TSN: Ryan Rishaug, Mike Johnson, and Pierre LeBrun talk about the Edmonton Oilers goaltending situation and if they could turn to a team like the Nashville Predators if they wanted to pay a price.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Rishaug: “Jack Campbell that was the big news that cracked . I’m not sure what the options are out there to find a goaltender. The cap is tricky.
LeBrun: “Yeah.”
Rishaug: “That was a that was a big boom across the hockey world when Jack Campbell and his five times five ends up getting assigned.
LeBrun: “And this is, you know, what I asked a question that in my piece in The Athletic. I wrote about the Oilers is that you know, of course, the Oilers internally, I know we’re talking about a goalie upgrade in their front office, but who is that person realistically right now?
First of all, we’re early in the trade season. A lot of teams aren’t ready yet to go down that route. Number two, we’ve talked about this a lot, we live in a world now that outside of basically four goalies, maybe, the trust level and goalies are so low. The randomness and unpredictable nature of it all. Of course, a cynic would say when you’re 32nd and save percentage everyone’s an upgrade.
And then and then there’s the price. I talked about this on Insider Trading. Right now the Oilers are in a terrible leverage, leverage position. They’re it’s desperation times. If you’re trying to make a trade, it’s a terrible time to do it. But let’s say they still do. You’re paying an even higher price.
But then you can’t go acquire a goalie without eliminating John Campbell’s contract from your operation. That they can’t coexist, those two things. So you’re paying X amount of assets to get rid of Campbell’s contract and you’re paying a high price for a goalie upgrade, for who knows what that goalies name is?
That’s a lot of assets to fix, yes, a huge problem, but how do you get that done? That’s the question I have.
Johnson: “You go to the discount aisle and you try to like you just take swings at goaltenders who are on million dollar contracts. Which are kind of a net sum game of what you buried from Jack Campbell. That you’re shopping for Alex Lyon, right? And you call about James Reimer. Like, you know, Sam Montembeault, not gonna be extended. Like, are you calling about those kind of, the teams that have three goaltenders? Are you are you are you are you calling Jaro Halak, the PTO pile. Like, I mean, at least…”
Rishaug: “Here’s another one for you gentlemen …”
Johson: “Like these are players they can afford, like without worrying about that second piece of the transaction to shed Campbell’s salary.”
LeBrun: “So take a flyer on someone and if it doesn’t work then, so you take a flyer but it doesn’t work then move on from that person to.”
Johnson: “Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I guess.
Rishaug: “He’re another one for ya.
Johnson: “Risky but that’s where they’re at.
Rishaug: “Darren Dreger mentioned on Insider Trading the other night Pierre about maybe they need to start digging into some of their futures to fix their problems now.
LeBrun: “Right.”
Rishaug: “So what about the Nashville Predators and Yaroslav Askarov, right? Great numbers in the minors. They’ve got Saros on another year. So Nashville has another year with Saros right there. And Askarov is, he’s a 1.60 goals against average .935 save percentage.
He’s 21 years old. It would take a lot because he’s their goalie of the future but he’s working out, he’s playing well. And no he doesn’t have the NHL experience yet but maybe maybe you dig into your assets to fix your biggest problem.
LeBrun: “That’s the wrong Nashville goalie I’d be going after because as promising as Askarov career looks to be, there’s still the unknown quantity of goalies and development.
I’d be going after Saros. Now Barry Trotz has told most teams, I’m not trading Saros. I asked Barry Trotz specifically at the GM meetings in September, about Saros having, you know, basically at this point a year and a half left on his deal, and he said I’ve already talked to their reps about sitting down the summer and extending him. So that’s clearly the focus.
But that means the only way you get Nashville’s attention is a clear overpay. I mean, this is it. This is McDavid, Draisaitl, and a chance to fix it. I’d be going after Saros, not a young goalie that sure, could end up being the next Saros but do you know for sure?
Johnson: “I can’t even fathom what the ask would be for Saros with a year and a half on his deal. Like I can’t even think about
LeBrun: “Would be crazy.”
Johnson: “Talk about robbing Peter to pay Paul. Like yeah, give up, you’re gonna give up (Evan) Bouchard. You’re gonna give up a first-round pick. You’re gonna give up, I don’t know, trying to think, not even Nuge or something like that, he’s probably too old but like multiple first-round picks.
LeBrun: “Nashville would want young, young talent for sure. That’s their focus.”
Johnson: “Yeah. Yeah.”
LeBruns: “And again, they don’t want to trade Saros.”
Johnson: “Yeah. It’s tricky. You go around because what because the challenge for Edmonton is that they’re not in a position to, to sort of take flyers. Like even on a guy as promising as Askarov. Like, yeah, you’re gonna invest all that in there and they need him to be great this year or like…”
LeBrun: “That’s my point.
Johnson: “So they need him to be average. And can you trust that? Who can you trust that’s going to be average or slightly better than average? It’s so hard.
LeBrun: “I’ve been struggling, I’m struggling, this is what I mean. This is why I go (inaudible)
Johnson: “I’d go get Varlamov off in the island but he’s not going to be available. Like that would be a perfect guy to go get. But he’s, they’re not going to give him and if they did he probably wouldn’t go there anyways. There is that other part of the equation for Edmonton? No trade provisions on whoever might be out there.”
LeBrun: “Right.”
Johnson: “Especially Canadian teams. Edmonton being in Canada. Have a lot of players no-trade provisions on them even with the McDavid, Draisaitl dynamic. So that’s the other part of going to get established players who have no-trade protection …”
LeBrun: “Yeah, like for example …
Johnson: “Edmonton are on those lists.”
LeBrun: “And for example, and you know, John Gibson, and people are pretty mixed on him. I think he’s still a really good goalie who’s, who’s, you know, pretty bad defensive in front of him the last few years, but whatever you think of him, again, he’s got no-trade provision. He’s an American guy, like, is he really waiting to go to Edmonton?
Soso yeah, that’s a great point MJ, it’s not just find the guy but then it’s like, does that guy have power to say no?
Johnson: “Find the guy, make, like overpay to get him, and then make sure he wants to get there, and then you pray that he performs like the way that you hope that he does. I mean, you know, they did this already with Campbell, and they missed badly. They took a swing and they missed terribly.
But in terms of the to-do list, then you also have to come up with the assets to move along with Jack Campbell to get him out. So you talked about the assets you got to pay to get a good goalie.
Johnson/LeBrun: “Right.”
Rishaug: “And now you got to package assets to move Campbell out. It’s gonna be expensive to fix
Johnson: “Which is why I’m bargain basement shopping. Gotta catch lightning in the bottle. Alex Lyon got Florida into the playoffs last year, right? I’m trying to catch lightning in a bottle at a million bucks.
And I’m gonna buy Jack Campbell out this summer, and I can’t afford to give up everything it’s going to take to get rid of that guy plus, bring the other guy in.
LeBrun: “All right.”
Johnson: “It’s a nightmare. It’s a nightmare situation that they’re trying to unpack.”
