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Prospect Info: 2018 Draft: 1st pick: Evan Bouchard (D) - Sent back to London (11/02/18)

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SullivanT

SullivanT

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Has he already left for the worlds? Went to check the game logs from the knights last night and didn't see him in the lineup
 
YakDavid

YakDavid

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I have hated the fact we have sent him down. If being worried about losing him in the expansion draft is the problem then management is brain dead. We need an offensive defenseman and he provided that without looking out of place.
 
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Oilhawks

Oilhawks

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YakDavid said:
I have hated the fact we have sent him down. If being worried about losing him in the expansion draft is the problem then management is brain dead. We need an offensive defenseman and he provided that without looking out of place.
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Yeah, the expansion really blows right now. I imagine we'd have had a few more PP goals at least this season with Bouch QBing it. They could really use him right now even to keep Benning and Garrison's minutes much further down. Looking forward to seeing him play in the Worlds though.
 
McJadeddog

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Oilhawks said:
Yeah, the expansion really blows right now. I imagine we'd have had a few more PP goals at least this season with Bouch QBing it. They could really use him right now even to keep Benning and Garrison's minutes much further down. Looking forward to seeing him play in the Worlds though.
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The reality was that we were never going to be any good this year, and needed absolutely EVERYTHING to break right for us to even get a sniff at the playoffs. It is better for the team to keep Bouchard long term, then to win 1 or 2 more games this year (if you buy the argument that a 19 year dman can help you win games, which I'm not so sure of to begin with). Ideally, there wouldn't be the stupid CHL rule, and we could have played him in the AHL this year, but the rules are the rules (no matter how dumb they happen to be).
 
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BoldNewLettuce

BoldNewLettuce

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McJadeddog said:
The reality was that we were never going to be any good this year, and needed absolutely EVERYTHING to break right for us to even get a sniff at the playoffs. It is better for the team to keep Bouchard long term, then to win 1 or 2 more games this year (if you buy the argument that a 19 year dman can help you win games, which I'm not so sure of to begin with). Ideally, there wouldn't be the stupid CHL rule, and we could have played him in the AHL this year, but the rules are the rules (no matter how dumb they happen to be).
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Unfortunately this also means.....they should likely trade Koskinen....unless he resigns in the next two months.
 
McJadeddog

McJadeddog

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BoldNewLettuce said:
Unfortunately this also means.....they should likely trade Koskinen....unless he resigns in the next two months.
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Why? If he continues to play well, you resign him before he leaves as a UFA, or you sign him as a UFA in the offseason. With the way Talbot played last year, unless he REALLY turned it around this year, we were always going to be "UFA goalie hunting" this off-season. Having the exclusive bargaining rights with Koskinen (assuming he continues to play well) is worth more than whatever we would likely get back for him. Additionally, we are still in a playoff race. I don't think we have a snowballs chance in hell of actually making the playoffs, but we can't trade our starting goaltender when we are in a playoff race. Chia especially won't do this, as he is trying to save his job.
 
CornKicker

CornKicker

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BoldNewLettuce said:
Unfortunately this also means.....they should likely trade Koskinen....unless he resigns in the next two months.
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that doesnt even make sense? you have till june 30th to sign him, if they offer anything in the realm of fair he will sign the deal because A. the oilers took the chance to bring him to NA and B. he already knows he has a starting job.

as for bouchard he never should have been sent down. sending a dominant player back to JR doesnt help their development. AND hes better than benning/garrison/wideman. the expansion draft agrument is nonsense. we have already seen GMs manuver around the rules and why the hell would chiarelli care? he wont be here anyway. even he has to know that.
 
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TKB21

TKB21

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CornKicker said:
that doesnt even make sense? you have till june 30th to sign him, if they offer anything in the realm of fair he will sign the deal because A. the oilers took the chance to bring him to NA and B. he already knows he has a starting job.

as for bouchard he never should have been sent down. sending a dominant player back to JR doesnt help their development. AND hes better than benning/garrison/wideman. the expansion draft agrument is nonsense. we have already seen GMs manuver around the rules and why the hell would chiarelli care? he wont be here anyway. even he has to know that.
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Say what you want about management but it was absolutely the right decision to send him down. Would of made zero sense to waste a year of his ELC and risk losing him in expansion to play this year. This team doesn’t have the horses to shelter him enough and hopefully a recovered Sekera can help with that next year.

