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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey, it's Bob Stauffer. I just wanted to let you know that you can listen to Oilers Now ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. On the Friday edition of Oilers Now. Brought to you by our title sponsor, World of Spas. We've got Aidan Ganim, Derek Scott, Kellen Kennedy helping us out.
This is often an interesting time of the year, especially for teams that are rebuilding through the NHL draft. It's the NHL Combine taking place as we speak in Buffalo, New York. we'll get a couple different perspectives. We are going to talk to Sportsnet and the pro hockey groups, Jason Buchla, about his latest rankings and how things are shaking down.
And you're going to say, but Stoff, that has nothing to do with the Edmonton Oilers. Well, at this time, it doesn't appear to have anything to do with the Edmonton Oilers. So we'll talk to Jason Buchla from Sportsnet. Jerry Johanson from the Sports Corporation today at 435. We'll talk about Sort of the changing complexion of how players get graded.
We had two primary situations specific to Gavin McKenna. And Keaton Verhoff and Jerry represents Verhoff, two players that left the WHL, went to the NCAA, did not dominate the NCAA.
Chapter 2: What is the significance of the NHL Combine for team strategies?
And remarkably, there are people that don't seem to fundamentally understand that playing against 21- to 24-year-old players as opposed to playing against 16- to 19-year-olds is a completely different task. But we'll have an animated discussion later. about the process that takes place at the Combine, which includes the interviews and what sort of coaching goes on for that as well.
And then NHL executive legend Brian Burke for our friends at Ultrashine today at 535. We will tell you that the River Creek Resort and Casino hotline is 780-451-8800. The venue at the River Creek brings you the best in live entertainment. On June the 25th, one of Canada's all-time greatest bands, Honeymoon Suite, back at the venue for one incredible night of rock.
Get your tickets now at thevictoriresort.com. And you can text us on the Ashley Fine Floors text line, and we are going to get into a text conversation pretty quickly here. The Ashley Fine Floors text line, 780-451-8800. Find the new floors you've always wanted, 143rd Street, 111th Avenue, or head to ashleyfinefloors.com for more information. You can also reach us on X at Oilers Now.
You can tweet me personally, Bob underscore Stauffer. Aiden Ganim is at Aiden Ganim underscore. We're up on Instagram.
Chapter 3: What insights does Jason Buchla provide on player rankings?
I'm going to have to do this Instagram thing and think one day. At Oilers underscore now underscore. So yesterday, yesterday, our top story for Legacy Heating and Cooling, home and no payments and no interest for a year. That's how you build a legacy, Legacy Heating and Cooling. Mark Spector had written a story about the status of Darnell nurse.
And he has a 10 team, um, list that opens up not this year, but next year. And do we end up in a situation here, um, where potentially, uh, you know, things get accelerated and I guess only time will tell, but you could participate in that right now. Okay. Cause I'd like you to text us here and it's a two parter on Darnell nurse. Um,
It's interesting what's happened here, because when he played a lot with Conor McDavid before the arrival of Matthias Ekholm and the Ekholm-Bouchard pairing, Nurse had very good advanced analytics, saw a little bit more power play time, really, until the full-time emergence of Bouchard. And I do think that, you know, he's put in several good years here in oil country.
That said, the $9.25 million cap it, let's be honest. If he's in the second pairing or lower, that's a bit of a challenge. So what I want to see is how creative people are out there. There's no bad ideas on this.
If you recall, we had Stan Bowman on a week ago Thursday, and he talked about the fact when he was talking about Michael Parcati, the new VP of analytics, and he was talking about Dom's Rim coming in as well. Dom used to be run cap friendly and sort of to help on the cap side. There's no bad ideas. And I agree with that.
One thing that at times has frustrated me and several of these individuals are, you know, moved on from the orders organization. But the comment was, well, why would we do that? Or how are we going to do that? Or how can we you know, it's way too complicated to make it happen. Now, there's a catch here because you have to have nurses' permission to talk to specific teams.
But what I would like to know is, and again, you can text us, it's a two-parter. Do you think nurse gets a bit of too much criticism here in oil country? Or is it strictly tied to the price point?
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Chapter 4: How are player evaluations changing in the NHL?
And then come up with a solution for me. What do you see as a solution for a potential trade? And we'll try to work some of those in early. We will also mention that on 32 Thoughts Day, Elliott Friedman mentioned the fact that he wonders whether or not the Edmonton Oilers accelerate the process on the coaching front. We've sort of discussed this over the week on the show.
