McDavid Questions Team Strategy After Loss

[TheJackBurton]

Let's face it, the Panthers are freaking good. It's almost unfair they added Marchand.

Edmonton sites saying they would have won 2 years in a row now if it weren't for the Panthers. Not sure anybody could have beat these guys. One thing's for sure, and mentioned above, you have to be built for the playoffs. Roll 4 lines, complete offensive and defensive effort, a hot goalie, a good coach behind the bench, strong leadership. Heck, a theme song (Gloria) doesn't hurt either. The Oilers are just so far behind the Panthers.

Who would bet against the Panthers next year? I wouldn't.

Me.

Other than the Islanders how many teams have made 4 consecutive Stanley Cup Finals in the modern era?

It's just far too hard, and far too brutal a season to play that many games.

Can they make the ECF? Sure, but I doubt they make them out of them.

[Army's Mom]

Let's face it, the Panthers are freaking good. It's almost unfair they added Marchand.

Edmonton sites saying they would have won 2 years in a row now if it weren't for the Panthers. Not sure anybody could have beat these guys. One thing's for sure, and mentioned above, you have to be built for the playoffs. Roll 4 lines, complete offensive and defensive effort, a hot goalie, a good coach behind the bench, strong leadership. Heck, a theme song (Gloria) doesn't hurt either. The Oilers are just so far behind the Panthers.

Who would bet against the Panthers next year? I wouldn't.

Me.

Other than the Islanders how many teams have made 4 consecutive Stanley Cup Finals in the modern era?

It's just far too hard, and far too brutal a season to play that many games.

Can they make the ECF? Sure, but I doubt they make them out of them.

Agreed. Bob's another year older, with no heir apparent. They'll likely lose at least one of their three UFAs. Not insurmountable, but even with a rising cap, it's hard to hold dynasties together. With the tax advantage, destination status (winning + beach), they have every advantage, but I'm not sure it's enough. Just looking at the UFA market tells me there's no talent pool for them to replace any departures with easily. And their prospect pool is understandably depleted.

[callitwhatyouwant]

Let's face it, the Panthers are freaking good. It's almost unfair they added Marchand.

Edmonton sites saying they would have won 2 years in a row now if it weren't for the Panthers. Not sure anybody could have beat these guys. One thing's for sure, and mentioned above, you have to be built for the playoffs. Roll 4 lines, complete offensive and defensive effort, a hot goalie, a good coach behind the bench, strong leadership. Heck, a theme song (Gloria) doesn't hurt either. The Oilers are just so far behind the Panthers.

Who would bet against the Panthers next year? I wouldn't.

Almost unfair, but not. I mean, 31 other teams could have traded for him. FLA knew how to build a team and didn't blow 7M on perimeter players like Arvidson and Skinner. They outbid every other team (including Army) for Tkachuk. Hell, they turned Chicago's mistake into gold. But that doesn't make them unbeatable. I think the 2019 Berube Blues would actually fare pretty well against them - another HARD forechecking team that doesn't need to rely on the rush to score but has enough rush game to capitalize on turnovers, with a gamer in net.

I'll bet against them next year only to be a contrarian, and because I'm skeptical we will ever see another 3-peat in this cap era. They'll lose pieces, Bob will be another year older, and they have no heir apparent. Meanwhile, more teams will try to emulate their smothering style - which is ultimately how they'll lose. JMO.

I agree with what you said. I think there are 4-5 other teams in the west that would have faired better against the panthers this year then the Oilers just did. Doesn't make them better teams than the Oilers, just better matchups than the Oilers are. Heck the Blues would have given them more fits this year than what we just saw. Avalanche for sure would have. It's all about matchups and who is getting hot. It's why the Panthers are so good currently. They can play against everyone, but not everyone can play against them.

It's hard to describe how much this series was utter domination. The Oilers really were barely in it. Getting 2 wins was actually somewhat fluky for how long they were getting their face beat in.

[leedog68]

What chick doesn't miss her Hyman?
But I digress....I think they misused the talent that they had. They have several average guys that put up numbers way over their ability because they play either with McDavid or Draisaitl. By keeping them together, only one player benefited from playing with them instead on 4. The other 3 became JAGs.

