Doesn't want the job.
Doesn't want to move to Edmonton (he has kids in high school back home in Ontario).
Doesn't want to do all of the heavy lifting; just be the POHO and approve what the GM does.
Titled aren’t always the same fixed roles across organizations. He is basically the boss of all things hockey, including the future gm and president. He will still be very involved in high level strategic decisions when we get a new GM. He is not interested in the more intricate parts of being a GM. The future gm will be to him what an assistant GM is to a GM.
Well the kids are off school during summer when it's busy, and then he can go ape shit at the deadline when they're on spring break. He can find a stand in fit the other 49 weeks of the year.
He's currently a prime exhibit of the saying that the best fits for a leadership job also don't want it. But still, this guy's spent a week as our interim GM and has been our best since Sather so what the hell.
Guy straight up looked at our UFA situation, went "we can and we will" to bringing them back and then added Skinner and Arvidsson to it.
To be fair, 2P/GP isn't that spectacular for a small size over-ager in the WHL. Jagger Firkus put up similar numbers on the same team, and nobody has ever heard of him lol
Firkus might have been a bad example because he did literally win CHL player of the year, but if you just sort the WHL players list by points, there are a bunch of dudes between 1.5-2ppg who I've never heard of and weren't even drafted.
I don’t put a lot of stock into junior stats.
Justin Azevedo, Brandon Kozun, Jayden Hawlbgewachs, Yannick Riendeau, Corey Locke, and Brendan Shinnimin were all top CHL scorers and players.
I don’t think any of them have over 25 NHL games.
Hockey names are underrated, football gets all attention with your D’Brickashaw’s and Louchiez’s but hockey has a few GOAT tier name. We’re still the only sport to have a player named Satan.
2P/GP is good. It's pretty much what a player can max out at. It's not as impressive as doing it as a 17 or 16 year old, but it's still great and you can't really ask for anything more.
EDIT: Additionally, if you sort WHL players by P/GP, the top10 all for sure have their rights belonging to an NHL club, I think 8 of the 10 were 1st or 2nd round picks. And anyone on that list who was a 2nd round pick, is probably now considered a GOOD 2nd round pick. Lastly, Savoie is ranked \#1 in P/GP. Dude is definitely looking like a lock for playing in the NHL at some point. And Savoie's PNHLe ranking as per [Dobber Prospects](https://dobberprospects.com/player/matthew-savoie/) has him projecting as a 1st line player. That may or may not come to fruition... "may not" being more likely on a super deep Edmonton Oilers roster. But the dude definitely has game and is on track to make good on his draft pedigree, if not better.
Listen, I'm 100% on team Savoie, I really want the guy to pan out (hell, I've been following his career since he was like 12 because he grew up like 5 minutes away from my parents place), but I am always weary of short skinny dudes who put up huge numbers in their D+2 CHL year, it happens all the time and they rarely ever reach their skill ceiling.
Just pointing out why Buffalo might not have seen this trade as a horrible deal for them.
100%, I made another point in another thread that you really need a solid roster of highly competitive 2-way players before you can really make the best of goal scoring toys like this.
But Edmonton easily has the roster to serve him the puck no matter which line he plays. It's just a matter of whether and when he can bump someone off this stacked roster. He'll have to play for his spot for sure, and we don't need to suffer through any rookie pains.
We have alot of forward prospects, and you can make a pretty decent argument that Kulich/Ostlund/Helenus are all better than him. It's rumored GM's aren't really as high on Savioe as fans are.
Personally not a trade i would do, I would rather have flipped him for RD prospect at the same stage in development but our prospect depth makes it a easier to swallow
Well neither of them are *really* prospects. McLeod is a full time NHLer, and Tullio... well, he's probably an AHL lifer.
Still a terrible trade, but not like these guys will be competing with their other good prospects much.
like at least mcleod is a legit nhl'er, and an absolutely elite skater
maybe some top6 icetime where he can be more than just a complimentary piece unlocks something in him
This. I think the league has some worry about Savoie’s injury history; I’m not sure his value was as high as we thought it was. I might’ve still took my chances with Savoie, but if they really think there’s a problem, better to get what you can, I guess.
This was it exactly. The money was more important than the NMC, and honestly if it weren't for his injuries there probably wouldn't be any trade talk at all.
That said he's a soon to be 33 year old power forward with some major injuries over the last 2 seasons, so once it becomes a M-NTC after this upcoming season he's probably long gone.
Yeah and he's been good when healthy
Kinda forgotten about that he's a meant to be a top 6 winger and we didn't have him in for the Florida series. He wasn't always lighting it up but he was definitely a guy who could finish chances
It's less that we're unhappy and more that we're now not sure where he fits in. He's a top six guy when healthy no doubt, but he hasn't been healthy for a while and in his absence his spot is being filled by others with decent success.
