[bigrangy]

I'd way rather have Yak for a conditional 3rd than Lazar for a 2nd.

Yakupov's "bad attitude" is a made up narrative in my opinion. He left his country at 16 to come play in North America, so the only reason he'd go back to the KHL would be if nobody wanted him here. He was always praised as being a good member of the community when he was in Edmonton (not hard to do in comparison to the other golden boys haha but that's just what I have heard).

Yakupov has top 6 talent but hasn't been able to put it together because he was badly, badly mishandled by the grease (Lazar has been heavily mismanaged as well) where Lazar doesn't really have a top 6 skillset. Lazar's contract situation is much better and will be cheaper to retain next season, but Yakupov actually offers a reasonable chance to be an impact forward.

Yakupov was damn near a point per game last season when he played with McDickbutt, then the Oilers, in another incredible move, decide to staple him to Letestu for much of the rest of the year. The year before, he was paired up with Arcobello and bad Draisaitl until the Oilers finally had a good idea and brought in Derek Roy to play with him. He then proceeded to put up about half a point per game (granted it was garbage time) when they played together.

Yakupov hasn't had a stable centre in his whole career and has still managed to at least produce. Defensively, he is definitely nothing special, but there remains a reasonable chance (at least in my opinion) that he can be a productive top 6 wing option, and I'd much rather have a chance of that than the much lower chance that Lazar has. Lazar projects to me a lot like a Brouwer, while Yakupov projects like a Versteeg. Neither will be too special but I know which player I'd rather have on my team.