I'd have Pat Maroon and Kyle Clifford higher on that list. What would the 3rd line be?

Joensu/Gordon/Perron

I'd actually like a line up like that. Especially if zack smith was on the 4th line
- Killbot460

Clifford has proven he can play bigger minutes with quality linemates. decent idea.

im still hoping Gordon eventually gets pushed to the 4th and we get a truer 3rd line center.
Gordon's been great and I don't mean cut his minutes drastically. just that he'd be forced into all the tough defensive zone assignments and earn that overpayment.

but for now, I think that could be a very capable 3rd line

no. I was thinking gags+ for Matthias

and our first and nultz
for
foligno and ehrhoff
- hugefemale dog77

(frank) stop making me horny

(frank) stop making me horny
- Killbot460

fair enough.

I just think the nhl is about so much more than just having more talent than your opponent.
- hugefemale dog77

Chicago and Boston and others are among the leagues "smaller and lighter" teams. Yet they are tough to play against. Tampa Bay is a huge team but not known as tough to play against. Same with Winnepeg. Buff is big and scary but outside of him they are not tough.

Its more about the talent and ability to me. We simply don't have that on the back end. Chicago does. And they are not big. Boston does.

Yes, getting out of our own end is an issue but with our forward group we are only decent as long as they can maintain possession. Once they lose possession they simply cannot get the puck back, it ends up in our end where the struggle continues. Having some forwards with size would help with regaining possession thus helping keep the puck out of our end.

Goals for also are an issue, when we allow our own net to be filled. We are second last in our conference in goals for. With the talent level up front this is simply not acceptable and goes back to the point, once we lose control of the puck we are screwed!

I agree with you, our top 4 needs to be improved but considering our forward rank adding in a guy like Campbell (as recently talked about)would not help this team.

I think at this point you can add a couple forwards with size easier than you can add the type of defenseman needed for this team. At least it it a move in the direction needed for playing in the Western Conf.
- Tapdog

good post

fuking hell, I didn't realize we were that low.
I knew it was bad as it doesn't take a genius and im not a huge stats guy. I usually go by what I see and the trends I see forming throughout the game.

this is far more than an issue of our defence just getting the puck out of our defensive zone, or even starting the rush. this is a problem at both ends of the ice. and no chance is it squarely on goaltending or our defence.

I actually put better goaltending behind size and defensive acumen in our top 6 as far as pressing needs

I would add picks to Gagner and try and get Kulikov out of Florida as well. I think Gagner for Matthias could be a bit of an overpayment. Kulikov's value has to be down a bit too.

Say Gagner + 2 2nds for Kulikov and Matthias

I like your second deal.
- ystoil

I could buy into this deal but Matthias has only taken 89 draws this season and has only once barely cracked 50% in his career.
Now we would have the size but less offensive ability and still suck on the button?

Chicago and Boston and others are among the leagues "smaller and lighter" teams. Yet they are tough to play against. Tampa Bay is a huge team but not known as tough to play against. Same with Winnepeg. Buff is big and scary but outside of him they are not tough.

Its more about the talent and ability to me. We simply don't have that on the back end. Chicago does. And they are not big. Boston does.
- Iggysbff

I think for what ever system your team plays or style... you need a perfect mix of grit, compete, and skill.

The oilers seem to lack in 2 of the 3. Maybe if they had a gritty player on the top two lines they could find a way to win more games. I'm not just talking plugs though. But more like Ryan Smyth in his prime type of players.

I agree the back end has to be harder to play against.

Chicago and Boston and others are among the leagues "smaller and lighter" teams. Yet they are tough to play against. Tampa Bay is a huge team but not known as tough to play against. Same with Winnepeg. Buff is big and scary but outside of him they are not tough.