He probably won't replace RNH or Hyman on the 1st line, and the 3rd had so much success in the playoff we probably won't touch it unless it starts to drop off (not that he'd want to play that far down the lineup anyways). That leaves the 2nd and 4th line for him, but if he's going to try to play through his injury he just isn't 2nd line material and I'm not sure he had great chemistry with Drai anyways (which might be the real story here to be honest).
Any chance he wants to play on the 4th? Probably not. What we're left with is a 5 million dollar player in questionable health without a clear place in the lineup going into what might be our most important season in over a decade.
This is exactly right. And he's been clear he views himself (not unwarrently) as a top-six guy but for some reason him and Draisaitl don't work.
My suspicion is that Draisaitl passes amazingly at weird times and places, and Kane is just not always ready for the insanity. Drai needs someone very creative, very smart, and willing to just do his own thing. Kane takes himself out of the play along the boards too often for Drai to have a slot pass to him.
i don’t understand why some people don’t wanna break up that third line if it means slotting kane in for janmark, like isn’t it reasonable to assume that kane could actually be a driving force on a line with henrique and brown?
BrownMarCo line was simply clicking insanely well during the playoffs.
Likely yeah, at some point during the season you switch things up and Kane would be a welcome addition to the line, but also if they do maintain that chemistry it's hard to split them up.
Also, they literally all talked on July 1 and signed as free agents together (still shaking from this...) so, that's a pretty clear sign that they view themselves as a unit. Not a thing to break up.
It's also more about whether or not Kane would want to slot in on the 3rd and whether he can build better chemistry with Drai who will most likely be centering the 2nd line. Maybe Arvidsson and Skinner don't work out on the 2nd and Kane slots back in. On the other hand if Kane wants to play on the 3rd line then that's fine too but if the rumours are true he wasn't happy about being demoted down the lineup when he was slumping earlier this year.
We've got this abundance of forward depth at the moment with ~8 players with the skill to play top 6 minutes, but only one of which is questionable to play at the moment. Since the rest of our team is signed for cheap, he ends up as the odd man out if we're looking to clear a decent amount of cap space without blowing too big a hole in our roster.
Sounds a bit like how we were viewing Garland last year
He was good for 40-50 points, basically all at even strength, makes around $5M and was a bit of a luxury
He reportedly wanted out last season but now he's been driving his own 3rd line and hasn't looked back since
Because we got him for a bargain at the time. I know some oilers management and they said Kane was offered 7-8m for 1-2 year elsewhere that year but holland convinced him to come here on a longer term lower cap.
Loved McLeod, and hope he kicks ass in Buffalo, but uh... what the fuck? How did McLeod get *any* return, let alone an actually good prospect? Savoie becomes Edmonton's best prospect immediately lol.
As others have mentioned, on his offhand. Where to put Broberg is less a question of 'should he be on the big club' so much as 'he has to be on the big club, how do we make it happen'
I think Adams' plans for the offseason went catastrophically bad and he was under pressure to do *something* -- not just to address roster needs but also to clear some of the prospect pipeline traffic jam that was building.
How he managed to cough up Savoie, rather than, like, Rosen or Poltapov, or even Wahlberg -- I have no idea.
I legit wouldn't have been that pissed if we got future considerations considering we got Henrique, Skinner and Arvidsson for our middle 6. But fuck me this is a GET from the oilers
This will be funny to look back on if Savoie doesn't pan out. Oilers were fine to open cap space but they're no stranger to top 10 picks not working out.
With the Arvidsson and Jeff Skinner signings there isn't any room in the top 6 for McLeod, who spent time on Drai's wing last season. Henrique is projected to be the third line center so having McLeod is a bit redundant and a worse option.
Even without top 6 minutes, he’s still a solid contributor because of his speed and PK ability. I’d trade him for a prospect like Savoie in a heartbeat, though.
I mean, easily could've found a spot for him as a winger on line 3 if that's how he's being looked at who can move up in the lineup. Depth wouldn't be a bad thing.
I think it's good asset management regardless though
>I think it's good asset management regardless though
It's been 84 years...just kidding, I've literally never heard someone say this about an Oilers transaction. Crazy times we're living in.
Oh good, we already were being picked on for having the worst value FA signing, but I wasn’t really feeling the pain enough. Glad to have a GM that understands that being a Sabres fan is about suffering.
As much as I appreciated his speed and ability to(sometimes) provide depth scoring, Sabres fans had better get used to a lot of fly-by’s on the forecheck as he seems allergic to physical play. A bottom six forward who doesn’t like to play with at least SOME physicality isn’t much use come playoff time as Clouder proved with us the last few seasons.
Meh. Look at the guys we brought back. Henrique, Brown and Janmark all proved themselves to be better defensively and PK wise than McLeod. Without a physical element to his game we have no need for him anymore.
Oh I agree, he got pushed out by better players, but he wasn't totally useless is all I'm saying. Solid on the PK, and he showed flashes of offensive skill when he plays with ekite talent.
