GDT: Young Stars Tournament | Oilers vs Jets | 8:30PM

[frag2]

I think I've been most impressed with Jujhar Khaira this year. From interviews with him and his former coaches he seems crazy driven, and has continued to improve evidently up until now. Not sure where his ceiling is, but with his size and frame, drive and determination, I think he's the most likely forward to slot into the Oilers in the nearer future, given the top 6 are pretty much locked up (unless size+skill comes along). Guys like Roy could do something way down the line or if a piece gets traded, but Khaira could be up in a year or two if he progresses like this.

Klefbom is going to slowly come around, but I won't watch closely for the first couple months of the AHL season. It'll probably be ugly, and then meh, and then "Okay, here we go".

Khaira seems like he's extremely coachable and will listen. The type of warrior that "go be a ****** and hit their star" and he'll actually go out and do it

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Quick response.

Torres has been on good teams since here and well regarded on those good clubs. But in the case of the Canucks them not really seeing the value. Torres won't get a big contract anywhere because of the baggage, and Shanaban, but a solid hockey player and more consistent with hitting then maybe he was here. I see a more workman like attitude since being here. Also consider he doesn't get huge minutes and hit totals still up there. Plus that he has to worry about any hit being considered as axe murder. Mainly due to how hard he hits and that guys get some whiplash regardless of whether he initiates head contact or not. Still say one of the best pure hitters in the game. Generates tons of force through his legs. Think Peca but only stronger.

Optimism as far as this club checked out years ago with me. Really hard to be positive about the teams record of drafting post round 1 and I don't expect that to change much. Part of the reason is I see the team chronically going after certain types of players, then changing direction, changing direction, and it never stops. This is that drafts Steve Kelly instead of Shane Doan and the inanity hasn't stopped since then. Thankfully theres enough acumen in the org that they managed to pronounce Hall, RNH, Yakupov correctly.

As far as the lineup I saw last night the only players I see having much of a chance are Klefbom, Marancin, Mucil, Gernat. Pretty much what most people thought going in.

Gilbert, yeah, still like the player, they didn't I guess in Minny, lol. Not that I think N Schultz has been much better here. Just that this is a much weaker lineup to crack. Gilbert would still be here if he was still here if that makes any sense.

But I'll give you the Gilbert bone.

IMO guys that I think have the best shots at an NHL career are: Klefbom, Marincin, Roy, and Khaira are the cream of the crop.

The next group that have lesser shots but could get there are: Kessy, Ewanyk, Gernat, Davidson, Musil, and Chase

The group that has to show me a lot more includes pretty much everyone else (I haven't seen Nurse and Betker so I can't say about them until after today's game).

Khaira seems like he's extremely coachable and will listen. The type of warrior that "go be a ****** and hit their star" and he'll actually go out and do it

I haven't seen him take the body much to this point but he uses his size very well.

 

[Alberta]

here's an archive of this game: http://oilers.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=681708

 

[frag2]

IMO guys that I think have the best shots at an NHL career are: Klefbom, Marincin, Roy, and Khaira are the cream of the crop.

The next group that have lesser shots but could get there are: Kessy, Ewanyk, Gernat, Davidson, Musil, and Chase

The group that has to show me a lot more includes pretty much everyone else (I haven't seen Nurse and Betker so I can't say about them until after today's game).



I haven't seen him take the body much to this point but he uses his size very well.

I think there was a clip of him hitting in college that got him suspended or something. Don't remember. But ya, he appears very coachable. Here's hoping that our coaches preaches a mean mentality to our forwards. Be the aggressor type.

 

[BoldNewLettuce]

Would rather see
Platzer-khaira-Roy
Zharkov-yakimov-slepyshev
Kessy-ewanyk-chase
Bilckie-miller-houck

Davidson-marincin
Klefbom-gernat
Nurse-musil

Bunz

Still wouldn't win.

 

[Paralyzer008]

The Golden Bears are going to kill the rookies

 

[harpoon]

I watched most of two games and I'm sorry but that was some bad hockey on display.
This tournament should be called Prospects, or Hopefuls or anything but Young Stars.
Most of these guys will never see the NHL.

 

[bucks_oil]

You seemed to be arguing that Thomas is currently a top 5 goalie in the NHL. The point of my post was to highlight the fact that Thomas probably played his last game in the NHL two seasons ago so it probably doesn't make sense to include him in a list of current goaltenders.

