying out Shawn Horcoff came up. As is summarized in these two tweets from Twitter’s @regwald. The gist of it is that Horcoff’s future in Edmonton isn’t certain and that the Oilers [...]