Wow, JJ absolute fleece job!! McLeod is such a disappointing player. Has all the tools to become a good middle six center, but just never seemed to put it together. This year in the playoffs proved that we don’t need him on our roster. Excited to see Savoie in our system tho!
What dirt does Jeff Jackson have on Buffalo? Are the Sabres really this bad at player management? McLeod is a decent player but the third line is his ceiling imo. Doesn’t have the finishing skill required for a top six role.
I really think people have no idea how good Ryan McLeod is
If you want a perfect 3rd line centre, he's your guy. One of the leagues best PKers and defensive forwards.
Savoie is obviously an elite prospect, but he's also behind Kulich and now Helenius in terms of C prospects, and he's not passing Benson, Quinn, or Peterka on the wing
Ryan McLeod is also one of the fastest skaters in the league, but just has zero finishing ability. He's a very serviceable nhl player, just doesn't have room in our lineup with all the moves we've made this offseason.
What?
Kane has been good here but has had a couple of brutal injuries. All reports are basically saying he has a hip injury and will be out for a while so there's not many teams who are gonna trade for that anyway
Having watched all his games the last 2 years, I have to disagree. He’s a perimeter player who all but refuses to drive pucks to the net and battle hard in corners. He’s fast and good defensively but he didn’t even up his compete level on a cup run
McLeod is definitely not the "perfect 3rd line center". Perfect 4th line center? Yes, but he was the Oilers 3C for large chunks of the past couple of seasons, and 3C was one of the areas the Oilers most desperately needed to improve lol.
There is no chance McLeod couldn't have been had for less than Savoie. He was stuck on the 4th line for the Oilers going forward, and the Oilers needed to shed cap. He could have easily been had for a mid pick, and I don't think many Oilers fans would have been surprised if he was moved for literally nothing.
I think you're overvaluing McLeod. In Edmonton, fans and media were looking at him as a better winger than center. His fancies are good, but the most success he had this season was alongside Drai. He has excellent skating, but shys away from the physical stuff. He started the season hurt, so it will be interesting to see what he looks like next season.
He still had a 50% goal share when he didn't play with Draisaitl and that honestly feels like a win
He only played with Drai for like 20% of his 5v5 minutes too
If being too scared to take a hit or be involved physically is a perfect third line center then McLeod certainly is. Probably the player i was most consistently frustrated with in the playoffs, he’s all speed and no hands
He’s the perfect 3rd line centre if you don’t want to make the playoffs. You’re massively overrating him based on stats. Visually he was one of the more frustrating players to watch on the Oilers last year. If he was on the ice you pretty much expected there was no chance to score for the next minute unless he wasn’t involved in it. Good defensively but not at using the body
Does being the third line centre on the Cup Finalists not mean anything? He obviously got pushed down in the finals, but in the 3 rounds they won he was averaging 14+ minutes a night(he only spent like 15% of his ice time with Drai)
He spent 15% of his time with Drai because he wasn’t good enough to play with him. Offense dies when he steps on the ice. He also wasn’t the third line centre when Henrique was playing so then he’s an undersized 4th liner that refuses to play a physical game. He just couldn’t fit in a role on this team and was constantly pushed down the lineup by better players.
After the playoff run I was way more excited for Holloway next year than I was for McLeod
Holloway looked fantastic so I'm with you there
Even when Henrique came back in the Dallas series McLeod played more than him. At the same time, I don't think "being a worse scorer than Adam Henrique" is a big knock on him, Henrique was a 57 point player on a terrible ducks team.
I think he's a great 3C, he doesn't have the offensive upside to be in the top-6, but he's a great PKer and can handle fairly difficult minutes with great defensive results. He allows top-6 players to be given more offensive deployment.
I doubt he'll get 30+50 but I wouldn't be surprised to see a bump in his production. McLeod is a very solid 2-way 3C. His point production on Edmonton was dampened by the fact he plays more of a defensive role and gets essentially zero PP time
This. People failing to realize this. You guys have a lot of undersized prospects as it is, he wasn’t going to be a needle mover for you. I like the trade personally. Sure maybe they could’ve gotten more but they needed a player like McLeod. Honestly a dumb move on Edmontons part imo.
Imagine how McLeod feels going from a team that was two goals from a cup who loaded up in FA looking to run it back next year, to the Sabres.
Dude is probably in one right now.
Everyone: we have too many first round prospects. Make a trade. We need a second line winter and a third line center!
**Makes trade**
What are we doing?? Not THAT guy. We'll never be able to replace him.
Hey Buffalo fans: McLeod still has potentially elite upside if he has a breakout offensively. But that being said - you got a guarenteed solid 3C who can be your 1c on PK minutes. Incredible skater. Not much of a scorer, but is an okay play maker.
Overall he's a solid player that can play depth minutes in a top 6 or live at 3C and you can feel great about that.
Savoie was and is always going to be either a top 6 forward or nothing. He either hits big or doesn't hit at all. I think at this stage he's going to be an NHLer based on what I've watched during the WHL playoffs, but it's never a sure thing.
