Oil Spills: A Podcast On The Edmonton Oilers

It’s NHL Draft Week — but let's call it NHL Convention week, with general managers gathering from across North America for the two-day event June 21-22 this year in Vancouver. Not that GMs have waited to see their colleagues in person to make a whole lot of signings ahead of free agency, which is due to start July 1, and make a few trades beforehand. Hockey Hall of Fame writer Jim Matheson joins host Craig Ellingson to talk about the Oilers in the trade market and at the draft. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hockey Hall of Fame writer Jim Matheson talks to host Craig Ellingson about the potential of a Milan Lucic-for-Loui Eriksson deal between the Edmonton Oilers and the Vancouver Canucks, about where forward Jesse Puljujarvi stands with the Oilers as the NHL Draft — a.k.a. NHL GMs trading convention — approaches, and about who/what the Oilers might target with the eighth overall pick in the June 21-22 draft. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hockey beat writer Rob Tychkowski joins host Craig Ellingson to talk about the Edmonton Oilers hiring Dave Tippett as the NHL team's head coach. Specifically: Tippett will be Ryan Nugent-Hopkins's eighth head coach in nine years. RNH, the Oilers' longest-serving player, was taken first overall by the Oilers in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. How Tippett differs as a coach from immediate Oilers predecessors Ken Hitchcock and Todd McLellan. Hitchcock finished this past season as head man after McLellan was fired 20 games into the 2018-19 NHL campaign. What 'style' of coaching we might expect to see from Tippett, who had the reputation as a defensive-minded coach in Arizona and Dallas. The limits of what changes we can expect to see in the Oilers next season based on coaching alone. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hockey beat writer Jim Matheson and host Craig Ellingson talk about coaches and the Edmonton Oilers — old ones such as Craig MacTavish, Ralph Krueger and Duane Sutter. MacT, bench boss in Edmonton from 2000-09, and Sutter, the team's head of pro scouting who once coached Florida, both left the Oilers recently. Krueger, Oilers coach in 2012-13, was hired last week by Buffalo. And this week, the Oilers are expected to hire a new head coach, probably ex-Arizona and ex-Dallas boss Dave Tippett. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hockey writers Jim Matheson and Derek Van Diest talk to host Craig Ellingson about what lies immediately ahead for new Edmonton Oilers general manager Ken Holland: Hiring a new head coach and assessing his team’s player assets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hockey beat writers Jim Matheson, Rob Tychkowski and Derek Van Diest talk to host Craig Ellingson about the Edmonton Oilers' hiring of Ken Holland as general manager. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Craig Ellingson talks to hockey beat writers Rob Tychkowski and Derek Van Diest about the ongoing Edmonton Oilers' search for a new general manager, which is rumoured to have been whittled down to a handful of candidates. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hockey Hall of Fame writer Jim Matheson talks to host Craig Ellingson about the playoff picture in the NHL’s Western Conference, which has seen three of the top four seeds eliminated — No. 3 seed San Jose Sharks will play a seventh game against the sixth-seeded Vegas Golden Knights — and about ‘what could’ve beens’ if the Edmonton Oilers had somehow, someway made the post-season and scored the chance to play top-ranked Calgary. They also talk about: - News that Ralph Krueger, who was once the head coach of the Oilers before being unceremoniously dumped in the 2013 off-season, is not interested in Edmonton's general manager's job. - One-time Oilers player Marc Habschied, currently head coach of the WHL powerhouse Prince Albert Raiders, and his long career in hockey. - And former Oilers bench boss Todd McLellan, who was recently hired by the Los Angeles Kings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hockey beat writers Rob Tychkowski and Jim Matheson join host Craig Ellingson to talk about why the Edmonton Oilers should really start the process of hiring a new general manager by first putting in place a new president of hockey operations. Also: - Former Oilers star Jordan Eberle has three goals in his first three playoff games with the New York Islanders. Eberle was traded to the Islanders from Edmonton after his first NHL playoff experience in 2017 with the Oilers, a scoreless 13-game affair for him. - There's no rule that says an NHL team needs to make public what a player injury might be, but playing coy on Friday about what ails Connor McDavid's leg backfired on the Oilers after they were given the social-media gears about a definite lack of detail in their information delivered to fans and media. