Bruce Curlock on what Matt Savoie’s impact could be next season and beyond
let’s get to our boy Bruce klock from Oilers Nation Bruce always a pleasure to welcome you back you’re down in Calgary though right so Stampede full of tourists is it just a nightmare yeah well I mean that’s that’s part of the you know it’s part of the burden of having the Stampede so it’s all right we we enjoy we enjoy it so you know if it comes with some extra people that’s okay too are you a country music guy no I yeah oh yeah who do you like oh you name it I like it all the way back to George Straight how’s that that is very good that is very good I’m not a massive country music guy I got a little bit of a little bit of Morgan Wallen but I know that’s more to like the pop side of country it doesn’t really count as like Hardo country zero country over here yeah um all right let’s dig into the news of the day let’s talk a little hockey Bruce uh the Oilers resigned RAF lavois uh I said not disappointing news by any stretch because I like the player I thought maybe they were going to head towards some sort of a split where it’s like hey you’ve been in the system for a couple years there’s not like clear-cut natural path for you to get onto the roster next year maybe he’d want to go somewhere where opportunity seemed more obvious were you at all surprised he’s coming back no I don’t I don’t think so I I I I think the the problem you have as a player when um of this IL when you’ve done when you’ve spent all your time in the AHL it’s pretty difficult for you to make case for yourself with another team uh at least I mean maybe a Pacific Division team team might might have a better um book on him but really the team that knows you best is the is the team that you’re with um you know I I still think there’s lots of room for him in this uh top 13 group of forwards personally and so I you know I’m not shocked to be honest do you think he’s got a spot on this team next year like I I said off the Jump this is part of the reason I didn’t like the Cory Perry signing because I think it’s an obvious block for a guy with upside like rapael Lao is there a spot on this team for Lan next year in your eyes well I think I think so I I’m not I’m not sold that Perry plays more than 40 games this year um and that’s just a combination of his age and injury um you know I I it might even also just quite frankly be a hedge more than anything I mean Cory Perry Cory Perry the great thing about him is you can stick him in the in the Press Box and he still has some really good influence inside the dressing room right so um maybe it’s insurance if lavad doesn’t pan out um you know it certainly is um clearly you saw some of the players comment on his influence inside the dressing room in the playoffs and um so that’s obviously a bonus I I don’t see him as a block though let’s uh move along to the big news we got on Friday very curious for your take on this one because we’ve had a lot of discussions about Ryan McLoud and his fit on this team over the last year or so but that era comes to an end he goes to Buffalo Matt seavoy comes back good local boy High pick obviously we know all the headline grabbing parts of this deal for the Oilers and losing McLoud are they maybe G to miss him more than some people are willing to recognize right now myself included I think well you’re gonna ADM I mean there’s parts of his game that are just honestly better than most of the forwards that the Edmonton oyers have didn’t to start with it’s his ability to to uh push the river in terms of shots and chance making when he’s on the ice and when Conor McDavid and Leon dreidle aren’t on the ice and there there aren’t that many forwards on this team that do that and one of them has just left and so that’s not a uh you know you can’t deny that um you know his ability I think I lean a little bit more towards I mean that’s a big part of this but I lean a little bit more towards his ability to help this defense Group which which I don’t think is nearly good enough uh in terms of its ability to defend in zone and exit the zone and he helps that because you know he can take a puck on a four-foot pass or he can uh dig a puck off the wall and he can break it out himself um and I think that will be missed um but as I’ve said and I said on uh X the other day you know it’s a gamble but it’s probably a decent gamble to take and you’ve got time right you’ve got two things working in your favor in terms of time one is is that this team is going to be defined by the playoffs um in theory this Ford group is so strong now um even without him that I don’t think that there should be an issue like there was early last season and so they you know they should have a lot of time to be able to work through some of these things and the second thing is is that his his cap uh dollars um you know they’ll be able use that in some form capacity I get that we have to sign broberg and hallway but we know there’s another shooter drop here um and so his cap dollar should help and that should help at the defense you know on the defensive side of the puck or the in the difference grouping anyways the other flip side of it from a cap perspective is you now get a guy in in Matt seavoy who has three more years of his ELC and you know I’m not expecting him to make the Oilers out of Camp next year but it’s also I think easy to Envision a role where he’s a good top nine forward for them for a couple of seasons on their ELC where do you come out on seavoy because I mean we had Steven Ellis on the show Friday he said you know top 10 Prospect in the NHL or in in the league right now are you that high on seavoy do you think he’s a guy who could play NHL games in the back half of this season or is he further away than some people maybe think yeah so so to start with I’m I’m quite high on him I he’s easily the Oilers top prospect and you top 10 in the league I’m not I’m not sure are there 25 better prospects um outside of um out out of him H I don’t think so I think he’s he’s quite good I think the issue with him more than anything is he’s not going to play center with this team um at least I’d be shocked if he played center with this team and so that means he’s going to go to the HL and he’s going to learn right wing and I understand that it’s easier to learn wing position over the center position but it’s he’s 5 foot n um and uh it’s a new position so he’s going to you know have to adapt have to understand what skills he needs to bring what things he needs to work on um you know I saw all of his games in the AHL uh last year he’s certainly can skate well enough he certainly has Poise Under Pressure I think it’ll be interesting to see what 72 games looks like um in terms of physicality that he’s going to face especially if he’s playing on the wall and that’s why I just think it it’s going to take most of this year could he play this year sure um is it going to be in a very limited form I think so but that said the exciting piece of this is that is you come to next year when you definitely need somebody in the top nine who can contribute offensively uh on a very small cap hit he’s going to be the guy looking at this forward group like I I agree I think the top nine just appears honestly