Imo, Vegas flat out was better than us over the course of the series, the Oilers had their moments and in particular definitely deserved to win Game 6. Vegas was marginally better in the second period and got all the goals they needed to win during that time (Skinner needed to make at least one of those saves). Period 1 and 3 were all Oilers but Adin Hill turned into a brick wall the second after he let in the first 2 shots.
If the high stick on Ekholm would have been called the end result could have been very different as it would have put the Oilers on a 4 minute powerplay. But they should have never been in the position of being down in the first place if Skinner had been decent. Last game we got goalied, but Vegas overall was the better team and deserved to win, outplaying us significantly 5 on 5.
I was very surprised Woody went back to Skinner after 3 pulls in the series and didn't go with Campbell who has been super clutch so far, with the season on the line but c'est la vie.
Offseason necessities:
The Oilers are very close to a Stanley Cup right now, towards the end of the year we saw flashes of what was probably the best team in the league (though an asterisk being they were playing against much easier competition than the start of the year). The Oilers need to do their best to bring back as much of the bottom 6 free agents as we can, fill the gaps with the farm team or additional FA signings if it's too much to bring players back.
McCleod: bridge deal, we won't be able to afford a long term contract for him right now so a 2-3 year bridge is good.
Ryan: Bring him back for a reasonable price, very good glue guy and while he will never wow you with his offensive talent he legitimately never makes a bad play, literally ever.
Bjugstad: May walk in FA though I would like to see him stay for the right price, he was slightly underwhelming in the playoffs but played well in the regular season and is a great 3-4 line centre.
Kostin: Sign him to a 2-3 year contract, it was unrealistic to expect him to continue the production we saw at parts of the season but he's a good physical player that can occasionally chip in offensively and scored a couple big goals in the playoffs. He struggles defensively however.
Now the big one:
Bouchard: Rumors are the Oilers want to bridge him which makes sense given our cap situation right now however it will cost us in the long run. Right now the Oilers have the leverage to lock him up long term to a sub 8 million dollar number long term and in my opinion should take that. Because if they give him 2-3 years at a lower number it will likely cost them 10 million plus to keep him as I expect him to be at or near the top of league defensive scoring in the next few seasons and in todays NHL that's the going rate for an elite offensive defenseman (It could be even higher later if the cap keeps moving up). Bridging him will be a mistake that will cost the Oilers in the long term.
Other moves:
Trade Ceci: he's eating up a lot of salary and while he's a legitimately good defensive d-man he costs too much for what he brings. Move him for cap space. But since he's legitimately good we probably wouldn't need to sweeten the pot at least too much. A destination like Vancouver or New Jersey would work well for him.
Trade Yamamoto: Costing us 3.1 million for the next 2 years and not worth that at all. He hasn't been able to rediscover the form he found a couple years ago with Drai and Nuge where he was a point per game player over just under a half a season. I love Yamo but it's time to move on. I could see a number of teams being interested, he'd fit well on the Kraken in particular as he is from Washington state and fits perfectly into their system. We likely wouldn't need to sweeten the pot with picks here either.
Trade for a Jets top-6 winger: More than likely the Jets will blow it up this offseason, which they should have done 3 seasons ago when their defense imploded on itself as they lost Big buff, Trouba and Myers in very short succession and have been running on band aid solutions since then. Kyle Connor or Nikolai Ehlers are my intended targets here, Connor is unlikely but Ehlers could be possible. His contract is very reasonable and he would immediately be one of our best players, he can play LW or RW so can fully complete the Oilers top-6 which has a hole at 2 RW. Just have to hope he stays healthy.
Lastly sign a right handed defenseman to replace Ceci:
My first choice would be Severson, who is criminally underrated but a less flashy option like Scott Mayfield or Niko Mikkola would do the trick as well for a lower price.
Roll with the same goalie tandem as last season. I would expect both goalies to improve. Campbell had an awful season that's for certain, but towards the end of the regular season and into the games he did end up playing in the playoffs, he gave us the best chance to win, which for a team as offensively gifted as the Oilers is all they need. Skinner was a rookie, he had a great regular season, I legitimately believe that if he wasn't excellent in the regular season we would have been a wildcard team or might have even missed the playoffs with Campbell in the funk he was in. I think the pressure got to Stu in the playoffs and this year was a great experience for him to come back better next year.
Holloway will likely break-out next season and become a mainstay in the top-6. If we add Ehlers he could push Hyman or Kane out of the top-6.
Ideal line up for next year:
Nuge - McDavid - Ehlers
Kane - Draisaitl - Hyman
Foegele - McCleod - Holloway (Could be switched with Hyman)
Kostin - Bjugstad - Ryan
Ekholm - Bouchard
Nurse - Severson
Kulak - Broberg
Skinner - 1a
Campbell - 1b
Extras: Raphael Lavoie, Vincent Desharnais
This team should easily crack 50 wins again and could definitely win the Presidents Trophy and the Stanley Cup.
Stay the course, this year was disappointing but we now have a 2-3 year window of being one of the top teams in the league, that could be extended if Connor and Leon resign. I believe the Oilers will win the cup in the next 5 years if they don't I will be deeply shocked and disappointed.
