[Lanny_McDonald]

Originally Posted by Tinordi

I don't know about your critique of the Oilers' holes. If they have holes then we have alot more. Oilers did a good job this offseason of bringing in character and depth.

This paragraph just looks like rose coloured fan goggle analysis.

I would hope we have a lot more holes. We just committed to a rebuild and dumped the majority of our veterans and have open holes for young guys to step into and establish themselves. It's not like we've been drafting first for each of the last three drafts.

What great depth did the Oilers bring in? Perron? An injury prone forward who plays small? Perfect fit in Edmonton. Doesn't improve them at all. Gordon? The guy can win a face off, but after that, I'm not sure he's that much better than Paajarvi. I think they shuffled a deck chair there and only improved in the face off dot. They may be slightly improved, but at the cost of $5.6 million to the cap? On the blue line they added Ference, Belov and Grebeshkov. Ference is the only good addition, but what will he add versus what they lost? They are going to lose Whitney and Fistric, so have to make up with what they brought in. I don't see an improvement.

Overall, the Oilers are still a small team with poor defense and bad goaltending. The only way you could like those changes is if you're a Flames fan and hoping they miss the playoffs again.

With that said, I do think the Flames of 2013-14 are in better position that the Oilers of 2010-11. I do think our prospect depth is better than there's was and I do think that organizationally we have better management.

I'm glad we can agree on this, because Edmonton has been drafting early and drafting often, and outside of the top 10 the Oilers haven't produced a player since 2006' other than Eberle, that has stepped up and become a regular. Other than Klefbom they don't even have any prospects that make you sit up and think they could be a player. If they ain't drafted in the 1st round they ain't going to be a player for the Oilers.

However the Oilers likely have the better top end prospect depth than the Flames will accumulate over the next three years. I don't think the Flames will draft players of the quality of Hall, Nuge and Yak because, for the reasons I list above we'll likely not bottom out as badly.

I wish we had this discussion yesterday, because I could have used your prognostication skills before the Powerball drawing!

I think the Flames will be fine in top end talent. They are going to be bottom of the barrel for the next two seasons and that should recoup them one of Reinhart or Ekblad. With the losses of Cammalleri, Stajan and Stempniak this season we will probably be worse in 2014-15 and have an honest shot at McDavid. If this does play out, the Flames will have more high end talent, at more positions, in a shorter period of time, than the Oilers. That also doesn't include the prospect depth that we have built up quickly over the past three years.

That's the crux of the two teams. Will the Flames be a better team with more depth and development or will the Oilers emerge as the better team because of better top end talent?

I think you're grossly over-rating the top end talent on the Oilers and under-rating the talent the Flames are developing. Hall had a great half a season. Follow it up and prove you're that good. Hopkins was terrible last season and has to step his game up. Actually, the best thing that could happen to the Oilers is for him to have another below average year so they can get him under contract cheaply. The last thing they need is another $6M salary to deal with. We'll also see how Yakupov does going forward. Lots of skill, but appears to be short on character. I still think the Oilers should have gone after Murray or Reinhart to fill a gaping hole and provide some balance to their team. I think in the long run they will both be better players. I'm just not enamoured with the Oilers and their shiny toys. I just don't see much character or much of a team being built up there.