Its more about the talent and ability to me. We simply don't have that on the back end. Chicago does. And they are not big. Boston does.
- Iggysbff

toews and Bergeron man.

how can we compare our group to the two teams that possess the best defensive forwards in the game?

plus they got;

sharp who's strong defensively as well. saad aint no midget. hossa is a beast AND talented. and bickell is a net driving moose.

lucic is a monster. marchand is as gritty as they come and strong in his own end, krejci is very strong defensively. now they got Eriksson who's also an elite two way player...

apples and oranges.

u add toews or Bergeron to our group and we aint having this conversation.
but since we have what we have, I think adding the net driving mooses is probably the best course of action and the easiest to acquire

but no one in oilerville will disagree we aren't desperate for another quality defender.
this is a team game though and we need more than just one thing

toews and Bergeron man.

how can we compare our group to the two teams that possess the best defensive forwards in the game?

plus the got;

sharp who's strong defensively as well. saad aint no midget. hossa is a beast AND talented. and bickell is a net driving moose.

lucic? marchand? krejci is very strong defensively. now they got Eriksson who's also an elite two way player...
- hugefemale dog77

Youre missing the point. Those guys are not big and gritty. Our guys are working on their two way game. We don't need to replace them. That's way down the list of needs. Defense is where it all starts.

You don't need to be big and gritty to play a two way game.

Chicago and Boston and others are among the leagues "smaller and lighter" teams. Yet they are tough to play against. Tampa Bay is a huge team but not known as tough to play against. Same with Winnepeg. Buff is big and scary but outside of him they are not tough.

Its more about the talent and ability to me. We simply don't have that on the back end. Chicago does. And they are not big. Boston does.
- Iggysbff

I respect the talent issue but both teams provided has guys with size and willing to use it, also their talent is more incline NOT to take poop from anyone either.

If we had more guys like Perron I would agree with you but unforunately he is a lone wolf on this team. I would love for some of them to find their inner "Kenny Linseman" but...

toews and Bergeron man.

how can we compare our group to the two teams that possess the best defensive forwards in the game?

plus they got;

sharp who's strong defensively as well. saad aint no midget. hossa is a beast AND talented. and bickell is a net driving moose.

lucic is a monster. marchand is as gritty as they come and strong in his own end, krejci is very strong defensively. now they got Eriksson who's also an elite two way player...

apples and oranges.

u add toews or Bergeron to our group and we aint having this conversation.
but since we have what we have, I think adding the net driving mooses is probably the best course of action and the easiest to acquire

but no one in oilerville will disagree we aren't desperate for another quality defender.
this is a team game though and we need more than just one thing
- hugefemale dog77

well said!

on a side note, http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=436983 saw this and thought of you and a few of the debates weve had on the subject. funny this topic seems old to me but seems like tsn is a few months behind on the good subject matter.

that said gally crushes yaks

Youre missing the point. Those guys are not big and gritty. Our guys are working on their two way game. We don't need to replace them. That's way down the list of needs. Defense is where it all starts.
- Iggysbff

hossa is very big. he's 6'2, 215..
you think he's easy to take off the puck downlow? or for ebs to beat in a one on battle?
bickell, saad.
plus they also have the forwards who are fantastic defensively.

we shouldnt even be talking about boston. until this season they also had Nathan Horton who's a beast...along with lucic
these teams are FAR better from the back end. but there also bigger, more well rounded, better defensively etc etc

and im not missing the point. you're blaming everything on defence.
I cant see how anyone can relieve our forward group of defensive blame...
or think theyre effective enough in either end.
we're second last in the west in goals for. do we think this is just because our defence isn't starting the breakout good enough!?

well said!

on a side note, http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=436983 saw this and thought of you and a few of the debates weve had on the subject. funny this topic seems old to me but seems like tsn is a few months behind on the good subject matter.

that said gally crushes yaks
- munky123

they had this on tsn recently on the question panel thing they do.

oneill said murray. Mackenzie said galchenyuk and ward said he'd still take yaks.

well said!

on a side note, http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=436983 saw this and thought of you and a few of the debates weve had on the subject. funny this topic seems old to me but seems like tsn is a few months behind on the good subject matter.

that said gally crushes yaks
- munky123

I don't know why they have this going already. Probably to pile on the Yak hate that TSN enjoys to do. Both are still developing. It would've been a risky pick to take Gally 1st considering he missed an entire year of junior. We also didn't know if Gally needed Yak, but we knew Yak didn't need Gally to put up points. Safer pick. That being said, I didn't want Murray at No. 1, I said either Galchenyuk or Yakupov.

