I am not saying he isn't, and adding Mckinnon would certainly help, however it takes more than 2 players to build a team. Lmao look at EDM, they have 5 or 6 and they still suck
- Meeqsb

I'm just gonna assume you don't follow the Oilers very closely. You probably aren't aware that the previous GM was a complete joke and would only sign players and trade players so that people would stop saying that he doesn't do anything. He refused to trade Hemsky and Horcoff when they actually had some value to their names. He passed up on opportunities to draft A-grade prospects when he had the 1st round pick of every round, for example he drafted Mitch Moroz in 2011 instead of drafting Martin Frk, Thomas Juurco or Brandon Saad. The man is an idiot and the main reason why the Oilers are in such a mess right now.

People often forget the mess our previous GM's made out of this team. We can go over about a dozen or so trades that were made or should have been made to help this team that weren't. The Bouwmeester and Luongo situations come to mind. Teams like Edmonton and Florida will be contenders for a long time here in the next two seasons. Book it.

People often forget the mess our previous GM's made out of this team. We can go over about a dozen or so trades that were made or should have been made to help this team that weren't. The Bouwmeester and Luongo situations come to mind. Teams like Edmonton and Florida will be contenders for a long time here in the next two seasons. Book it.
- Panthers88

Florida is starting to accumulate some good players, but you got longer than two years to go. They're WAY behind Edmonton.

I'm just gonna assume you don't follow the Oilers very closely. You probably aren't aware that the previous GM was a complete joke and would only sign players and trade players so that people would stop saying that he doesn't do anything. He refused to trade Hemsky and Horcoff when they actually had some value to their names. He passed up on opportunities to draft A-grade prospects when he had the 1st round pick of every round, for example he drafted Mitch Moroz in 2011 instead of drafting Martin Frk, Thomas Juurco or Brandon Saad. The man is an idiot and the main reason why the Oilers are in such a mess right now.
- mbxiphos1527

you're mixing up drafts.

Florida is starting to accumulate some good players, but you got longer than two years to go. They're WAY behind Edmonton.
- Dirte

Disagree.

Disagree.
- Panthers88

I'm not surprised. The Oilers have four top young forwards. Four of them. Compared to just... Huberdeau. Apart from Huberdeau, it's just.... Thomas Fleischman? Good lord. Kopecky? That's embarrassing. The Panthers D is better, but not by that much. And the Oilers have a few D prospects about to break through.

No, the Panthers are AT LEAST two years back. They'll be a basement team again next year, easily. MAYBE with two more good prospects, they'll start to climb, but even that tends to take a year, like Edmonton only climbed a few spots. That's three years before the Panthers even start looking at a playoff spot, never mind being a contender.

If all goes well, maybe in 4 years you can start thinking about being a top team. It takes time.

It's amazing how short people's memories are.

It's amazing how short people's memories are.
- Crazycaboose

I know, it's like this guy can't remember the Panthers just finished last in the league.

I know, it's like this guy can't remember the Panthers just finished last in the league.
- Dirte

More so surprised that you cannot remember that the players you just bashed helped us win the division and take the Devils to a seven game playoff series. It's also like you cannot remember that we led the league in man games lost by a HUGE margin last season. Weiss- gone. Versteeg- gone. Jovo- gone. Theodore- gone. Bergenheim- gone. Kulikov, Upshall, Weaver, Mueller- all missed significant time.

You want to talk about prospects, do some research. The four top picks the Oilers have haven't been able to help them do a damn thing. How about some of ours who haven't played full time yet? Bjugstad, Trocheck, Knight, Delnov, Petrovic, Matheson, Shore.. ever hear of these guys? They'll be dominating the NHL in the not so distant future.

I know, it's like this guy can't remember the Panthers just finished last in the league.
- Dirte

And not for nothing, but Flash was on pace for a 70 point season.. Kopecky easily could have had 20+ goals at the rate he was scoring. Are they top line guys, maybe not.. but they are great depth players and depth players are VERY important in the NHL. I think Flash should be a 2nd line players and Kopecky a third line player.. but when your entire roster is out hurt, you can't control who plays or where they play.

Also, I'm going to say now that I like the pick up of Bobby Butler. I think he is a solid 3rd line player with some scoring ability. It also appears as though Tallon is finally ready to walk away from Jack Skille.

