Frank Seravalli talks Oilers Road Trip, Colorado Avalanche & more with Bob Stauffer on Oilers Now

Frank Seravalli talks Oilers Road Trip, Colorado Avalanche & more with Bob Stauffer on Oilers Now

Oilers now digital content is sponsored by Legacy Heating and Cooling. No payments and no interest for a year. That’s how you build a legacy. Hello Frank. How you doing? Pretty good. How you doing Bob? Good. What did you think of uh the Oilers final two games of the road trip against Tampa Bay and against the Florida Panthers. Two pretty good teams, albeit uh Tampa down a few defenseman, Florida down several players, missing some players as well. and Edmonton finishing off a stretch of uh a seven-game road trip, their second uh five plus game road trip out to the Eastern Conference this year and uh losing 2-1 in overtime and then winning 6-3 in Florida. Your thoughts? A step in the right direction. I mean, had to find a way to close out particularly in OT that game against Tampa after playing so well. Um, obviously Vasileki comes up with that enormous save. Well, two or three saves I guess you could say in OT and that was the difference. Uh, game against the Panthers again. Um, a lot of really good things, a lot of positives and you’re right, this is the end of a brutal stretch of of hockey in terms of the schedule. uh grueling in travel, grueling in distance, grueling in um at times opponents and and who’s in front of you, but not an excuse. I think the process has really been lacking for the Oilers. I think it seems like it’s trending in the right direction, but I, you know, I think we’ve been careful to say that because once it looks like they get things on track, you know, they throw one away. And so, um, look, I I think they’ve survived and really that’s the mission and mandate in the first six weeks of the season. Don’t sink your season. You can’t win the Stanley Cup in October or November, but you can sure as heck lose it. And they haven’t done that, and I don’t expect them to. You know, I I talked to management types from both clubs, uh, who both brought up the 16-8 split through the first 24 games and management types from two clubs that have won Stanley Cups. In fact, I’ve won two Stanley Cups each in those final two games. And uh the one comment was, you know, when you factor the travel from the playoffs and going through what they went through emotionally. Oh, come on. We can’t do that. We can’t. We’re not going there, are we? Just can you hear me out, please? Sure. Everything you said is entirely valid. All they said is, you know, for some, you know, you don’t put it this way. You and me don’t know what it’s like to lose in a Stanley Cup final. I mean, there’s a guy down in Calgary that does a show that talks regularly. He’s lost three of them, and that’s Rhett Warner, and he talks about how crappy it was every year to come back for that. But to also factor in two of the furthest, it’s not like Edmonton got Winnipeg and Toronto in the conference final in the final. They got Dallas and Florida. Oh, but come on. We can’t That’s not a thing. Like, we’re not actually What do you What do you buy in? Do you do you buy it or not into the fact that it may be just a simple byproduct that they had to get their EQ up, their emotional quotion up or is that a copout or do you think there’s something? The emotional part of it is big, but I refuse to allow the schedule to be the story as to why the Oilers have struggled. Is it a fac is it a factor to why they’re in the position they’re in right now or have they just simply not played well? It’s it’s a small it’s a small it’s 15% of the story to me. 20% of the story. It’s it’s not the whole thing. Hey, look. Are is anyone saying hey oh the Colorado Avalanche, man. Uh look at their schedule. They’ve played more road games than they have home games. The split isn’t as drastic, but they’ve gone east a few times already this year. They haven’t they didn’t lose a Stanley Cup final one. They and hey, I’m the first one to tell you I think I think Colorado would have been a tough out for Edmonton both years. First, they were the one team I fear in the Western Conference the most. Okay, I’m just saying that they didn’t play as long as Edmonton did. It’s easier to to come back to recalibrate to get jacked up. All of that said, I don’t like Edmonton’s game through the first 24 games either for I’m just like that’s the only point I’ve made and and it’s like, hey, well, look at how tough the SK like the schedule is what it is. You’re going to have great runs in the schedule with, you know, easier opponents. You’re going to have more home games for stretches of time. You know, it’s cyclical. What goes around comes around. Other teams are going to have tough spots, too. But the Avalanche have one regulation loss in their first 22 games of the season. I can guarantee you that the amount of times that they’ve talked about their schedule has been zero. That’s it. Yeah. That’s what good teams do. They play what’s in front of them and they don’t talk about their home and road splits. They don’t. Do you think the Avalanche were just just as an aside, do you think the Avalanche were a good team the last two years? Cuz I do. I’m shocked they didn’t get to the I’m shocked they didn’t win the conf uh the division each of the last two years. Shocked. I think last year there was just too much change. Look, when you start the playoffs with 11 different players than opening night, I think that’s a lot to ask. That’s a lot of turnover. And you know what? They deserve a ton of credit for deciding at this exact moment in time one year ago that their goalending wasn’t good enough. Yeah. They said enough, uncle. We’re going to go out and be the first team in NHL history to change out both members of our tandem and redo it. What should Vancouver and Calgary do right now? Because look, the Oders aren’t going to catch their chips in. They’re they’re they’re still obviously in a win now mode. They’re going to try to improve the team. I guess that’s let’s let’s deal with the goalending elephant right now. Just get it out there. Um I don’t see anything imminent, but I think the goalenders are going to find the course of action with Stan Bowman. Agree