JR Ewing Posted August 28, 2013 Share Posted August 28, 2013 The Edmonton Oilers have agreed to terms on a one-year contract with forward Linus Omark. Omark will return to the Oilers after playing in Switzerland last season, where he led the league in scoring with 69 points (17-52) in 48 games.The 26-year-old forward has eight goals and 30 points in 65 career games with the Oilers, along with 47 points in 36 games with the Oklahoma City Barons of the American Hockey League. Omark, who is best remembered for scoring a spin-o-rama goal in a shootout in 2010, was the Oilers’ fourth-round pick (97th overall) in 2007. http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/oilers-agree-to-terms-with-forward-omark/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JR Ewing Posted August 28, 2013 Author Share Posted August 28, 2013 A 1-yr $600,000 / $100,000 two-way deal is so good it's not even funny. After 20+ years of watching the Oilers almost never having depth, it's nice to see them pick it up one spot at a time. For me: very nice bet on MacTavish's part. JR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hf101 Posted August 28, 2013 Share Posted August 28, 2013 @JR Ewing Wow, only $600, you would think that he was penciled in to maybe being a fourth line player. Then again if he doesn't make the line-up, he will be scarfed up quickly on waivers. Edit: or maybe I should be saying he will be playing on the top two lines in Calgary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JR Ewing Posted August 30, 2013 Author Share Posted August 30, 2013 @JR Ewing Wow, only $600, you would think that he was penciled in to maybe being a fourth line player. Then again if he doesn't make the line-up, he will be scarfed up quickly on waivers. Edit: or maybe I should be saying he will be playing on the top two lines in Calgary. If Omark plays in EDM this year, it may well be on the 4th line, which is A-ok for me: he's a FAR better hockey player than somebody like Mike Brown. We'll have to see if he would be scooped on waivers: some good hockey players are still sitting out there, unsigned, and even last year good players passed through waiver. JR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OccamsRazor Posted September 2, 2013 Share Posted September 2, 2013 A 1-yr $600,000 / $100,000 two-way deal is so good it's not even funny. After 20+ years of watching the Oilers almost never having depth, it's nice to see them pick it up one spot at a time. If... well then....hiccup! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yave1964 Posted September 2, 2013 Share Posted September 2, 2013 An under the radar signing, great job by the Oilers filling holes with solid role players this offseason to compliment the kids. Bringing back Omark on the cheap just seems to be a typical signing for MacTavish who has done a solid job so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JR Ewing Posted September 2, 2013 Author Share Posted September 2, 2013 (edited) An under the radar signing, great job by the Oilers filling holes with solid role players this offseason to compliment the kids. Bringing back Omark on the cheap just seems to be a typical signing for MacTavish who has done a solid job so far. The way I see it, these were Craig MacTavish's big issues coming into his first off-season.MacT's Shopping List, Summer 2013-Sign Sam Gagner-Find an associate coach to help Ralph Krueger with the technical side of things-Deal Shawn Horcoff and Ales Hemsky-Find a center who can do heavy lifting/tough minutes-Find replacement for Nikolai Khabibulin-Cut Ryan Whitney loose and improve the blueline.-Improve the bottom 6 forwards-Sign players to contracts which could be called a "good bet".The GoodSo far as yet, I think the summer has been a good one for Craig MacTavish. He signed Sam Gagner to a 4-year deal, which helps keep his main group together. Important deal. Everybody across the NHL assured us that MacT would have to eat part of Shawn Horcoff's contract, but they were completely off. MacTavish ended up getting a pick AND a player as well as relief from Horcoff's cap hit.With Horcoff off the books, he needed to bring in a center who could play those minutes, and landed the best free agent available in that job description. Boyd Gordon is an upgrade on Horcoff for this job, and is younger and cheaper.MacTavish used Bulin's open spot to bring in a quality backup in Jason LaBarbera, and improved organizational depth by signing Richard Bachman as well. Another set of good point in MacT's summer. Associate coach: everybody in the NHL had identified Dallas Eakins as a very good young coach with a strong knowledge of the technical side of the game and "gets" how to work with young players. MacTavish was impressed after interviewing Eakins for an associate position, he decided he was needed as the head coach. He's just a rookie coach, but this one has up arrows all over it.Defense: said goodbye to Ryan Whitney, whose abilities were destroyed by bad feet. Happens, unfortunately. This alone would represent an improvement to the Oilers blueline, but MacTavish went well past that, by signing Andrew Ference, Anton Belov (best defenseman in the KHL) to a bargain two-way contract, and brough back Denis Grebeshkov. Coming into the offseason, MacT noted an inability of Oilers defensemen to get pucks to forwards, which created a large number of turnovers in the Oilers end in addition to lack of offense. Justin Schultz can make that pass, and though Ryan Whitney hadn't lost that lovely outlet pass of his, he could no longer skate himself into position to make it. Moving the puck is the heart of both Belov and Grebeshkov's styles, so