a goal scoring, point producing 21 year old centreman who already wears an A... gonna get paaaaiiddd

For a guy that trolls the Oilers threads as often as you, you know there's not many dreamers left among the regs.
- Jeropotato

Actually, bro, I rarely go on the Oiler thread.

You mean that guy that passes more time on the IR than in games?
- DuranDuran

Yup. Same guy.

Selanne, Neidererrmeyer and Pronger were all brought in 2 years prior to them winning the cup! Thank you for reiterating what I was saying. When you have good players that you internally draft your management has what I believe to be a 10 year window to get them to succeed or at the very least get them playoff experience. This experience alone if it fails at first will allow the rookies to take over the teams and become captains and slowly mentor young up and comers very early. My List only consists of players that are now considered to be superstars and players that were drafted by the club.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the teams that are always in the mix are somehow able to draft so well! Maybe that’s because these same teams have young kids that always end up being drafted very late in the draft but are consistently exposed to playoff hockey from the beginning.

Milan Lucic led the team in scoring that year by more than a few goals by the way.

The idea is to spark conversation and look at a different perspective on the term “rebuild, ” not to be called Dumb! What is wrong with you people? This is a place to come and talk hockey and although we don’t agree on who are favorite teams are, or who we put in the top 30, providing feedback for your beliefs rather than calling someone “Stupid” or “dumb.”

You usually come on here and provide decent discussion (while sometimes trying to provoke people) so I will put this back towards the oilers. If it wasn’t for McDavid the oilers would likely be starting a Re-build within a Rebuild due to salary cap situation in the next 3 years. Now that you have McDavid by all accounts the oilers are willing to deal some of their once prized possessions. Your team has a luxury that 29 other teams in the league do not have. The cost was a decade of underachieving players that maybe under the right circumstances would have been further ahead, had they dealt some of their picks instead of being so star gazed at the next shinny toy. Based on all the rumors out there with the oilers it sounds like that pick is for sale this year. Why? Because you management is finally willing to surround McDavid and company with players that know how to win.

We all might not agree that Calgary has three of the top 30 D in the league but even as an Oil fan we could all probably agree that the Achilles heel was our goaltending. If the opportunity presents itself to trade for a player or sign a FA I’m for the idea at this stage in our re-build. I think the experience of getting our players in the playoffs even if they don’t win will inevitably allow our new guys to eventually take the torch.

Again not perfect science grammar or spelling!
- Yeah...Baby

You're analysis of the Oilers isn't actually half bad. McDavid gives us some actual, tangible Hope that we otherwise couldn't have if we were in a worse draft position and had selected Strome or Marner. Good prospects but mos def not in the same class as McD.
The Oilers rebuild starting with version 1 where management thought Gagner, Cogliano and Nillson added to Hemsky and Horcoff, and a couple free Agent signings and trades for Souray, Visnovsky/Whitney and an offer sheet for Dustin Penner for a quick turn around had the opposite effect, which propelled us into version 2: The Taylor Hall, Eberle, Nuge ,Klefbom and Yak rebuild, which had the same result as version 1.
So here we are in version 3 with Nurse, Draisaitl and McDavid and we find our selves at the bottom again, and I see 3 common denominators.
1. Lack of quality Veterans that can not only tell the young talent where the bear poops in the buckwheats but show them on the ice.
2. Lack of surprise players that developed from a humble later round draft position.
3. Expectation that our high drafted players would be sensations at the NHL level instantly, if at all.

I see all the current slow rebuilds around the NHL ( Edmonton, Calgary, Arizona, Buffalo, and Toronto) and I see similar mistakes, but most have at least one check mark where as Edmonton really has none, 10 yrs later.

Calgary actually has shown that they have all those bases covered, which is why they don't need the high number of top drafted players . They got later round success in Johnny Hockey and Brodie, the insulated Monohann and Bennett as Rookies with Veterans and didn't expect them to be Saviors and they recognize that Money, Johnny Hockey and Bennett are not enough, and continue to add good players when and where they ca, such as Hamilton.

