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archited said:
No trades please... they can tend to be unsettling to existing players (large sensitive egos). I know our armchair coaches like to expound on possibilities, but the current lineup seems to be working just fine.
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We don't have a goalie tandem that gives the confidence for a deep playoff run. Pickard has been a solid backup, but I don't see him being able to step up if Skinner falters or gets injured. We also know we cannot rely on Campbell (with his $5M unjustifiable cap hit), and as good as Rodrigue might eventually be, he falls into the same issue as Pickard.

We need to move Campbell and find a way to bring a more experienced 1B goalie to help take the load off of Stu in the regular season and provide the team with solid backup goaltending and playoff goaltending.

Also, people said that same thing last year, and yet, we brought Nick Bjugstad and Mattias Ekholm on trade... Especially since we're talking about trading for a backup goalie, a bottom 6 (preferably C or RW) and MAYBE second pairing right shot D, we're not talking about ruffling any big feathers. In addition, great players like to play alongside great players, and you can be sure that if we manage to improve the roster, this team's leaders (97, 29, 93...) will certainly make the new players feel welcome.
 
I raise you a Mattias Ekholm trade. Barrie was a player that (at least from the outside) seemed to be very well liked in the locker room. So with that logic one would expect the team to play much worse after trading him, however the exact opposite happened. I agree that sometimes, trading away players particularly if they're well liked can be risky however, if teams were always afraid of hurting their players feelings, they would never win. Vegas is a perfect example of this, while I don't agree with the level of ruthlessness they do their trading of fan favorites, you can't argue with results. They won a cup by being cutthroat and trying to improve their team no matter the cost. I don't think the Oilers should necessarily be a team that goes to the level that Vegas does but if you're afraid to make moves to improve your team for fear of messing with chemistry or "unsettling" existing players, you're going to have trouble winning.

The truth is some players on the Oilers (despite their exceptional record recently) aren't playing up to the callibre of where they are in the lineup. Cody Ceci comes to mind, I love the guy and he can be a decent player but he has flat out, not been good enough.
 
erudyk_29 said:
The truth is some players on the Oilers (despite their exceptional record recently) aren't playing up to the callibre of where they are in the lineup. Cody Ceci comes to mind, I love the guy and he can be a decent player but he has flat out, not been good enough.
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Exactly. Other than the obvious (Jack Campbell), players like Ceci and Kulak, are perfectly tradeable, with likely very few (if any) negative impacts on the lineup.
 
Gronk! said:
Cody Ceci has been the Oilers' best defenseman.
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What????

Ceci has done precisely nothing this season. He's terrible offensively, and has not been exceptional defensively either. The guy cannot make plays.

He is by far the worst in the Oilers top 6, every other player provides some kind of unique value as well as a decent baseline in other skills:

Bouchard: Easily the best on the team and top 10 in the league

Ekholm: Great at both ends of the ice, perfect complement to Bouchard

Nurse: Very solid all around, great skater and steady defender

Kulak: Great skater, great all around player and great in his role as a bottom pair D

Desharnais: Has been outstanding defensively since the coaching change and provides some physically. Essentially useless in the offensive end but makes up for it in other areas.

Ceci: Bad skater, mediocre defensive, play dies on his stick in the offensive zone, not nearly physical enough. He also does not work very well with Nurse. A couple seasons ago he was perfect in his role but I think age is catching up with him and he has been a non-factor for the past 2 seasons.
 
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I should point out that Ceci is a right-shot defenseman, and the Oilers should know by now that right-shot defensemen don't grow on trees (see Taylor Hall trade debacle).


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Gronk! said:
Anyway, I really don't see the point in upsetting the apple cart when the team has won 13 games in a row.
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I'd agree, and would even let the need for a top 4 d-man pass, but a 1B goalie is essential if we want a shot at the cup.
Pickard has been good on the games he's played, but he's not playoff material, Rodrigue is too green and Campbell is a $5M bust. If we don't find another goalie, we'll end up wearing Skinner out, or even getting him injured (and then we can forget about a cup)
 
We need more depth on our 4th, even 3rd and a 1B, perhaps even a stay at home D to get deep.

Injuries and slumps will happen.
 
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