Hot Links: Wednesday, December 18

Morning, folks!

It’s another GAMEDAY, and a critical one too, as the Oilers pay visit to the St. Louis Blues for a 6:30 MST start tonight.

The Oilers, winners last time out in Dallas, will look to string a couple more of those together as the schedule gets tougher, and the division gets harder thanks to the Arizona Coyotes’ big addition yesterday. He set up the GWG with a beautiful bit of forechecking, but, alas.

It was reported yesterday that both Darnell Nurse and Zack Kassian’s extension discussions have begun, which is pretty ominous. Both of those deals have the potential to sewer the next few years as significantly as Kris Russell’s deal sewered the last few, so it’s really going to be interesting to see whether Ken Holland is actually good at his job or not.

The fact that we’re still, today, now, having to defend AGAINST the idea of paying Zack Kassian $4MM is absolutely wild. But, it’s our lot. It’s what we do. Because if not us, who?

Speaking of his linemates, Connor McDavid’s on-ice rates are as bad as they’ve ever been during his professional career. Sunil Agnihotri tried to take a look on his blog The Super Fan. Worth a read.

Adam Larsson looks to have turned a corner, which can only be a good thing for the Oilers moving forward. It provides them even better flexibility to deal Nurse if he gets greedy, for instance.

Ilya Kovalchuk had his contract terminated yesterday, with people actually wondering whether he’d be a good fit here. I’m not sure why anyone would even considering adding someone who isn’t a proven commodity at 5v5 right now, today, but here we are.

As mentioned it is gameday, so check back in a few for our PREVIEW and come back later on for our GAME THREAD, where we’ll lament the loss of Taylor Hall to the tune of St. Louis scoring more goals than Edmonton.

From Us

Hot Links: Tuesday, December 17 (Copper and Blue)

Sliding (Copper and Blue)

From Elsewhere

Game Notes Oilers @ Blues: Challenge The Champions (Oilersnation)

Life Line (Super Fan)

Report: Kassian’s Agent, Oilers GM Hold Preliminary Extension Talks (Score)

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins Admits It Will Be Weird Seeing Taylor Hall In Coyotes Uniform (Sun)

Edmonton Oilers Defenceman Adam Larsson Back To Rugged Self (Sun)

Should The Oilers Sign Ilya Kovalchuk? (Oilersnation)

At Random: The Long Game (Oilersnation)

The Athletic’s Pierre Lebrun Believes Ken Holland Was One Of The Last GM’s In On Trading For Taylor Hall (Oilersnation)

What Is Oilers’ Zack Kassian Worth On His Next Contract? (Sportsnet)

For Money

Lowetide: The Key Missing Element To The Oilers’ Brilliant Top Line (Athletic)

‘We called him ‘The Crane”: Teammates and coaches reveal their best Connor McDavid stories (Athletic)