Of all the rebuilds in the NHL, none are perfect, but the Flames appears to be going the best, spite not having that big ' Generational' tag on any of its players, Followed by the Sabres, the Coyotes, Toronto and lastly Edmonton, for the 3 reasons I listed above.

Having said all that, the Flames, their players, management and fans can all eat a Richard and go (frank) themselves.

You're analysis of the Oilers isn't actually half bad. McDavid gives us some actual, tangible Hope that we otherwise couldn't have if we were in a worse draft position and had selected Strome or Marner. Good prospects but mos def not in the same class as McD.
The Oilers rebuild starting with version 1 where management thought Gagner, Cogliano and Nillson added to Hemsky and Horcoff, and a couple free Agent signings and trades for Souray, Visnovsky/Whitney and an offer sheet for Dustin Penner for a quick turn around had the opposite effect, which propelled us into version 2: The Taylor Hall, Eberle, Nuge ,Klefbom and Yak rebuild, which had the same result as version 1.
So here we are in version 3 with Nurse, Draisaitl and McDavid and we find our selves at the bottom again, and I see 3 common denominators.
1. Lack of quality Veterans that can not only tell the young talent where the bear poops in the buckwheats but show them on the ice.
2. Lack of surprise players that developed from a humble later round draft position.
3. Expectation that our high drafted players would be sensations at the NHL level instantly, if at all.

I see all the current slow rebuilds around the NHL ( Edmonton, Calgary, Arizona, Buffalo, and Toronto) and I see similar mistakes, but most have at least one check mark where as Edmonton really has none, 10 yrs later.

Calgary actually has shown that they have all those bases covered, which is why they don't need the high number of top drafted players . They got later round success in Johnny Hockey and Brodie, the insulated Monohann and Bennett as Rookies with Veterans and didn't expect them to be Saviors and they recognize that Money, Johnny Hockey and Bennett are not enough, and continue to add good players when and where they ca, such as Hamilton.

Of all the rebuilds in the NHL, none are perfect, but the Flames appears to be going the best, spite not having that big ' Generational' tag on any of its players, Followed by the Sabres, the Coyotes, Toronto and lastly Edmonton, for the 3 reasons I listed above.

Having said all that, the Flames, their players,v management and fans can all eat a Richard and go (frank) themselves.

- Jeropotato

If it helps, you were one of the 2 I was referring to in my earlier post.

You're analysis of the Oilers isn't actually half bad. McDavid gives us some actual, tangible Hope that we otherwise couldn't have if we were in a worse draft position and had selected Strome or Marner. Good prospects but mos def not in the same class as McD.
The Oilers rebuild starting with version 1 where management thought Gagner, Cogliano and Nillson added to Hemsky and Horcoff, and a couple free Agent signings and trades for Souray, Visnovsky/Whitney and an offer sheet for Dustin Penner for a quick turn around had the opposite effect, which propelled us into version 2: The Taylor Hall, Eberle, Nuge ,Klefbom and Yak rebuild, which had the same result as version 1.
So here we are in version 3 with Nurse, Draisaitl and McDavid and we find our selves at the bottom again, and I see 3 common denominators.
1. Lack of quality Veterans that can not only tell the young talent where the bear poops in the buckwheats but show them on the ice.
2. Lack of surprise players that developed from a humble later round draft position.
3. Expectation that our high drafted players would be sensations at the NHL level instantly, if at all.

I see all the current slow rebuilds around the NHL ( Edmonton, Calgary, Arizona, Buffalo, and Toronto) and I see similar mistakes, but most have at least one check mark where as Edmonton really has none, 10 yrs later.

Calgary actually has shown that they have all those bases covered, which is why they don't need the high number of top drafted players . They got later round success in Johnny Hockey and Brodie, the insulated Monohann and Bennett as Rookies with Veterans and didn't expect them to be Saviors and they recognize that Money, Johnny Hockey and Bennett are not enough, and continue to add good players when and where they ca, such as Hamilton.

Of all the rebuilds in the NHL, none are perfect, but the Flames appears to be going the best, spite not having that big ' Generational' tag on any of its players, Followed by the Sabres, the Coyotes, Toronto and lastly Edmonton, for the 3 reasons I listed above.