[somni]

Let's face it, the Panthers are freaking good. It's almost unfair they added Marchand.

Edmonton sites saying they would have won 2 years in a row now if it weren't for the Panthers. Not sure anybody could have beat these guys. One thing's for sure, and mentioned above, you have to be built for the playoffs. Roll 4 lines, complete offensive and defensive effort, a hot goalie, a good coach behind the bench, strong leadership. Heck, a theme song (Gloria) doesn't hurt either. The Oilers are just so far behind the Panthers.

Who would bet against the Panthers next year? I wouldn't.

Me.

Other than the Islanders how many teams have made 4 consecutive Stanley Cup Finals in the modern era?

It's just far too hard, and far too brutal a season to play that many games.

Can they make the ECF? Sure, but I doubt they make them out of them.

Agreed. Bob's another year older, with no heir apparent. They'll likely lose at least one of their three UFAs. Not insurmountable, but even with a rising cap, it's hard to hold dynasties together. With the tax advantage, destination status (winning + beach), they have every advantage, but I'm not sure it's enough. Just looking at the UFA market tells me there's no talent pool for them to replace any departures with easily. And their prospect pool is understandably depleted.

Yes, it's extremely difficult to win 3 in a row.
However, the Panthers have the cap room to make another run. Looks like they have about $19M in cap space. The main UFA's are Bennett, Ekblad, and Marchand. But they have the rest of the core in place.

It's just a matter if they can stay healthy. Although, they were able to add bodies via the LTIR, so there's always that.

[TheJackBurton]

Let's face it, the Panthers are freaking good. It's almost unfair they added Marchand.

Edmonton sites saying they would have won 2 years in a row now if it weren't for the Panthers. Not sure anybody could have beat these guys. One thing's for sure, and mentioned above, you have to be built for the playoffs. Roll 4 lines, complete offensive and defensive effort, a hot goalie, a good coach behind the bench, strong leadership. Heck, a theme song (Gloria) doesn't hurt either. The Oilers are just so far behind the Panthers.

Who would bet against the Panthers next year? I wouldn't.

Me.

Other than the Islanders how many teams have made 4 consecutive Stanley Cup Finals in the modern era?

It's just far too hard, and far too brutal a season to play that many games.

Can they make the ECF? Sure, but I doubt they make them out of them.

Agreed. Bob's another year older, with no heir apparent. They'll likely lose at least one of their three UFAs. Not insurmountable, but even with a rising cap, it's hard to hold dynasties together. With the tax advantage, destination status (winning + beach), they have every advantage, but I'm not sure it's enough. Just looking at the UFA market tells me there's no talent pool for them to replace any departures with easily. And their prospect pool is understandably depleted.

Yeah. No first rounders the next two seasons, one 2nd rounder, very little in the way of prospects. If they are going to make an impactful trade it will be from the starting roster, and that's just one way you start to lose depth.

yeah, other than Bob they have very suspect goaltending.

Bob will be 37 heading into the season on the last year of that contract and Vitek Vanacek isn't really anyone to write home about.

8 UFA's with 2 of them being their top 4 dmen. I think they re-sign Schmidt, but lose Ekblad as there will be some incredibly silly numbers throw at him as well as Bennett.

Now they do still have the majority of their big time forwards under contract for several more years, but they are all approaching 30 so there will likely start to be some regression in the next couple of seasons.

All in all I wouldn't trade it for anything, but they are due for some rough years in the very near future.

[Hockey Pete]

He's complaining about the depth and he's not wrong. And it's not going to get better anytime soon. Drai just signed the 112 million dollar contract. Nurse is almost at 10 million until 2030. Bouchard is going to get paid. And McDavid has one year left before he signs the largest contract in league history. The Leafs have shown that you can't have depth when you have four guys eating up 40ish % of your cap and that's exactly what's happening in Oil land.

Giving up the first next year for Jake Walman (snicker) was a (bleep) poor Stan Bowman standard move. And I'd imagine it sure would have been nice to have Broberg and Hollywood around. Thanks Stanley.

Imagine he took the high road and didn't have much if anything to say about the goaltending and the way his buddy coach handled the goaltending. It's a shithorrorshow and while I know they supposedly have a goalie in the pipeline they are really high on, unless they get creative it's going to be another year of the Skinner Pickard show.