More so surprised that you cannot remember that the players you just bashed helped us win the division and take the Devils to a seven game playoff series. It's also like you cannot remember that we led the league in man games lost by a HUGE margin last season. Weiss- gone. Versteeg- gone. Jovo- gone. Theodore- gone. Bergenheim- gone. Kulikov, Upshall, Weaver, Mueller- all missed significant time.

You want to talk about prospects, do some research. The four top picks the Oilers have haven't been able to help them do a damn thing. How about some of ours who haven't played full time yet? Bjugstad, Trocheck, Knight, Delnov, Petrovic, Matheson, Shore.. ever hear of these guys? They'll be dominating the NHL in the not so distant future.
- Panthers88

Awesome, you won the crappiest division in hockey, with the 6th most points in the conference, 2 more than 8th place. Jovo is done for. Great Dman, but his career is over. Weiss - gone is most likely right. He's not very good either.

You talk of the top picks of the Oilers not being able to help them do a damn thing, and that's my point. They've got a lot more than the Panthers, and the Oilers are still not there.

Short of Bjugstad, those are not top prospects (and one of them will be gone in a month too). Trochek, Delnov, Petrovic, Matheson, and Shore, are B and C list compared to Yakupov, Eberle, RNH, and Hall, and those four still aren't enough. It's going to take them a couple of years.

You've made my point for me.

Awesome, you won the crappiest division in hockey, with the 6th most points in the conference, 2 more than 8th place. Jovo is done for. Great Dman, but his career is over. Weiss - gone is most likely right. He's not very good either.

You talk of the top picks of the Oilers not being able to help them do a damn thing, and that's my point. They've got a lot more than the Panthers, and the Oilers are still not there.

Short of Bjugstad, those are not top prospects (and one of them will be gone in a month too). Trochek, Delnov, Petrovic, Matheson, and Shore, are B and C list compared to Yakupov, Eberle, RNH, and Hall, and those four still aren't enough. It's going to take them a couple of years.

You've made my point for me.
- Dirte

And you made mine... the Oiler's have plenty of "A" prospects and still cannot win. And who's to say that those prospects are "B" or "C" list prospects? The scouts? Insiders? You? They're blowing up their respective leagues, winning scoring titles, and playing like absolute beasts.. in fact, Alex Petrovic outplayed Eric Gudbranson when called up last season. When it comes to a prospect being dealt, I think it will be Quinton Howden.

I'm so tired of the SE being the "weakest division" crap. Is that what is was when the Caps were always winning it? Or the Lightning? Please.. go away. No matter what division you're in, the league is full of amazing players and it's always hard to win. Am I saying we'll make the playoffs next year? Nope.. but I'm not afraid of any team in our new division at all, save the Sens who for some reason we can never beat. We have dominated the Leafs, beaten the Sabres, Bruins, Habs, and Lightning plenty of times.. the Wings aren'y anything scary at all. While we do need some help on our top two lines, we have a solid bottom six if you line it up like this:

Kopecky-Goc-Matthias
Upshall-Shore-Butler

Oh, and I totally agree Jovo is done. But he being on the ice was important because he, for whatever reason, was our captain. I say that because I do not think he should be our captain, but I digress.

And you made mine... the Oiler's have plenty of "A" prospects and still cannot win. And who's to say that those prospects are "B" or "C" list prospects? The scouts? Insiders? You? They're blowing up their respective leagues, winning scoring titles, and playing like absolute beasts.. in fact, Alex Petrovic outplayed Eric Gudbranson when called up last season. When it comes to a prospect being dealt, I think it will be Quinton Howden.

I'm so tired of the SE being the "weakest division" crap. Is that what is was when the Caps were always winning it? Or the Lightning? Please.. go away. No matter what division you're in, the league is full of amazing players and it's always hard to win. Am I saying we'll make the playoffs next year? Nope.. but I'm not afraid of any team in our new division at all, save the Sens who for some reason we can never beat. We have dominated the Leafs, beaten the Sabres, Bruins, Habs, and Lightning plenty of times.. the Wings aren'y anything scary at all. While we do need some help on our top two lines, we have a solid bottom six if you line it up like this:

Kopecky-Goc-Matthias
Upshall-Shore-Butler

Oh, and I totally agree Jovo is done. But he being on the ice was important because he, for whatever reason, was our captain. I say that because I do not think he should be our captain, but I digress.
- Panthers88

They were 3-12 against the NE this year.... You didn't dominate any teams. At all.

