EDMONTON – It wasn’t so long ago the Edmonton Oilers were playing for the Stanley Cup against the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006. On June 25th in Los Angeles, the Oilers will have the top pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft due to having the worst record in the NHL this past season. While it might have been wishful thinking that the Oilers were going to go back to the finals this year, no one thought that things would go this badly this quickly.
The Oilers were the 27th ranked offense and were ranked dead in defense and face-offs. Edmonton power play was ranked 18th and 26th on the penalty kill. The team had one goal scorer with more than 20 goals (Dustin Penner) but they did have nine players with 10 or more goals. The teams’ strength is clearly down the middle of the ice with Sam Gagner, Gilbert Brule, Shawn Horcroff and Patrick O’Sullivan. Add to the mix Ryan Potulny, Andrew Cogliano, and Robert Nilsson and the Oilers appear to be very strong. Jordan Eberle is waiting in the wings and could make the team next season if a move is made.
Penner and Alex Hemsky do a solid job of patrolling the right side of the ice but only Ethan Moreau puts a scare into their opponents on the left side. Either someone who is currently a centerman moves to the left to balance things out, the Oilers could and should look to move one of their centers for a left winger but that probably won’t happen. The Oilers have two prized prospects knocking on the door in Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson and Linus Omark. At least one of them should make the team next year so if the Oilers move someone it would be for a defenseman or a goaltender.
Fernando Pisani and Mike Comrie are UFA’s and Gagner and Cogliano are RFA’s. Gagner should be resigned but outside of him the rest are hard to predict.
Defensively, Lubomir Visnovsky and Tom Gilbert were the backbone offensively, but in terms of the plus/minus ranking Ladislav Smid (plus five) and Alex Plante (plus one) were very good on defense on a bad Oilers team. Everyone else on defense needs to be re-evaluated. Prospect Jeff Petry could get a crack at the Oilers lineup come training camp.
All options are on the table in net. Nikolai Khabibulin is signed for the next few seasons but anything can happen in the offseason. Still, don’t look for the Oilers to take a goaltender with the top pick in the draft.
The debate around town these days of course revolves around two players: Taylor Hall and Tyler Seguin. While some might debate that Seguin is the better of the two, they better look at Hall’s track record and scoring ability, then try to come back with a better argument to take Seguin over all. Hall would fill a huge need on left wing, but even if he were to be move to center to take advantage of his speed and passing ability it wouldn’t be a bad move.
Drafting either player will allow the Oilers to trade some of their depth for some help on the backline. Still, Hall has been the “chosen one” for a long time now and you can bet the Oilers won’t pass on him no matter how many Seguin backers there are. Hall is too good to pass up. Some think he can be as good as some other former first overall pick, Sidney Crosby. That may or may not be true but the only thing that matters right now is what the Oilers think.
With that said, you can expect Kevin Lowe to step up to the podium and utter the following words.
“With the first pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, the Edmonton Oilers are proud to select, from the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League, Taylor Hall.” To learn more about Taylor Hall click on his name
Contact the author at Brian.Jennings@prohockeynews.com
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