Also, look at the teams they play on. Montreal has better vets than the Oilers. Plekanec, Desharnais, Gionta, Subban, Markov, etc.

All that being said, Galchenyuk is a great player. Am happy with Yakupov though. Kid is starting to get some confidence going. Shows in his play.

Clifford has proven he can play bigger minutes with quality linemates. decent idea.

im still hoping Gordon eventually gets pushed to the 4th and we get a truer 3rd line center.
Gordon's been great and I don't mean cut his minutes drastically. just that he'd be forced into all the tough defensive zone assignments and earn that overpayment.

but for now, I think that could be a very capable 3rd line
- hugefemale dog77

Wow, that would be amazing! If Gordon is our 4th line C, things are going to go very well.

Youre missing the point. Those guys are not big and gritty. Our guys are working on their two way game. We don't need to replace them. That's way down the list of needs. Defense is where it all starts.

You don't need to be big and gritty to play a two way game.
- Iggysbff

starts with a goalie imo

also i seem to remember last year you saying you wouldnt take subban if he was given to the oil. would you now? people have been saying forever the oil need defense, no one, not even oiler management seemed to think they needed solid defense. sad.. so (frank)ing sad build from the goalie out.

if they had taken murray over yak even gally over yak, id have faith the managment group knew what the (frank) they were doing. no debate, yak is/was a great player leading up to the draft, but organisational needs should outweigh taking a chance on yaks....ive been saying this forever, look at the caps with ovi. incredible talent but with no d and suspect gtendin' they went no where! the oilers already had stud players up front, hall nuge eberle... why in the f u ck do you take yak? when your d and tending stink. makes no sense. even adding a c in gally would have made gags avail for trade and the potential for bringing in a solid def. oh well its in the past, lets just hope things get righted faster than they have been. imo bryz is not a bad pick up. the teams needs confidence and briz can and should be able to steal some much needed wins until they get back into the swing of things.

on a side note, is it true that dallas eakins has banned doughnuts and other "unhealthy" foods from the media scrums? the guy comes across as a real health nazi. coupled with extreme arrogance is he the right guy for the job...

they had this on tsn recently on the question panel thing they do.

oneill said murray. Mackenzie said galchenyuk and ward said he'd still take yaks.
- hugefemale dog77

you know where i stand, id love to see yaks in a habs jersey. either way just to bad the way things are panning out. love dem oilers!

I don't know why they have this going already. Probably to pile on the Yak hate that TSN enjoys to do. Both are still developing. It would've been a risky pick to take Gally 1st considering he missed an entire year of junior. We also didn't know if Gally needed Yak, but we knew Yak didn't need Gally to put up points. Safer pick. That being said, I didn't want Murray at No. 1, I said either Galchenyuk or Yakupov.

Also, look at the teams they play on. Montreal has better vets than the Oilers. Plekanec, Desharnais, Gionta, Subban, Markov, etc.

All that being said, Galchenyuk is a great player. Am happy with Yakupov though. Kid is starting to get some confidence going. Shows in his play.
- ystoil

good post


the last couple games are the first time I can say it seems as though yaks is actually making a positive impact. hopefully it continues

starts with a goalie imo

also i seem to remember last year you saying you wouldnt take subban if he was given to the oil. would you now? people have been saying forever the oil need defense, no one, not even oiler management seemed to think they needed solid defense. sad.. so (frank)ing sad build from the goalie out.