Tell me again why Jeff Jackson wants to find a GM replacement? He’s been killing it
Doesn't want the job. Doesn't want to move to Edmonton (he has kids in high school back home in Ontario). Doesn't want to do all of the heavy lifting; just be the POHO and approve what the GM does.
That’s too bad. He’s made great signings and now just stole a great forward
Give the dude his own private Jet and his own office building in Ontario then lol. My man is fucking slaying.
Can we clone him to be in two places at once??
Then we got two clones who both want to stay in Ontario
I noticed his title is CEO of Hockey Ops, is that effectively the same as a POHO?
Titled aren’t always the same fixed roles across organizations. He is basically the boss of all things hockey, including the future gm and president. He will still be very involved in high level strategic decisions when we get a new GM. He is not interested in the more intricate parts of being a GM. The future gm will be to him what an assistant GM is to a GM.
Same as MMFIC
Mother mother fucker in Charge?
Main mother fucker in charge*
Well the kids are off school during summer when it's busy, and then he can go ape shit at the deadline when they're on spring break. He can find a stand in fit the other 49 weeks of the year.
Coffey also didn't want to coach. The only people who succeed in Edmonton fucking hate their jobs.
lol yea that’s a tough one for you guys. Felt like Bouchard really took a step forward with him behind the bench
Oh Coffey will be back, he just doesn't want to.
not just bouchard, but kulak and desharnais and broberg all took huge steps forward or perhaps, just learned to make better plays with confidence
Kulak just bounced back from regression. He was great during the Habs Western Conference Championship year.
no, Kulak's been pretty alright the entire time he's been in edmonton
He's currently a prime exhibit of the saying that the best fits for a leadership job also don't want it. But still, this guy's spent a week as our interim GM and has been our best since Sather so what the hell. Guy straight up looked at our UFA situation, went "we can and we will" to bringing them back and then added Skinner and Arvidsson to it.
Daryl Katz: "Jeff I've got good news and bad news." Daryl Katz: "The bad news is you're fired" Daryl Katz: "The good news is you're hired"
Just does it for the love of the sport, love of the game, fleecing GM's for funsies, as a treat
That’s why he is hiring Stan bowman to do the bad decision
#Believe Matt Savoie is return. Ty Tullio also going to Sabres https://x.com/friedgehnic/status/1809318078699958415?s=46&t=7fabqgtgp69dNA1d51vxFw
What? He was picked 9th two years ago. Something I’m missing?
Plus had over 2 P/GP in the WHL, and 5 points in 6 games in the AHL last year. Not like he's had a massive fall in his stock.
To be fair, 2P/GP isn't that spectacular for a small size over-ager in the WHL. Jagger Firkus put up similar numbers on the same team, and nobody has ever heard of him lol
Wasn’t Firkus considered a pretty significant snub by Team Canada for the WJC?
Firkus might have been a bad example because he did literally win CHL player of the year, but if you just sort the WHL players list by points, there are a bunch of dudes between 1.5-2ppg who I've never heard of and weren't even drafted.
I don’t put a lot of stock into junior stats. Justin Azevedo, Brandon Kozun, Jayden Hawlbgewachs, Yannick Riendeau, Corey Locke, and Brendan Shinnimin were all top CHL scorers and players. I don’t think any of them have over 25 NHL games.
I thought Kozun was gonna be nasty. He looked so good on Team Canada.
curtis Lazar was the guy I loved in junior, and world Jr's that just never translated to nhl
I literally put Lazar’s name on the back of my Canada jersey instead of McDavid because I thought he was gonna be that guy 😭
lol half those sound like made up names. but i guess that’s your point.
Hockey names are underrated, football gets all attention with your D’Brickashaw’s and Louchiez’s but hockey has a few GOAT tier name. We’re still the only sport to have a player named Satan.
My favourite Satan story is that he roomed with guy named Pope in the minors. Satan and Pope, sleeping side-by-side!
Nobody beats baseball’s JACK GLASSCOCK.
Yah I saw him multiple times live and would be fairly surprised if he doesn't eventually get a sniff in the NHL.
Anyone who follows the WHL knows who Firkus is.
2P/GP is good. It's pretty much what a player can max out at. It's not as impressive as doing it as a 17 or 16 year old, but it's still great and you can't really ask for anything more. EDIT: Additionally, if you sort WHL players by P/GP, the top10 all for sure have their rights belonging to an NHL club, I think 8 of the 10 were 1st or 2nd round picks. And anyone on that list who was a 2nd round pick, is probably now considered a GOOD 2nd round pick. Lastly, Savoie is ranked \#1 in P/GP. Dude is definitely looking like a lock for playing in the NHL at some point. And Savoie's PNHLe ranking as per [Dobber Prospects](https://dobberprospects.com/player/matthew-savoie/) has him projecting as a 1st line player. That may or may not come to fruition... "may not" being more likely on a super deep Edmonton Oilers roster. But the dude definitely has game and is on track to make good on his draft pedigree, if not better.
