‘Twas an eventful day for the Edmonton Oilers for good reasons and bad.
Unfortunately, the Oilers family lost one of their own in an automobile accident. Vaclav Burda, the Oilers chief European scout who’d been on the job less than a year, passed away when his car went head-on with a truck in his native Czechia.
He was 45 years old. Condolences to the Burda family.
But now for some good news!
Evan Bouchard signed his first professional contract with the Oilers today! Hooray!
I’m very excited to see how Bouchard does versus some better competition. I’m not one of those who have him penciled into the lineup for game 1 though. Bob Stauffer seems to think that he’ll be going over to Sweden and Germany with the Oilers because they’ll need some extra bodies but I wouldn’t put it past Ethan Bear to make a push to be that 7th defender and don’t forget about Kevin Gravel or Keegan Lowe.
It’d be nice if Bouchard could force his way into the lineup due to his play but I don’t agree with the idea of having a taxi squad of veterans sitting in the press box each time Todd McLellan feels the need to put his teenage dman into the lineup.
Now we do know that injuries happen and if that is indeed the case, then fine. But like I said before, Ethan Bear might shock some folks this year and you can’t sell a former WHL defender of the year short, right?
To me, sending Bouchard back to London to terrorize the OHL alongside Adam Boqvist and potentially Brady Tkachuk would be good for him and for Team Canada at the World Juniors.
We can’t gloss over the fact that Bouchard still has some issues in his game that need improvement. The biggest of them, consistency. With the addition of Boqvist, the Knights could afford to give Bouchard fewer minutes per night and that would afford him the opportunity to work on said consistency.
What’s one thing you usually don’t get right off the hop with young players? Consistent play. Have Bouchard work on that and bring him in for the 2019/20 season as a full-time NHLer in the same way the Oilers did with Yamamoto.
And the one thing you do not do is trade a veteran to make room for a teenager. Unless his name is Rasmus Dahlin.
Speaking of our little ninja. It would not surprise me if the lines looked like this going into game 1 next season:
I just think the writing is on the wall for those young RWers. If the Oilers really thought the RW depth was a problem, they would’ve signed a guy to fill the role. They look to be very comfortable with Jesse and Kailer starting in the top-6 and they should. I expect them to be putting up 40pts each.
If you’re interested in knowing what Pulju is up to this summer, check out this link. You’ll need to translate it but it sounds as if Jesse is working very hard to balance his upper and lower body strength so he can get rid of that “Bambi on ice” look he sometimes has. He’s gonna be a beast in 2018/19!
Lucic will be an interesting cat to follow next season. He’s going to bounce back (hopefully not the dead cat bounce back though) that is pretty clear but where he does that in the lineup is unclear. You’d have to think the coach will try him in the top-6 from the get-go to gauge where he’s at but personally, I’d have zero qualms with him on the 3rd line with Strome and Caggiula or whoever plays RW.
Khaira/Brodziak/Kassian could be a revelation if Todd McLellan chooses to that line properly. If I recall, he likes to shorten his bench quite a bit but that 4th line could really cause some issues for the other team due to its physicality and ability to hold onto the puck.
What will they do with Aberg and Rattie?
I imagine they’ll be perfect players to draw in from time to time when Caggiula needs to sit out or Yamamoto needs a night off.
Darnell Nurse has yet to re-sign with the team so far. His agent wants a long-term deal north of $5M per year which I wrote abouthere and so it looks like the Oilers and Nurse will be going the bridge contract route which is fine by me.
Patrick Olsen from Copper and Blue wrote a fantastic article with all the relevant comparables to Darnell Nurse and it really gives you a clear idea of what kind of money Nurse should be getting in his next deal (if Chiarelli is smart about this).
What are your thoughts? Leave them in the comments below!
Before you do that though, go to my good friend SPR’s (The Oil Knight) blog today. If you’re someone who wants to get into blogging or covering your favorite sports franchise, he has a very important message for you to read. Check it out here.