The southeast is phucking terrible. It's full of garbage teams. In the past 5 years, they haven't had a season with more than two teams making the playoffs. Twice the Caps have been the only team to make it. It can't be hard to rack up points when you're playing a bunch of AHL teams. That's probably why they won the president's trophy. Collecting points off 4 easy teams in their division isn't tough.

Awesome, you won the crappiest division in hockey, with the 6th most points in the conference, 2 more than 8th place. Jovo is done for. Great Dman, but his career is over. Weiss - gone is most likely right. He's not very good either.

You talk of the top picks of the Oilers not being able to help them do a damn thing, and that's my point. They've got a lot more than the Panthers, and the Oilers are still not there.

Short of Bjugstad, those are not top prospects (and one of them will be gone in a month too). Trochek, Delnov, Petrovic, Matheson, and Shore, are B and C list compared to Yakupov, Eberle, RNH, and Hall, and those four still aren't enough. It's going to take them a couple of years.

You've made my point for me.
- Dirte

Let's assume we draft MacKinnon...

Versteeg-MacKinnon-Huberdeau
Flash-Mueller (?)-FA
Kopecky-Goc-Matthias
Butler-Shore-Upshall/Bergenheim

Campbell-Kulikov
Guds-??
Weaver-Kuba

Goaltending I'm not going into because it appears as though, if you believe EK, we may acquire Luongo. Anyways, with a few tweaks, that's a playoff team in my opinion. Soe tweaks are needed. I think Upshall or Kuba either get traded or bought out. I think a free agent or two is signed. With the youngsters we have, one of them may be inserted like Petrovic. I think Bjugstad plays in the AHL.

They were 3-12 against the NE this year.... You didn't dominate any teams. At all.

The southeast is phucking terrible. It's full of garbage teams.
- Dirte

Well the SE is gone now, and this season hardly counters for anything considering that A) we iced a team full of QMJHL players and B) it was a short, injury ravaged campaign.

Let's assume we draft MacKinnon...

Versteeg-MacKinnon-Huberdeau
Flash-Mueller (?)-FA
Kopecky-Goc-Matthias
Butler-Shore-Upshall/Bergenheim

Campbell-Kulikov
Guds-??
Weaver-Kuba

Goaltending I'm not going into because it appears as though, if you believe EK, we may acquire Luongo. Anyways, with a few tweaks, that's a playoff team in my opinion. Soe tweaks are needed. I think Upshall or Kuba either get traded or bought out. I think a free agent or two is signed. With the youngsters we have, one of them may be inserted like Petrovic. I think Bjugstad plays in the AHL.
- Panthers88

That's not a playoff team. Not even close. And you WILL hit a few injuries. Everyone does.

That's not a playoff team. Not even close. And you WILL hit a few injuries. Everyone does.
- Dirte

And when we do, we will be ready for them with our prospects. I suppose I'm more realistic than you are.. and I can't change your mind.. but all I can say is I believe we will be more successful than the Oilers.

Night.

And when we do, we will be ready for them with our prospects. I suppose I'm more realistic than you are.. and I can't change your mind.. but all I can say is I believe we will be more successful than the Oilers.

Night.
- Panthers88

No, you're not being realistic at all.

You may end up with more than the Oilers, but.... The Panthers are still well behind them in terms of building a team.

No, you're not being realistic at all.

You may end up with more than the Oilers, but.... The Panthers are still well behind them in terms of building a team.
- Dirte

What's your opinion on the leafs?

What's your opinion on the leafs?
- Crazycaboose

In terms of being a playoff team? Obviously they are that. They're going to need to, at the very least, replace Bozak, if they want to still be a playoff team.

In terms of being a "contender"? Definitely not this year. They'll have to upgrade on their centres, by at least one. If Kadri continues his play from last year, then one is fine. If not, they may need two. And if Kadri isn't, they don't have any good enough to fill a number one spot, ever, in the system right now. Their forwards in the system, are primarily second line and lower gritty wingers. Guys that can fill spots and be useful, but not difference makers.

The D, will need at least two more top guys. Fortunately, the Leafs have a tonne of good D prospects. Rielly will likely fill one of those spots, sooner rather than later. He'll probably still be in junior this year, potentially captain of team Canada (one of only two or three returnees). Gardiner may fill another eventually. If not, better hope on Matt Finn or Stu Percy to turn out very well. Both very highly rated, but to turn into a top guy is a big order to fill.

At absolute best, if all went well, two years.