Down Goes Brown with his Cup prospects

[Kidder]

I want to know what Aaron Ward thinks.

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by Fire of the Phoenix

Kind of weird to assign arbitrary percentages for each team's chances in the next 5 years and then rank them. Literally based of nothing other than a a gut feeling/bias as it's basically impossible to project 3 years out, much less 5.

You don't read much of his stuff, do you?

[Red]

Originally Posted by sa226

If I can be annoying for a moment, not that I disagree with you in principle. The constant fellating of Edmonton grinds my gears...

But

Replacing Mctavish and Eakins with Mclellan and Chiarelli is a huge move. If the Chiarelli can work some magic and move assets in and out, they have potential to jump start their retool....

But make no mistake. As it stands now, the Oilers team, culture and city are no good.

Chiarelli might have benefited from working for an original 6 team with great history and preferable travel schedule. His job with Oilers may prove to be much more challenging.
Although it's hard to criticize signing Sekera, his "magic" so far has been limited to that signing, drafting McJesus and hiring McLellan. Draft was a no brainer, but McLellan signing is hardly magic. One could argue that MacT pulled off a better (BOLDER) move signing Eakins. As bad as that turned out, Eakins was very highly praised coach and the new shiny toy ready to enter the NHL. There was lots of interest. McLellan did not have much interest in the league, Babcock took all the spotlight. Right or wrong, Eakins seemed like more significant win for the team.

The Oilers may get a lot better with these additions, but I think it's just as likely that things stay relatively the same. They will get better, they have to, but are they gonna contend?

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Tampa has to be #1, no?

[JiriHrdina]

Depends on what happens with Kane. As long as they have Toews, Kane, Seabrook and Keith in their prime - they have to be considered favorites each season.

[Fighting Banana Slug]

Originally Posted by polak

Edmonton has two good prospects. Both are expected to make the team this year. The rest of their team has been complete garbage for 9 years. Someone please explain to me how they're ready to contend?

Our goaltending is an issue? At least we have 2 top quality goaltending prospects in the wings. Our defense is already top 2 or 3 and we have one of the top 1st lines in the league.

I don't think we're any where close to a guarantee to be contending in the next year or two but neither is Edmonton. Jesus. Give me a break.

I agree with pretty much everything you said, but the point of the list isn't contending in the next year or two. It is a window of the next 5 years, so presumably Buffalo and Edmonton are on the list because of the later years, not the next few.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

Tampa has to be #1, no?

5 years from now that roster could look like:

Drouin-Point-Stamkos
Palat-Johnson-Kucherov
Namestnikov

Hedman-Stralman
Koekkoek-DeAngelo

Vasilevskiy

I think that is unfair.

[Bend it like Bourgeois]

Maybe just me but its great to see someone with a new idea for a set of articles. On that alone i like it.


The Flames are probably in the right spot. If the kids take another step they move up.

The soilers are probably in the right spot too, sadly. They've proven nothing, but the NHL welfare program has gifted them more opportunity than any team ever. Chiarelli just has to not suck to become a contender (or follow Lowes path and suck so much you're handed more).

[Esoteric]

The reason he's got Edmonton in his top ten is because they're going to be adding another 4 straight first overall picks before making a run in year 5.

[CaptainCrunch]

I don't think its a bad write up and I agree with what he's saying.

I look at this way.

the Flames have a above average group of forwards, with the advantage of depth.

The Flames in my mind when Brodie returns has one of the best bluelines in the league

The Flames goaltending could probably be described as average but inconsistant, that's the trouble spot right now, but if you look at what's coming its highly rated

Coaching wise, the Flames have the current Adam's winner, which makes him one of the top coaches in the league

Prospect wise, the Flames have a deep prospect core, they also went a long way in fixing their blueline issues, and they probably have the best goaltending prospect base in the league.

So while the Flames aren't going to win the cup this year, you can see them trending in that direction.

The Oilers in the top 10 to me is baffling if I break it down the same way.

They have a excellent top 6, with questions, clearly McBongwater is going to make a difference, but the questions revolve around if that top 6 is willing to change their game and play for the team instead of themselves.
Their bottom 6 to me is terrible, and confusing. Their bottom 6 dosen't scare anyone right now, maybe that will change but its terrible

Even with Sekeras and Nurse will be rushed, that is a bad blueline period.