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hockey Hall of Fame writer Jim Matheson defends his column in which he says the Edmonton Oilers should simply lift the ‘interim’ general manager tag from Keith Gretzky — brother of the Great One, Wayne, who is also an Oilers executive — arguing he knows the players in the organization better than anyone and has developed a solid reputation scouting and plucking talent from the amateur ranks.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hockey Hall of Fame writer Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal and the Edmonton Sun talks to host Craig Ellingson about the Edmonton Oilers’ search for a general manager and perhaps a president of hockey operations, too. Also: - The Oilers’ goaltending situation as the season draws to a close. - How to grow a professional women’s hockey league in the wake of recent news the Canadian Women’s Hockey League is folding. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oilers Entertainment Group chief executive officer Bob Nicholson’s recent comments about Edmonton Oilers forward Tobias Rieder — Nicholson blamed Rieder, who hasn’t scored a goal all season, for the team’s failure to secure a playoff spot — turned Nicholson into a lightning rod among many Oilers fans, a figure onto which they turned their frustrations over yet another losing season — 12 of the last 13 of them out of the NHL playoffs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Craig Ellingson and hockey beat writer Derek Van Diest focus on the ever-slimmer playoff hopes of the team. They’re pretty much hopeless, practically, but because the NHL’s Western Conference has a lot of mediocre teams this season — the Oilers among them — Edmonton still has hope this late in the campaign. At the same point last year, the Oilers were well back of the playoff pack and out of the race. They also talk about Connor Mcdavid and his Hart Trophy odds — they think they should be Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Postmedia reporter Trevor Robb speaks with hockey writers Derek Van Diest and Rob Tychkowski on the possibility of the Edmonton Oilers making the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs this spring. The Oilers are within five points of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference with 13 games left to play. Is there really an opportunity for the Oilers to get into the playoffs? They are playing their best hockey of the season, currently on a 7-2-1 run. The team is starting to turn skeptics into believers. And Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Forwards Leon Draisaitl and Zack Kassian have been playing well for the Edmonton Oilers of late, scoring regularly as the team tries to claw its way back into the NHL wild-card playoff spot convsersation as the regular season ticks down. What have they done to elevate their games? Host Craig Ellingson talks to hockey beat writers Jim Matheson and Derek Van Diest about Draisaitl and Kassian, and about the effect Andrej Sekera has had on the Oilers defence since he made his season debut last month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Oilers made no deals on trade deadline. Derek Van Diest and Jim Matheson discuss why that may be. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Edmonton Oilers are indeed sellers for the 2019 NHL trade deadline coming up on Feb. 25. They dealt goalie Cam Talbot to the Philadelphia Flyers for Anthony Stolarz in order to clear salary cap room for defenceman Andrej Sekera, who returned to the Oilers lineup from injury. But can the Oilers under interim general manager Keith Gretzky reasonably do much else besides give players away for middling draft picks to try to clear salary off the books? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Edmonton Oilers can win games away from home, but over the last bunch of games, they can’t seem to win at their own arena, Rogers Place. The question, of course, is why? Just another thing that’s in the water? Hockey beat writers Jim Matheson and Rob Tychkowski talk to host Craig Ellingson about home-ice challenges plus the prospects of the Oilers getting defenceman Andrej Sekera back in the lineup soon, about the recent success of the AHL Bakersfield Condors and about ex-Oilers coach Dallas Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’ve been watching this dance in slow motion for weeks now, with the Edmonton Oilers on the edge of it — both before and after their extended break during and after the NHL all-star game. It’s the great turtle derby being contested by half the Western Conference. One thing is for sure — at some point, a couple of these teams are going to break away from the pack. And the question in Edmonton is: Do the Oilers have the right team to do it? Host Craig Ellingson talks to Edmonton Journal and Edm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With Peter Chiarelli out and Keith Gretzky in, for the interim, as general manager, the Edmonton Oilers have an existential question to ask of themselves: Are they really all in on making the 2019 NHL playoffs — which would surely mean trading away future prospects in the form of young players or draft picks — or are they willing to ride through the storm, no matter the cost? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices