Again Nuge is not a 1st line centre either. He wouldnt be on any of the Pacific teams, even Arizona where Hanzal is more established. He also wouldn't be on any Central with the exception of maybe Winnipeg, but Little has been pretty decent so even there probably not.
- mnhockeyguy

nuge is good. The draft is not a guarentee. You cant rely on it completely to build your roster, doing so is foolish. You do the best you can at the time and make sure to develop them properly and make sure you are constantly assessing and re-assessing the weaknesses of your team. A whole roster cannot be filled out from the draft table.

So you're saying that by 2011, the problem was that they systematically thinned out their defense through a series of trades that didn't even improve their forward core enough to provide us with any legit top 6 centres or impact scorers, leaving us with a need for talent at every single position?

I agree with you.
- Morris

Ha correct but they had drafted Eberle and Hall, even Gagne who was inconsistent could score! They needed to start focusing on their Dfense again and the picks you mentioned were not on the same par as Hamilton. Is the team today better with Nuge and Gagne gone? Nope. Would they be better with Hamilton starting to play meaningful minutes this season after some seasoning in the minors? Again it CANT BE ANY WORSE than it is and in Hamilton you would probably have your #1 dman for years to come. Instead you have a guy who isn't even a #1 center and the team is years from contending.

we should have taken murray over yak. From the sounds of it, that was Katz decision. Other than that, I think they did the best they could. Galchenyuk was injured for most of the season, it would have been foolish to use a #1 pick on a player like that when there was another player that was equally as good but was not injured and had actual draft year stats.
- gravis1982

Totally. 100%. You got it.

Ha correct but they had drafted Eberle and Hall, even Gagne who was inconsistent could score! They needed to start focusing on their Dfense again and the picks you mentioned were not on the same par as Hamilton. Is the team today better with Nuge and Gagne gone? Nope. Would they be better with Hamilton starting to play meaningful minutes this season after some seasoning in the minors? Again it CANT BE ANY WORSE than it is and in Hamilton you would probably have your #1 dman for years to come. Instead you have a guy who isn't even a #1 center and the team is years from contending.
- mnhockeyguy

We didn't draft Simon Gagne.

On behalf of the Oiler's management, I would like to apologize that our defensive prospects have not developed as quickly as Dougie Hamilton. We also apologize for not having been able to acquire Zdeno Chara, which would've help shelter our prospects.

Back to me: We have Nurse coming in, Marincin is not being used for whatever reason, and Klefbom is trending well.

If you love Dougie Hamilton so much, why don't you just marry him?

Also, Nugent-Hopkins is a 1C on many teams.

I'll give you credit, you are persistent at being stupid.

You need to do some research. We drafted Nuge in 2011, and at the time we had Ryan Whitney, who was top 5 in scoring among D-Men and looked every bit like the stud, number 1 Defender to anchor our blue line . Nobody, including you could have foreseen the strange injury where a team mate and him clashed skates , resulting in an injury that pretty much ended his career.
If you're going to use history and hindsight as a tool, you need to use all of it ( and accurately as well) , not just the parts that support your claims.
- Jeropotato

Murray was offensive but not good on the defensive side which was probably why he was bounced around like a ping pong ball. He was good for one season with the oilers than got progressively worse. Also Nuge is not a #1 centre right now. No one can say what he will be next year or the year after of course but based on today, Hamilton is trending towards an upper echelon dman and Nuge is, well, an oft injured centre who hasnt shown that he's worthy of his #1 overall draft pick yet.

Ha correct but they had drafted Eberle and Hall, even Gagne who was inconsistent could score! They needed to start focusing on their Dfense again and the picks you mentioned were not on the same par as Hamilton. Is the team today better with Nuge and Gagne gone? Nope. Would they be better with Hamilton starting to play meaningful minutes this season after some seasoning in the minors? Again it CANT BE ANY WORSE than it is and in Hamilton you would probably have your #1 dman for years to come. Instead you have a guy who isn't even a #1 center and the team is years from contending.
- mnhockeyguy

We are years away from contending regardless of who we drafted from day one of the conscious rebuild.
I don't care what combo of Seguin/Hall, RNH/Larrson/Landeskogg/Hamilton, Yak/Galchenyuk/MURRAY you slap together, the other 16 players on the ice will continue to ensure that we finish this season with a lottery pick.

We didn't draft Simon Gagne.

On behalf of the Oiler's management, I would like to apologize that our defensive prospects have not developed as quickly as Dougie Hamilton. We also apologize for not having been able to acquire Zdeno Chara, which would've help shelter our prospects.

Back to me: We have Nurse coming in, Marincin is not being used for whatever reason, and Klefbom is trending well.

