Sean Maloughney: Holland Trips At Finish Line, Signs Mike Smith

A head scratcher for sure. Esp with all the goalies out there.

I thought the Oil would make a serious play for Crawford... He'd be an nice upgrade for them in net. And a 2yr deal... wow I think Jersey scored ... I'm thankful the Oil didn't sign him ...

* trips and face plants *

Yeah, would have rather him try to explore the market. Look into the yotes and blue jackets situation before making a move. We don't know for sure if he did and the price was just too high, but to settle on Smith?

Overall though, I'd give him a B+ this offseason. Like the ennis signing, love the pulj signing, love the barrie signing, and I'm alright with the Turris signing (would have preferred Wallmark).

But as for goaltending....

We're definitely an improved team compared to 5 days ago tho!

If Klefbom does indeed got to the LTIR, perhaps Kahun may be an option to explore?

Didn't he have a verbal agreement in place with Smith before FA? Not sure why that would be, perhaps Smitty caught Holland in a compromising situation or something?

A head-scratcher.

On the other hand, I think the Oil has more depth and veteran balance than they did a few days ago. Puls being the X-factor.

I really hope COVID is gone by the time the next season rolls around.

As Sean said a 1 year 1 million contract could have sufficed but while I don’t think the timing is bad and 2 million is an overpayment.

While smith being back isn’t ideal for you guys I think holland really made the right decision here. Koskinnen isn’t as far behind the top goalies that were available as some pundits believe and anyone who watches Edmonton play knows secondary scoring is their biggest issue not goaltending.

You bring in any of markstrom, holtby, Crawford, kuemper, raanta or the Columbus duo you would then be likely spending between 8-10 million on goaltending. A luxury you cannot afford with kris Russell and James Neal’s contracts taking up depth spots.

To put it in perspective, the options are would you rather have one of those goalies platoon with koskinnen or would you rather get Barrie and turris and maybe even more depending on how the off-season plans out

The Smith deal was definitely disappointing. Especially when you consider that at the start of free agency they were prepared to commit 35 million and 7 years to improve their goaltending situation, only to come back with the same experiment again.

I was disappointed to see Greiss sign in Detroit. With his proven ability to thrive in a platoon system, I thought he would have made a good fit. I imagine 3.6 per season would have been a little rich, especially after the Barrie deal and still needing to sign Bear, but Greiss would have been an improvement on Smith.

When Greiss and Crawford signed, and with how good the off-season was going for the Oilers, I honestly held out hope that Holland was in on something on the trade front, perhaps with Arizona or Columbus.

Alas, here we are . . . Let's hope this revised Oilers group will commit to defensive details and responsibilities, because as much as I like their moves, they did not strengthen their ability to prevent goals with the new personnel at all!

You forgot to mention the HUGE whiff at the start of the week drafting Holloway. Holland is horrible and must be fired.
Holloway, fail.
Turris, fail. His stats have been going in the wrong direction for years. He was bought out for a reason, not just because they needed cap. Because he is not a good player anymore.
Jesse P, there was no other way this could go. Its a win for any GM except Chia. Jesse had no other choice.
Smith, epic fail.
Ennis is ok.
Barrie is ok as its only a 1 year show me deal.

Holland needs to be fired. Along with Nicholson and whomever else is from that crew. Change the locks on that whole crew.

lol sorry dude, if you think you have something in Tyson Barrie you are sadly mistaken. Easily the most hated Leaf last year. The guy is greedy and horrible in his own end.

lol sorry dude, if you think you have something in Tyson Barrie you are sadly mistaken. Easily the most hated Leaf last year. The guy is greedy and horrible in his own end.
- Greyman

The leafs are just awful though, its like dipping a gold ring in poop and then calling the ring poop because it couldn't stay clean.

Play Smith only on the second of Back to Backs and he might be fine. He’s a pro and might be decent in that role compared to a young guy pushing for 1A. He must have his head wrapped around the fact he’s not a starter anymore at 48.

