EDMONTON — Taxi squad?
Like, what does that even mean, here in 2020. Couldn’t it at least be known as an Uber squad?
When I was a kid I remember my Dad using the term “taxi squad” in reference to extra players around a team, usually in football. Full disclosure: I always took that to mean that, as part-time guys, they couldn’t afford cars and took taxis everywhere.
Lo and behold, the Merriam Webster dictionary attributes the term “taxi squad” to one Arthur B. McBride, the Cleveland Browns owner from 1945-53, who “kept surplus players on the staff of his taxi company.”
When the NHL opens in January, with each team able to carry a taxi squad of between four and six players, we can assume that the extra players won’t be dispatched to drive citizens to the airport in their spare time. Or take a no-show job with the owner’s company.
What will happen, however, will differ greatly from market to market across the Canadian Division. For instance, assuming the AHL teams for Montreal (in Laval), Toronto (Toronto), Ottawa (Belleville) and Winnipeg (in Winnipeg) operate from their home bases, those four parent teams will have immediate access to their farm rosters — at least while at home.
Whereas the Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks farm teams reside across the U.S. border in Bakersfield, Stockton and Utica respectively, making players almost inaccessible considering the two-week quarantine that is in place. Those Western teams will need NHL-ready players on their taxi squads, while the Leafs may be able to assign their best options for recall on a Marlies roster that (hopefully) is actively playing AHL games.
So, let’s zero in on Edmonton. How will the Oilers handle their taxi squad?
Here’s our best bet:
Who’s In, Who’s Out?
The best gauge on any team will likely to be to count the one-way contracts. Edmonton has 17 forwards on one-way deals, and those 17 will likely make up their NHL complement, with Alan Quine and Patrick Russell likely to start on the taxi squad.
On defence, once Ethan Bear is signed, they’ll have six one-way contracts. That leaves room for one more player on the 23-man roster and two more on the taxi squad. Those players will emerge from a group including William Lagesson, the new Swedish import Theodore Lennstrom, Evan Bouchard and quite likely a free agent pick-up to come. Say a left-shot defenceman like Ben Hutton or Slater Koekkoek.
Mikko Koskinen and Mike Smith will be the NHL goalies, with 28-year-old Anton Forsberg likely on the taxi squad, and 22-year-old prospects Stuart Skinner and Dylan Wells splitting duties in Bakersfield.
Ken Holland’s philosophy seems to tell us that, say, a 19-year-old Philip Broberg isn’t going to whittle away a season on the taxi squad.
“Let’s say you’ve got a young player on the taxi squad and you get into April and he’s been on the taxi squad for two months and hasn’t had an opportunity to play at all or played sparingly,” Holland said. “Whether it’s a young player or any player, you’re going to have to play games. If we have good luck with health, and there’s players on the taxi squad that aren’t used, at some point we’ll probably want to send players on the taxi squad down to play in the AHL and recall somebody. Certainly we’ve got to be aware of the quarantine regulations. We’ll have that all mapped out.”
One more thing: being a pandemic, teams will have to be prepared to pull four or five players off the taxi squad and insert them into an NHL lineup all at once — on short notice. So it is no place for a player who is not ready or experienced enough for the NHL game.
What About The Goalies?
As an organization, the Oilers are very shy on goaltending. Their No. 3 guy, Forsberg, has a .901 save percentage in 48 career NHL games, and neither Wells nor Skinner are tracking to be NHL starters, though that can change.
If either Koskinen or Smith gets injured for any length of time, Holland will be scrambling, because with a ton of back-to-backs against the same opponent on the schedule the 2020-21 campaign will call for using different goalies in consecutive games more often than usual.
If COVID were to hit the goalie stalls, the Oilers would literally be playing AHL talent in their NHL net. They’d be after a UFA like Cory Schneider, Jimmy Howard or Craig Anderson in a hurry.
What About Cap Savings?
This is interesting, as the new roster format will give teams a chance to toggle contracts back and forth from the taxi squad (which is essentially the AHL) during off days, thus creating cap savings. At risk of losing the player on waivers, the Canucks may send Loui Eriksson down every second day and recall him on game days, as the Flames could do with Milan Lucic.
In a shortened season, each day is worth more money than in a normal season. So the team that plays those transactions hard could open up more than a half-million in cap space by the time the April 12 trade deadline rolls around.
The candidate in Edmonton would be James Neal, but it won’t happen because the Oilers will already have $4.1 million in cap space created by putting the injured Oscar Klefbom on long term injured reserve.
They’d never make up $4.1 million in paper transactions, so it would be a waste of time. Watch for other teams to pare their off-day roster down to 20 players, and send down albatross contracts to pile up some cap savings in preparation for the trade deadline.