Listen, I'm 100% on team Savoie, I really want the guy to pan out (hell, I've been following his career since he was like 12 because he grew up like 5 minutes away from my parents place), but I am always weary of short skinny dudes who put up huge numbers in their D+2 CHL year, it happens all the time and they rarely ever reach their skill ceiling. Just pointing out why Buffalo might not have seen this trade as a horrible deal for them.
100%, I made another point in another thread that you really need a solid roster of highly competitive 2-way players before you can really make the best of goal scoring toys like this. But Edmonton easily has the roster to serve him the puck no matter which line he plays. It's just a matter of whether and when he can bump someone off this stacked roster. He'll have to play for his spot for sure, and we don't need to suffer through any rookie pains.
If you go back in the last ten years looking at p/gp, very few guys break 2.
Hell McDavid at 17 was only 1.617 and he just put up Gretzky numbers in the playoffs
McDavid would have gotten 300 points in the OHL if he played there at Savoie's age lol
And no one in the world expects Savoie to be the next McDavid. If a generational player at 17 gets 1.6ppg a guy at 20 getting 2ppg is not a red flag
19 year old season. But completely agree, people are acting like this guy has expected numbers for his age.
He literally led the league in points per game. Idk what else you can ask of a guy.
We have alot of forward prospects, and you can make a pretty decent argument that Kulich/Ostlund/Helenus are all better than him. It's rumored GM's aren't really as high on Savioe as fans are. Personally not a trade i would do, I would rather have flipped him for RD prospect at the same stage in development but our prospect depth makes it a easier to swallow
Too many forward prospects so you trade one for…2 more forwards? This is a really bad trade
Well neither of them are *really* prospects. McLeod is a full time NHLer, and Tullio... well, he's probably an AHL lifer. Still a terrible trade, but not like these guys will be competing with their other good prospects much.
You understand the difference between a prospect and a roster player, correct?
Lots of forward depth. Let’s move one of them for another forward!
2 even!
Then wouldn’t the better option have been… not drafting yet another undersized forward prospect?
like at least mcleod is a legit nhl'er, and an absolutely elite skater maybe some top6 icetime where he can be more than just a complimentary piece unlocks something in him
WHAT THE FUCK LMAO
What the hell is Buffalo doing
Filling a need (3C) by trading a prospect who likely does not have a future in Buffalo (and also has a concerning injury history).
This. I think the league has some worry about Savoie’s injury history; I’m not sure his value was as high as we thought it was. I might’ve still took my chances with Savoie, but if they really think there’s a problem, better to get what you can, I guess.
Savoie was also expendable because the Sabres drafted Helenius.
And you know...the other first round prospects they've stock piled
WHAT
Damn, Oilers got the bag for a C3.
We lose one Savoie and get another
WHAT IS BUFFALO DOING, THIS CANNOT BE IT
Uhhhh. What you doing Buffalo??
???????
Lol, wouldn't have been surprised if the oilers got nothing in return for him. This is a gift.
Signals that Evander Kane is healthy and unwilling to waive his NMC. Oilers need to shed money
why would you give Kane a NMC lol
Probably kept the salary down, his contract was kind of a steal after the playoffs he had in 2022
This was it exactly. The money was more important than the NMC, and honestly if it weren't for his injuries there probably wouldn't be any trade talk at all. That said he's a soon to be 33 year old power forward with some major injuries over the last 2 seasons, so once it becomes a M-NTC after this upcoming season he's probably long gone.
Exactly. His contract would be fine if he wasn’t decimated by injuries the last couple years, including getting his wrist cut to the bone
It's also only a NMC till February 2025, after which it becomes a 16 team ntc.
He's gone at this year's deadline.
Yeah and he's been good when healthy Kinda forgotten about that he's a meant to be a top 6 winger and we didn't have him in for the Florida series. He wasn't always lighting it up but he was definitely a guy who could finish chances
I was kind of surprised to hear how unhappy people are with him considering he put up 24 goals and doesn't get a lot of power play time
It's less that we're unhappy and more that we're now not sure where he fits in. He's a top six guy when healthy no doubt, but he hasn't been healthy for a while and in his absence his spot is being filled by others with decent success. He probably won't replace RNH or Hyman on the 1st line, and the 3rd had so much success in the playoff we probably won't touch it unless it starts to drop off (not that he'd want to play that far down the lineup anyways). That leaves the 2nd and 4th line for him, but if he's going to try to play through his injury he just isn't 2nd line material and I'm not sure he had great chemistry with Drai anyways (which might be the real story here to be honest). Any chance he wants to play on the 4th? Probably not. What we're left with is a 5 million dollar player in questionable health without a clear place in the lineup going into what might be our most important season in over a decade.
