Edmonton Oilers look to welcome big, tough right-shot d-man, say goodbye to Vincent Desharnais

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This in from Oilers insider Bob Stauffer: “The Edmonton Oilers good bet to be adding a hard-nosed #6 RD who Kris Knoblauch and Connor McDavid know well from their OHL days.”

Update: The player is  nasty and massive Josh Brown, 30, who signed a three-year deal at $1 million per year. Said Stauffer: “Josh Brown is a hard-nosed 3rd pairing right shot D who played roughly 15 mins a game last 2 seasons in Arizona. Won Memorial Cup with Oshawa in 2015 beating Erie in the OHL Final. The Edmonton Oilers pro scouts have liked him for a while.”

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And TSN’s Ryan Rishaug reported: “Vinny Desharnais headed to market – big physical RS penalty killing Dman – Oilers just don’t have the space to fit him in right now. Great story, late bloomer who showed big improvement in the last season and a half. His work on the PK in particular was critical.”

In other news:

From David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period: “Multiple teams are in the mix for Jeff Skinner, including the Oilers as I previously mentioned. No deal/decision yet.”

Former NHL referee Tim Peel reports: “It’s truly amazing what #NHL players go through. Talking to Evander Kane
today. He had to give 6-8 injections everyday to give him self a chance to play in the NHL playoffs for the Edmonton Oilers.”

From Edmonton radio host Jason Gregor of Sports 1440: “By signing Arvidsson, C. Brown and J. Brown. Oilers sit at $81,066,667 with nine forwards, six D and two goalies. Holloway and Broberg have been qualified and have no arb, so likely will be around $2m combined. So that leaves them $4.933m to sign three forwards. Janmark at $1m would be $3.933m to sign two. Look for Oilers to try and trade a roster player with some salary to free up more space.”

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1.  Brown played against McDavid three seasons in the OHL when Brown was with Oshawa, McDavid with Erie. Brown played with Arizona last season, getting the 8th most even strength minutes per game in his 51 games, the fifth most PK minutes per game. He’s not much of an attacker but he’s a bruising player on defence, a bit hitter. He led the team with 8.9 hits per 60. Desharnais led the Oil with 6.6 hits per 60.

Brown ranked 212 out of 276 regular NHL d-men over the past two season for points per 60 with 0.64 points per 60.

Desharnais ranked 229th at 0.58 per 60. Ceci was at 176th, 0.73, Brett Kulak 163rd at 0.77, Philip Broberg 12th at 0.84, Nurse 33rd at 1.14 per 60, Evan Bouchard 13th at 1.38 per 60, Mattias Ekholm 18th at 1.35,

2. I loved Desharnais’ story and his attitude. His will to improve was outstanding. He was a bright light on Edmonton’s PK for two seasons, where he had a strong stick, good positioning and a willingness to block shots. In the playoffs, he struggled when paired with Darnell Nurse, but did OK when paired with Brett Kulak. At the same time, he failed to move the puck well enough to keep his spot in the line-up.

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3. Perhaps if the Oilers did not have Cody Ceci at right defence, Edmonton would keep Desharnais. Both Ceci and Desharnais are below average when it comes to moving the puck, and both of them struggled to play well when paired with Nurse, who had the biggest defensive slump of his career in the playoffs.

As I said before the Dallas series began, there was little chance for Edmonton to beat a team like Dallas so long as Edmonton went with Ceci and Desharnais on the right side. The Oil simply could not move the puck well enough with the combo of those two in the line-up. In this way, going to Philip Broberg in that series was an obvious move.

4. Broberg is poised to move into Edmonton’s Top 4 next year, likely paired with Nurse. If Edmonton can’t move out Ceci’s contract, he’ll be in the bottom pairing with Brett Kulak. For now, Brown is slated to be the seventh d-man, but we’ll see if the Oilers hold on to Ceci.

5. Brown’s contract is pure gold in that if he gets sent to the AHL for some reason there will be no cap hit adding up against Edmonton’s total cap hit.

Edmonton can sign numerous players in this $1 million range and not face any kind of cap penalty, so the more they sign in this category, the better. Teams with high-priced talent need numerous useful players in the $1 million range. It didn’t look like Desharnais would sign for that amount, so it’s necessary to move on from him. And it looks like Brown can be one of those numerous useful players at the bottom of the Edmonton roster.

At the Cult of Hockey

McCURDY: Oilers add Viktor Arvidsson from L.A., lose Warren Foegle to L.A.

STAPLES: Oilers re-sign pivot prospect Noah Philp after a year away from the game

LEAVINS: Connor Brown signs new deal

STAPLES: Oilers looking to add Top 6 winger

STAPLES: Don Cherry stands up for Connor McDavid

STAPLES: Draisaitl, Henrique, Janmark face up to the pickle of the Stanley Cup Discount contract

McCURDY: Jack Campbell on the way out in Edmonton

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