| Oilers extend Bouchard - $10.5 mil AAV x 4 yrs [message #847106] |
Mon, 30 June 2025 16:16  |
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 Gator21
Messages: 209
Registered: February 2016
Location: Kelowna, BC
No Cups
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Woulda have preffered 8 yrs at at that AAV, kinda the opposite of Frederic
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That was a discount for 4 years instead of 8. Meanwhile all 3 of Florida's free agents who all probably could have got 10 mill a year only saved their team 11mill a year on the cap. We get no hometown discounts.
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oilfan94
Messages: 549
Registered: June 2006
Location: USA
No Cups
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| scotiaoiler wrote on Mon, 30 June 2025 20:13 |
That was a discount for 4 years instead of 8. Meanwhile all 3 of Florida's free agents who all probably could have got 10 mill a year only saved their team 11mill a year on the cap. We get no hometown discounts.
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I think this is what is most discouraging to watch. You can tell the Panthers players know they can win again and they want to win again. The Oilers don't have that confidence. Bouchard's contract feels like he wants to make some money and then get out so he can win somewhere else if things aren't working out. I actually expect McDavid's deal to be similar.
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nullterm
Messages: 1198
Registered: July 2007
Location: Port Moody, BC
1 Cup
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Look at ownership and management track records and convince me they have the collective marbles to win a Cup. If I was McDavid (and others) thinking about my career and legacy, how long do you trust it to that band of monkeys. We knew goaltending wasn’t going to cut it last year, and they still rolled the dice with Skinner.
They’ve had ten years of McDavid to get their act together. Yeah we have two SCFs and that’s nothing to disregard. But that last step is the biggest one. And that needs some actual brains and hard work to close out. Not just luck with high draft picks because the team was bad.
Illegitimi non carborundum.
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Gator21
Messages: 209
Registered: February 2016
Location: Kelowna, BC
No Cups
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Oilers have two of the top ten paid defenders in the league between Bouch and Nurse both of which are both pretty suspect at ya know…actually defending. Screwed ourselves twice with bridge deals. And the cherry on top…lost Holloway and Broberg to spend money on Skinner and Arvidsson 
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Adam
Messages: 7749
Registered: August 2005
Location: Edmonton, AB
6 Cups
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| nullterm wrote on Mon, 30 June 2025 20:05 |
Look at ownership and management track records and convince me they have the collective marbles to win a Cup. If I was McDavid (and others) thinking about my career and legacy, how long do you trust it to that band of monkeys. We knew goaltending wasn’t going to cut it last year, and they still rolled the dice with Skinner.
They’ve had ten years of McDavid to get their act together. Yeah we have two SCFs and that’s nothing to disregard. But that last step is the biggest one. And that needs some actual brains and hard work to close out. Not just luck with high draft picks because the team was bad.
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I think sometimes management fools themselves in to thinking THEY have got us close. The reality is that they've continuously done a poor job of building a team around the stars. McDavid had 33 points in 22 games this year. He had points in 18 of those games, and the Oilers went 13-5 in those games. In the 4 that we lost, we went 1-3 and scored only 5 goals. The win was the 1-0 game against Vegas. We lost Game 2 vs LA 6-2, Game 3 against Florida 6-1 and Game 6 against Florida 5-1.
Last year we played 25 games and McDavid scored 42 points. He was blanked 3 times vs Vancouver - 4-3 and 3-2 losses in Games 3 & 5 and Game 7 win (3-2). Again in a Game 2 loss to Dallas (3-1) and then three more times vs. Florida - Game 1 & 7 losses (3-0, 2-1) and a 5-1 win in Game 6. That's 2-5 without him scoring and 13-5 when he hits the scoresheet.
So over the two years - we're 26-10 if he scores and 3-8 when he doesn't.
And then there's Leon:
2025:
Game 6 vs LA - 6-4 W
Game 3 vs VGK - 3-0 W
Game 3 vs FLA - 6-1 L
Game 6 vs FLA - 5-1 L
2024:
Game 2 vs DAL - 3-1 L
Game 3 vs DAL - 5-3 L
Game 1 vs FLA - 3-0 L
Game 2 vs FLA - 4-1 L
Game 3 vs FLA - 4-3 L
Game 5 vs FLA - 5-3 W
Game 7 vs FLA - 2-1 L
Again, 3-8 when he scores, 26-10 when he doesn't.
Overlay those two and there's only 6 times when at least one of them doesn't score. We're 1-5 in those games only 7 goals in the five losses. The team has rallied to win all of one game for those guys - game 5 against Florida last year when they scored five.
Florida's whole game plan is to eliminate those two from the equation. Incredibly, five of the six times they've both been blanked have come in the finals the last couple of years. Draisaitl's injury last year contributed there, but the Panthers have figured out that if those two don't score, the rest of the team has been a popgun offence at best.
That wasn't helped by the coach who refused to play Jeff Skinner very much or in any top line role, despite the fact he was the only one on the roster to have any scoring success away from 97 and 29. We've had a bad tendency to play for the draw whenever McDavid & Draisaitl aren't on the ice and while some of that might be coaching, I think another big issue is that the depth just hasn't been good enough.