I have to respectfully disagree. While Holloway and Broberg may have made minor contributions, the loss of Hyman was the most significant factor for the Oilers. In my view, it was a huge loss for them. That said, no team in the Western Conference would have been able to beat Florida in the Stanley Cup Final this year—regardless of any "what if" scenarios.

I'm going to have to disagree with your disagreement. Holloway and Broberg's contributions were anything but minor, especially Holloway, as he had a FAR superior season compared to Hyman... and is EXACTLY the player they needed in the playoffs (I wish we had him, as IMO we beat the Jets).

And IMO, Florida was beatable by three teams in the West (Winnipeg, Dallas and the Oilers) but shockingly, all three teams had serious tending issues when their team needed them.

The Oilers aren't currently built as a strong playoff team (I was surprised they made it too the finals), as they're kind-of a one trick pony (score off the rush), it's just that they have two of the best forwards in the NHL that score in that manner. The Oil won a LOT of games this season that they were outplayed/dominated by their opponent, but McDavid is a "one in a generation player" and pulled those wins thru. That could have happened in this final, but tending didn't hold up.

Anyways, just my 2 cents...

[theograce]

I'm going to have to disagree with your disagreement. Holloway and Broberg's contributions were anything but minor, especially Holloway, as he had a FAR superior season compared to Hyman... and is EXACTLY the player they needed in the playoffs (I wish we had him, as IMO we beat the Jets).

Hyman was one of the most impactful players in the playoffs for any team…period.

[John Cocktoastin]

Looks like if I was a betting man, Florida would be a good choice. As would Colorado and, wait for it, Edmonton.

Link

[Aesa]

Looks like if I was a betting man, Florida would be a good choice. As would Colorado and, wait for it, Edmonton.

Link

Holy (bleep). In this article, the Blues have better odds ((bleep) poor as they are) to win the cup as ANY team in the EC. The East looks VERY bad according to this article.

[TheJackBurton]

Looks like if I was a betting man, Florida would be a good choice. As would Colorado and, wait for it, Edmonton.

Link

Unless Edmonton fixes its goaltending they are dead in the water.

[rbirules]

Looks like if I was a betting man, Florida would be a good choice. As would Colorado and, wait for it, Edmonton.

Link

Unless Edmonton fixes its goaltending they are dead in the water.

That's going to be very difficult for them to do.

They have $11.9M in cap space with 19 of 23 roster spots filled. Not a bad position to be in you might say. That doesn't include Bouchard though. He's likely to eat up most of that cap space (I think his floor is in the $8-9M range and he could easily get in the $10M range if not more). They still need to sign a few forwards to replace Perry, Frederic, Skinner (Jeff), Brown, and Kapanen. Oh, and they need to find a goalie upgrade (which will involve moving out one of their current goalies, Skinner or Pickard).

They have one albatross that will be very difficult, if not impossible, to move (Nurse at $9.25M for five more years).

They have several "key players" in the final year of their contracts: Kane ($5.125M), Ekholm ($6M), Walman ($3.4M), Kulak ($2.75M). Maybe they can move Kane, but they already need more forward depth. Might be able to move Kulak, as he's a luxury at 3LHD.

Maybe they can trade for forward depth (and a goalie) after getting a little cap space from moving Kane. They don't really have any top prospects. They have Savoie, Akey, and O'Reilly. They don't have a first round pick in 2025, or 2026. They don't have a second round pick in 2025 either. So how are they going to dump bad contracts or acquire cheap talent? I guess they could trade core players just below their top three (McDavid, Draisaitl, and Bouchard), namely Hyman (three more years at $5.5M) or RNH (four more years at $5.125M). Problem is they both have NMC and I doubt they want to leave this off-season unless management is blowing it all up and trading one of the three foundational pieces, or trading one of those pieces to "re-load".

I think their window was 2023-2025. Goaltending stopped them in 2023. They lost in game 7 last year, and they just weren't good enough this year, despite making it to game 6. I guess they could go all in next year for one last chance. That would require not giving Bouchard a huge extension and going with a lower short term deal that gets him to UFA and then use those savings to go after a goalie.