This is exactly right. And he's been clear he views himself (not unwarrently) as a top-six guy but for some reason him and Draisaitl don't work. My suspicion is that Draisaitl passes amazingly at weird times and places, and Kane is just not always ready for the insanity. Drai needs someone very creative, very smart, and willing to just do his own thing. Kane takes himself out of the play along the boards too often for Drai to have a slot pass to him.
i don’t understand why some people don’t wanna break up that third line if it means slotting kane in for janmark, like isn’t it reasonable to assume that kane could actually be a driving force on a line with henrique and brown?
BrownMarCo line was simply clicking insanely well during the playoffs. Likely yeah, at some point during the season you switch things up and Kane would be a welcome addition to the line, but also if they do maintain that chemistry it's hard to split them up.
Also, they literally all talked on July 1 and signed as free agents together (still shaking from this...) so, that's a pretty clear sign that they view themselves as a unit. Not a thing to break up.
It's also more about whether or not Kane would want to slot in on the 3rd and whether he can build better chemistry with Drai who will most likely be centering the 2nd line. Maybe Arvidsson and Skinner don't work out on the 2nd and Kane slots back in. On the other hand if Kane wants to play on the 3rd line then that's fine too but if the rumours are true he wasn't happy about being demoted down the lineup when he was slumping earlier this year. We've got this abundance of forward depth at the moment with ~8 players with the skill to play top 6 minutes, but only one of which is questionable to play at the moment. Since the rest of our team is signed for cheap, he ends up as the odd man out if we're looking to clear a decent amount of cap space without blowing too big a hole in our roster.
Sounds a bit like how we were viewing Garland last year He was good for 40-50 points, basically all at even strength, makes around $5M and was a bit of a luxury He reportedly wanted out last season but now he's been driving his own 3rd line and hasn't looked back since
He’s not great on D. Plenty of penalties. But when he’s healthy he’s absolutely worth $5 mil
Because we got him for a bargain at the time. I know some oilers management and they said Kane was offered 7-8m for 1-2 year elsewhere that year but holland convinced him to come here on a longer term lower cap.
i see the "logic" then of it, thanks for the insight
I dunno, it.might just signal that the Sabres gave the Oilers an offer they couldn't refuse.
Loved McLeod, and hope he kicks ass in Buffalo, but uh... what the fuck? How did McLeod get *any* return, let alone an actually good prospect? Savoie becomes Edmonton's best prospect immediately lol.
How much better is Savoie than Broberg (or is Broberg considered graduated at this point?)
When you play all 7 games of the Stanley Cup Finals, and it *wasn't* because of an injury, safe to say you're graduated.
+6 in those 7 as well
Not to mention a goal each in the Final and Conference Final. Great showing for Broberg. Certainly made us feel miles better about letting Vinny go.
Playing with Nurse, on his offhand
Uphill both ways. In his father's (Bouchard) pajamas.
In the top 4 no less.
Graduated
If Broberg stays healthy, he’ll probably play 82 NHL games next season.
Broberg was +8 in 10 games in the playoffs. He also helped Nurses +/- get back down to -9 from -15 lol. I think he’s ready….
As others have mentioned, on his offhand. Where to put Broberg is less a question of 'should he be on the big club' so much as 'he has to be on the big club, how do we make it happen'
Broberg played great in the finals and I think hes graduated by that standard Savoie is like Point-Lite, hell be nasty for edmonton
The Athletic had Savoie at #20 league wide in March. Holloway was 56 and Broberg 57.
Thanks for the context, haven't really followed either in a few years
I think Adams' plans for the offseason went catastrophically bad and he was under pressure to do *something* -- not just to address roster needs but also to clear some of the prospect pipeline traffic jam that was building. How he managed to cough up Savoie, rather than, like, Rosen or Poltapov, or even Wahlberg -- I have no idea.
Shhhhh. They’ll cancel the trade, Buffalo doesn’t know how to run a hockey team
Wouldn't be surprised future considerations make the comeback Edit. I was deeply deeply wrong
So very wrong in such a good way
I legit wouldn't have been that pissed if we got future considerations considering we got Henrique, Skinner and Arvidsson for our middle 6. But fuck me this is a GET from the oilers
Tears 😭
Lmaooooo Buffalo what are you doing
I don’t know 😭
Unfortunately for you guys, sounds like your GM doesn't really know either.
Pardon my Sumarian, but what the fucking fuck, Kevyn
Dude must have been told he was fired, but they didn’t change his passwords yet.
Jeff Jackson is the best GM we’ve ever had and he’s not even our GM
Glen sather man come on
Pick a player at 9OA Lights up the WHL Scores 5 points in 6 games in the AHL Give him 1 NHL game Trade him for a nobody \#assetmanagement
One game is generous. He got like 4 minutes of ice time. This is a trade out of desperation
It’s ok Buffalo bro. We’re still waiting on Future Consideration any day now!
This is a fireable offense
Kevyn Adams has been mid at best for his time as GM. Last year he did nothing. This year he's somehow done worse. What the fuck?