Then you jumped into the conversation late... we were arguing about "you don't need an elite goalie to win the cup.... " (i.e. obviously we were talking about *when* he won the cup)

 

[bucks_oil]

Maybe we have different definitions of elite.
I'm willing to concede I was wrong about Thomas, you're right, he was an elite goalie.
But there is no way you're convincing me that Corey Crawford, MAF, or Anton Niemi are elite goalies. Sure, they're solid NHL starters, but elite? I'm talking about the upper 1%ers, maybe "elite" just gets tossed around too willie nillie.

No... I don't think I disagree with you on the definition of elite. *but*... where I think we're differing is on whether you need elite goaltending to win the cup.

I maintain that you DO. But you only need it for what... 16 of 20-25 games? So you don't need a consistently elite goaltender, I can agree to that... but the guy has to be playing elite that season... or at least that post season.

Think about Roloson. He was playing ABSOLUTELY ELITE in 2006. It is difficult to imagine ANY goaltender, including his HOF contemporaries playing better. Was Roloson typically and consistently an cap E elite goaltender? No... but he'd proven capable of it in stretches, and it turned out that Lowe was right in his bet that he could provide it in the pressure of the playoffs.

I think the same could be said for those other three names (to a degree)... especially Crawford. I still don't know how that guy could play so well, his 5-hole is always open... but he's converting this doubter as he is with Hockey Canada.

 

[scliff]

Then you jumped into the conversation late.

Yep, my bad...I missed the post before the one you quoted.

 

[caley]

Kinda late, but I was there for today's game and here's my thoughts.
-Oilers got robbed penalty-wise. They maybe wouldn't have held on to win the game, but the extra penalty for the fight/scrum to put them down 5 on 3 was a b.s. Oilers were really vocal with refs and habitual line-steppers all game, I'm guessing one of the refs got fed up and gave him the extra penalty. How you make that call when a team is already down 5-4 is beyond me.

-Franky Palazzese actually looked really good, despite letting in 5 goals. On one he was pushed into the net, another one was a deflection. He handles the puck really well, although sometimes a little too much. I wouldn't be upset if he were to get a main camp invite out of this.

-Kale Kessy is a friggin' menace, to opponents and teammates alike. If the Oilers can reign in his worst habits, he could be a Cal Clutterbuck-type player for the Oilers. He generates incredible momentum for his hits that just rattle the boards. Was put out on the ice after the Oilers were already down 5-2 in the last minute and he was determined he was going to put somebody through the boards, taking long runs at everyone. Ultimately, he hit Ewanyk which generated a huge round of applause from the Canuck fans in the arena.

-Ewanyk looked good. Showed some fire and threw some good hits.

-Abney was a good kind of noticeable, throwing some big hits.

-Nurse had a really good game, despite being -2. You can see he has a good read on the play and great skating. He looked more confident jumping into the play and will be a huge factor on games when he figures out how/when to do that. He didn't bowl anyone over with physical play, but he stood up for teammates. Nice bounce-back game from him.

-Miller is really fast, but I was a little disappointed with him, truthfully. He tries to pass too much and will sometimes give up on puck races to avoid contact.

-Khaira is going to be a force. He's already muscling bigger, and heavier players off the puck, if he can get his playing weight up to 215-225 lbs, he could be that power forward Edmonton has long coveted. He was Edmonton's best forward.

-Baddock left the 1st early, pointing to his leg. Then the P.A. system called a doctor to the locker-room, but he turned up at some point late in the 2nd and played fine, mainly in a defensive role on the PK.

-Bilke really wanted to fight someone but could never find anyone willing to go. He played all right, but was noticeably slow in racing to a lose puck.

-Chase was like Kessy Jr. In one post-whistle scrum, he threw punches at four different players (including one that, to me, looked like it might have been below the belt) before finding one willing to scrap with him.

-I didn't really notice Platzer, Fyten, or Schaber much, even though Plazter got a goal and Fyten was apparently -3. I was disappointed Fyten never fought someone so we could hear "Austin Fyten, five minutes for fightin.' "

-Roy had a really good game. My biggest problem with his play last year is he never used his decent frame to hit, but he played a really solid, physical game tonight. If he can add that physicality regularly to his superior puck skills, he could be a really special player.

-Davidson was good, despite being -3. Good skater, good compete level and took the puck right off the stick of attacking players a few times.

-Leach, Gernat and Betker had pretty quiet games. Gernat's got a nice reach for neutralizing opponents. Betker got better as the game went on.

-Musil didn't look very good. Had some poor turnovers.

-Lastly, the biggest bummer of the night is how damn good Kyle Bigos looked for San Jose. There was one power-where he was just controlling the puck at the point, making nifty plays and launching bombs at the net. He also played good defence, threw some hits, and even fought the monstrous Keegan Kanzig. He also looked even bigger than his advertised 6'4". 235 lbs. Don't know how the Oilers saw nothing in this guy? Not even on an AHL deal?!

