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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.
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Again this reads like ginned up rival talk.
Hall was 8th in the league in PPG and didn't look out of place doing it. Guy was carrying the mail on that team. He's in the top 5 left wings in the league easily. And I suspect he'll more than back it up this year. There's really nothing to argue to say he wont outside of injuries which you can't project. He's in his prime, and has showed an upward trajectory in each of his years in the league.
Hopkins yep there's concerns there but only because of injuries. His pedigree and rookie season showed an elite level playmaker. Still alot of reasons to be optimistic about him.
Yakupov, I consistently hear this line of argument. That the Oil should have given up a projected 40 goal sniper for, at most, a number two defenceman in Murray. Makes utterly no sense. Yak actually put together a very good rookie season, projected at 30 goals over 82 games. A 30 goal scoring rookie? Sure it's just projected and it wouldn't have likely lasted but even so, a 25 goal scoring rookie? Who in this era scored more as a rookie? It's an impressive list of guys. I just don't know why Yakupov is so poorly thought of around these parts.