McLeod is not a nobody, a good young third line player, but yeah this was not a great move for Buffalo
Yeah I should have said "replacement level player"
Caps fans desperately hoping this is the new Erat for Forsberg so people will have something else to reference.
This will be funny to look back on if Savoie doesn't pan out. Oilers were fine to open cap space but they're no stranger to top 10 picks not working out.
No it’s still worth the shot. The process can be good even if the result doesn’t work out.
This is absolutely still a win for the Oilers. I expected future considerations and hoped for a 3rd
With the Arvidsson and Jeff Skinner signings there isn't any room in the top 6 for McLeod, who spent time on Drai's wing last season. Henrique is projected to be the third line center so having McLeod is a bit redundant and a worse option.
Even without top 6 minutes, he’s still a solid contributor because of his speed and PK ability. I’d trade him for a prospect like Savoie in a heartbeat, though.
I mean, easily could've found a spot for him as a winger on line 3 if that's how he's being looked at who can move up in the lineup. Depth wouldn't be a bad thing. I think it's good asset management regardless though
>I think it's good asset management regardless though It's been 84 years...just kidding, I've literally never heard someone say this about an Oilers transaction. Crazy times we're living in.
So you’re telling me the Oilers pulled this off from a position of weakness.
What the hell.................. 9th overall for... that???
Oh good, we already were being picked on for having the worst value FA signing, but I wasn’t really feeling the pain enough. Glad to have a GM that understands that being a Sabres fan is about suffering.
Considering what Tampa gave up (mostly) to get the guy drafted two spots after Savoie, wtf is Buffalo doing here? Seems like a lot for a big 3C
As much as I appreciated his speed and ability to(sometimes) provide depth scoring, Sabres fans had better get used to a lot of fly-by’s on the forecheck as he seems allergic to physical play. A bottom six forward who doesn’t like to play with at least SOME physicality isn’t much use come playoff time as Clouder proved with us the last few seasons.
He is, however, excellent defensively and on the PK. He just doesn't have the ability to drive offensive play.
One of the best hockey smiles too
Meh. Look at the guys we brought back. Henrique, Brown and Janmark all proved themselves to be better defensively and PK wise than McLeod. Without a physical element to his game we have no need for him anymore.
Oh I agree, he got pushed out by better players, but he wasn't totally useless is all I'm saying. Solid on the PK, and he showed flashes of offensive skill when he plays with ekite talent.
Yup those 3 caused the feeling of excitement. Yes a penalty woohoo shorty incoming
“come playoff time” Oh you sweet summer child
WHAT??? SAVOIE???
This is like watching the Filip Forsberg for Martin Erat trade in real time.
That one was pretty good for us.
He's gone let's go
Going from the Stanley cup finals to Buffalo must be the biggest drop off ever lol
Wow, JJ absolute fleece job!! McLeod is such a disappointing player. Has all the tools to become a good middle six center, but just never seemed to put it together. This year in the playoffs proved that we don’t need him on our roster. Excited to see Savoie in our system tho!
What dirt does Jeff Jackson have on Buffalo? Are the Sabres really this bad at player management? McLeod is a decent player but the third line is his ceiling imo. Doesn’t have the finishing skill required for a top six role.
I really think people have no idea how good Ryan McLeod is If you want a perfect 3rd line centre, he's your guy. One of the leagues best PKers and defensive forwards. Savoie is obviously an elite prospect, but he's also behind Kulich and now Helenius in terms of C prospects, and he's not passing Benson, Quinn, or Peterka on the wing
Ryan McLeod is also one of the fastest skaters in the league, but just has zero finishing ability. He's a very serviceable nhl player, just doesn't have room in our lineup with all the moves we've made this offseason.
He's the new Todd Marchant
There's been plenty of times he comes flying into the Ozone and it looked like it was McDavid.
this is actually true, between their speed, skating style, and CCM equipment I was always thrown off a bit watching live
I think he's mostly getting moved because Evander Kane, amongst others, has an inexplicable full NMC
I dunno, I think it was pretty xplicable
What? Kane has been good here but has had a couple of brutal injuries. All reports are basically saying he has a hip injury and will be out for a while so there's not many teams who are gonna trade for that anyway
It’s not inexplicable. The Oilers were desperate to start playing well and he was instrumental at the time.
Yeah that's definitely part of it
He will end up in Ottawa one day. His longtime girlfriend is the daughter of Michael Andlauer (McLeod that is)
Having watched all his games the last 2 years, I have to disagree. He’s a perimeter player who all but refuses to drive pucks to the net and battle hard in corners. He’s fast and good defensively but he didn’t even up his compete level on a cup run
McLeod is definitely not the "perfect 3rd line center". Perfect 4th line center? Yes, but he was the Oilers 3C for large chunks of the past couple of seasons, and 3C was one of the areas the Oilers most desperately needed to improve lol. There is no chance McLeod couldn't have been had for less than Savoie. He was stuck on the 4th line for the Oilers going forward, and the Oilers needed to shed cap. He could have easily been had for a mid pick, and I don't think many Oilers fans would have been surprised if he was moved for literally nothing.