I mean, how many games was the second line Kapanen and Podkolzin flanking Draisaitl? Those two combined for 37 points for the entire season. Henrique, Brown, Frederic, Janmark, Arvidsson - the third and fourth lines contributed very little over the course of the post-season. And the Oilers look like they're bringing most of it back. Frederic is signed until the end of time. Janmark and Henrique have another year on their contracts. Kapanen just got re-signed. But those are all the low end of the roster for the team. The mid-tier - Kane, Perry, Brown, Skinner, Arvidsson are all going. They weren't good enough either, but will we be able to replace them?
I mean, there is definitely reason to be concerned if you're McDavid or Bouchard and choosing how long you want to sign for.
It probably doesn't help that we didn't make an effort to re-sign Bouchard last summer and bridged him for the last deal. And with the cap expected to really jump in the next couple of years, his agent will have wanted him to bet on himself here too, knowing there'll be more money in 4 years time. But I could forgive the players if there's a little uncertainty about the organization's commitment to winning.
"Thinking that a bad team's best players are the reason the team is bad is the "Tambellini re-signing Lennart Petrell" of sports opinions." @Woodguy55
#FireBobbyNicks
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Kr55
Messages: 12693
Registered: May 2002
Location: Edmonton
6 Cups
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In honour of Bouch’s 20th goal. An analysis to give some perspective on his play.
https://x.com/sportsonprimeca/status/2037333914046366074?s=4 6
Oilers fans/media just have their own thing of wanting to bash our own offensive Dmen, while other fans bases/media pretty shamelessly pump their own guys up. Just a different standard around here and it’s been unfair to many offensive D on the oilers over decades. Most NHL awards are powered by reputation, so not sure Bouch could ever win because his own media won’t even be in his corner ever.
Most fans, and honestly guys like matheson and Spector too, paint their view of Bouch by fixating on every mistake he makes, but then form their view of other D only by watching their best highlights at the end of the night, and soaking in all the hype their media shamelessly feeds them.
All these guys like Makar and Werenski have just as many highlights looking like morons and getting scored on after a bad play or giveaway, but no one is more excited to bash their own guys like oilers fans/media when this happens. Yet actual net negative contributors like Nurse find a way to get a pass from media because they are “tough” or whatever. oilers have the lamest media in the league IMO.
[Updated on: Thu, 26 March 2026 22:44]
"We need to get better immediately. That starts today"
- Lowe, 2013
"Next year I would forecast as another developmental year"
- MacT, 2015
5 x $5,000,000
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Mike
Messages: 1976
Registered: August 2005
Location: Moncton, New Brunswick
1 Cup
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| Kr55 wrote on Fri, 27 March 2026 01:34 |
but no one is more excited to bash their own guys like oilers fans/media
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It's a really weird phenomenon with Oilers media/fans specifically for offensive dmen. Consistently, for as long as I remember, any Oilers dman has been a whipping boy. I think the one exception might be Pronger, but he was never really just an offensive dman, and his season with the Oilers, especially in the playoffs, was one of the best I ever remember seeing by a dman. Even Coffey was bashed in the 80s while setting records.
Anyway - like you say, Bouchard doesn't get the hype from his local guys, so he's never gonna be in the running for the Norris, but I bet you put the same guy with the same results in a different city and he would be the odds on favourite. He has 13 points more than Makar, both play around the same amount. Makar has a better +/-, but he's 6th on his team. Bouchard is 2nd. And Quinn Hughes - he's one of the front runners. He's not only 14 points behind Bouchard, but also 14 goals behind!
I think the disrespect is outrageous.
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Jay
Messages: 1229
Registered: January 2007
Location: Edmonton
1 Cup
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| Mike wrote on Fri, 27 March 2026 07:05 |
| Kr55 wrote on Fri, 27 March 2026 01:34 |
but no one is more excited to bash their own guys like oilers fans/media
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It's a really weird phenomenon with Oilers media/fans specifically for offensive dmen. Consistently, for as long as I remember, any Oilers dman has been a whipping boy. I think the one exception might be Pronger, but he was never really just an offensive dman, and his season with the Oilers, especially in the playoffs, was one of the best I ever remember seeing by a dman. Even Coffey was bashed in the 80s while setting records.
Anyway - like you say, Bouchard doesn't get the hype from his local guys, so he's never gonna be in the running for the Norris, but I bet you put the same guy with the same results in a different city and he would be the odds on favourite. He has 13 points more than Makar, both play around the same amount. Makar has a better +/-, but he's 6th on his team. Bouchard is 2nd. And Quinn Hughes - he's one of the front runners. He's not only 14 points behind Bouchard, but also 14 goals behind!
I think the disrespect is outrageous.
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Yep. They were running a segment on tsn a few weeks back about the front runners for the Norris and they of course showed highlights and great plays from Hughes makar and werenski.. And then a bunch of bouchards mistakes (in meaningless games) and talked about him being good offensively but a liability in his own zone lol. It's outrageous.
Despite what the Edmonton "scribes" write and what the idiot fans who eat their slop believe, the truth is that when the games matter he's the best defenseman in the league. Full stop.
"Initiative comes to thems that wait"
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