The one person who matters most to Edmonton Oilers gives management top marks for July moves

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This in from Connor McDavid, his rave review of the work of Edmonton Oilers management this off-season.

Speaking to NHL.com at Zach Hyman’s golf tournament, McDavid said, “I thought the whole management staff has done a great job. They’ve had a great offseason so far. It’s been short, it’s been hurried. But I think in the small time they’ve been at it they’ve done great things. Keeping as many guys together is a good thing in the salary cap era. It’s tough to do that and [Jackson has] done a great job of finding a way to do that, for the most part, obviously losing a couple of guys, which is always unfortunate, but unfortunately part of the hockey world we live in.”

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Added Hyman on players like Mattias Janmark, Connor Brown and Adam Henrique coming back on contracts well below what they could have received in other NHL cities: “I think it’s also a testament to the team that guys are willing to come back on team-friendly deals and take discounts to try to win. I think they see how special it is to play in Edmonton… It’s now become more of a destination to play. That’s really awesome to see.”

My take

1. The future of the Edmonton Oilers franchise revolves around Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid coming back on new contracts. It’s excellent news then when McDavid comes across as pleased with how things are going with the team.

2. Of course, words mean not so very much. What matters is winning, but Jackson’s moves look like they will give Edmonton a significant edge in winning. Bringing back Janmark, Brown and Henrique and bringing in Jeff Skinner, Viktor Arvidsson and Matthew Savoie give Edmonton what some are calling the best and deepest group of forwards of the salary cap era.

3. It’s not at all surprising that McDavid is well aware of the salary cap implications of Jackson’s moves. Of course he is. At the same time, it’s a good thing he’s talking about it and offering up this the trend as a positive about the Oilers.

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The NHL is now rigged so that star players must also buy in and taking less money than they would if they obsessed about maximizing their salary on the open market. A small handful of the NHL’s best players could have received the maximum 20 per cent of the salary cap on their second or third contracts, but did not push to go in that direction, knowing that if they did max out their contracts, their teams would be significantly less able to pursue other players who could help when it comes to winning hockey games.

4. Jackson’s latest move off moving out Xaviour Bourgault, ranked as Edmonton’s #1 prospect last summer by the Cult of Hockey, for Finnish prospect winger Roby Jarventie and a fourth round pick seems reasonable as well. Bourgault regressed in his second year in the AHL, a terrible signal for a scoring winger if I’m being perfectly honest. How many wingers take a step back in their second AHL year and then become Top 6 or Top 9 forwards on the their NHL teams? I can’t think of any off the top of my head, though a few may well exist.

I wish Bourgault well, but at this point Jarventie looks like the better prospect. He was averaging almost a point per game when he hurt his knee in February.

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Edmonton also axed a contract of a young player, Jake Chiasson, who wasn’t working out and got a 4th round pick. As I said, looks like decent business from Jackson.

Staples on politics

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