Ryan Murray is at least two years away from the NHL. If the Oilers are going to pass on Yakupov to take him, he needs to be a top pairing d-man next season, and he won't be. He has a future and he's a good hockey player, but you are talking about drafting a guy who would be successful if he turned into a Dan Hamhuis type player over a guy who has the potential to win the Rocket Richard trophy. It doesn't make sense.
If the Oilers use the pick, it HAS to be Yakupov. The only other logical option is to trade down, get an NHL ready d-man back and take a d-man at the spot they should be taken at.
The 1st pick to Toronto for Gardiner and the 5th I think is something the Oilers fans could live with, and it gives us a better chance at landing Schultz with how close him and Gardiner are, and we would be able to potentially draft Reinhart or another quality d-man depending who's available.
But to be fair to us, have you seen our prospect pool for d-men? It's better than our forward prospect pool (I'm not factoring Hall, Nuge, or Eberle into this as they have already graduated from prospect status)
Another thing to consider is that if the Oilers draft Yakupov and he's a bust, nobody will blame them because 9 out of 10 scouts agree on him, as well as McGregor and the Oilers scouting staff. If they go off the board, even just a little bit, and take a dman who doesn't turn into the player we so desperately need it will be unforgiveable.
Also don't forget that Stamkos's coach in Sarnia said that Yakupov is a harder worker and a more natural talent (paraphrasing)