Having said all that, the Flames, their players, management and fans can all eat a Richard and go (frank) themselves.

- Jeropotato

I agree with your 3 points, although given all your very high 1sts, I'm not sure point #2 is all that relevant anymore. But I do think you missed one very key point to the lack of Oiler growth. And that is the imbalance of talent that has gotten wider with every high pick. You guys have always gone with the forward, except for Nurse. And now the talk is that you guys will go with another fwd if you keep the pick. You need the depth throughout the organization, but the management doesn't ever seem to get that. I understand drafting BPA because you can trade for need, but your org has also shown an extreme reluctance to trade any of your fwd talent. Coupled with the fact that getting a true top pairing guy is very difficult to find via trade, you needed to find a potential #1 via draft probably back with the Yakopov trade.

You're analysis of the Oilers isn't actually half bad. McDavid gives us some actual, tangible Hope that we otherwise couldn't have if we were in a worse draft position and had selected Strome or Marner. Good prospects but mos def not in the same class as McD.
The Oilers rebuild starting with version 1 where management thought Gagner, Cogliano and Nillson added to Hemsky and Horcoff, and a couple free Agent signings and trades for Souray, Visnovsky/Whitney and an offer sheet for Dustin Penner for a quick turn around had the opposite effect, which propelled us into version 2: The Taylor Hall, Eberle, Nuge ,Klefbom and Yak rebuild, which had the same result as version 1.
So here we are in version 3 with Nurse, Draisaitl and McDavid and we find our selves at the bottom again, and I see 3 common denominators.
1. Lack of quality Veterans that can not only tell the young talent where the bear poops in the buckwheats but show them on the ice.
2. Lack of surprise players that developed from a humble later round draft position.
3. Expectation that our high drafted players would be sensations at the NHL level instantly, if at all.

I see all the current slow rebuilds around the NHL ( Edmonton, Calgary, Arizona, Buffalo, and Toronto) and I see similar mistakes, but most have at least one check mark where as Edmonton really has none, 10 yrs later.

Calgary actually has shown that they have all those bases covered, which is why they don't need the high number of top drafted players . They got later round success in Johnny Hockey and Brodie, the insulated Monohann and Bennett as Rookies with Veterans and didn't expect them to be Saviors and they recognize that Money, Johnny Hockey and Bennett are not enough, and continue to add good players when and where they ca, such as Hamilton.

Of all the rebuilds in the NHL, none are perfect, but the Flames appears to be going the best, spite not having that big ' Generational' tag on any of its players, Followed by the Sabres, the Coyotes, Toronto and lastly Edmonton, for the 3 reasons I listed above.

Having said all that, the Flames, their players, management and fans can all eat a Richard and go (frank) themselves.

- Jeropotato

Hah solid post.

OEL, Chara, Faulk, Keith, Seabrook, Hjarlmarsson, Eric Johnson, Kronwall, Ekblad, Doughty, Suter, Subban, Webber, Josi, Larsson, McDonaugh, Karlsson, Gostisbehere, Letang, Burns, Vlasic, Shattenkirk, Pietrangelo, Bouwmeester, Hedman, Stralman, Carlson, Byfuglien... Brodie, Giordano.

That's who I would say are the 30 best defensemen in the NHL. Hamilton doesn't belong on the list and you can't tell me that all 3 of your dmen are better than all of these guys. You just can't.
- Ihatebrianburke

How does it feel knowing none of those players will be playing for the Oil anytime soon?

I agree with your 3 points, although given all your very high 1sts, I'm not sure point #2 is all that relevant anymore. But I do think you missed one very key point to the lack of Oiler growth. And that is the imbalance of talent that has gotten wider with every high pick. You guys have always gone with the forward, except for Nurse. And now the talk is that you guys will go with another fwd if you keep the pick. You need the depth throughout the organization, but the management doesn't ever seem to get that. I understand drafting BPA because you can trade for need, but your org has also shown an extreme reluctance to trade any of your fwd talent. Coupled with the fact that getting a true top pairing guy is very difficult to find via trade, you needed to find a potential #1 via draft probably back with the Yakopov trade.
- TandA4Flames