Klefbom-Larsson
Nurse-Russell/sekera
Sekera-Russell/Bouchard
 
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YakDavid

YakDavid

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McJadeddog said:
The reality was that we were never going to be any good this year, and needed absolutely EVERYTHING to break right for us to even get a sniff at the playoffs. It is better for the team to keep Bouchard long term, then to win 1 or 2 more games this year (if you buy the argument that a 19 year dman can help you win games, which I'm not so sure of to begin with). Ideally, there wouldn't be the stupid CHL rule, and we could have played him in the AHL this year, but the rules are the rules (no matter how dumb they happen to be).
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To me he makes the team better when he was playing opposed to not. Yet we have Matt "I can't pivot without falling" Benning on the blueline. Our defense isn't as bad as we tend to make out.
 
McShogun99

McShogun99

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Oilhawks said:
Yeah, the expansion really blows right now. I imagine we'd have had a few more PP goals at least this season with Bouch QBing it. They could really use him right now even to keep Benning and Garrison's minutes much further down. Looking forward to seeing him play in the Worlds though.
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He's an 18 year old Dmen, sending him down was the best thing for him regardless of team needs. The Oiler thing to do would be to keep him up for 30 games before realizing that he isn't ready.
 
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Oilhawks

Oilhawks

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McShogun99 said:
He's an 18 year old Dmen, sending him down was the best thing for him regardless of team needs. The Oiler thing to do would be to keep him up for 30 games before realizing that he isn't ready.
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I get where you're coming from and agree to an extent but I also don't think it's so black and white. If he could have gone to the AHL, then sure, probably. He's got little to prove in the OHL and was a positive contributor to the team, and would likely be the #4 Dman here by spring if not earlier. He has poise and maturity, oozes IQ and would help turn the PP around. This isn't like Schultz where he'd be playing on the top pairing right away and get caved.

I think we're really shell shocked with putting players who weren't actually ready in before they should have. Not to de-rail and hindsight is 50/50 as well, but this is probably how the past first rounders should have shaken out since Hall:

Hall - NHL
Nugent-Hopkins - flip a coin. I think he was ready enough for NHL
Klefbom - SEL (he was handled well)
Yakupov - Junior (though I think he busts no matter what)
Nurse - Junior (the right choice, should have seasoned in the AHL a little but oh well)
Draisaitl - Junior (should have gone back after the 9 games but whatever)
McDavid - NHL (duh...lol I remember people were saying we should let him stay in junior because of this gunshy attitude)
Barzal / Chabot / Eriksen Ek (the last two being what we would have likely chosen) - oops :sarcasm:
Puljujarvi - Liiga
Yamamoto - Junior
Bouchard - flip a coin, but AHL would have been absolutely ideal (I think this would be the same for Nuge as well). NHL at least challenges him to grow

So, Hall, McDavid, and Nuge with Bouchard being 50/50.

Yakupov was mishandled but likely busts anyhow, Draisaitl was fumbled but has excelled, Puljujarvi was mishandled but may be coming around slowly.

Basically all of the scouts agreed that Bouch was the most NHL ready outside of Dahlin. From what we saw I'd agree as well. Could see him having a 20-25 point season.

Edit: Not to nitpick but he was pretty much a 19 year old D man and while one could argue semantics (fairly), it is also part of why he was more ready and mature. He literally was older than a lot of the other drafted D.
 
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Fourier

Fourier

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McJadeddog said:
The reality was that we were never going to be any good this year, and needed absolutely EVERYTHING to break right for us to even get a sniff at the playoffs. It is better for the team to keep Bouchard long term, then to win 1 or 2 more games this year (if you buy the argument that a 19 year dman can help you win games, which I'm not so sure of to begin with). Ideally, there wouldn't be the stupid CHL rule, and we could have played him in the AHL this year, but the rules are the rules (no matter how dumb they happen to be).
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The Oilers are in a playoff spot right now and I think it would be a significant stretch to say the absolutely EVERYTHING has gone right this year.
 
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nabob

nabob

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Aug 3, 2005
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CycloneSweep said:
A top 6 winger ++? Nurse isn't even a top 4 defender on the majority of NHL teams. He has the potential to be a #3d but dudes not as young as people think. He is almost 24 and is almost a done product. He is a boneheaded defensemen with physical gifts. That's it. If a team was willing to move a Top 6 winger and add to that you jump on that all day every day.

Go look at his draft class. They have all pretty much become what they will become defense wise. Jones, Morrissey, Ristolainen, Zadorov, Theodore, Butcher, Pulock, Pesce. All pretty good defensemen and imo, I think Nurse is at the bottom of that pack with Pulock and Zadorov.
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You mean the same Morrisey that got easily beat by Jesse Puljujarvi the other game? Jones and Pesce are the only Dmen on that list that are better than Nurse defensively. The rest are clearly a level below. Zadorov is the only one who brings a similar physical game. Nurse in the last 100 games also ranks in about the middle points wise, while getting almost zero PP time.

Teams would give up a lot for Nurse, the continual put downs from his own fan base that began the day he was drafted won’t change that.
 
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McJadeddog

McJadeddog

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