The Draft is now less than 2 weeks away and with the amount of smoke the Oilers are producing we might be able to safely assume there's a fire somewhere. I think it's a very good chance that the Oilers will be one of the biggest players at the Draft and in early July.
TALBOT
Every day there seems to be another rumour, another report about what the team may or may not do. Right now it seems as though everything is honed in on Rangers Goaltender Cam Talbot. We've covered Talbot a few times already. As far as Trade target netminders go, he's at the top of my list.
All of his NHL numbers including the fledgling advanced stats for goalies (that I admit are too new to have proven much) all point to him potentially being a very good starter. Then again we're talking about goalies so everything is voodoo.
Yesterday Murray Pam, who contributes to The Hockey News, reported that a source told him the Oilers might be willing to give up the 16th overall pick for Talbot.
Now I'm not going to say this is a bogus rumour because I have no competing information but I would say that the 16th pick in the 2015 Draft is Top Dollar to pay for a backup Goalie with a short track record of success. That's not to say I wouldn't pay that price ever, but it's not an automatic.
Now Larry Brooks of the New York Post also covered Talbot recently but he mentioned no particular clubs and we know that he's a pretty connected fellow. You can see his work here. The Talbot quote is as follows:
The safest bet going into the June 26-27 draft weekend is the Blueshirts will indeed trade Cam Talbot. Several well-placed sources report there is a “significant… amount of interest in the soon-to-be 28-year-old goaltender, with inquiries not confined to clubs seeking a No. 1, but from some as well looking for a backup.The Rangers are seeking to maximize the return in draft picks for the netminder, who was the team’s most valuable player the second half of the season during Henrik Lundqvist’s extended absence.
And so it seems that the Oilers will have competition to acquire Talbot but if the Rangers want a quantity of picks then that's also something the Oilers can offer considering the fact that they have two picks in each of the first three rounds at this coming Draft. This report doesn't quite go against the one by Murray Pam, but it does fit more with expectations.
I can't speak for Pete Chiarelli but I would be infinitely more comfortable either using the 16th pick to draft a prospect or trading it for a Defenseman than I would trading it for a Goalie. The depth of this Draft has potentially dynamic players still available at 16 and Talbot hasn't proven himself as much as Schneider did before the Canucks traded him 2 years ago.
The 2015 Draft is being compared to the 2003 Draft that netted clubs so many stars in the 1st Round. The high end names that were still available, in the first round alone, at 16 were Parise, Getzlaf, Burns, Richards, Kesler, and Perry. Now there was also MA Pouliot so it's not like Drafting a player there is a mortal stone cold lock, but if 2015 is anything like 2003 as so many suggest then the Oilers can't just give away a chance to Draft a potential star. It's just something to think about.
NELSON
The other Oiler news making the rounds is the speculation that Todd Nelson will not be returning to Edmonton. Damian Cox on Saturday Headlines with Elliotte Friedman reported that Nelson had interviews with Carolina, Detroit, and Pittsburgh about their AHL Head Coaching positions. The belief is that Nelson will not be coming back.
I know that Edmonton already has their Head Coach in Todd McLellan and he's a very good coach, but any time a quality person leaves the organization it's not great news. One would have hoped that the opportunity to be a part of McLellan's staff or stay with the Bakersfield Condors would have been enough to keep him but obviously he feels like it's time to move on.
The opportunities in Pittsburgh and Carolina might lead to NHL jobs in an interim role sooner than the one in the Detroit organization but the Detroit farm team is always a good club and Wins are always good on the resume. Nelson did a great job taking over the Oilers when they had nothing left to play for and bringing a purpose back to their practices and their play.
I reiterate, I don't wish that Nelson was the Head Coach ahead of McLellan, but losing a coach of Nelson's calibre is disappointing nonetheless. Find good people. Keep good people. In any event, I wish Todd Nelson good luck in his job search.
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