We’re going to talk about three things in this post, 1) The Oilers GM search and who the mystery GM might be. 2) Who the Oilers might have to move when the new GM decides to make his first transaction. 3) 2019 NHL draft prospects and my notes on some of the players that stuck out for me in my viewings so far.

First off, you HAVE to check out this post from Max (@TPEhockey). It’s a list of the TOP-50 NHL prospects that have yet to be drafted. We’re talking players that are eligible for the 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 draft! If you want to know who the real up and comers are in the hockey scene, you MUST read this! Click the link below to do so!

TPE Hockey’s Ultimate Top-50 List of Undrafted Prospects

News on the Oilers GM search is ramping up. I’m sure you’ve heard both Elliotte Friedman and Ryan Rishaug both come out and say that the list of potential candidates has been widdled down to 3-4.

The two names that are constantly in that list are Mark Hunter and Kelly McCrimmon. We know that Hunter has been through at least two interviews and it’s most likely that McCrimmon has been through one.

That takes care of two potential GMs that the pundits are pushing. So who might be left? Which hockey men are the pundits suggesting?

Ryan Rishaug: Sean Burke
Bob Stauffer: Ross Mahoney
Kurt Leavins: Mike Futa
Bob McKenzie: Pat Verbeek
Elliotte Friedman: Ken Holland
Darren Dreger: Dave Nonis

I think Jason Gregor has mentioned Columbus AGM Bill Zito but his team is still in the playoffs and I wouldn’t say he’s at the top of the Oilers list.

Quite a few names left, right? So we’re left asking the question, who is informed and who is being misinformed? This was supposed to be an air-tight process. Does that mean all these media types above are guessing? Are they being fed bad intel to muddy things up?

From what I’ve gathered from my own sources, Ross Mahoney is the man that the Oilers would like to shake out of Washington.

What is VERY interesting is that nobody is talking about Keith Gretzky anymore as a candidate for the job. In the past, you’d hear a pundit throw Gretzky’s name in at the end of the conversation like, “So and so are in the running for the job as well as this guy over here. But don’t forget about Keith Gretzky, he’s still right there too.”

The other thing is, the old-timers who have been writing about the Oilers since before the dynasty days have started commenting on different names and have stopped pushing Gretzky. That could be a tell.

https://twitter.com/NHLbyMatty/status/1122110380459925504

Gretzky could still very well be that mystery candidate but I’m not sure I’d put money down on that bet. That said, I do think his services will be retained as his work at the draft has been promising.

Which leads me to this idea that fans think the new GM is going to come right in a clean house. It’s not happening folks, not right away at least. Do you honestly think that a new employee is going to walk into Darryl Katz’s office and ask him to pay his old friends NOT to work for him while at the same time pay a bunch of new guys? Not. A. Chance.

Maybe in the summer of 2020 it could happen though. It took Brendan Shanahan a year to evaluate who was needed/not needed in Toronto after he was hired before he brought the ax down.

So you’ll have to be patient there.

UNCOMFORTABLE TRADES

I think if the Oilers hire Kelly McCrimmon that there’ll be some youth moved out to bring in players who can contribute instantly. I’m talking about the Kailer Yamamotos, Jesse Puljujarvis, Ethan Bears, and William Lagessons.

Edmonton will need to find a way to create some cap room and my belief is that they’ll package promising prospects with a veteran on a big ticket to entice teams into accepting the trades.

One factor playing a major role here will be the players who will be joining the Oilers’ AHL affiliate next season. I’m talking about notable names like Evan Bouchard, Dmitri Samorukov, Kirill Maksimov, Ostap Safin, and Ryan McLeod. There’s only so much room on a roster, be that of the parent team or the minor league team.

So either the Oilers make room on Edmonton’s roster or Bakersfield’s. Samorukov and Bouchard would probably be a top-pairing in the AHL for what it’s worth.

Another reason is it might all depend on who they select at the 2019 NHL Entry Draft mind you…

DRAFT RUMBLINGS

This past week I’ve been paying major attention to the u18 tournament going on in Sweden. I can only watch a handful of games though because TSN requires you to sign up to their product AND live in Canada to view it… Kinda shitty if you ask me. Luckily for me, there’s a YouTube channel that rips some of the games and uploads them to watch. Mostly US and Canada games, which is fine by me because those are the teams that have the players I’m interested in watching the most as it is.

Those players being Trevor Zegras (USA), Alex Turcotte (USA), Matthew Boldy (USA), Peyton Krebs (CAN), and Dylan Cozens (CAN).

These are all prospects I believe the Oilers will have a shot at drafting this June.

I’ll touch on Turcotte and Zegras first.

The first thing you’ll notice with Alex Turcotte is his explosiveness. He gets his motor running high and in a hurry. He’s very quick and his speed maintains.He reminds me a bit of Matt Duchene with how quick his feet are. He’s also very tenacious on the puck. I think he’s very smart on the offensive side of the puck but he’ll need work on the defensive side. Great hands on this guy too. He can finish when presented with the opportunity. Funny enough, unless he scores 5 goals against Canada at the 3rd place game, he’ll end up with more assists than goals. Lots of scouts have him as the #3 prospect in this draft but will his aggressive (some might call reckless) style affect his ability to stay healthy and therefore cause him to drop in the draft?

Trevor Zegras can turn a defender into a pretzel if need be. He really is Jack Hughes-lite and I say that because his hands and vision are comparable to the potential 1st overall pick for this year’s draft, but his skating isn’t quite there. Hughes’ has everyone beat there. The thing with Zegras though is that he plays a very cute game and tries a lot of high-risk passes. Coaches at higher levels might try to curtail this.

If there’s a team out there that already has some snipers in its lineup but needs a high-end playmaker, a guy that can enter zones under control all the time, they might take Zegras.

