a quick look at last summers ufa centers

[Mr Sakich]

time for a reality check. Last summer's crop of ufa centers was stasny and a bunch of risky guys. Stasny went home to St Louis and was never considering anywhere else. It is a common lament on this board that Mact did not sign one of the other guys but what did we miss out on?

Ribero - by far, the best of the bunch but all sorts of character issues. This one could have blown up just as easily as working out. Most gm thought it was not worth the risk. I am very happy for him but, if he signed with the oilers, he would probably be in Betty Ford right now. 26 points

Grabovsky - voted most likely to succeed and got top dollar considering his track record. 12 points on a high scoring team.

Roy - like ribero, very risky signing and it is not working out. 10 points.

Legwand - old and slow. 13 points.

Bolland - signed a massive contract. 2 points in 9 games.

Boyle - signed a big contract. 9 points

ott - signed for more than he is worth. 6 points.

Arco - 9 points. Not great but in the same range as most of the guys we ***** about missing out on.

In a perfect world, we would have signed stasny. Other than him, it was a crap shoot. Of the other top 7 guys available, only one is an obvious upgrade. What are the odds that we would have picked the right one?

Click to read more...

 

[Philly85*]

Every single one of those centres is significantly better than Arcobello and LD, regardless of point totals. I'm pretty sure the list of mid level C's was a bit longer than that as well.

 

[Lacaar]

Yup.. we were screwed no matter what.

I don't blame Mac T.

I blame our horrible.. horrible.. disgustingly sad.. miserably and every other word you can say to describe failure of a development system. Scouting, farm team, NHL team.

They've all come together in one massive ball of futility.

Take out RNH and we haven't drafted and developed so much as a 3rd line center over the last 10 years.

Off the top of my head the two best centers we've drafted recently are Stoll and Brodziak.

Gagner was looking great to start.. but hit a brick wall and never improved 1 bit since entering the NHL.

 

[Mr Positive]

There was also Goc, Brad Richards, Jussi Jokinen, Ollie Jokinen, Santorelli and Cammalleri

The list gets smaller when you subtract guys who were swayed by the appeal of playing on a good team (Stastny, Richards, Ott, Goc, Boyle), and players who were wooed with long term contracts that would have the potential to wreck our cap in a few years (Bolland, Grabovksi, Boyle, Cammalleri, J.Jokinen)

I have to admit that even though I like MacT, he said something like that he didn't want to get a stop gap type of center.... which seems to me exactly what we should have got. Santorelli is clearly the one that got away from this list imo. Cheap, short term, and playing really great. There's definitely some hindsight revision there though. I wanted Legwand and wouldn't mind him on this roster still, but he's not as good as he looked last year, and could be worse here yet.

 

[Perfect_Drug]

Even at that contract, I'd take Bolland.

 

[Staghorn]

At the end of the day, pretty much any of those guys are a upgrade in that aside from RNH and Godon, the team doesnt have any oher NHL centres. This resulted in playing an AHL player and a 18yr old rookie whi should have been in junior. Brutal mistake.

 

[Spawn]

The issue isn't so much Arcobello (although it is, he's not an NHLer either) but Draisaitl who is the least effective forward on the team and having his development potentially stunted by being here.

I'd take any of those guys here in a heartbeat if for the lone fact that it would have meant the Oilers would have sent Draisaitl back to juniors.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

time for a reality check. Last summer's crop of ufa centers was stasny and a bunch of risky guys. Stasny went home to St Louis and was never considering anywhere else. It is a common lament on this board that Mact did not sign one of the other guys but what did we miss out on?

Ribero - by far, the best of the bunch but all sorts of character issues. This one could have blown up just as easily as working out. Most gm thought it was not worth the risk. I am very happy for him but, if he signed with the oilers, he would probably be in Betty Ford right now. 26 points

Grabovsky - voted most likely to succeed and got top dollar considering his track record. 12 points on a high scoring team.

Roy - like ribero, very risky signing and it is not working out. 10 points.

Legwand - old and slow. 13 points.

Bolland - signed a massive contract. 2 points in 9 games.

Boyle - signed a big contract. 9 points

ott - signed for more than he is worth. 6 points.

Arco - 9 points. Not great but in the same range as most of the guys we ***** about missing out on.

In a perfect world, we would have signed stasny. Other than him, it was a crap shoot. Of the other top 7 guys available, only one is an obvious upgrade. What are the odds that we would have picked the right one?