If you love Dougie Hamilton so much, why don't you just marry him?

Also, Nugent-Hopkins is a 1C on many teams.

I'll give you credit, you are persistent at being stupid.
- ChetManly

Hmmm Sam Gagne you dolt... and no Nugent Hopkins is not a #1 on any team in the West except Edmonton who is... you know... TERRIBLE!

Ha correct but they had drafted Eberle and Hall, even Gagne who was inconsistent could score! They needed to start focusing on their Dfense again and the picks you mentioned were not on the same par as Hamilton. Is the team today better with Nuge and Gagne gone? Nope. Would they be better with Hamilton starting to play meaningful minutes this season after some seasoning in the minors? Again it CANT BE ANY WORSE than it is and in Hamilton you would probably have your #1 dman for years to come. Instead you have a guy who isn't even a #1 center and the team is years from contending.
- mnhockeyguy

You say Nuge isn't a #1 Center.....might that be because he is 21?
Also, since 2010 when Seguin was drafted, can you name a single #1 Center drafted? How about we judge a player when he comes closer to hitting his prime at say, age 25?

We are years away from contending regardless of who we drafted from day one of the conscious rebuild.
I don't care what combo of Seguin/Hall, RNH/Larrson/Landeskogg/Hamilton, Yak/Galchenyuk/MURRAY you slap together, the other 16 players on the ice will continue to ensure that we finish this season with a lottery pick.
- Jeropotato

That is the most intelligent post I've seen from an Oilers fan!

We are years away from contending regardless of who we drafted from day one of the conscious rebuild.
I don't care what combo of Seguin/Hall, RNH/Larrson/Landeskogg/Hamilton, Yak/Galchenyuk/MURRAY you slap together, the other 16 players on the ice will continue to ensure that we finish this season with a lottery pick.
- Jeropotato

Bingo!

Hmmm Sam Gagne you dolt... and no Nugent Hopkins is not a #1 on any team in the West except Edmonton who is... you know... TERRIBLE!
- mnhockeyguy

He's making fun of your spelling you DOLT! G-A-G-N-E-R

Hmmm Sam Gagne you dolt... and no Nugent Hopkins is not a #1 on any team in the West except Edmonton who is... you know... TERRIBLE!
- mnhockeyguy

Still didn't draft that guy either. Ok, so you can keep your blinders on, and we will acknowledge that RNH has become a solid NHL 1C and will continue to emerge towards the top.

He's making fun of your spelling you DOLT! G-A-G-N-E-R
- Jeropotato

ok, whatever, Sam Ganger.

We didn't draft Simon Gagne.

On behalf of the Oiler's management, I would like to apologize that our defensive prospects have not developed as quickly as Dougie Hamilton. We also apologize for not having been able to acquire Zdeno Chara, which would've help shelter our prospects.

Back to me: We have Nurse coming in, Marincin is not being used for whatever reason, and Klefbom is trending well.

If you love Dougie Hamilton so much, why don't you just marry him?

Also, Nugent-Hopkins is a 1C on many teams.

I'll give you credit, you are persistent at being stupid.
- ChetManly

at some point in the future....say 3 years from now

1d -???
2d - Nurse
3d - Petry
4d - Marincin
5d - Klefbom
6d - Schultz

we will never have a franchise defenseman like webber or a doughty or a chara. We simply have not drafted a sure thing like that. What we need is a #2 through free agency or trade and get him on a good contract. Then, we pray that Nurse develops into a #1 one day, but to not count on it happening. And over the next 5-7 years while we have 2 #2 dmen we just wait to see if we can package our non-drafted #2 D plus a 1st and a good prospect for a #1 D on a team thats looking to rebuild and/or shed salary.

The fate of the oilers right now is resting on darnell nurse and mac T's ability to acquire a #2 or higher defenseman sometime in the next 3 years. Center is a problem, but we only really need a good #3 C, which shouldn't be too difficult.

Things are so easy on the internet

This is like a group of chickens pecking on a worm- the mn troll is getting pecked to death here...

That is the most intelligent post I've seen from an Oilers fan!
- mnhockeyguy

Yeah well you should try to keep up, that post was directed at your idiocy. The problem on the oilers is depth and quality at all positions, none of which would be remedied by different selections in the Hall,Nuge or Yak drafts.