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Well, here we are again Oilers fans. The draft is complete and for the 4th year in a row, we are rolling in quality prospects. Peter Chiarelli decision to overhaul the amateur scouting staff is looking better and better every day. Keith Gretzky and Bob Green are working together masterfully to rebuild the Oilers’ pipeline after the old boys used it for their golden toilets.
Do you know how I know that Chiarelli had an amazing draft? Even the staunchest of Anti-Chiarelli fans were happy…
Quick and dirty player reviews! Let’s go!
Evan Bouchard – Future top-pairing stud and the search is over for a top-4 bomb-dropping PP quarterback.
Ryan McLeod – Speed to kill with a devious shot.
Olivier Rodrigue – Best NA goalie in the draft, how can you go wrong?
Michael Kesselring – Closest he might get to the NHL is by holding a picture of Kessel’s ring.
Patrik Siikanen – Hopefully a Finnish Maksimov?
EXTENDED PLAYER REVIEWS
But in all seriousness, those top three picks are outstanding. Near Genius level player selecting. Evan Bouchard may very well play next in the NHL next season but I hope not. I hate the idea of adding another teenager to the team, a defenseman no less. The problem is he’s got nothing left to prove at the OHL level and he’s too young to go to the AHL. Without a defenseman currently on the roster being traded, there’s not a lot of room on the playing roster either. So here’s to hoping that he gets a good long look but is leading Team Canada to gold during Christmas. He can always come back at the end of the season if London’s season is over.
Personally, I don’t think the Oilers are done making a move for a right-handed dman. I think they’d like to move on from Sekera’s contract and add another righty on the blueline for at least a season as a stop-gap until Bouchard is ready next season. I think Mike Green would be a fine candidate to fill that role but I don’t have the slightest idea if he’d accept a one year contract at his age nor do I know what he’d be willing to play for. Would the Oilers even have the cap to sign a player like him and is it even in their plans given they signed Joel Persson then immediately loaned him back to his SHL club?
Drafting Ryan McLeod gives the Oilers a start on working on the pipeline’s depth down the middle but what a start it is. I think he looks like a faster Ryan Strome but left-handed. Add him to Marody, Hebig, Vesel, Gambardella, and Rasanen as players that have a decent to good chance at becoming NHLers.
Olivier Rodrigue is the son of one of the Oilers goalie coaches but there’s no sense in holding that against him. He was also Central Scoutings top-rated goalie in North America. Chiarelli has certainly worked hard to make the Oilers pipeline deep in net, eh? Skinner, Wells, Ellis (RFA), Hawkey, and Starrett are going to be competing for 2 spots in the AHL (possibly versus Al Montoya) and the ECHL next season and I’m dying to see which one is the odd man out and what happens to him. Surely Rodrigue will be there in a few years.
I’ve got nothing on Kesselring or Siikanen nor do I feel like they are legitimate NHL Prospects. I’m not sure what the Oilers scouts see in these guys. Maybe they drafted them with eyes on other players they might be playing with in the future. I mean it’s not every day that the Oilers draft a kid out of the Finnish junior division.
A wise man one said, “Sometimes the best trades are the ones you don’t make.”
Hopefully, Chiarelli stands pat here and keeps doing what he’s doing because it’s working.
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First off let’s get into that Colton Parayko tweet that Stauffer sent out. I think that it’d be a lovely time in Edmonton if the Oilers could find a way to acquire the big defenseman from St.Louis without having to send a top-6 forward to them but I simply can’t see any reason why the Blues would want to do that. Their problems are down the middle and possible between the pipes.
Why the Oilers feel the need to shake up that roster is beyond me at the moment. If the team starts slow, I could definitely see movement then but there are going to be teams that miss out on trades or signings this summer and that’s when Chiarelli should pounce.
But on the other hand, and I’ve been saying this for months, what happens if SJ does get Tavares and Kovalchuk? What if Erik Karlsson gets traded to Las Vegas? Is there a possibility that Joe Thornton could stay within the Pacific and sign with another team as a UFA? The Oilers would be in very tough to make the playoffs if they don’t make a move.
