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Originally Posted by Bingo
I give the Forecaster a lot of credit they predicted Edmonton and Vancouver to miss in their preview magazine, Vancouver being the eye brow raiser.
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On the flip side,
The Hockey News went "safe" with their picks. They had Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto third, fourth and fifth in the Atlantic, and all in the playoffs. Vancouver third, Edmonton fifth in the Pacific and in the playoffs. Calgary and Winnipeg seventh in their divisions and out.
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The Oilers must be thinking summer splash at this point, they have to change the culture. They dodged a bullet not signing Clarkson, but they do need some size, and they certainly need change. How many teams have to trade for culture and leadership? That's a tall order.
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They can only change the culture by dealing Hall, Eberle and/or RNH, and I don't think Lowe and MacTavish are smart enough to do that. They probably need to dump Yakupov at this point, but he's bleeding value and one wonders if Katz will even let them move him. That leaves trading the first round pick. That would get them a good asset - knowing Edmonton, another small winger - but won't improve the core of that team.
And I agree entirely with Cali Flames Fan on the Canucks. This season has been a complete mirror image of 2010-11 for Vancouver. That season saw most of the team have unsustainable career seasons, and this one has been a series of career worsts and utter disasters. Problem for them is that while things should improve next year, they probably won't improve by much. This might be a team that *would* trade rosters with Edmonton. If only because Edmonton's bad contracts are spent on young players rather than a couple Swedes past their expiry date.