[Johnston] Rick Tocchet told us he doesn’t expect OEL to be back this season but sees a big summer ahead and has high hopes for him next season. “I know a lot of people count him out. I got a feeling that he’s gonna have a really good year. Like, there’s a there’s a gleam in his eye.”
Rick Tocchet told us he doesn't expect OEL to be back this season but sees a big summer ahead and has high hopes for him next season.
"I know a lot of people count him out. I got a feeling that he's gonna have a really good year. Like, there's a there's a gleam in his eye."
— Patrick Johnston (@risingaction) March 22, 2023
by Nucksfan23
29 Comments
That’s a weird way of saying LTIRetire….
OEL struggled this year. Less than 10 months ago he fractured his foot, he missed a bunch of offseason, and it seems like he was playing hurt a lot this year before getting shut down.
So the question becomes, is what we saw this year indicative of his true talent level?
Or is this a player who with enough recovery/training time and the right partner can provide adequate 2nd pairing minutes next season?
There really isn’t an obvious solution to the OEL dilemma.
He was actually pretty darn solid last year. Maybe with better team structure he can return closer to that.
If he can even play like a $4mil defender his contract, while still sucking, doesn’t sink the team.
The gleam is his juicy contract
I actually think that gleam is him holding back tears from how he realizes he shouldn’t have gotten himself into this mess.
LOL
Lol
Gleam me up Olly
I know the meta on this sub is hate for him but it would be awesome if he turned into a good but overpaid D man for us and not impossible to trade.
I wish nothing but the best for him next season.
Hey wait, I thought we were buying him out
I mean if I had a choice between a player with a gleam in his eye and one who could skate at an NHL level, I’d take the latter
If the time off helps improve his game then great. If he looks the same or worse then you buy him out, one more year off the books before hand makes it a little easier.
Fully expecting an Erik Karlsson-esque resurgence
Erik Karlsson 2.0 book it
Wishing him well but, bro you live in a beautiful city. Just take next season off (and the next five), O. You earned it.
/s
So I guess this rules out a buyout this summer.
It was always unlikely, but possible. I think if he’s shit against next year, a buyout will happen.
Tocchet give him some gambling tips or something?
There go the hopes of a buyout.
Also with OEL in there you won’t have cash to add more DMEN.
infinite non-playoff retool will continue till Aquaman passes away.
Predictions:
1. We resign Hronek to a big deal . He gets no PP1 time and point totals drop along with his confidence. We try to cap dump him half way through the year
2. We trade our 1st for more help with the “all in” to squeeze in plan. Then miss the playoffs again
I’m all for positivity but that gleam in the eye quote is comic gold.
Best case scenario for us is that OEL can come back and elevate his play much like we have seen many of the AHL call ups do. Worst case is well, OEL is even worse.
I hate myself for saying it, but I would take that gamble. Wild comparison but just using it for injury comparison sake, but Demko and OEL. Demko clearly looked like shit at the start of the season, just didn’t seem like he was really back into it after surgery in the off season, then suffers and injury, goes out. Comes back and is now playing like absolute fire.
OEL is obviously nowhere near the greatness of Demko levels. However, he fractured his foot in the offseason, and while was cleared to play has been absolutely horrendous. But almost all of players were absolutely horrendous for a majority of the season. OEL then gets injured, Toccet had been with us for 9 games at this point. I’m going to hope that OEL can heal over the summer, come back and be inserted into a lineup that is good and that he helps it stay good. Even if OEL is our number 4, if he can stip being a liability and just be that guy who we know isn’t gonna get 50 points, but is gonna stop the opposing team from scoring, I can live with that. If we can avoid having to buy him out and be stuck with various cap penalties I think we’ll be way better off.
Like my grandmother used to say “you can hope in one hand and shit in the other, see which one fills up.”
Isn’t the buyout the actual worst option if you’re one of the Canucks fans that wants them to rebuild?
If they buy him out, we save the full cap hit next season, and then 5.5 the season after…
…that means management would turn around and sign someone else and use that money on a stop gap to help us ‘win now’.
Years 5-8 we are penalized 2.5 million per. That means you are supporting long term pain for short term gain.
I’d rather gamble the surgery helps his skating and he plays a lot closer to what we saw last year than the guy we saw this year.
It might be a pipe dream, but QH on the first pairing with anyone, and then Hronek with last seasons version of OEL would actually be a potentially nice 2nd pairing.
Now, if the skating still sucks, then we buy him out. But I’d exhaust every possibility before committing to hurting this team for so many years in the future.
Of course it might be worth it to see how his skating looks though. If he’s as bad as he showed this season, you simply have to buy him out, or pay him 7 million to play on your 3rd pair.
I had a feeling he would not get bought out 🙁
I pretty much assumed he would be bought out when Allvin put the team over the cap. Because, surely he has a plan for the cap that doesn’t depend on another team taking advantage of his compromised position.
Wonder if that gleam is 6 years on LTIR… in Greece or something
Ugh
Is it just me or does this scream Jim Benning talk…?!??
This code for ” Yeah we ain’t buying him out “.
he’s a waste of space, we should buy him and his terrible contract out – one of the dumbest worst trades canucks have ever made, handcuffed us for years to come