Who Needs What

The Oilers have much of their core locked up: from NHLNumbers, Hall, Nugent-Hopkins, Eberle, and Pouliot all have four years left, while Yakupov and Andrew Ference have two. Justin Schultz and Martin Marincin are restricted free agents, while Derek Roy is unrestricted. I wouldn't say any of their free agents are "must-signs" but I wouldn't be surprised to see Roy get some consideration for depth purposes. Also, I would imagine Schultz is brought back, though he's certainly not developed to what the team had hoped he would be.

By my crude math, without those free agents, the Oilers may have $10-million to spend in the summer (assuming they spend to the cap), assuming Nurse and McDavid are both on the roster next year. Given how far away they are from contending, that's not really enough to make a huge difference. It might net one high-end defenseman. They need more than that. That's another reason I think Chiarelli starts shuffling the deck.

In net, it seems like there's a lot of clamouring to upgrade from Ben Scrivens. He's under contract for another year, and for his career going into last year, he had performed similarly to guys like Ryan Miller, Corey Crawford, Antti Niemi, and Jonathan Quick. Admittedly, Scrivens didn't have a complete sample, and last year was a disaster. It's fair to say the whole season for everyone on that team was a disaster, though. I don't see the harm in the Oilers bringing in a competent backup, but this team is more than a year from contending, and giving Scrivens another crack with a (hopefully) improved roster would seem prudent.

In all, what will happen two, three, or more months down the road with Chiarelli at the helm is pure guess-work. Oilers fans can take solace, though, that at the very least, the team has a new captain at the helm. Now it's up to Chiarelli and co. to prove that they're different from the previous regime.  

Daily Ramblings – April 24th 

Bruins Fire Peter Chiarelli