Edmonton Oilers: Top 9 questions that need to be answered in 2019
By Phil Gretzky
7. Will our power play stay at the same level or better?
Last year’s PP was 9th in the league – surprising, considering how the season went overall. If I had to fathom a guess, I’d say Neal will be put on the first unit bumping either Nuge or Chiasson down to the second unit to infuse more offense into it, which the last few years has been forced to put all the team’s firepower into the 1st unit due to a lack of depth.
I’d say Sam Gagner will likely retain his spot on the second unit PP as well, which will help.
8. When will Kyle Brodziak be put on LTIR?
There are four things we know about Kyle Brodziak right now – 1) He has incurred a career-ending back injury 2) He’s on IR right now 3) His return to the Oilers last year was a failure 4) The Oilers could use his cap space when he’s put on LTIR.
All that needs to happen is to make it official. Why wait? Why not get it out of the way sooner rather than later? The team could certainly use another $1.15 million in cap space to increase the cushion to $2.683001 million.
9. Final predictions for line combos to start the season
Top 6
Dr. Drai-Connor-Kassian
Neal-Nuge-Chiasson
Bottom 6
Granlund-Sheahan-Archibald
Khaira-Cave-Gagner
Extra – Tomas Jurco
D pairings
Klefbom-Larsson
Nurse-Russell
TBD-Benning
Extra – TBD
I don’t know who to put beside Benning as Holland hasn’t picked up any other D. I’m tempted to put Joel Persson there, but he’s a righty as is Matt Benning. Does it make sense to play a rookie on his offside? No. Does it make sense to play a guy who has played righty his whole career on his offside? No. I have a feeling Holland still has a trick or two up his sleeve, or a PTO maybe, to put somebody beside Benning.
Maybe I’m wrong about Jones and he makes it this year. Unless you want to put Brandon Manning in that slot – which I don’t – then we’ll have to wait and see what happens. The extra guy I couldn’t even begin to guess on – maybe Holland will just roll with 6 D.
Goaltending
Koskinen – Smith
This is a 1a/1a situation, not a starter/backup – at least not to start the season, anyway. We’ll see what happens as time goes on.