The Oilers are on the lookout to add some defensive help and would like to add another goaltender, reports ESPN’s Emily Kaplan. Edmonton is a bit shorthanded on the back end at the moment with both Duncan Keith and Slater Koekkoek injured and Cody Ceci currently in COVID protocol. That has resulted in Philip Broberg and Marcus Niemelainen both being recalled from AHL Bakersfield and while that works as a short-term solution, getting another proven piece into the mix would certainly help their fortunes.
As for their goaltending, Mike Smith is currently injured and while Mikko Koskinen has done well this season, his track record over his tenure with the team is much spottier so adding some insurance would help. Of course, with minimal cap space and the fact they’re well into LTIR already, GM Ken Holland will have to get creative if he wants to try to add those players now. Otherwise, they may have to wait until closer to the March 21 deadline to make the money work.
More from the Western Conference:
- The City of Glendale is threatening to lock the Coyotes out of Gila River Arena if their unpaid invoices and tax bills tallying more than $1.3MM aren’t paid by December 20th, reports Katie Strang of The Athletic. This is the latest chapter of an ongoing battle between the city and the team with the Coyotes being told to look for other places to play with their lease agreement not being renewed. Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports suggests (subscription link) that Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, a facility that was built in 1965 and was home to Phoenix’s WHA team in the 1970s, could be a landing spot for the team while they wait for their desired Tempe home to be built.
- The Kings’ AHL affiliate in Ontario announced that head coach John Wroblewski has taken a personal leave of absence for an indefinite period of time. Assistant coaches Chris Hajt and Craig Johnson will split the coaching duties in Wroblewski’s absence.
I thought those smoke signals emanating from the Desert Southwest looked strange — “HELP! Please donate at our GoFundMe page! Thank you! (15% off seats on the glass)”
That bank account for GFM already has a negative balance. LOL.
Happy Holidays from our staff MacJab.
@Dave – Thanks! Hope you and your folks have a great holiday season too, and take the over on 50.1% of NHL-ers bowing out of the Bejing Bunglefest, for one reason or another.
“Umm, I can’t make to the Olympics this year.”
“Why?”
“OBI.”
“What?”
“Yeah, team doctors called it Olympics Body Injury. It’ll be fully healed in about four years.”
“OK…try not to embarrass your line mates with an all-body tan again after the break.”
(This is why guys give hometown discounts!)
My capologist,Sheff, said there should not be a club in the Olympics if it can’t make any league’s salary cap floor. I wonder who is lacing up for the home country.
I don’t know what is worse,sending my client into that country’s petri dish or sending a client to Hawaii and have him do a Dustin Penner move and drink on 25 pounds in three weeks.
It would be too easy to figure out but I had two clients at a nude resort call and ask me about sunburns in non traditional places and they were too afraid to tell Rick Dudley.
@Dave – Can you imagine what Scotty would have done to Habs’ players back in the day? The old autographed stick trick with the doorman was funny enough, but I could see him going 5-alarm paint peeler for anybody coming back looking like Tom Selleck, from Magnum P.I. And, with the Dustin Penner certified spare tire, too!
Hell, Dave, I wager the Chinese Olympic team couldn’t collectively make the salary cap floor of a no-check beer league team. Not a single one of their players are even on Kunlun Red Star’s roster.
Coyotes ownership is pathetic. If you can’t pay the bills, move the team. They haven’t turned a profit in at least 15-years. It probably goes back even farther I just cant seem to find any records prior to 2007 for the club. The NHL needs to step in here. Franchises shouldn’t be allowed to operate like this. Especially considering the league has revenue sharing in place. How can you take from the pot when you’ve never once contributed to it? I’m sure the other owners are unhappy. It’s costing them.
They haven’t turned a profit in the 25 years they have been there!!! They belong in Quebec plain and simple!!!
“How can you take from the pot when you’ve never once contributed to it?” They take credit for Austin Matthews, the shining light that came from hockey’s desert city.
As long someone will own team. Gary will never admit this a failed experiment. The only reason atlanta left was no one would buy team and keep there even for a dollar.
Gila Arena-“If you build it we will move.”
Those who have never been (and there’s a lot who have never been),it is a beautiful arena. Like top 5 arenas in the league (Minnesota is top 2).
Notice they won’t move to Tucson where their AHL club is. And how would that look…moving into your AHL arena 1:55 minutes away. If they sold $20 admission seats it would sell out. Why? There are no fans in Glendale. The majority of the fans are on the east side of the city.
Who wants to sit in 1.5 hours of rush hour traffic to Glendale,watch the game,then dive 45 minutes back at 9:30pm? No one.
I said majority…don’t get cranky.
This club is staying in the western conference. Mini Me has said the divisions are balanced. Why do you think they moved the club to the Central Division?
Favorites (in no particular order or odds)
Saskatoon Saskatchewan
Houston
Salt Lake City
Kansas City
Stretch-
Portland
Indianapolis
Cleveland
If one of these 7 doesn’t land the Coyotes or the next 1-2 expansion clubs,I’ll be shocked.
BTW the NHL PA wants expansion,taxi squads,floating cap,better AHL agreements with parent clubs.
Did you list Saskatoon as a joke?
The city and area has a population of under 250K.
The whole province has half as many people as any of the metropolitan areas of the US cities listed.
The big whale that Bettman wants to land is US television deals, obviously not a factor in Saskatchewan.
Move the Coyotes already.
This has been the hill Bettman’s been willing to die on for the entirety of the Coyotes’ existence, since the move from Winnipeg. He is plainly convinced that if the team moves from Arizona, his legacy will be one of shame and disgrace, hockey fans all over the world will point at him and jeer, and his penis will fall off.
He has considerable justification for this POV. (Alright, maybe not for the penis-falling-off thing. Just for all the rest.)
But maybe this is the straw that will finally, finally, finally get the Board of Governors off of their fat asses and overrule him. Because if the team goes bankrupt, how enthused will Jeremy Jacobs & Co. be with subsidizing their losses?
LOL… “penis fall off”. Made my day. Thank you.
i could see houston,portland,atlanta,kansas city,and salt lake city being contenders
quebec city,hamilton,salt lake,and baltimore i would rule out,baltimore is too close to the capitals,but if thats not an issue for pro hockey,i’d put baltimore at #1
1.5 million metro-population seems to be the rule of thumb currently.
At this point the only Canadian potential is in greater Toronto-metro area. That was kiboshed years ago.
Nobody wanted a team in Atlanta ten years ago. What changed?