So what does a GM do in that instance? Edmonton doesn’t have a lot of assets to go out there and make deals with but they do have a young team that will definitely be looking to show the world that last year was a fluke and the year before was the real team. I think if I were GM, I’d sit on the roster for the time being. There’s no point in pushing on a closed door, right?
A healthy Oilers team has the pieces to compete with the best teams in the NHL on any given night and I’d go into the new season with that in mind.
THE HOCKEY PROSPECTS BLACK BOOK
Yesterday, we talked a bit about draft guides and what players they have slotted where the Oilers are picking and I’d like to look closer at those players in order to give not only you the reader some more exposure to other draft-eligible players you might not have heard of but to educate myself a bit on those players too!
Another reason I’d like to see how this exercise goes is that I’ve heard if you went by Central Scouting’s rankings and just selected who they had (we’ll do that tomorrow probably) that you’d be better off.
So let’s see if that’s true…
Edmonton has the following selections to use on Friday in Dallas,
10th
40th
71st
133rd
164th
195th
No pick in the 4th round because they gave it up for Al Montoya.
10th – Evan Bouchard (RD), London Knights, 6’2″, 198lbs
I’m of the belief that the Oilers have been watching this player all season long. I can’t be 100% sure if he’s the guy at the top of their list anymore mind you but he’s definitely a player I wouldn’t complain about IF they were presented with the chance at 10th overall to select him.
Evan Bouchard racked up 87 points in 67 games for the London Knights and that’s without the likes of Robert Thomas who was dealt to Hamilton for the OHL playoffs. He was the leading scorer on his team… AS A DEFENSEMAN!
Personally, I think that’s damned impressive given he’s not a pure offensive defenseman. He’s not really a puck rusher like Quinn Hughes or Noah Dobson but he can shoot the puck very well and he’s widely known as the best passer in this draft. Good news for the Oilers if they pick him right?
I’ve read that sometimes Bouchard isn’t as intense as you’d like him to be for a guy with size and that sometimes he might look “lazy” on the ice. Of course, that could be because his coach played him upwards of 35 minutes a night on some evenings.
Evan Bouchard could play in the NHL next season on the right team.
Bouchard is a very skilled defenseman but might not be quite as dynamic as a few of the other defenders at the top of this stacked class for high end defenseman. If he can improve his first few steps and compete more regularly on a shift- to-shift basis, that would go a long way towards fulfilling his potential of becoming a top-pairing defenseman who can quarterback a powerplay at the NHL level.
40th – Jake Wise (C), USNTDP U-18, 5’10”, 195lbs
Wise is a left-handed pivot who is known for his playmaking, his vision, and his two-way play. He was on the IR with a broken clavicle but ended his season with 39pts in 33 games played.
He’s not the biggest player nor the shiftiest one either but he works hard and has high-end hockey sense. He has a habit of surprising his opponents by making plays out of nothing and that’s always a plus in my books. He can skate north/south well but agility is where he runs into issues. Not really the Mitch Marner type, if you will.
For me, I probably wouldn’t take this player here. He sounds more like a 3rd round pick to me and there are other players like Calen Addison, Niklas Nordgren, Liam Foudy, and Jack Drury in the same range according to The Hockey Prospects’ rankings.
He didn’t miss a beat when he came back from injury and was instantly one of the best players on that U18 squad. His vision of the ice is as good as anyone in the draft in my opinion.”
71st – Milos Roman (C), Vancouver Giants, 5’11”, 196lbs
Roman was injured for much of the season but when he was in the lineup he was the Giants no.1 centre and he scored 32 points in 39 games. He displays a strong compete game and is quite responsible at both ends of the ice. He’s the kind of player who can keep the pressure on the opposition due to having such a strong motor. A very positionally sound player but has troubles on the faceoff and gets muscled out from time to time along the boards.
This player sounds like the kind of player you’d want in your bottom-6. As he gets older he’ll get stronger and more technically skilled and that’ll lead to him winning more faceoffs and board battles.