I love how the Oilers didn't want him cause he may be a cancer in the locker room

 

[Android 16]

time for a reality check. Last summer's crop of ufa centers was stasny and a bunch of risky guys. Stasny went home to St Louis and was never considering anywhere else. It is a common lament on this board that Mact did not sign one of the other guys but what did we miss out on?

Ribero - by far, the best of the bunch but all sorts of character issues. This one could have blown up just as easily as working out. Most gm thought it was not worth the risk. I am very happy for him but, if he signed with the oilers, he would probably be in Betty Ford right now. 26 points

Grabovsky - voted most likely to succeed and got top dollar considering his track record. 12 points on a high scoring team.

Roy - like ribero, very risky signing and it is not working out. 10 points.

Legwand - old and slow. 13 points.

Bolland - signed a massive contract. 2 points in 9 games.

Boyle - signed a big contract. 9 points

ott - signed for more than he is worth. 6 points.

Arco - 9 points. Not great but in the same range as most of the guys we ***** about missing out on.

In a perfect world, we would have signed stasny. Other than him, it was a crap shoot. Of the other top 7 guys available, only one is an obvious upgrade. What are the odds that we would have picked the right one?

The contract makes everyone upset for sure. But, if you're insinuating that he's not effective because he's got 2 points in 9 games, then you're wrong. He does all the things on and off the ice that you need to transform your club's atmosphere into a winning environment. Not saying all you need is one Bolland, because that's not right either. On the depth chart, he compliments our young guys nicely. Plus, a couple of clutch shootout goals the past two games don't hurt either.

 

[Tyrolean]

The post makes the false assumptiom that most of the centers would not want to come here.

 

[doulos]

Bolland might be making too much money, but he's been an effective player, particularly lately. The Panthers play a style of hockey that would make Oiler fans sleep very well at night and you can see the results.

The Oilers would take Bolland 11 times out of 10 over Arcobello, and that's coming from someone who feels Arcobello gets a little bit of a rough go at times.

 

[DakrSnooze]

I would have liked Mac to take a shot at Legwand. Sure he's not the game changer we all want but at least he could shelter LD and help him transition his game. Santorelli would have been a nice depth signing too.

 

[Burnt Biscuits]

Mathieu Perreault should be included on the list as well as Jokinen who we were lucky to miss out on.

 

[McShogun99]

Legwand would have been the perfect stop gap center while Draisaitl spent 2 years in the junior. I don't understand why we usually rush prospects. Eberle spent 2 years in junior and now he's a top RW. Nurse spent 2 years in junior and I 100% believe that he'll be an effective 1st pairing defenceman. Draisaitl is going to be very good by the time he's 22, no point in destroying him right now.

 

[skorf]

Lets quick looking back and lets look forward and see who we can miss out on in the summer of 2015....

 

[Burnt Biscuits]

Lets quick looking back and lets look forward and see who we can miss out on in the summer of 2015....

Vermette and Soderberg are on the top of my list of hopefuls, who we will likely miss out on. Jarret Stoll and Mike Fisher are good guys to pick up to fill out a 3rd line center role on the team, though I'm sure them and Soderberg will prefer to stay where they presently are, Vermette is the only one I see as likely to hit the market as Phoenix is typically stingy about opening up the cheque book.

 

[SnapVirus]

add Scott Gomez who has 7pts in 9games and only cost like what 500 000$?

 

[Bangers]

Why sign a stopgap C when you can throw a season away for McEichel?
- Craig MacTavish

 

[Kepler 186f]

There was also Goc, Brad Richards, Jussi Jokinen, Ollie Jokinen, Santorelli and Cammalleri

The list gets smaller when you subtract guys who were swayed by the appeal of playing on a good team (Stastny, Richards, Ott, Goc, Boyle), and players who were wooed with long term contracts that would have the potential to wreck our cap in a few years (Bolland, Grabovksi, Boyle, Cammalleri, J.Jokinen)

I have to admit that even though I like MacT, he said something like that he didn't want to get a stop gap type of center.... which seems to me exactly what we should have got. Santorelli is clearly the one that got away from this list imo. Cheap, short term, and playing really great. There's definitely some hindsight revision there though. I wanted Legwand and wouldn't mind him on this roster still, but he's not as good as he looked last year, and could be worse here yet.

What? Cammalleri plays left wing.

 

[nexttothemoon]

Why sign a stopgap C when you can throw a season away for McEichel?
- Craig MacTavish

A bold and very visually adept move.

 

[JetsOilersfan]

time for a reality check. Last summer's crop of ufa centers was stasny and a bunch of risky guys. Stasny went home to St Louis and was never considering anywhere else. It is a common lament on this board that Mact did not sign one of the other guys but what did we miss out on?