 

[Soundwave]

Khaira seems like he's extremely coachable and will listen. The type of warrior that "go be a ****** and hit their star" and he'll actually go out and do it

I really hope Khaira can develop into a gritty third line center for us with some offensive upside. We need one of these lower round picks to finally pay off for us.

 

[Paralyzer]

Kinda late, but I was there for today's game and here's my thoughts.
-Oilers got robbed penalty-wise. They maybe wouldn't have held on to win the game, but the extra penalty for the fight/scrum to put them down 5 on 3 was a b.s. Oilers were really vocal with refs and habitual line-steppers all game, I'm guessing one of the refs got fed up and gave him the extra penalty. How you make that call when a team is already down 5-4 is beyond me.

-Franky Palazzese actually looked really good, despite letting in 5 goals. On one he was pushed into the net, another one was a deflection. He handles the puck really well, although sometimes a little too much. I wouldn't be upset if he were to get a main camp invite out of this.

-Kale Kessy is a friggin' menace, to opponents and teammates alike. If the Oilers can reign in his worst habits, he could be a Cal Clutterbuck-type player for the Oilers. He generates incredible momentum for his hits that just rattle the boards. Was put out on the ice after the Oilers were already down 5-2 in the last minute and he was determined he was going to put somebody through the boards, taking long runs at everyone. Ultimately, he hit Ewanyk which generated a huge round of applause from the Canuck fans in the arena.

-Ewanyk looked good. Showed some fire and threw some good hits.

-Abney was a good kind of noticeable, throwing some big hits.

-Nurse had a really good game, despite being -2. You can see he has a good read on the play and great skating. He looked more confident jumping into the play and will be a huge factor on games when he figures out how/when to do that. He didn't bowl anyone over with physical play, but he stood up for teammates. Nice bounce-back game from him.

-Miller is really fast, but I was a little disappointed with him, truthfully. He tries to pass too much and will sometimes give up on puck races to avoid contact.

-Khaira is going to be a force. He's already muscling bigger, and heavier players off the puck, if he can get his playing weight up to 215-225 lbs, he could be that power forward Edmonton has long coveted. He was Edmonton's best forward.

-Baddock left the 1st early, pointing to his leg. Then the P.A. system called a doctor to the locker-room, but he turned up at some point late in the 2nd and played fine, mainly in a defensive role on the PK.

-Bilke really wanted to fight someone but could never find anyone willing to go. He played all right, but was noticeably slow in racing to a lose puck.

-Chase was like Kessy Jr. In one post-whistle scrum, he threw punches at four different players (including one that, to me, looked like it might have been below the belt) before finding one willing to scrap with him.

-I didn't really notice Platzer, Fyten, or Schaber much, even though Plazter got a goal and Fyten was apparently -3. I was disappointed Fyten never fought someone so we could hear "Austin Fyten, five minutes for fightin.' "

-Roy had a really good game. My biggest problem with his play last year is he never used his decent frame to hit, but he played a really solid, physical game tonight. If he can add that physicality regularly to his superior puck skills, he could be a really special player.

-Davidson was good, despite being -3. Good skater, good compete level and took the puck right off the stick of attacking players a few times.

-Leach, Gernat and Betker had pretty quiet games. Gernat's got a nice reach for neutralizing opponents. Betker got better as the game went on.

-Musil didn't look very good. Had some poor turnovers.

-Lastly, the biggest bummer of the night is how damn good Kyle Bigos looked for San Jose. There was one power-where he was just controlling the puck at the point, making nifty plays and launching bombs at the net. He also played good defence, threw some hits, and even fought the monstrous Keegan Kanzig. He also looked even bigger than his advertised 6'4". 235 lbs. Don't know how the Oilers saw nothing in this guy? Not even on an AHL deal?!

From what I gathered, Bigos was going to pull a Schultz and Riley Nash on us so we had to trade him for another prospect.

 

[jebs]

Yeah he Schultzed us.

 

[caley]

From what I gathered, Bigos was going to pull a Schultz and Riley Nash on us so we had to trade him for another prospect.

Well he didn't pull a very good Schultz, as he didn't even get an NHL contract from San Jose.

 

[joestevens29]

Well he didn't pull a very good Schultz, as he didn't even get an NHL contract from San Jose.

Either way it was looking like ECHL for him if he stuck around in Edmonton. Had lots of competition ahead of him. Greener pastures for him in SJ at this point.