I don’t mind this selection but I have to wonder if heart-and-soul players like Jonathan Gruden or Riley Sutter would be better for Edmonton here. What about gifted Europeans like Philipp Kurashev or Alexander Khovanov? Then there’s the new Brian Boyle, 6’8″ Curtis Douglas, in the range too…
“He always looked to be in the right spot because his skating was sneaky good. More of passer than a shooter but would love to see him diversify his offence by shooting more.”
133rd – Erik Portillo (G), Frolunda Jr, 6’6″, 207lbs
I’ll be honest here, I’ve never heard of this guy before. Which is kind of surprising, right? He’s HUGE! And to top it off he played in three different leagues last season, so maybe that’s why we never heard about him.
His stats told an interesting story though. Check them out.
He absolutely dominated at the higher level but that could be due to playing with a better defense too.
According to The Black Book, one of the things that really separates Portillo from other big goalies is his reflexes. He’s an aggressive goalie who likes to cut down the angles on the shooter as soon as possible but he has trouble with rebounds and sometimes that uber-aggressive play gets him into poor positions. Remember Fleury for Vegas in the Cup final?
If the Oilers selected him I’d be happy as he’s more of a project than an immediate solution. They could leave him in Sweden to develop more and bring him over when he’s older to marinate in the minors.
Could you imagine having Stuart Skinner AND this Portillo fella developed and guarding the Oilers nets? Couple of big boys right there…
Portillo is a very tall, yet coordinated and fluid goalie, giving him one of the better bases in this year’s draft class. Despite his rangy build, Erik likes to cut off his angles aggressively. This allows him to take up a tremendous amount of the net
Tough to go wrong with a hockey player named “Blade” right? Well, from what info I’ve gathered, he’s had a tough go of it so far in junior hockey. Jenkins was the 4th overall pick in the 2016 OHL draft and this past year only managed to score 44pts in 68 games. Probably not what the GM of Saginaw was expecting when he took him over the likes of Ty Dellandrea, Barrett Hayton, or Aidan Dudas.
It’s not what this player does with the puck that is slotting him so low in the rankings. He’s well-built, quite strong (with room to get stronger), and he’s difficult to contain below the goal-line. He’s been praised for having silky mitts, great hockey sense, and excellent vision but…
It’s away from the puck that has scouts concerned. I guess he started the year as a centre and ended it a wing because he simply couldn’t get a grasp of where he needed to be on the ice defensively. Sometimes he takes shifts off and is invisible for long periods of time.
Not a player I’d pick here for me. A guy like Nando Eggenberger is around this range, Alexis Gravel is hovering around 164th ov for The Hockey Prospect, and perhaps Nathan Dunkley out of London would be a better pick.
“Good individual skill, good size but really needs to learn how to play the game the right way.”
195th – Isaac Johnson (LW), Tri-City Americans, 6’2″, 186lbs
Johnson is an overage player that went unselected in last year’s draft. He’s a complimentary player who can benefit playing with skilled linemates because he likes to do the perimeter work along the walls. He’s got busy feet and has no qualms heading into traffic to get things done.
I’m thinking that Johnson’s game sounds like an AHL game but in the 7th round, there’s not much more a team can expect at that point, right?
The 7th round is a place the Oilers did fine in last year with their selection of Phil Kemp. Could they do it again? Probably not with Johnson but there aren’t many options left on the Black Book’s rankings here.
One option I do like here though is Ryan O’Reilly (yes, he’s got the same name). He’s ranked 196th by The Hockey Prospect but he was the USHL rookie goal leader last year. He’s got an NHL shot already but simply lacks the boots.
Johnson displayed good physical tools with his size and reach but in our evaluation, there’s aspects of Isaac’s game that are lacking
So what do you think? Let me know in the comments!
You can get your copy of The Hockey Prospect’s Black Book here.
We’ve got some pretty rad draft videos up at the Beer League Heroes YouTube page. Please, go check them out and if ya can, subscribe to our channel and that way you’ll be the first to know when a new video is up!
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According to a source employed close to Montreal, the Habs are targeting Oilers centre Leon Draisaitl.