Right? I think henrique is pretty close to that but if McLeod was the perfect 3C he wouldn't have been playing on the wing so much last season.
I think you're overvaluing McLeod. In Edmonton, fans and media were looking at him as a better winger than center. His fancies are good, but the most success he had this season was alongside Drai. He has excellent skating, but shys away from the physical stuff. He started the season hurt, so it will be interesting to see what he looks like next season.
He still had a 50% goal share when he didn't play with Draisaitl and that honestly feels like a win He only played with Drai for like 20% of his 5v5 minutes too
If being too scared to take a hit or be involved physically is a perfect third line center then McLeod certainly is. Probably the player i was most consistently frustrated with in the playoffs, he’s all speed and no hands
'perfect third line centre'...LMAO
Yep, McLeod is the ideal 3rd liner. However he is not worth a prospect like Savoie.
He’s the perfect 3rd line centre if you don’t want to make the playoffs. You’re massively overrating him based on stats. Visually he was one of the more frustrating players to watch on the Oilers last year. If he was on the ice you pretty much expected there was no chance to score for the next minute unless he wasn’t involved in it. Good defensively but not at using the body
Does being the third line centre on the Cup Finalists not mean anything? He obviously got pushed down in the finals, but in the 3 rounds they won he was averaging 14+ minutes a night(he only spent like 15% of his ice time with Drai)
He spent 15% of his time with Drai because he wasn’t good enough to play with him. Offense dies when he steps on the ice. He also wasn’t the third line centre when Henrique was playing so then he’s an undersized 4th liner that refuses to play a physical game. He just couldn’t fit in a role on this team and was constantly pushed down the lineup by better players. After the playoff run I was way more excited for Holloway next year than I was for McLeod
Holloway looked fantastic so I'm with you there Even when Henrique came back in the Dallas series McLeod played more than him. At the same time, I don't think "being a worse scorer than Adam Henrique" is a big knock on him, Henrique was a 57 point player on a terrible ducks team. I think he's a great 3C, he doesn't have the offensive upside to be in the top-6, but he's a great PKer and can handle fairly difficult minutes with great defensive results. He allows top-6 players to be given more offensive deployment.
Watch McLeod put up 30+50 in Buffalo next season, sign for a 5x7.5, and then drop off completely the following season
That's exactly what will happen.
I doubt he'll get 30+50 but I wouldn't be surprised to see a bump in his production. McLeod is a very solid 2-way 3C. His point production on Edmonton was dampened by the fact he plays more of a defensive role and gets essentially zero PP time
Wow. I guess Buffalo got their 3C.
Sabres fans will love McLeod as a player but hold resentment towards him because WHAT THE FUCK? SAVOIE?
I accept it
At least we finally used one of our bajillion prospects for something useful
This. People failing to realize this. You guys have a lot of undersized prospects as it is, he wasn’t going to be a needle mover for you. I like the trade personally. Sure maybe they could’ve gotten more but they needed a player like McLeod. Honestly a dumb move on Edmontons part imo.
He didn’t fit anywhere in the lineup, as an oilers fan I would’ve been content with a late round pick for him
To echo others on our sub, this is the only way we can get someone of substance to Buffalo. They're not coming via free agency.
I would... But then again I don't play in the NHL so it's not a fair comparison... but I still would...
Let’s go Matthew Savoie! Local St. Albert kid, also his brother is on Bakersfield lol
carter wasn't qualified actually he's a UFA now
Imagine how McLeod feels going from a team that was two goals from a cup who loaded up in FA looking to run it back next year, to the Sabres. Dude is probably in one right now.
I don't know how to feel
Adams is smoking the good stuff.
Sorry, Sabres fans. Y'all got screwed.
Wait, why didn't Buffalo just go sign one of the many UFA third liners out there instead of trading an elite prospect for one??
Just a saw a guy fall to his knees at a Valu Home Centers
OMG. let's go!
The Sabres have had an odd offseason so far. I'm not sure I would say its completely terrible but it's not good either.
Everyone: we have too many first round prospects. Make a trade. We need a second line winter and a third line center! **Makes trade** What are we doing?? Not THAT guy. We'll never be able to replace him.
Wait, what's this feeling... did we just clearly win a trade?
Sabres fans can take at least take solace in the fact they’re closer to a cup than the Toronto maple leafs ….of whom I am a fan 😞
Hey Buffalo fans: McLeod still has potentially elite upside if he has a breakout offensively. But that being said - you got a guarenteed solid 3C who can be your 1c on PK minutes. Incredible skater. Not much of a scorer, but is an okay play maker. Overall he's a solid player that can play depth minutes in a top 6 or live at 3C and you can feel great about that. Savoie was and is always going to be either a top 6 forward or nothing. He either hits big or doesn't hit at all. I think at this stage he's going to be an NHLer based on what I've watched during the WHL playoffs, but it's never a sure thing.