I think Nurse is going to be a good defender, but dudes they drafted him over freakin' Ristolainen. Horrible move. Then their two biggest scouts head to Finland not knowing that Laine was in the Euro Hockey Tour. It's just this incompetence that has been throughout and I'm starting to think it all begins with the owner. Because seriously, what if they never really won the lottery? McDavid could have easily been on Arizona or Toronto instead. What would have happened to the oilers then? It's amazing how one player can help a franchise so much and how one player also can't help the Oilers get into a playoff spot.
Chiarelli and McLellan are better than the last regimen, but both are clearly overrated and sort of regressing in their valuation of players. I thought Avs breakout was bad, I had no effin clue what Oilers were trying to accomplish last night.
This is a team that should have already made some core moves to get help on the back end. They're still too attached with their players relying on free agents and struggling prospects to potentially rebound. Just look at Griffin, he was overrated in his draft year, and Oilers traded for him because they hope he can turn it around, and he hasn't. I still think he's going to be a NHL player, but definitely not to what certain people thought he could be. Sekera isn't bad, but he's never going to live up to that contract and was never the answer. He's more of a stop gap than anything now, but for which prospects? Klefbolm is good, but who else? Musil is looking like a bust and I can't think of anyone else.
And I think they're also overvaluing their player for trades. Eberle is good, but he won't be bringing back a top flight defenseman. Maybe something like a 2nd+middle pairing defender. Yakupov was atrocious last game and his trade value is dropping year after year. Again I don't think he's a bad player, but in a bad situation. RNH looks like he's going to top off as a good 2nd line centre. The most impressive player last night was Draisaitl at both ends of the ice. Actually he's the player I would trade if I was the Oilers. My reasoning why is because you already have your franchise 1st centre in McDavid, have your second line centre locked up on a good long term contract with Nugent-Hopkins. Draisaitl is looking like he will become better than Ryan, but with Leon, you have no idea what he will want for the future. He could easily become Ryan O'Reilly in terms of contract negotiations and demands. You'll know what you get with RNH and Leon might screw up their cap situation when McDavid is getting his 10ish millions, Nurse is off his ELC, Yakupov, and all the other top prospects they will have to sign soon to long term contracts. Or all the defenders they get back if they decide to trade one of their forwards.