Ummm. Sure.
Now it’s no mystery what position the Montreal Canadiens are going to try and beef up this summer. Bob Stauffer on yesterday’s Oilers Now thought that they would be going after Ryan O’Reilly and Paul Stastny and I think that would be a much better plan of attack than to try and pry Leon Draisaitl out of Edmonton.
For argument’s sake, what would it take for you to trade Draisaitl to Montreal? For me, I can tell you it’d have to include a package that included 4 of the following,
2018 1st rounder
2019 1st rounder
Brendan Gallagher
Victor Mete
Noah Juulsen
That’s just me mind you. I won’t trade Leon Draisaitl for Erik Karlsson. So that should be enough to tell you how highly I value the big German.
A DIFFERENT OILERS/HABS PROPOSAL
On Lowetide’s show yesterday morning Pierre LeBrun said that the Habs were looking for a top-4 left-handed defenseman.
Oscar Klefbom, come on down!
Would you be willing to move Oscar Klefbom to the Habs for Victor Mete and Nikita Scherbak? Thus saving some space on the cap whilst adding young talent on D and on the wing creating a bit more depth.
OR
Would you prefer to move Klefbom for Brendan Gallager straight across?
I’m sure some smartass out there is going to say neither and that’s fine. I’m just trying to create some banter.
COMPARING DRAFT RANKINGS
In the last seven days, I’ve managed to purchase the draft guides from The Hockey News, ISS (International Scouting Services), and HockeyProspects.com (The Black Book) and I can tell you that I like each and every one but for different reasons.
The Hockey News ($6.99) – I like it because it’s visually pleasing. It offers a lot of articles and the scouting reports aren’t too long. Also covers a few prospects from the next two drafts briefly. I’m a big fan of comparables and each player up to a certain number is given one be it an NHL player comp or a positional/depth comp. Only 100 profiles though…
ISS ($10) – This is my first year purchasing the ISS draft guide and what I noticed off the bat was it was quite easy to read. Meaning the words weren’t too small that I had to get up close to read them whereas The Hockey News’ guide, the words were a tad tiny to try and fit all the reports in. This guide included a 1st round mock draft, risers/sleepers, and a top-5 best/worst of different attributes like “stay-at-home dmen”, “puck protection”, “underrated/overrated”. I also liked how they graded different skills on every player. Things like competitiveness, hockey IQ, and physical play were shown on a scale from below-average to elite. The downside to this is that the reports only to 110 players including goalies but the rankings go to 200. They also go into team draft histories five years deep.
THE BLACK BOOK ($50) – This is THE most in-depth draft guide available. It’s not flashy by any means as it’s all text. No mock drafts, no top-5 lists, it’s straight to business but it’s huge. 667 pages deep to be more specific. The one thing that Hockey Prospects does that I find rad is they include the game reports at the end so you can read what the scouts had to say about a specific player in a specific game. Another thing that they give the reader is actual quotes from scouts be they Hockey Prospect scouts or NHL scouts. Lastly, there’s one thing that annoys me about this guide, the scouting reports go in alphabetical order instead of the order of their ranking.
So depending on what kind of draft nut you are and how much money you’re willing to spend, all three I’d recommend.
I just wanted to give you that preface before getting into what these publications have the Oilers taking with their draft picks. Now, McKenzie and The Hockey News only have up three rounds of players to view and ISS and the Black Book have all 7 rounds available. Therefore two out of the four guides will allow us to see a bit more than the other two.
So let’s get into this.
The Oilers have the following selections in the upcoming draft,
10th
40th
71st
133rd
164th
195th
As you can see there’s a jump from 71st to 133rd, the 4th rounder belongs to Montreal due to the Al Montoya trade.
Below are the players that each of the draft guides above PLUS Bob McKenzie has in those spots where the Oilers will be drafting.
