{"id":465679,"date":"2026-02-10T11:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T11:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/465679\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T11:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T11:05:09","slug":"insider-says-oilers-trying-to-survive-in-spite-of-core-defenseman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/465679\/","title":{"rendered":"Insider Says Oilers Trying to Survive in Spite of Core Defenseman"},"content":{"rendered":"

NHL insider Frank Seravalli joined Bob Stauffer on Oilers Now<\/a> on Monday and heavily laid into the Edmonton Oilers. Suggesting there\u2019s a troubling issue with the roster mix, some key players, and how the coach is handling deployment, Seravalli seemed to suggest the Oilers have a sizeable problem.<\/p>\n

These comments come on the heels of Leon Draisaitl<\/a> being quite critical of how things went for the team in the final few games before the Olympic break. <\/p>\n

\u201cOn paper, this should have been one of the stronger, particularly on defense, stronger defense corps that the Oilers have had during the McDavid\/Draisaitl era. That has clearly not been the case.\u201d He added, \u201cDarnell Nurse<\/a> is this team\u2019s biggest problem, start and finish. Like, you can end it right there. At $9.25 million, he needs to be an impact piece, and the Oilers are trying to survive in spite of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

He then said, \u201cSo park that one side of it, that\u2019s off to the side.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Forwards and the Coach Are Not on the Same Page<\/p>\n

He then said that, up front, this version of the Oilers is giving off flashbacks to the end of the Peter Chiarelli tenure. He called the team thin at forward, only made thinner by the way the coach is deploying his players. \u201cThere\u2019s a very clear distinction between the top six and the bottom six, and I can see it both ways. I do have some sympathy for Knoblauch and his coaching staff. They\u2019re asking someone to step up and show they deserve more minutes. No one has really done so. However, forwards who aren\u2019t getting an opportunity probably feel they can\u2019t step up because they aren\u2019t being played. \u201cWe\u2019re not getting an opportunity, how can we possibly show you something?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"KrisKris Knoblauch Oilers coach Game 4<\/p>\n

He said the stars are giving everything they have and probably can\u2019t give more are going, \u201cIt can\u2019t just be on four of five of us to carry this team all season long, because that\u2019s just not a recipe for success.\u201d They\u2019ve been through this story before and already know it doesn\u2019t work. <\/p>\n

Seravalli says there is frustration because the coach doesn\u2019t think he has the pieces he needs. The depth guys aren\u2019t being given a chance and the stars know they can\u2019t do it without help. \u201cAround and around in a circle we go,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Next: Interesting Battle of Alberta Trade Swap Gets Floated<\/a><\/p>\n

\tDiscover more from NHL Trade Talk<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NHL insider Frank Seravalli joined Bob Stauffer on Oilers Now on Monday and heavily laid into the Edmonton…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,29972,23987,25908,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-465679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-darnell-nurse","11":"tag-kris-knoblauch","12":"tag-leon-draisaitl","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}