I know I asked Louis DeBrusque yesterday, and we're going to get to that momentarily, about, you know, do the Oilers... We don't know when Vegas is going to allow Bruce Cassidy to actually interview with teams. Kelly McCrimmon said before the Stanley Cup Finals, He said, Cassidy understands, and his first priority as GM of the Vegas Golden Knights is to Vegas.
And I had a couple guys that have coached in the NHL before say, Stoff, we don't know what the contract is, but that sounds like a manager potentially willing to not play.
let Bruce Cassidy go, that they might think that they're better off just paying the $4.5 million next year, whatever it is, instead of having Cassidy go to a team like Los Angeles or Edmonton that could potentially beat them in the Pacific Division playoffs. Of course, the Vegas Golden Knights got up 2-0. I went over to Pub 1905 last night.
Mooners showed up, and we watched a thrilling game number two. It was great hockey. And the Hurricanes found a way to get it done in overtime. Their power play came through to tie the game before Seth Jarvis scored the winner in a game in which five of the seven goals were scored by WHL players. So thrilling game. The series tied 1-1.
Much frankly, like the Oilers Florida series was a year ago when both games went into overtime. All right. I mentioned Louis DeBrusque and we're going to get to it as we head into the Oilers now audio vault for direct workwear.
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And Louis DeBrusque had this to say on the ongoing Bruce Cassidy situation.
I'm just guessing here. This is just my opinion. I think once the playoffs are all said and done here, once this final is over, they will allow him to talk to other teams. I just don't see them holding on to that. I don't see them as being that organization that will do that. But at the same time, I think right now, all their focus is on trying to win another Stanley Cup.
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Chapter 5: What are the current discussions around Darnell Nurse's future?
He still thinks Cassidy ultimately does become available. And again, I'm going to ask you again, do the Oilers wait? Or should they be more proactive? Do you wait for Vegas to decide your potential fate? And there's no guarantee you're going to get Cassidy even then. This text comes in. from the 7-8-0 at 425.
Bob, I've maintained that Darnell Nurse is overpaid by $2 million annually, and all the teams have players like that. Unfortunately, the Wallman extension creates an abundance of overpaid second-pairing left D. I'd like to explore moving Nurse to Detroit along with picks and prospects, trying to acquire Kosa. Then I'd let Murphy walk and re-examine Klingberg as a second-pairing right shot D.
We know what he looked, we know he looked pretty good with 96 last year. That one comes to us from Wallman. Yeah, I don't know. Again, Darnell Nurse holds the cards here. He could ultimately end up in a situation where he, maybe he's only picking one or two teams. One of the teams that I could, like, you know, I've mentioned San Jose.
I don't know if, like, I don't know if, I think Paul Capazano represents Darnell. You know, if Darnell opened up and said there's a couple teams here, I mentioned San Jose, I don't know if that would be a team he'd look at. But remember that Kyle Dubas has history with Darnell Nurse in Pittsburgh. We have mentioned that before on this show.
Bob, maybe Edmonton could look at Darnell Nurse for a first-round pick back from San Jose. Maybe you could even attach Hudson to that. With that 20th overall pick, you could move for a guy, top six guy like Lafreniere or Shane Wright. Then you send a second for Kosa. Or conversely, maybe you could move Darnell Nurse for Braden Schneider. Again, these are all good suggestions.
Darnell Nurse holds the cards here because he will dictate, if any, which teams he might be potentially open to going to. Wow, this is a lengthy text. Can I get it all in here? I'm going to try. JL, in relation to Darnell, we could never fault him for the contract he got. And people need to remember the human element when criticizing a player.
With that said, he needs to realize that his salary versus his value is a primary impediment to making this team better. Second, a big move hypothetical. We don't have a lot of tradable answers. Asset says JL. Without a no-movement clause, that would allow us to make a significant upgrade or at least break even an offload of bad asset like Tristan Jari.
However, if you could somehow sign... Well, he's saying... Quinn Hughes? What? Or a combination of Trouba, Carlson, Murphy does not trading Bouchard allow us to get a substantial return and still have defensive strength and deeper depth up front. We're not getting Quinn Hughes. And I don't see Carlson playing in Canada. I do think you could get Connor Murphy back. I think that's a given. So...
I don't know. I mean, Evan Bouchard led all NHL defensemen in scoring his $10.5 million. To me, he's worth every cent. Again, we're looking. I said there was no bad ideas. That ain't a great idea. Let's trade Evan Bouchard. Here's what we're going to do.
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Chapter 6: How does Darnell Nurse's contract impact team decisions?
We're going to trade Evan Bouchard. All right, it's 428 in oil country. Thomas Dyess has an 880 news weather traffic update. And when we come back, we'll hook up with our headliner today for Wilhawk Beef Shirky, Jerry Johanson of the Sports Corporation.