or disagree? Um I think they’re certainly going to have their fair share and say yes. Look, and that was really the only point that I was making about the ABS and last year was it some say, “Oh, you can’t change the goalending. How are you going to make a trade mid-season? Never works.” Um, all those things. It’s it’s a list of reasons why you can’t do something. My only point was the ABS are an example as to why you can. They were as capstrapped as anyone last year. Yeah. find solutions. If you’re if one facet of your team is inhibiting you from winning, and by no means am I saying goalending is the only reason why the Oilers have struggled so far. It it’s not at all. There’s a lot of factors, and I just mentioned that the schedule and the split is probably 15 to 20%. The goalending is another 25 to 30%. and you smash that with some injuries, another 20%. And pick another facet of the team, the the the attention to detail defending, another 20%. I mean, whatever it is that you want to hang it on, there’s lots of reasons for why the play has been substandard and goalending is absolutely a part of it. The only question to answer is and we we started to have this discussion last week in our conversation which was can are you confident can Steuart Skinner and Cal Pickard lead this team to a Stanley Cup? That’s really all it’s about for for every facet of this team. Is this cup contender cup caliber quality? And if the answer is no, then you have to work to fix it. As simple as that. And it may not might not be easy. It might be expensive. It might be a lot of things. But to leave any stones unturned at this juncture of what the Oilers are and what their expectations are, it it’s unacceptable and and everyone knows that. So the Oilers have been the standard. They are the standard. The the ABS are trying to get to that point right now. Yeah. But the Oilers have a lot of work to do to to continue to hold up that standard. As good as Florida was the last two years, the best team Edmonton’s played in the playoffs the last four years was the 2022 Colorado Avalanche. Okay. I’m actually shocked they haven’t won again after how they dominated that series head-to-head against Edmonton. We had a really good point to how difficult it is to win. It is difficult to win. So when you say, you know, are they good enough to get you? They got to the Stanley Cup with the tandem, but as far as I’m concerned, they won a Stanley Cup in spite of their goalending. They had some of the worst goalending that won. Yeah. So, well, you’re referring to Colorado or Edmonton? You’re referring to Colorado. Colorado. Yeah, it is interesting. They have They’re one of the only teams in this in this era to win a Stanley Cup with sub 900 save percentage in the playoffs. I think ultimately the play of Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard likely over the next month is going to decide the course of action that Stan Bowman’s going to have. That’s that’s my guess to meet and they’ve resisted the urge to this point. Yeah. All right, let’s switch focus. Calgary and Vancouver, let’s start with the flames. What should they do? Uh remove as many pieces as quickly as possible. Well, okay, let’s back up. The first thing is to not let Don Maloney near a microphone again as president of hockey ops. The second thing is to give Craig Conroy a contract extension because the fact that he doesn’t have one right now while operating this team sends a brutal message. And the third thing would then be once everything’s solidified to remove as many pieces from the lineup that you can extract significant value for as quickly as possible. Prevent the accumulation of points. And I don’t want to oversimplify it, but for a team that’s never bottomed out, has never had the number one pick, rarely draft high, this special 2026 draft class is the one to do it for. Heck, they might do it organically, but they’re also 4-1 and one in their last six. And I think the last thing you want to see them do if you’re a Flames fan is pile up points unnecessarily. Yeah. Don’t climb back into the race. the the only thing you’re going to do is drag yourself further away and especially if Dustin Wolf gets hot from actually getting what you need because anything other than that you’re pretending this year I do find it I’m a little bit surprised they haven’t extended Conroy because they’ve kind of had this internal solution you know the promotions of Conroy and Huska not to mention Pascal there for several years and I think those guys got a pretty good handle of what they have or perhaps better what they don’t really have he’s known his work there. I mean like what are we doing with Don Maloney? Like I I don’t understand it. Why is anyone taking any orders from him? Why is he the boss? Yeah. What’s his track record for success? You know, it’s funny. Someone someone help me. You know, we have a large percentage of Canadians, I would say probably, and maybe David Staples can correct me if he’s listening right now. I think it’s better than 60% of Canadians are totally for nation building u things like pipelines and yet we have people politically that try to you know suggest that oh the will of the people’s not there and then we’ve got you know guys speaking in Calgary talking about the fact well we don’t do this when what what I interpret from people at host shows and be fans in that market is they’re totally ready for it they want it and it just it it sort of kind of defies a a little bit of logic. And Frank, it almost comes across like when when you saw the the the interviews that Maloney did almost a little bit tonedeaf to the market. Tonedeaf. I mean, he practically spit in the face of the market. Yeah. The marketplace is is pounding its fists on the table saying, “Get us a great draft pick. Get us a franchise changing player. We’ve we haven’t had one. We don’t have one.” Maybe you’ve got a franchise goalie in Dustin Wolf that you got in the seventh round and you’ve got a a great defenseman on the way in Zayn Perk, but you need that special center, the special forward, and they don’t they don’t have it. So to sit back and say we need more NASM Cadri at 35 years old, not less. I I just don’t I love Nasm Cadri. If