Goaltending to be is below the 20 point in the league, Talbot is going to have to prove that he can be a starter in this league and face a lot of pressure.

Prospects wise, after McSadpuppy and Nurse, there's not much. I'm still not sold on Draisaitl as being this awesome prospect, big bodies tend to dominate at the junior level, but his skating and ability to stay in the play leaves a lot to be desired, he's hit and miss with me right now. So after those three they have nothing exciting coming up, that I think can propel them to being a cup contender.

Coaching, is TM a good coach? Probably, but he's going to be wrangling a team with one way egos, he had that problem in San Jose and he could never solve it, on top of that he's coaching a coach killing core that's had their way for a long time, and he's going to have to break them without them tuning him out. Tom Renney and Krueger faced the same situation and got shattered.

I just don't get how anyone has the Oilers in that high of a spot looking at now and the future, their team looks like an illusion because of Mccomeoverherekidandbuysomemagicbitters.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Oilers missed this year and next year and started tearing the team apart again.

[Two Fivenagame]

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

5 years from now that roster could look like:

Drouin-Point-Stamkos
Palat-Johnson-Kucherov
Namestnikov

Hedman-Stralman
Koekkoek-DeAngelo

Vasilevskiy

I think that is unfair.

Agreed. Been thinking about Tampa's roster potential and how Calgary's stacks up.

Calgary has the better D IMO but Tampa's forward group looks pretty scary.

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

5 years from now that roster could look like:

Drouin-Point-Stamkos
Palat-Johnson-Kucherov
Namestnikov

Hedman-Stralman
Koekkoek-DeAngelo

Vasilevskiy

I think that is unfair.

So basically the same team they have now and bunch of question marks?

Buffalo to me is the farthest off. They have Eichel, an overpaid O'Reilly and then some good prospects. Not really sure how that leads one to believe they are going to win a cup anytime soon.

[troutman]

Tim and Sid asked John Shannon who the best team in Canada is. He said Calgary and they were both stunned, expecting him to say Montreal.

[Locke]

Yeah, this list was selected with a Yahtzee cup.

[Parallex]

Originally Posted by Five-hole

Buffalo I could go either way on. They have an incredibly deep prospect pool (very much unlike Edmonton) but man were they bad.

Yeah... but at least they were deliberately bad. It's one thing to suck when you're trying to suck (Like the Sabres) it's another thing to suck when you're trying to be good (Like the Oilers).

Ultimately the thing that makes this list seem reasonable to me is that it's based on 5 years and when I look at that top 10 list the only team that seems unreasonable would be the Habs.

[heep223]

Montreal is perennially overrated - they miss the playoffs 10/10 times if they didn't have god in net.

[Five-hole]

Originally Posted by Parallex

Yeah... but at least they were deliberately bad. It's one thing to suck when you're trying to suck (Like the Sabres) it's another thing to suck when you're trying to be good (Like the Oilers).

Ultimately the thing that makes this list seem reasonable to me is that it's based on 5 years and when I look at that top 10 list the only team that seems unreasonable would be the Habs.

Yeah. I'm still just so skeptical of the "suck for a while then get good" model. It's failed way way way more often than it's worked. Until a trashy team starts to show an inkling of winning, they're way more a Florida or an Edmonton than they are a Chicago.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by heep223

Montreal is perennially overrated - they miss the playoffs 10/10 times if they didn't have god in net.

no kidding, all this generational this and that

Price wins more games than anyone including Crosby

[ScorchyScorch]

+1 for Montreal is overrated. Just like Kipper covered a lot of blemishes during our 5 years of playoffs, Price gets them in each year, but the team itself doesn't have enough to go deep and seriously contend.

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by ScorchyScorch

+1 for Montreal is overrated. Just like Kipper covered a lot of blemishes during our 5 years of playoffs, Price gets them in each year, but the team itself doesn't have enough to go deep and seriously contend.

Price isn't going anywhere. As long as he's there they still have a shot. If he doesn't get hurt they may have beat the Rangers two years ago and been in the finals.