Selection
THN
Bob McKenzie
ISS
Hockey Prospects
10
Ty Smith (LD)
Adam Boqvist (RD)
Joe Veleno (C)
Evan Bouchard (RD)
40
Adam Ginning (LD)
Jacob Olofsson (C)
Danila Galenyuk (LD)
Jake Wise (C)
71
Egor Sokolov (LW)
Allan McShane (C)
Kody Clark (RW)
Milos Roman (C)
133
Billy Moskal (C)
Erik Portillo (G)
164
Dan Kowalczyk (LD)
Blade Jenkins (LW)
195
Linus Nyman (RW)
Isaac Johnson (RW)
How wide open is that? No overlap whatsoever eh? This draft is going to be a lot of fun!
If you had to pick one, which group would you go with?
Personally, I’m drawn to how McKenzie’s is starting. I’m real high on Boqvist and I hear good things about Olofsson. McShane is not a player I’m familiar with but Hockey Prospects have him as an undersized playmaker with a quick release and good anticipation defensively.
But that Hockey Prospects group has some nice names in there. I’d have no issues if the Oilers selected Bouchard at all. A right-handed dman who has been labeled as one of the best passers in the draft is fine with me. Jake Wise is a name that has climbed up the rankings over the year. He’s a guy with great vision and passing skills. A very hard worker and he’s a 200ft player. Milos Roman is a name I’ve read now and then online and from what I can gather his skating is deceptively good. He’s a very cerbral player and he’s a very responsible player at both ends of the ice.
Your thoughts?
We’ve got some pretty rad draft videos up at the Beer League Heroes YouTube page. Please, go check them out and if ya can, subscribe to our channel and that way you’ll be the first to know when a new video is up!
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We’re so very close to the 2018 NHL entry draft that I can taste it and with that I can also smell the rumors coming from the kitchen. I’m of the belief that the Oilers and Red Wings are looking to make a deal at the draft.
Yesterday morning on Oilers Now one of the guests was former Oilers head coach Todd Nelson and what makes him significant in this is that for the last number of years he was the head coach of the Detroit Red Wings AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins. During the show, Bob Stauffer asked Nelson a number of questions regarding some of the Red Wings top prospects like Anthony Mantha, Evgeni Svechnikov, and Filip Hronek.
Honestly, I expected more questions regarding Nelson joining the Dallas Stars coaching staff. Mind you they did touch on that and Nelson’s history with new Stars coach Jim Montgomery but it was the attention to those other three players that got me thinking.
The talk over the weekend has been how Finnish center Jesperi Kotkaniemi has flown up the draft rankings and Craig Button has said if the Habs want him so bad, take him at no.3 overall! That’s insane to me… But other teams that took extra interest in Kotkaniemi at the combine in Buffalo were Detroit and Edmonton.
I don’t think that Kotkaniemi is on the Oilers radar but it’s become clear that he IS on the radar of the Red Wings, Canadiens, and according to John Shannon, the Blackhawks.
It’s going to be an interesting draft, eh? After #2 overall, it could be a crapshoot. Nobody knows what Montreal is thinking. They should take Zadina there but Brady Tkachuk has been a rumored selection for them. Ottawa will take whoever is available between Svechnikov, Zadina, or Tkachuk but may very take Noah Dobson since their head scout is based where Acadie-Bathhurst plays. Will Arizona take another American born player in Hughes or will the go with the dynamic Swede in Boqvist?
Then we come up to Detroit at #6 overall, would they take Kotkaniemi that early? How badly do they want another pick in the top 10 because Hughes and Bouchard would look great wearing the winged wheel for the next 15 years.
Let’s bring this back around to the Oilers and those prospects now.
Would the Red Wings be willing to part with Anthony Mantha for the #10?
Would the #30, Svechnikov and Hronek for the #10 be an overpayment or an underpayment?
I think those are pretty Oilers-leaning proposals if I’m being totally honest. That being said, the Oilers are in need of some depth on the wing and they do need a right-shot dman.
Anthony Mantha is an RFA this summer who is coming off of his entry-level deal with the Red Wings. He hasn’t come along as quickly as he was expected to after absolutely dominating the QMJHL. In his last season with Val D’or he was a goal-per-game player to put it into perspective. As for his NHL production, last year was a breakout year for him as he put up 24g and 24a in 80gp.