if they had taken murray over yak even gally over yak, id have faith the managment group knew what the (frank) they were doing. no debate, yak is/was a great player leading up to the draft, but organisational needs should outweigh taking a chance on yaks....ive been saying this forever, look at the caps with ovi. incredible talent but with no d and suspect gtendin' they went no where! the oilers already had stud players up front, hall nuge eberle... why in the f u ck do you take yak? when your d and tending stink. makes no sense. even adding a c in gally would have made gags avail for trade and the potential for bringing in a solid def. oh well its in the past, lets just hope things get righted faster than they have been. imo bryz is not a bad pick up. the teams needs confidence and briz can and should be able to steal some much needed wins until they get back into the swing of things.

on a side note, is it true that dallas eakins has banned doughnuts and other "unhealthy" foods from the media scrums? the guy comes across as a real health nazi. coupled with extreme arrogance is he the right guy for the job...
- munky123

Stopped reading after this.....dumb...

good post


the last couple games are the first time I can say it seems as though yaks is actually making a positive impact. hopefully it continues
- hugefemale dog77

Yep that Hemmer goal was created by Yakupov's speed through the neutral zone.

Also haven't seen any (that I can recall) huge defensive lapses on his part.

I don't know why they have this going already. Probably to pile on the Yak hate that TSN enjoys to do. Both are still developing. It would've been a risky pick to take Gally 1st considering he missed an entire year of junior. We also didn't know if Gally needed Yak, but we knew Yak didn't need Gally to put up points. Safer pick. That being said, I didn't want Murray at No. 1, I said either Galchenyuk or Yakupov.

Also, look at the teams they play on. Montreal has better vets than the Oilers. Plekanec, Desharnais, Gionta, Subban, Markov, etc.

All that being said, Galchenyuk is a great player. Am happy with Yakupov though. Kid is starting to get some confidence going. Shows in his play.
- ystoil

In the end 3 really good players that are going to be good for a long time. These types of polls are just to feed trolls and haters...

Well said we need a Top 6 guy with size and a legit top pairing D-man with SIZE
Eberle or Yak and our 1st for Subban
- jaredwildzee

I would be looking to try and aquire Weber over Subban. I am not saying Subban is no good but I think Weber has a better all around game than Subban and would be better choice to mentor Nurse. I think Nurse has the potential to turn into a future #1 for us but not having the right mentor(s) could hurt his development.

I don't know why they have this going already. Probably to pile on the Yak hate that TSN enjoys to do. Both are still developing. It would've been a risky pick to take Gally 1st considering he missed an entire year of junior. We also didn't know if Gally needed Yak, but we knew Yak didn't need Gally to put up points. Safer pick. That being said, I didn't want Murray at No. 1, I said either Galchenyuk or Yakupov.

Also, look at the teams they play on. Montreal has better vets than the Oilers. Plekanec, Desharnais, Gionta, Subban, Markov, etc.

All that being said, Galchenyuk is a great player. Am happy with Yakupov though. Kid is starting to get some confidence going. Shows in his play.
- ystoil

i thnk its the other way round look at gallys return vs yaks year in rus and as much as there was debate saying yak was the #1 there was equal amount of chatter saying gally was the reason yak found success in sarnia. even without yak gally put up 60+ p in 33 games to a measly 18p in 20 in russia for yak. that said i understand yak was playing with men, still the debate could be had.

I would be looking to try and aquire Weber over Subban. I am not saying Subban is no good but I think Weber has a better all around game than Subban and would be better choice to mentor Nurse. I think Nurse has the potential to turn into a future #1 for us but not having the right mentor(s) could hurt his development.
- EastCoastOiler

the little ive watched subban this year he's an absolute game changer. so dangerous and dominant.

but even though im in the minority that thinks weber is slightly overrated, I agree with what you're saying. we need to keep the puck OUT of our end, and then concentrate on scoring more. and webers size and tenacity are huge pluses for us as well

Stopped reading after this.....dumb...
- Iggysbff

hahaha i had to add this in sorry. that said when i even suggested a trade subban to the oil i got roasted. b4 he wont he norris. you guys cut deep