Barrie had a bad year in Toronto. He wasn’t the guy I had watched on the Avs. Babcock hated him out of the gate and really miscast him. What a (frank)ing surprise. Kid lost his confidence and was in a totally different role (in a fish bowl).

Let him be the QB from the jump and you will probably get a bounce back.

You say they have no cap.space but with Klefbom going on LTIR for most of, if not all of the season, that opens up his 4.17 and they currently have 733K according to capfriendly. So they have around $4.9 mill. Not a ton but certainly enough to add another player after resigning Bear, who I assume will be on a bridge deal around $1.5-2.5 mill dependant on if its a 1 or 2 year deal. That's also including 14 forwards, one of which can't make the team, adding to the final team cap space.

Hopefully they look to add another LW and LD. The cap space could be utilized for a low cost option from free agency for one. Names like Andy Greene, Erik Gustafsson, Alex Galchenyuk and Matt Martin come to mind as affordable short term deals. Martin-Haas-Archibald could be an interesting 4th line. Or a 3rd line of Galchenyuk-Turris-JP. Greene being a responsible partner for Barrie could help as well.

And I would expect one of Russell/Larsson, and one of Khaira/Chiasson will be shipped out before the season. Hopefully they can somehow land the other player in those moves, and maybe open up a bit of additional space if needed as well.

Finish line???

Sleepy Holland didn’t even grt out of bed?

FYI...

A lot of hot garbage is...well...
hot garbage.

Play Smith only on the second of Back to Backs and he might be fine. He’s a pro and might be decent in that role compared to a young guy pushing for 1A. He must have his head wrapped around the fact he’s not a starter anymore at 48.

Barrie had a bad year in Toronto. He wasn’t the guy I had watched on the Avs. Babcock hated him out of the gate and really miscast him. What a (frank)ing surprise. Kid lost his confidence and was in a totally different role (in a fish bowl).

Let him be the QB from the jump and you will probably get a bounce back.
- Byfuglien Ate Me

Barrie was given every chance to succeed in TO and he fluffed it, Reilly suffered as a result of the Barrie experiment as well. Good riddance to hot trash, he should fit right in in Oil country

You forgot to mention the HUGE whiff at the start of the week drafting Holloway. Holland is horrible and must be fired.
Holloway, fail.
Turris, fail. His stats have been going in the wrong direction for years. He was bought out for a reason, not just because they needed cap. Because he is not a good player anymore.
Jesse P, there was no other way this could go. Its a win for any GM except Chia. Jesse had no other choice.
Smith, epic fail.
Ennis is ok.
Barrie is ok as its only a 1 year show me deal.

Holland needs to be fired. Along with Nicholson and whomever else is from that crew. Change the locks on that whole crew.
- wreckage

I'm glad Holland decided to improve the PP and not worry about goaltending.
Turris for #3C is a reasonable risk at that salary, but he is just bad.
If it was Chia who drafted Hollaway or signed those players, he wold have been roasted. Kenny gets a lot of trust due to trading Lucic. Hasn't done anything of note.

You forgot to mention the HUGE whiff at the start of the week drafting Holloway. Holland is horrible and must be fired.
Holloway, fail.
Turris, fail. His stats have been going in the wrong direction for years. He was bought out for a reason, not just because they needed cap. Because he is not a good player anymore.
Jesse P, there was no other way this could go. Its a win for any GM except Chia. Jesse had no other choice.
Smith, epic fail.
Ennis is ok.
Barrie is ok as its only a 1 year show me deal.

Holland needs to be fired. Along with Nicholson and whomever else is from that crew. Change the locks on that whole crew.
- wreckage

Settle down, Bud.

Of all places for Hall to sign he picks another sad sack franchise. I suppose next year he’ll go to Ottawa.