My worry is if this guy is the next Rob Schremp/Sonny Milano. That’s a tough pick if you’re taking him in the top ten. On the other hand, is he the next Clayton Keller or Johnny Gaudreau? That’s a great pick in the top-ten.

The most impressive player for me that I’ve seen at this tournament has been an American left-winger by the name of Matthew Boldy. He’s 6’2″ around 185lbs and a stud. I don’t know a lot of left-wingers that drive their line but he’s been doing it all tourney and that’s saying a lot since he played with the USA’s best players at one point or another. Meaning Cole Caufield, Alex Turcotte, and Jack Hughes. I don’t think he got out there with Trevor Zegras much.

Boldy isn’t fast in the McDavid sense of the word. His speed is above average, like Nugent-Hopkins if you will. His hockey IQ is amazing. He knows where to go before the puck gets there on both the offensive and defensive sides of the game. He’s the USNTDP’s 2nd leading scorer this year (but that might’ve changed since I checked. Hughes was racking up the goals recently) behind uber scorer Cole Caufield, but he’s been in the playmaker role for Team USA at the u18s scoring three goals and adding eight assists in six games.

I’ve seen comparisons to David Pastrnak with Boldy.

Right after him on the scoring charts is Team Canada’s captain Peyton Krebs.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sold on Krebs and I’ve only viewed him one time and it was a blowout game against Belarus. So I’m not sure how much one can put into his report in a game like that, but I still made observations about him.

Krebs is also a very intelligent hockey player. He’s not as big as Boldy though as he stands around 5’10”-ish, but I’d say he’s got the quickness on him. Not only in the skating department but the hands and thinking departments as well. I found that the Canadian captain would make very quick passes which would catch his opponents off-guard.

In terms of finishing, I would say that Krebs is a playmaker first and a shooter second. He scored a really nice goal vs. Belarus (below 3:07 mark) where he had he shot it any harder glove side high, the puck might’ve gone through the netting. His six goals in six games tell me there’s a fella here who can score when playing with equally talented linemates (Newhook/Cozens). He only scored 19 goals all year in Kootenay (WHL) and it’s widely considered that his team was quite poor.

https://youtu.be/eIvMU1zxZZQ?t=187

I’ve read about Krebs’ aggressiveness on the puck but in this game, I didn’t really see that as much. He got in the corners and along the boards to battle for pucks but he wasn’t going all gung-ho in the same way an Alex Turcotte might. I’m thinking he’s a bit more cerebral with regards to his decision making on the ice.

During that match, the commentators compared Krebs to Ryan O’Reilly.

Dylan Cozens has been ranked as high as #3 by some for the upcoming draft. His combination of size, speed, and skill is so hard to come by. After watching him in this game, I’d like to add one more attribute to his game, power. He does remind me of Jeff Carter a bit.

Versus the Belarussians, Cozens had the quietest five-point game I think I’ve ever seen. He seemed to be playing a complementary role as his linemates, Peyton Krebs and Alex Newhook, were the ones stirring the drink for that line. About half-way through the 2nd period I was pretty disappointed in his game. It picked up after that though and he was an absolute force in front of the net.

I reckon he’ll get picked in the top-5 of the draft. It’s really hard to pass on this set of attributes and him being a right-handed shooter doesn’t hurt.

At this point my draft list for the Oilers is looking as such:

1. Jack Hughes
2. Kaapo Kaako
3. Bowen Byram
4. Dylan Cozens
5. Kirby Dach
6. Matthew Boldy
7. Cole Caufield
8. Alex Turcotte
9. Peyton Krebs
10. Vasili Podkolzin
11. Philip Broberg
12. Alex Newhook
13. Trevor Zegras
14. Raphael Lavoie
15. Thomas Harley

I don’t imagine #1-#5 will be around when Edmonton picks, so you could probably start that list at #6.

OTHER U18 NOTES:

• Cole Caufield is a scoring machine. I’m not a fan of the rest of his game much, but you cannot ignore the fact that he’s built to shoot and score. One has to wonder if he’ll jump into the top-7.
• Alex Newhook is the real deal. I was skeptical of him before given he was playing in the BCHL but he is this year’s Matthew Barzal
• Vasilli Podkolzin’s lack of point production on international ice is interesting. He certainly lit it up on the surfaces in Alberta. He’ll drop because of this but whatever team gets him is getting a really good hockey player. I love his attention to the game when he’s away from the puck.
• Dmen Tobias Bjornfot and Victor Soderstrom should be swapped in draft rankings. Bjornfot, Sweden’s captain, was very steady and outstanding at moving the puck. He was physical, calculated and rarely made a mistake defending for the Swedes. Soderstrom, on the other hand, was disappointing to me in all those regards.
• Lots of talk about Phil Tomasino moving up the rankings, I don’t see it. Good player, not great. I like Moose Jaw winger Brayden Tracey better. Tracey was much more engaged in the play I found. Then again, it was only one game.
• Sweden’s duo of Alexander Holtz and Lucas Raymond are going to be ridiculous going into next season as they mature physically and mentally. They’re underagers at this tourney and were simply dominant on nearly every shift. The world juniors are going to be must-see tv in 2020.
• Yaroslav Askarov, said to be the best goaltender to come out of Russia since Andrei Vasilevsky, is the real deal. Not draft eligible until 2020 though… I think the Russians might’ve taken over from Finland as Europe’s netminding factory…
• Whichever team that drafts Spencer Knight is getting a beauty. He might be the best puckhandling goalie since Martin Brodeur. If that’s too far back for you, Mike Smith? When Bob McKenzie says this guy could end up being the best goalie to come out of “The Program” ever, he’s not lying.