You're actually wrong on th D thing. People seem to forget that we had our #1 in place when this all started in Ryan Whitney. Say what you want but his first year as an Oilers he was top 5 in the League in scoring among D , but his foot fungus ended his career.He was a legit top pair Defender. Not only that, but you forgot that the Oilers did stock up on highly touted prospect D way back when such as David Musil, Colton Teubert and Oscar Klefbom, but 2 of those 3 really didn't pan out. It happens.We also Jeff Petry, who was a solid 2nd pair guy who wanted too much money. Had either CT or DM developed into top 4 defenders today and Whitney avoided injury, would our D be such an issue? You guys know all to well how a couple of very good D Men can impact a team.

Just don't go saying we only drafted Nurse and ignored our defence when that isn't the case, they just made the wrong choices ( like most teams do) and had some bad luck in that regards.


Bang on on your initial point tho, with the Oilers having 7 first round picks in the line up all under the age of 25, we shouldn't be concerned about that " freebie" we got in the 5th round anymore.

How does it feel knowing none of those players will be playing for the Oil anytime soon?


- fry

Both Klefbom and Sekeras are superior to Hamilton...for the time being....sure wish we had a Gio or Brodie tho

I agree with your 3 points, although given all your very high 1sts, I'm not sure point #2 is all that relevant anymore. But I do think you missed one very key point to the lack of Oiler growth. And that is the imbalance of talent that has gotten wider with every high pick. You guys have always gone with the forward, except for Nurse. And now the talk is that you guys will go with another fwd if you keep the pick. You need the depth throughout the organization, but the management doesn't ever seem to get that. I understand drafting BPA because you can trade for need, but your org has also shown an extreme reluctance to trade any of your fwd talent. Coupled with the fact that getting a true top pairing guy is very difficult to find via trade, you needed to find a potential #1 via draft probably back with the Yakopov trade.
- TandA4Flames

Also, hindsight is 20/20. At what point after the Yak draft ( I agree we should have drafted Murry, but it's not like his injury riddled ass would have helped us for his first few seasons) should we have traded one of our quality forwards? ( I'm excluding Horcoff, Gagner and Hemsky as assets of any value, seeing as how they didn't have any).

Hell it was only 2014-15 when we started the season with RNH and Boyd Gordon as our only 2 NHL centers.

Last summer was the 1st summer where the Oilers could realistically fill a whole without creating a new one, but we should give PC more than 2 weeks on the job, no?

How does it feel knowing none of those players will be playing for the Oil anytime soon?


- fry

Better than it feels carrying around your little unit I'm sure.

You're actually wrong on th D thing. People seem to forget that we had our #1 in place when this all started in Ryan Whitney. Say what you want but his first year as an Oilers he was top 5 in the League in scoring among D , but his foot fungus ended his career.He was a legit top pair Defender. Not only that, but you forgot that the Oilers did stock up on highly touted prospect D way back when such as David Musil, Colton Teubert and Oscar Klefbom, but 2 of those 3 really didn't pan out. It happens.We also Jeff Petry, who was a solid 2nd pair guy who wanted too much money. Had either CT or DM developed into top 4 defenders today and Whitney avoided injury, would our D be such an issue? You guys know all to well how a couple of very good D Men can impact a team.

Just don't go saying we only drafted Nurse and ignored our defence when that isn't the case, they just made the wrong choices ( like most teams do) and had some bad luck in that regards.


Bang on on your initial point tho, with the Oilers having 7 first round picks in the line up all under the age of 25, we shouldn't be concerned about that " freebie" we got in the 5th round anymore.
- Jeropotato

I don't think Tuebert or Musil were ever considered potential top pairing guys. And wasn't Whitney long gone by the Yakopov draft? So yea, they never really gave the team a chance. Not signing Petry was, as you say, a bad decision. Sometimes you have to pay a bit more to keep your team b
Competitive. But, maybe Petry wanted out of the poop show and was never going to resign.

Either way, the D should have been addressed a long time ago. JMO, Jero.

