WHERE THERE’S SMOKE
The rumours about the Oilers being close to naming McLellan their new Head Coach are only getting louder. You have to think that with this much smoke there has to be a fire somewhere. Elliotte Friedman again very firmly suggested that as per his information the Edmonton Oilers have effectively come to an agreement with the former Sharks Head coach and that they are just waiting for the IIHF World Championships to be over to announce it formally.
This is what he had to say on Brady & Walker:
…if Todd McLellan is the coach, and I think he will be, you don’t want to make the announcement while he’s coaching in Prague. You want to do it when he’s back in Edmonton. Look, there are people who are a lot more knowledgeable than I am who think that the deal is going to get done. So that’s kind of what I base it on. I think it’s going to get done barring a major collapse.
The Oilers seem to have found their man and he’s no slouch. I am slightly disappointed they apparently didn’t look too hard into Babcock. That said, Mike Babcock has said over and over that family will weigh heavily in his decision and perhaps Edmonton was already ruled out because of personal reasons (vs Hockey reasons). It’s just a guess and it will likely stay just a guess as we inch closer and closer to Mclellan being named the new HC anyway.
I’ve said it before, I liked McLellan’s playing style with the pieces Edmonton already has and if they can find someone to stop some pucks and a few others to patrol the blueline I think the team is set up pretty well.
PROSPECTS
Darnell Nurse, Greg Chase, and Kyle Platzer are all set to make their way onto the Barons’ roster tonight. Moving off are David Musil and Mitch Moroz.
That’s both good and bad news.
We’ll start with the bad. The guys pushed to the fringes of the roster are relatively recent 31st and 32nd Overall Picks. That’s a huge indictment of the team’s Drafting. The Oilers essentially wasted the Moroz pick taking a kid who would likely still be there 100 spots later. At least Musil was less of a reach, but goodness that looks bad on the team today.
It’s a lot more surprising for Musil as he had a brief stint with the Oilers this season in which he only looked bad about 30% of the time. Otherwise he was actually passable in stretches.
Here’s the good news. It means better prospects are getting playing time. Frankly, Mitch Moroz isn’t even a prospect at this point. If Platzer and Chase are playing then they are gaining valuable experience on the top 2 lines. And that’s exactly where they have been slotted in. And while it would be nice to see Musil play some, it’s possible he could be dinged up right now anyway. But at the end of the day I’d rather Nurse play as much against pros as possible before the OKC Barons season is over.
There’s an argument to be made that the Oilers should be playing their prospects in the AHL as much as humanly possible, even if it hurts the team’s chance of winning. Maybe that’s the best way to develop these kids. Though there’s something to be said for making them earn their time too. Maybe the best place for Moroz was the ECHL this year and he shouldn’t be gifted time just because someone took him 3 rounds ahead of where he should have been picked.
I’m excited for what Chase and Nurse do, in particular. Chase is an interesting player who took a sideways step this year after his relationship with the Calgary Hitmen soured. That said, he’s a complete pest and still has the skills to find himself in the NHL one day. I want to know how well that will translate into the AHL game. Nurse was arguably the OHL’s best Defenseman and the best defensive prospect in the entire organization. I cant wait to see what he can do against pros.
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