I think the D pairings are more likely:
Nurse Bear
Jones Larsson
Russel Barrie

with Barrie getting the PP time

Honestly do the Oilers just look for the players with the worst +/- on each team and go get them?

Neal
Barrie
AA
Turris

A real bummer that the Oilers couldn't be in on all the Schmidt rumors. He'd be a very quality Dman to add to the team- especially at the price Vegas would likely be moving him for.

Honestly do the Oilers just look for the players with the worst +/- on each team and go get them?

Neal
Barrie
AA
Turris
- flashfire

Certainly seems that way

Brightside, Barrie was +10 at 5-on-5 (47 for, 37 against) in 47 games after Keefe's hiring which was good for 1st among Dmen (though Reilly would've surpassed him had he played more than 24 games under Keefe. He also had 21 points at even strength under the new coach.

Under Babcock's 23 games, he was -12 at 5-on-5 (12 for, 24 against) with only 4 even strength points.

Been thinking over D pairings and holy poop is it tough to come up with a mix that feels right. While Nurse-Bear worked well last year, the risk of sophomore slumps isn't one we should forget. They're VERY common among 2nd year Dmen and counting on Bear to play the type of minutes he did last year is likely unwise. I think the risk is lesser in Jones as teams won't have compiled as much video on him given his lower TOI and fewer games.

Barrie is likely ideally suited to being sheltered somewhat, but he's shown in the past to not need the degree of sheltering Keefe gave him last year in order to be effective. Further, he's used to play 17-18mins/night at even strength which makes me think that he MAY just be better fit alongside Nurse- who already gets a greater % of the McDavid minutes. Being on-ice with McDavid would help mitigate the harder minutes he'd be playing and Nurse brings things that Barrie is ineffective at (board play, puck rushing, physicality). If Nurse can do what Klefbom did while paired with Schultz and focus his game on defending the slot area, that could be the ideal mix for that top pairing.

While I love what I saw outta Jones last year, I don't think I'd trust he and Bear together as two sophomore Dmen. It's something I'd try once I was certain neither was regressing, but I'd stick with Jones-Larsson for now and see if they can build open the success they had in that sample together last year. Playing alongside Larsson would afford Jones more opportunities to push the offensive side of his game, too.

Lastly, while I don't hate Russell like many others, I definitely see him as a less-than-ideal fit no matter who the RD is. As such, I'd probably be inclined to give a real opportunity to Lagesson to usurp the 3LD position and give Bear stability he can trust alongside someone he has played with before.

Nurse-Barrie (semi-sheltered + McDavid push)
Jones-Larsson (normal deployment)
Willy Legs- Bear (normal deployment)
Russell

Ideally, one could work out a deal sending Russell out to a team in need of $$$ savings (Goligoski) and have a veteran presence that can more reliably move the puck and defend. Such a deal would allow for:

Nurse-Barrie (semi-sheltered + McDavid push)
Goligoski-Larsson (tougher minutes)
Jones- Bear (semi-sheltered + Drai push)
Lagesson

Of all places for Hall to sign he picks another sad sack franchise. I suppose next year he’ll go to Ottawa.
- HonkyTonkMan

Ottawa is gonna be awesome very soon. He would be lucky to get on board.

It isn’t the best signing in the world, but I don’t believe there was a better option at the price. At 1.5 (2.0 if he hits all the bonuses) you’re probably going to have the same caliber of backup. Unless smith goes on a run or Koskinen stumbles I’d be seeing it as 65% to 35% split in favour of Koskinen, which shouldn’t be a bad situation. The preferred way would to hopefully have someone from the organizations draft come into the league and be capable of playing the 30-35% of games that good backups provide, but at a fraction of the cost. My bet would be the kid from Russia drafted last year could come over at some point hopefully next year to fill that role.

I’d take the money spent on Turris, Ennis, Pul, and Barrie hopefully adding more secondary and tertiary offence, than spending 4-5 mil on a goalie.