this jibes with what MacT set out to do. He couldn't bring in a superstar defenseman, but by bringing in a pile of NHL defensemen who can actually play, he has brough depth (something they haven't had for many years) and has done a lot to keep young/non-ready players away from defending NHL forwards. Playing defense at the NHL level is a damned tough job, and you shouldn't be thrown into the deep end a as 19-year old to do itBottom 6 forwards: I think this one is hit and miss. Gordon is a big hit, and Omark could work out very well. Jesse Joensu is probably a break-even replacement for Teemu Hartinkainen. Constantly cheats for offense, and is a possession-negative player.Big hits: deleting Lennart Petrell and Eric Belanger.Miss: I'm not at all a back of Ryan Jones, and would have preferred if he'd been dumped after his 17 goal season in 2012.What I was most happy with was with MacTavish simply relying on NHL free agents to sign players. The KHL is under-utilized as a source of find experienced players who were not on the draft radar as juniors. There's a market inefficiency here and they can take advantage.-----Speaking of market inefficiencies: a side note about one of my biggest happy points of the summer: the Oilers day at the entry draft, as it pertains to a series of trades they made with draft picks.To LAK: 37To EDM: 57 (2nd), 88 (3rd), 96(4th)MacTavish then took #57 and sent it to STL for:To STL: 57 (2nd)To EDM: 83 (3rd), 94 (4th), 113 (4th)Years back, I did some work that found much the same thing, but here are some results from a presentation called "Better Off Guessing", which was presented at the MIT Sloan Analytics conference. After studying draft results, and calling 160 NHL GP a successful pick, they found the following success rates:Pick01-10: 80%11-20: 65%21-30: 55%2nd & 3rd rounds: 25%4th and later rounds: 10%Video presentation:http://www.sloansportsconference.com/?p=600In other words, the Oilers took a 25% chance of getting an NHL player, and turned it into 25% and 25% and 10% and 10% and 10%.And I love it love it love it.They dramatically increased their chances of finding a player, let alone the chance they could hit on one more than one. You don't bank on that, but as the average odds show, you never can bank anything from the 2nd round on. Everybody is entitled to their opinion, but I've been waiting for a GM to discover this (IMO) undervalued part of the market for a very long time. I'm just thrilled it's the team I cheer for, and not another.TLDR - Craig MacTavish has had a very good summer.JR Edited September 2, 2013 by JR Ewing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jammer2 Posted September 7, 2013 Share Posted September 7, 2013 Just tossing this one here, could not find the miscellaneous NHL thread, so put it here... Young defensemen has to overcome odds and cancer to make the Oilers. Brandon Davidson has his work cut out for him, but what a great attitude on life! http://www.windsorstar.com/Oilers+blue+line+prospect+stronger+following+cancer+ordeal/8881118/story.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JR Ewing Posted September 7, 2013 Author Share Posted September 7, 2013 Just tossing this one here, could not find the miscellaneous NHL thread, so put it here... Young defensemen has to overcome odds and cancer to make the Oilers. Brandon Davidson has his work cut out for him, but what a great attitude on life! http://www.windsorstar.com/Oilers+blue+line+prospect+stronger+following+cancer+ordeal/8881118/story.html Well, you could just a start a new thread in the Oilers section. heh -I have a soft spot from watching Brandon Davidson play here in Regina during his junior career.-He can do some things on the ice.-I admire how he hasn't given up on his career goals despite his illness. He's obviously very driven and willing to work extremely hard.-The Oilers don't have an outstanding defense in any way, but have WAY too much depth for Davidson to crack the lineup.-If Davidson is to have an NHL career, I don't suspect it will be in Edmonton. JR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hf101 Posted September 24, 2013 Share Posted September 24, 2013 A 1-yr $600,000 / $100,000 two-way deal is so good it's not even funny. After 20+ years of watching the Oilers almost never having depth, it's nice to see them pick it up one spot at a time. That didn't last long. I would think with the injuries the Oilers have right now that he would have made the team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JR Ewing Posted September 24, 2013 Author Share Posted September 24, 2013 That didn't last long. I would think with the injuries the Oilers have right now that he would have made the team. Generally, that would be exactly the case, but Omark had a bad camp. I mean, a really really bad camp. It's too bad. He's not a perfect player by any means, but he can do some things. Also, he came to camp out of shape, which is a bit silly on his part. a] He's trying to play his way into this league as a smaller skill guy. He *has* to be fit.b] Everybody knows the coach is a fitness fanatic. I had hopes, and I still think it was a good idea to bring him into camp. Just hasn't worked out so far. Who knows, maybe he'll clear waivers, get himself into some better shape, play better, and force the team to call him up. After all, he signed a two-way deal know the AHL was a possiblity. JR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jammer2 Posted September 26, 2013 Share Posted September 26, 2013 Is it safe to say that Linus provides a security blanket for the Oil? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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