Ribero - by far, the best of the bunch but all sorts of character issues. This one could have blown up just as easily as working out. Most gm thought it was not worth the risk. I am very happy for him but, if he signed with the oilers, he would probably be in Betty Ford right now. 26 points

Grabovsky - voted most likely to succeed and got top dollar considering his track record. 12 points on a high scoring team.

Roy - like ribero, very risky signing and it is not working out. 10 points.

Legwand - old and slow. 13 points.

Bolland - signed a massive contract. 2 points in 9 games.

Boyle - signed a big contract. 9 points

ott - signed for more than he is worth. 6 points.

Arco - 9 points. Not great but in the same range as most of the guys we ***** about missing out on.

In a perfect world, we would have signed stasny. Other than him, it was a crap shoot. Of the other top 7 guys available, only one is an obvious upgrade. What are the odds that we would have picked the right one?

Yeah I disagree completely here - it's not about any of those guys you listed, it's about allowing Leon to go back to Junior where he belongs to develop more. That's the issue - who cares who signed out of that group - a two year 8 million dollar deal would have been worth it if we got a bonafide rookie of the year candiate in Dri in two years time.

 

[Cloned]

Yeah I disagree completely here - it's not about any of those guys you listed, it's about allowing Leon to go back to Junior where he belongs to develop more. That's the issue - who cares who signed out of that group - a two year 8 million dollar deal would have been worth it if we got a bonafide rookie of the year candiate in Dri in two years time.

The things Drai needs to work on - skating, balance - aren't necessarily best learned in junior.

I'd actually argue that going back to Junior would be a waste of a development year. Drai is the type of player who needs his limits pushed at this point - going back to junior and being able to fall back on his size to dominate isn't what he needs. He needs to be pushed so that he knows exactly what he needs to work on at this level. At this point I'm pretty sure he's aware of it.

That said - it doesn't necessarily excuse MacT from not getting a stopgap 2C though. Drai would be better served at this level, but without the pressure of being an offensive C right now.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

Sweet zombie jesus, that Bolland Contract is even more horrendous then I thought. Wow.

 

[Halibut]

The things Drai needs to work on - skating, balance - aren't necessarily best learned in junior.

I'd actually argue that going back to Junior would be a waste of a development year. Drai is the type of player who needs his limits pushed at this point - going back to junior and being able to fall back on his size to dominate isn't what he needs. He needs to be pushed so that he knows exactly what he needs to work on at this level. At this point I'm pretty sure he's aware of it.

That said - it doesn't necessarily excuse MacT from not getting a stopgap 2C though. Drai would be better served at this level, but without the pressure of being an offensive C right now.

That gets said a lot but I dont see why that is true. Skating isnt something you work on during games, you can test it in games but it's developed mostly through practice and they get much more time for that in junior. I think keeping him up for 9 games so he could see what the bigs was like and what he'd have to work on was a good idea. After that he would likely have been better off back in junior and if they had to pay a trainer to go check on him and make sure he's working on the right things do it.

 

[HotToddy75]

The Oilers lack of depth at C is a decades old problem.

If you go to CapGeek and look at contracts by position, few teams have as few C's as the Oilers, and of course no teams look as weak as the Oilers at C. Hockey DB is the same. Although for both sites some players are mistakenly labeled.

There are 6 players on the ice. 1/6 are centers. 2/6 are dmen, 2/6 wingers 1/6 goalies. That's 17% and 33%.

Here's a list of capgeek centres as x/50 man roster:
Edmonton - 9 c's - 18%
Anaheim - 11 c's - 22%
Chicago - 12 c's - 24%
TB - 11 c's - 22%
LA - 9 c's - 18%
SJ - 14 c's - 28%
BUF - 14 c's - 28%
Pitts - 14 c's - 28%
NSH - 14 c's - 28%
MTL - 11 c's - 22%

Lowetide is always talking about balance. EDM is VERY unbalanced at the centre position. Not only do other teams focus more heavily on this position, but EDM's problem is doubled because UFA C's don't want to come here.

Each draft is 7 rounds. The Oilers should be drafting 2 c's , 3 d's and no more than 1 winger and 1 goalie each year. What have they done?

2014 1C, 1D, 2G, 2W / 6
2013 4C, 2D, 0G, 3W / 9
2012 1C, 2D, 0G, 4W / 7
2011 2C, 4D, 2G, 1W / 9
2010 2C, 3D, 1G, 5W / 11

That's 42 picks. 10 c's. Just 24%. Pretty tough to get up to the 28% level like some of the good teams, especially when you can't sign C's as UFA's that often.