If they don't do that and sign Bouchard to a huge deal, and extend McDavid with the largest contract in history they'll be paying their top three players close to $40M a year starting in 2026-2027, close to $50M once you include Nurse, and around $60M once you include Hyman and RNH. $60M for six players (both goalies will be UFA going into that year), but they'll be paying $2.6M for Campbell's buyout that year, so really it's $63M or so for six players. That leaves around $40M to fill out the rest of their roster with very little young cheap talent in the pipeline let alone on the roster already.

[TBone]

Oh, and they need to find a goalie upgrade (which will involve moving out one of their current goalies, Skinner or Pickard).

Is there an RFA contract they could off Joel Hofer that the Blues wouldn't be able (or want to) match?

[rbirules]

Oh, and they need to find a goalie upgrade (which will involve moving out one of their current goalies, Skinner or Pickard).

Is there an RFA contract they could off Joel Hofer that the Blues wouldn't be able (or want to) match?

Unable for the Blues to match? Not really. We have $5M in cap space plus Krug's contract on LTIR, so we have space to match a deal. We also have 22/23 roster spots filled, with backup goalie the only one empty. Sure we could use some upgrades, but after signing Hofer we are at a full roster. Like I mentioned the Oilers have $11.9M in cap space, but they need to fill four roster spots and one of them is Bouchard. Once he's signed they will have less space than the Blues with more roster spots to fill.

Could they offer a deal that the Blues don't want to match? That's entirely possible since they are desperate for a goalie solution, and the Blues have a starting goalie at the moment and a young goalie behind Hofer in Ellis (not to mention ties to the top FA goalie in Allen). I think the Blues preference is to sign Hofer, but they aren't in a position of desperation like the Oilers are. The Oilers don't have their 1st round pick in 2026 so they can't go beyond the 2nd round pick level if they give Hofer an offer sheet, which maxes out at $4.68M. Would the Blues match that, or something slightly less than that instead of taking a 2nd round pick in 2026 (no idea how good the Oilers will be in 2026)? Will the Oilers be able to offer $4M to Hofer after they sign Bouchard, while still needing more forwards? I doubt it without moving other contracts first, which makes it even easier for the Blues to just match the offer sheet.

The more interesting question, and route, is what would you want from the Oilers if we traded Hofer to them? Are Savoie, Akey, or O'Reilly that appealing? I honestly don't know enough about them, but a RHD prospect like Akey would be welcomed, not sure if that would be enough (or too much, like I said, I don't know much about them). Would they trade a player like RNH for Hofer plus something? Would RNH waive his NMC? Would we want a (just turned) 32 year old signed for four more years instead of young talent? He seems like a pretty ideal short to medium term solution for 2C if we really want to compete in the next few years instead of waiting for our young players to mature.

[TheJackBurton]

Oh, and they need to find a goalie upgrade (which will involve moving out one of their current goalies, Skinner or Pickard).

Is there an RFA contract they could off Joel Hofer that the Blues wouldn't be able (or want to) match?

Nope. They don't have a first or a second so the best they could do is a 3rd and that's only 1.5-2.3 million and that's something the Blues can easily match.

You can only use your individual picks for compensation they can't be another teams from trade which is why we don't have a second rounder for 2 years.

We traded our 2nd along with Kevin Hayes to Pittsburgh last offseason, then as soon as Army knew he was signing Broberg to the offer sheet had to trade back for the 2nd and gave them our 2nd in 2026.

[TBone]

The more interesting question, and route, is what would you want from the Oilers if we traded Hofer to them? Are Savoie, Akey, or O'Reilly that appealing? I honestly don't know enough about them, but a RHD prospect like Akey would be welcomed, not sure if that would be enough (or too much, like I said, I don't know much about them). Would they trade a player like RNH for Hofer plus something? Would RNH waive his NMC? Would we want a (just turned) 32 year old signed for four more years instead of young talent? He seems like a pretty ideal short to medium term solution for 2C if we really want to compete in the next few years instead of waiting for our young players to mature.

Hmmm... Nugent-Hopkins would be an interesting addition.

If they were willing, I wonder what we'd have to add to Hofer to make it happen?