Having said that, we have enough misfitting assets now that we should be able to trade for the right fitting pieces in the next 12-14 months.

at some point in the future....say 3 years from now

1d -???
2d - Nurse
3d - Petry
4d - Marincin
5d - Klefbom
6d - Schultz

we will never have a franchise defenseman like webber or a doughty or a chara. We simply have not drafted a sure thing like that. What we need is a #2 through free agency or trade and get him on a good contract. Then, we pray that Nurse develops into a #1 one day, but to not count on it happening. And over the next 5-7 years while we have 2 #2 dmen we just wait to see if we can package our non-drafted #2 D plus a 1st and a good prospect for a #1 D on a team thats looking to rebuild and/or shed salary.

The fate of the oilers right now is resting on darnell nurse and mac T's ability to acquire a #2 or higher defenseman sometime in the next 3 years. Center is a problem, but we only really need a good #3 C, which shouldn't be too difficult.

Things are so easy on the internet
- gravis1982

Would not surprise me one bit if we dont end up with that franchise dman at this years draft...

at some point in the future....say 3 years from now

1d -???
2d - Nurse
3d - Petry
4d - Marincin
5d - Klefbom
6d - Schultz

we will never have a franchise defenseman like webber or a doughty or a chara. We simply have not drafted a sure thing like that. What we need is a #2 through free agency or trade and get him on a good contract. Then, we pray that Nurse develops into a #1 one day, but to not count on it happening. And over the next 5-7 years while we have 2 #2 dmen we just wait to see if we can package our non-drafted #2 D plus a 1st and a good prospect for a #1 D on a team thats looking to rebuild and/or shed salary.

The fate of the oilers right now is resting on darnell nurse and mac T's ability to acquire a #2 or higher defenseman sometime in the next 3 years. Center is a problem, but we only really need a good #3 C, which shouldn't be too difficult.

Things are so easy on the internet
- gravis1982

Seabrook?

Seabrook?
- HawkfaninBC

Nikitin-Seabrook swap? Or do you want Jultz?

Nikitin-Seabrook swap? Or do you want Jultz?
- ChetManly

Both- trade both- 2 for 1 just like pizza

You say Nuge isn't a #1 Center.....might that be because he is 21?
Also, since 2010 when Seguin was drafted, can you name a single #1 Center drafted? How about we judge a player when he comes closer to hitting his prime at say, age 25?
- Jeropotato

Monahan, Granlund off the top of my head. But once again when you are the 1st overall pick you are many time expected to come in and have a meaningful impact! The team has progressively gotten worse with Nuge getting top minutes.

, id wait atlas till the 41 game mark. If CGY's goalies are able to keep posting numbers like this, ill agree they are. They defensive system is allowing mainly low quality shots. But if it decreases significantly, the flames are plummeting.

The Flames are building from the back end out. Unlike the oilers who tried building from the forwards back. Calgary and all other franchises (buffalo and what not) are gonna do exactly opposite of this inept management and make the playoffs before us.

Eakin's was right. defense wins championships. Only issue, we have ZERO, and we clearly don't have a system that gets the most out of the defenders we do that.

- JasonDh

I disagree pretty much 100% here.

Calgary is building from center ice. They don't have a single high draft pick in their system or on their team that's a high pick on the back end. Giordano is excellent and Brodie is very good, but you can't say that an I drafted player and a 4th round pick equals building from the back end. They in a way licked out that those players happened to be as good as they are. Obviously some of that is with calgary's development, but Calgary is drafting all forwards.

Recently in the first round they have drafted

Sven bartchi
Jankowski
Monahan
Poirer
Klimchuck
Bennett.

None of those guys are defenseman. They have managed one elite pairing and have gotten great goaltending. They aren't doing much of anything different than what Edmonton did except for have a Norris and potentially hart trophy level defenseman.

Nikitin-Seabrook swap? Or do you want Jultz?
- ChetManly

How about Ebs? We will throw in Bickell

Monahan, Granlund off the top of my head. But once again when you are the 1st overall pick you are many time expected to come in and have a meaningful impact! The team has progressively gotten worse with Nuge getting top minutes.
- mnhockeyguy

Well unless MacT gets some balls and does something to right away this ship (which he wont)- we are done for this year anyway- therefore may very well end up with McDavid or Eichel anyway- at that time I guess this 1C and 2C can sort itself right

Would not surprise me one bit if we dont end up with that franchise dman at this years draft...
- saskoil21

okay. Let me ask my fellow Oilers fans this:we all expect the Oilers to eventually contend. Is this the core roster you expect them to dominate with 4 or 5 years from now?
Hall RNH Eberle
(2016 1st ) Leon Draisaitl Nail Yakupov
Mitch Moroz Yakimov Chase

(2015 1st)Darnell Nurse
Fayne Marincin
Schultz Klefbom

Brossoit /yet undrafted player

???????
Serious Question. Is this how you all see it going down?
My vision is quite different.