6mil for 6-8 years would be a complete steal. This kids a great player and will only get better. Really intelligent, fantastic puck skills, looked very good defensively this year.

Both Klefbom and Sekeras are superior to Hamilton...for the time being....sure wish we had a Gio or Brodie tho
- Jeropotato

For now, but it's arguable.

I don't think Tuebert or Musil were ever considered potential top pairing guys. And wasn't Whitney long gone by the Yakopov draft? So yea, they never really gave the team a chance. Not signing Petry was, as you say, a bad decision. Sometimes you have to pay a bit more to keep your team b
Competitive. But, maybe Petry wanted out of the poop show and was never going to resign.

Either way, the D should have been addressed a long time ago. JMO, Jero.
- TandA4Flames

That's what you're not getting, the D was addressed. There was still hope for Whitney in the lock out season (Yaks rookie year) and Teubert and Musil were both elite impact shut down defenders in Junior. The point was the Oilers were wrong with those guys, it happens.

Again, at what point should the Oilers have traded a forward for a top pair D man? When did we have the depth? What defensive savior was available? Who was traded that we missed out on ? Hamilton? We tried. Offered more than Calgary did.

Also....was signing Schultz not addressing their needs at the time? 28 other teams showed interest as well, including yours, if you remember correctly. It's laughable now, but that summer the 'experts' were comparing him to Brian Leech and Phil Housley.

6mil for 6-8 years would be a complete steal. This kids a great player and will only get better. Really intelligent, fantastic puck skills, looked very good defensively this year.
- benjichronic

6mil for 6-8 years would be a complete steal. This kids a great player and will only get better. Really intelligent, fantastic puck skills, looked very good defensively this year.
- benjichronic

He is very good. That was a great draft from picks 1-8.

That's what you're not getting, the D was addressed. There was still hope for Whitney in the lock out season (Yaks rookie year) and Teubert and Musil were both elite impact shut down defenders in Junior. The point was the Oilers were wrong with those guys, it happens.

Again, at what point should the Oilers have traded a forward for a top pair D man? When did we have the depth? What defensive savior was available? Who was traded that we missed out on ? Hamilton? We tried. Offered more than Calgary did.

Also....was signing Schultz not addressing their needs at the time? 28 other teams showed interest as well, including yours, if you remember correctly. It's laughable now, but that summer the 'experts' were comparing him to Brian Leech and Phil Housley.
- Jeropotato

Chia added a top 4 fixture in Sekera and got rid of Schultz. Things are moving in the right direction atleast.

Hopefully removing some of the less accountable players *cough* *yak and eberle* *cough* will make a bigger difference than some would expect.

Chia added a top 4 fixture in Sekera and got rid of Schultz. Things are moving in the right direction atleast.

Hopefully removing some of the less accountable players *cough* *yak and eberle* *cough* will make a bigger difference than some would expect.
- fry

Yak simply sucks...there are no accountability issues. Eberle is 1 dimensional, but also top 5 in scoring among RW over the past 5 seasons...so that dimension is needed.

I would move Nuge 1st as he will likely get us the better return.

Yak simply sucks...there are no accountability issues. Eberle is 1 dimensional, but also top 5 in scoring among RW over the past 5 seasons...so that dimension is needed.

I would move Nuge 1st as he will likely get us the better return.
- Jeropotato

Hall will be they guy that gets you that gets you what you need. Don't think Nuge gets a 1D.

Anyone else hoping that MAF gets shelled so bad that he pisses the fanbase off enough to make it perfectly acceptable the Pens to trade him for scraps?

Anyone else hoping that MAF gets shelled so bad that he pisses the fanbase off enough to make it perfectly acceptable the Pens to trade him for scraps?
- Saskabush

Exactly what I was thinking! What about Tukka Rask if became available would you be willing to part with our 6th for him?

Exactly what I was thinking! What about Tukka Rask if became available would you be willing to part with our 6th for him?
- Yeah...Baby

No!

Hall will be they guy that gets you that gets you what you need. Don't think Nuge gets a 1D.
- DuranDuran

No, but a top 60 D.....what did you guys pay for Dougie " Top 30 D Man" Hamilton?