Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
You know looking at that other general hockey board that rhymes with Blockey Dentures, its becoming pretty laughable.
They have threads about the best Canadian teams and the standings predictions, and if you look at them, if someone dares predict that a Canadian team finishes ahead of the Oilers or has a better future then the Oilers then all hell breaks loose and it becomes a flurry of butt hurt (what?), insulted (what?) and angry (what?) Oiler fans who need to rush to the Oilers defense, and try to proclaim that their future is incredibly bright, and awesome and nobody can touch their greatness.
So you know outside of the standard arguments of career years by older players, and very few players having an off year (Eberle and RNH). A lack of injuries to the top of their lineup. A baby poop soft schedule, and Talbot putting on a year that he might not be able to replicate. I had to look at the Oilers and wonder. Outside of the upcoming Armageddon of their salary cap situation, is their future so bright? Is it a matter of when they hoist the cup and how long that they decide to keep it. Is it possible that Captain Crunch has succumbed to his senility and he can't see the greatness of the Oilers on their path to replicate their 80's glory years and be proclaimed at some point the greatest of all times.
Plus with Stampede week, its quiet at work and my fidget isn't holding my attention.
The Core
Connor McDavid - Undeniably the next great player in the NHL. Sure he looked like absolute bleah in the playoffs, and sure the Ducks pretty well cornered him and made him wear a dress and sing show tunes. But there's no denying that the Oilers with the easiest number one pick drafted a special player. Sure, he's making 12.5 million bucks a year, but whether its crippling or not remains to be seen. He's their franchise, and a 10/10 in terms of core.
Leon Draisaitl - Sure he jumped from 19 goals to 29 goals and 55 points to 77 points. The bottom line is he's about to get paaaaid. But he's battled consistency throughout his time with the Oilers. He was pretty horrible in 2015-16 in the second half of the season. But he burst onto the scene not as a center, but as a winger for the Conner. Statistically last year he was pretty ordinary production wise without McDavid. Is he a core players? Absolutely, it will be interesting to see what he gets paid, and if he can actually be productive on his own. Or do the Oilers have to put all their eggs in one basket.
RNH - I'd have to say that as a First Round number one pick he's ordinary at best. He's now being promoted by the Oiler faithful as their two way wizard. But realistically I would argue that he's a poor mans Michael Backlund. His production has been slowly sinking, and he was invisible on a lot of nights last year. As a 2nd or 3rd line option, his face off percentage is well below 50% and he lacks the physical strength to do much along the boards. He's an offensively smart player who takes a lot of nights off. But he is still considered a major part of their core.
Oscar Klefbom - A young defenseman at 23, who's being hyped by the Oilers faithful as a top pairing defenseman. Another of the career year guys, with good advanced Stats last year. Eye test wise he's still prone to eye popping blunders. Nearly half of his points last year came on the PP, but that's not great when your points total is 38 points. He's a guy that brings some nice offense to a blueline that doesn't have a lot of offense. Is he a first pairing guy because he's a first pairing guy? Or is he a first pairing guy because he's forced into that role. The injury to Sekera is going to force more responsibility on him.
Adam Larsson - A very good young defensive stalwart blueliner. Offensively he's not much to look at, but defensively he's excellent in his own zone and makes smart decisions. I heard he even takes uber home if he takes too many antihistamines. At this point in his career, I really think its hard to call him elite as a blueliner, he lacks an overall roundness to his game. He's a lot like Sargeant Hulka in a group of castoffs.
Darnell Nurse - Its hard to call him a core player at all because to me he's just not that good and lacks a good feel for the game. He's a lot like Denis Gauthier to me. On the plus side he's young. On the negative side, he can't stay healthy and I don't think his upside is anything beyond a 2nd pairing blueliner in a pinch. It won't help his game if he's teamed up with Kris Russell who's another positioning poor defenseman.
Cam Talbot - a gamble that paid off huge for the Oilers. He played 73 games last year and you could argue that he was heroic in the Oilers net in carrying them back to the playoffs. He's absolutely a vital core piece to the Oilers future. Of course if he replicates last year this year, there's a chance that he's going to be looking for a monstrous payday.
That to me is the Oilers core, you take out Connor and for a team that's had multiple top picks its not a great core going forward. Trading a guy in Eberle who was a core player for them for Strome is a step down, in no way is Strome a core player at all.