pretty set like there’s a lot of talent there with the moves they’ve made let’s let’s live in the hypothetical world that it’s Kane LTI to start things off and you don’t have him in the mix year and basically the the change from you know the end of last season to the start of next year would be you add Skinner you add arvidson and your lineup would be without Kane and without Fogle are the Oilers better with that trade-off well I I think they are um I I I think it’s a little bit more of a function of um this is a team in sorry this is a team in the regular season that’s going to get generate a ton of chances against a lot of teams they’re not going to see when the when the games start to matter and one of the struggles that they did have last year was putting teams away um when they had all of these chances I mean you can look back to the the start of the season when they went whatever it was 3 n and one I mean there wasn’t there I think there was one game in that in which they didn’t out chance the other team they just didn’t score and then they didn’t get goal tending on top of it um so this team this team’s going to score a lot uh it’s deep it’s going to be you know our their the oiler third line is going to be you know in positions to overwhelm other teams bottom six so I think it’s it’s a far better group uh in terms of that I think at the end of the day what it’s going to come down to more than anything is what that especially the top nine looks like at the playoff time um that’ll be the you know we don’t talk a lot about this with Jeff Skinner he’s very good at five on five very good um and so it’ll be interesting to see when they get into the playoffs how he handles five on five at a whole different level because it’s been some time since he’s done that but overall this is a better uh for group than last year’s for sure it’s exciting to think about what they could the the potential of this group if they’re all humming at the same time it could be one of the more fun teams in the league to watch on a day-to-day basis um going back to the prospect thing AB you want to flash up Bob’s top 10 again that that he tweeted out earlier today he obviously has SEO right at the top O’Reilly behind him is there someone lower down that you’re higher on than than maybe Bob would be here or someone who you think maybe fans who don’t follow the prospect pool as closely as guys like you someone who people should be keeping eye on for me it’s Noah film and that’s just my Golden Bears kind of bias coming through I love that guy and I’m so happy he’s coming back to play professional hockey and pick up his career again but is there someone on that list that stands out to you well like I think we agree on that one I mean Noah Phil Ben I you know being a farmer Golden Bear I guess I buy biest also but I I I think the thing with Noah philp is is that you know he’s a six foot three right shot Center who knows how to play the game in his own Zone Puck protects incredibly well and has a very high a high IQ for the game um I’d really be shocked I’d really be shocked if he didn’t play games this year unless the year off took such a toll on him uh from a physical standpoint I’d be shocked if he didn’t play games he’s a natural to slot in at forc um and so I think you know he’s probably the guy you know I like Max wner a lot uh I think he’s probably too low U Xavier Borgo I think is maybe too high personally Boi the defenseman who’s too young to play AHL he’s got the Matthew seavoy issue from last year um he I mean he he’s think uh going to be a very exciting player for the Edmonton oyers down the road um and the other one to watch I think is Matt vay Petro um you know the one thing I really liked about him last year is he he did not he he didn’t score well enough for his talent but it came a little bit but more than anything he really learned to play his own Zone well um in the last half of the season and that I think bodess really well for him as a prospect if he can take care of his own Zone I think that shot alone will buy him some games with the Edmonton Oilers down the road last one I got for you was a little bit of news from down on the farm Colin chocks coming back to the Bakersfield Condors do we like that is he the right coach to have as you’re in this mode of just trying to know graduate good middle six NHL forwards bottom six NHL forwards even is he the right guy for the job down there yeah I yeah I don’t know that that I don’t know that any body knows that answer right I mean obviously the organization thinks that’s the answer because he’s back I think Cy Larson is the big piece in this um you know my presumption is is that he’s going to have the Reigns to establish the development protocols for these players and with specifity on the forwards um and I think that’ll be the important piece here uh the team has done a uh you know it’s you hard to argue at goal tending and defense um how they developed but forwards they have not developed well and part of that has been under Colin Chalk’s tenure um you know so they brought in some resources like Larson and hopefully that’s that helps but I you know again I can’t say that chalk is the solution here because uh they just haven’t developed uh enough uh offensively minded forwards um and you know let’s be candid if there was a if there’s a position that’s really hard to coach it’s offense for forwards it’s an incredibly difficult uh element to coach so you know you have to be fair to him there but you know with some more support let’s see what happens but uh at this point the jury’s out on that for sure for me always an education Bruce is there a concert this week you’re going to down at Stampede that you’re excited for no concerts just the rodeo and the Chucks on the Chucks I like that appreciate your time man thanks for hopping on all right have a great summer there you go Bruce klock on the Star Mechanical guest line we always what’s up Nation citizens if you like that video then you need to be subscribed to the Oilers Nation YouTube podcast live shows exclusive interviews and Analysis everything you need from your favorite voices at Oilers nation and you don’t want to miss any of it so hammer that subscribe button
Bruce Curlock from Oilersnation joins Tyler Yaremchuk to discuss the Ryan McLeod for Matt Savoie trade that occurred over the weekend, and what his impact could be this season and beyond.
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9 Comments
I just don’t know if i see Nuge as a Center anymore. Doesn’t seem like a guy that can drive his own line but rather facilitate, which is why he’s so good on the wing.
Would Savoie be the first choice injury cover for Arvidson or Skinner?
Canucks fan here and I gotta say this Oilers roster is pretty damn stacked, wowza!
Nuge is not a center anymore
trade Savoie for a Goalie
at 9:21 Bruce said Jeff Skinner hasn't experienced 5-on-5 playoff hockey in a long time…Skinner never had ONE NHL playoff game
Anyone surprised that Buffalo would trade a 9th OA pick for a third liner and a B level (at best )prospect just two years after he was drafted? You won't be soon.
Like Bruce said the oilers are going to miss McLeod
Cant wait ta play Calgary we got AKOT BETTER + TOUGHER 💪🏽