this if this Flames team was in a different spot, I’d say keep him. But he doesn’t help you right now and he’s not going to help you based on where you’re trying to get to. I mean, it seems ironic that we’re bringing up Rasmus Anderson in a week that he’s player of the week, but would they not have been better off to have traded him last year so a team could have had him for a year and a bit? Would they have not gotten more back? I don’t think they they based on the offers and conversations that they had in the summer, he had a relatively average year last year and he’s definitely played better this year than last. the best course of action was to hang on to him and try and milk as much value as possible. So, we have another team in the West, the Vancouver Conucks. Are they in a somewhat similar position uh in Calgary? Do they maybe need to I mean, it’s crazy. At one time they had three centers, right? They had Horvat, they had Miller, and they had Person. And now they have one, and they were constantly looking for a second. And their best player by a mile is Quinn Hughes. And I think there’s lots of people that aren’t sold that he’s going to be in there in a year and a half from now. What do you think Vancouver? Well, I I think as this season goes along, they’ve got some incredibly difficult conversations to have that perhaps even before the trade deadline, it’s fair to engage in some dialogue with Quinn Hughes and his representation to say, “We know that you’re eligible to sign on July 1. We move heaven and earth to keep you here to build around you to make this team be in a shared interest to be as competitive as possible. However, if you would like to go somewhere else or if your plan is to ultimately walk in free agency anyway, can we begin to engage in those conversations now and begin this process as opposed to waiting until July to really understand how our team is going to take shape? Yeah. What about Philadelphia for Quinn Hughes? Given the connection to Rick Tockett and the amount of assets that have been built up by Daniel Breier and Keith Jones and company, I think they’re one team in the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference that would be salivating to try and get their hands on Quinn Hughes, but they’re far from alone. And you know, I I everyone circles New Jersey because of his two brothers that are playing there. And obviously that makes a ton of sense, but how does New Jersey pull it off? And does even acquiring Quinn Hughes come at the expense of Luke Hughes? Like Luke can’t run PP1 if Quinn Hughes is on there? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you look at Philly Luchenko got traded today in the OHL. Uh Spencer Heyman’s loading up uh the Bulldogs big time. Uh but man oh man, I mean they got three f I think they got three or four first rounders not playing for him. They got two more first rounders this year. They’ve got a you know a guy that in Dale could they not basically flip him for Hughes as part of the package. You think they might be able to do that? Very similar type of players but Hughes is better. I just I just look at it like Philly to me. And then there’s the talking connection. That looks like the natural fit. And it’s close to New Jersey. I mean, it’s the Flyers practice in New Jersey for Christ’s sake. So I I wonder whether or not I I wonder whether wonder whether or not, Frank, that Vancouver doesn’t beat Calgary to the punch here in starting this process. Um, well, they both have the the common thread that ties the two franchises together is that they both have owners that are very reticent to to strip things down and and they it’s a lot of it is tied to revenue generation and being competitive and those are going to be some hard conversations. I I don’t think either one is ready I mean as evidenced by Don Maloney’s comments is ready to pull the plug. St. Lewis in Nashville. What are you hearing there? Barry Trotz uh mentioned over the weekend that he needs his players to be bleeping better. Um I I thought was relatively rich in the sense that what they really need as a manager with a cohesive and coherent plan. Um their coaching staff has been all over the place. They’ve got they’re rudderless right now in Nashville and St. Louis. Um, they’ve played slightly better of late. They have a long way to go. Their goalending has been atrocious and they’re hungry and ready to do something. I I don’t think Nashville knows where to turn. I I think St. Louis, Doug Armstrong would would sell everything. Stay for maybe a few pieces. All right, final question. Frank Caveali from Frankley Hockey. We save the best for last. Toronto. Wow. It’s something right now, isn’t it? If by last you mean last in the Eastern Conference, um that’s exactly where they find themselves as we approach. They’re a better They’re a better team than this, aren’t they? I honestly don’t know. I think they are better than this, meaning 16th place. But they’re a very average hockey team. And they the funny part about this season is that they’ve actually scored more this year than they did last year. Believe it or not, their goalending has blown up. Uh Joe Wall is now in to try and save the day with Anthony Stallar is a ways away according to Craig Baruby. And they’re they’ve got existential questions to face in the sense that okay, Mitch Marner’s not here. And by the way, Marner’s on track for his leaf productive season in a non-COVID year. Um, but what what are the Leafs? Who are they? And where are they going? Because I I don’t I don’t really know the answer to that question. They don’t defend well. They can score, but there’s no cohesion. They seem lifeless and soulless. And that part is really concerning. Frank, awesome hit. Uh, tell people about Frankly Hockey. Monday to Friday. Um, 10:00 a.m. Mountain time on Victory Plus app as well as on Twitter and YouTube. So, lots of different ways to get it now. And, uh, yeah, looking forward to continuing the conversation on a daily basis. All right. Awesome stuff. Thanks for your time. See you, Bob.

Oilers Now Digital Content powered by Legacy Heating and Cooling.

Oilers Now with Bob Stauffer weekdays from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on 880 CHED