Right now the Oilers core to me looks like a box of nitro on a swing. If Talbot doesn't replicate his play from this year, or if Draisaitl gets a big contract and steps back, the Oilers are in a position where no one else can carry the team.
The prospects.
To be honest, the Oilers cupboard is fairly bare of prospect talent that can help the Oilers if injuries happen.
JP - Yeah I don't want to type his name. The Oilers wisely pissed away a year of his contract by keeping him in the NHL while it was clear that he was having trouble adjusting to the pro game. Keep it up boys. While he's a big supremely skilled kid, there are questions around his overall hockey IQ, this is known as the YAK factor. When he was eventually sent to the AHL he struggled there but rallied nicely to end the season. There's no doubt that ready or not he's NHL bound.
Jujihar Khaira - a big meaty bottom 6 center who has a good motor, but he's not ever going to light things up offensively.
Ethan Bear - A undersized puck moving defenseman with good offensive skills who's going to graduate to the pro's. However there should be no chance that he see's the NHL this year.
Tyler Benson - I would think he's going to play another year as an Overager in the WHL. Decently sized but lacking in offense.
Caleb Jones - Another decent puck moving defenseman with some offensive skills. He's going to probably secure a spot in Bakersfield but needs to add some meat to his lanky frame. Again no chance that he should be called up to the NHL this year.
the Wheat.
Mark Letestu - Another guy that had a career year at the age of 32 with the Oilers. But can he replicate it or will he pull a Bouma?
Patrick Maroon - The leader of the career year club more then doubling his previous high in terms of goals. He might also have to be a player thats moved at the trade deadline as the Oilers feel the cap crunch. Its safe to say that his resergence is all on McDavid.
Andrej Sekera - A good two way defenseman but not a great offensive weapon from the Blueline, he suffered a major injury and won't be back to Janurary leaving the Oilers blueline weakened.
Matt Benning - a positionally good defenseman without much in the way of offense. A bit of a late bloomer so its tough to judge. He would be a Mancini or Davidson in that he kind of explodes on the scene and fades away.
Drake Cagigula - A undersized forward that was a college hot shot but had a up and down season with the Oilers. I don't know if his offensive skills will really translate to the NHL, nor do I think he's a guy that's a great solution as a bottom 6. But Oiler fans seems to think he's bitchin so he's wheat.
the Chaff
Milan Lucic - Brings some much needed toughness to the Oilers, but he's too slow to play on their top line, which is what the Oilers overpaid for. He had a decent year in terms of offense, but could be generously discribed as a defensive black hole in that he sucked. He's got some hard miles on his body, and I wouldn't feel great about his contract at all and it might be tough to get rid of.
Ryan Strome - This kid was awful on the Island. Like Islander fans were pretty much willling to give him away and were surprised when they got a better project in Eberle.
Kris Russell - To me a bad contract. Positionally poor and weak along the board, he boosts his blocked shots stats by having to desparately recover from his blunders. But he's now wheat because he'll be getting paid by the Oilers until he's 36.
Everything about the Oilers just really screams regressive. They're not organizationally deep. Everything after McDavid and Draisaitl is kind of meh at best and haphazardly assembled at worst. They have poor depth through their lineup, and nothing too exciting coming up with the exception of JP.
If you remove McDavid from the argument this frankly isn't much of a team, that might win if Talbot plays the role of a wall with a vacuum attached to it.
Of course you can't remove McDavid, however after his breakthrough year he'll probably get a lot more attention from other teams in terms of game planning because as the Stats show, when McDavid is off the ice, this is a different team.
The fact is that the current strategy if they can get Draisaitl under contract is to bring in young cheap good players to keep the team below the cap. The Oilers just don't have that bench and prospect strength.
Last year was the gift of Mana for the Oilers, everything went right, but just looking at them, they're a house of cards, that's about to be a really expensive house of cards.
I just get the sense that the Oilers are going to end of like the Flames at the height of Iggy's career where they couldn't surround him with talent and wasted his best years.
I truly think that the Oilers regress this year, do they regress out of the playoffs? Part of me says yes, part of me says they don't deserve anymore lottery picks.
I just don't see that core, the prospects, the wheat and the Chaff being all that successful.
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