Quote:
Originally Posted by 1991 Canadian
Their poor depth just goes back to their poor drafting and development.
Outside of Skinner, which of their young NHL players / prospects can even the most delusional oiler fan get excited about?
On forward, you have the likes of Yamamoto, Puljavrvji, McCleod, Holloway, Kostin. They are NHL players, but they don’t drive play. Maybe one of them becomes a legit top 6 player, but I don’t see it happening.
On defence, you have Broberg and Bouchard. Broberg doesn’t have the mobility / first pass ability that you’d want in a top 4 dman. Bouchard is a tire fire defensively. Even oilers fans have turned on him. They are both young, but I’m not getting high end dman vibes from either.
And down to the prospect system, I don’t see any intriguing players. Is Bourgault their top prospect? (If you count Broberg and Holloway as graduated) A 20 year old putting up 15 points in the 30 games in the AHL this year. That’s not nothing, but it’s hard to get excited about.
The Oilers should be making win now trades. But that is a depressing reality as well with Holland at the helm.
Oh well lol
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Going into the year I think there was a fair bit of optimism that:
1)Evan Bouchard would pick up where he left off last year as a rookie Dman with 40 points that played OK defensively in heavily sheltered minutes. This year he's shown an inability to rise to the occasion defensively when not so sheltered. He is in his sophomore season so I'll give him a little bit of a pass
2) Dylan Holloway was a player of the month in College where he was one of College hockey's best players for a stent before getting a couple wrist surgeries. Then he was decent in the AHL with some highlight reel plays (you know how Oilers fans love those) despite middling numbers. Fast forward to the pre-season scoring extravaganza and expectations were sky high. Now he's eating popcorn most nights after only getting 5 points in 37 games despite some plum minutes with the big lines and PP time.
3)Puljujarvi has been one of those play driving metric stars who's underlying numbers never translate into results, until they do. This year he's changed his game to fit the mold the Oilers are looking for with dump, hit, and chase, which he clearly isn't suited for. Thankfully he'll be traded before he becomes more useful
4) Bourgeault was gushed about in all the prospect mags but is not really ready for primetime as his AHL numbers can attest to