I’m not sure how much he’ll cost to re-sign but I’d be surprised if it didn’t start with a 4.
Evgeni Svechnikov has one year left on his ELC and hasn’t quite made the transition to the NHL yet. I’m not sure if he will or not as he’s not exactly lighting up the AHL. His first season was a bright one, he had 51 points in 74 games but the totals slipped a bit last season where he managed 23 points in 57 games… Not a good sign, especially when you’ve got Todd Nelson as your coach. He did play 14 games for Detroit though and had 4 points in that time.
Filip Hronek is a former 2nd round pick. A smaller dman at 6′ tall and merely 164lbs… He spent his junior career in the OHL with the Saginaw Spirit where he was a high-scoring right-shot defender. In his inaugural season with the Red Wings AHL club he had 39 points in 67 games which was tops on the club.
I do find it interesting that Bob Stauffer would be asking about Hronek after making comments about how the reason Hughes and Boqvist might be slipping is due to size… I guarantee you, if the Oilers pick Hughes or Boqvist at #10 and put him in the AHL next season, that player will get at least 39 points.
Hell, they might get that in the NHL depending on the club.
Detroit has four draft picks in the top 36 of the draft. What if the Oilers were to trade down with the Red Wings?
#10 for #30, #33, and #36
I think that’s probably too far to drop for Edmonton, especially if Boqvist, Bouchard, Hughes, or Wahlstrom are right there but it’d give them 4 picks from #30 to #40 where they could possibly add players like,
Ty Dellandrea (C) – Has all the tools to become an everyday NHLer. Draws comparisons to Toews.
Ryan Merkley (RHD) – One of THE MOST talented players in the draft but off-ice issues and defensive IQ is holding him back from being a top-5 selection. Had great interviews at the combine.
Calen Addison (RHD) – RH’d offensive dman who can skate very well and is an excellent playmaker. Ex-teammate of Stuart Skinner in Lethbridge.
Jonny Tychonick (LHD) – Smooth puck-moving dman who can quarterback the PP. Massive character guy.
Liam Foudy (C) – Massive speed. Might be fastest in this draft class. Excellent puck skills and shoots with great scoring efficiency.
Aidan Dudas (C) – Brendan Gallagher clone. Very small but fast, skilled, and aggressive.
Niklas Nordgren (RW) – Shaped and plays like a bowling ball. Very VERY fit player as he had one of the lowest body fat calculations at the combine. He’s a shooter first and foremost. His shot is his #1 attribute but he’s also a tireless worker on the ice. Smaller player though.
I know that it’s hard to miss out on a potentially elite talent that a team could get in the 10-spot but If the Oilers came away with any four of those players above, I’d be stoked. I’m a prospects guy though and I think that teams should try to add as many early round picks as possible. I mean, this is daydreaming but a draft where the Oilers could have 4 picks in top 40 would go so far in terms of the team’s long term future. I don’t know if Edmonton has ever had a time where you could say year after year they have high-end players who are showing great potential getting ready to join the club.
But as I said, that scenario is probably a pipe dream or maybe it’s just a dumb idea but to be clear, I’d would rather have a game-breaker like Quinn Hughes, Adam Boqvist, or Oliver Wahlstrom. There’s a much higher chance of them becoming 1000 game players than the 2nd rounders mentioned above. My reasoning is simply organizational depth with that proposal.
Maybe something a bit more realistic would see both teams swap RFAs and draft picks/prospects. Detroit has to re-sign Dylan Larkin, Athanasiou, Frk, Bertuzzi, as well as the aforementioned Anthony Mantha and have about $17M to do it.
I’m just Rishaug-ing here. What do you think?
Last thing, I’ve heard that the Oilers are possibly looking to add someone to their front office. Someone who would oversee the coaching and coaching development. Meaning if the coaches get out of line or are slow to change things up, there’d be a person to hold them accountable. No names have come up but this is a position of great importance to Bob Nicholson.
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