Oilers Prospect Rankings #2

[Bryanbryoil]

Nurse for sure here. Marincin next.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Seriously? I'm not sure he's in my top 15

Where would you rank Houck since you are quite familiar with him?

 

[Senor Catface]

Nurse made the highlight reel on TSN at the WJHC camp today.

For all the wrong reasons.

Connor McDavid made him look like Steve Staios off the rush today. Great start - schooled by a 16yr old.

Oh, hopefully this will be like your anti-Hall/Schultz brigade.

 

[The Nuge]

Where would you rank Houck since you are quite familiar with him?

Around 10th, maybe a bit later. I'd say his absolute upside is a complementary 2nd liner/elite 3rd liner. He's a pretty safe bet imo though because he's got good hockey sense and is never shy about throwing his weight around. Because of his upside though, I rank him lower than a guy like Rajala who has shown he has what it takes to produce at a professional level

Edit: we should probably just move on to #3

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Around 10th, maybe a bit later. I'd say his absolute upside is a complementary 2nd liner/elite 3rd liner. He's a pretty safe bet imo though because he's got good hockey sense and is never shy about throwing his weight around. Because of his upside though, I rank him lower than a guy like Rajala who has shown he has what it takes to produce at a professional level

Edit: we should probably just move on to #3

I liked what I saw of him in youtube clips, he looks like the type of player that we could really use on our 3rd line.

 

[KarmaPolice]

What a bad set of forward prospects this team has. Like really really bad. Other than Lander who maybe projects to be a 3rd/4th liner, do any of them realistically project to get to the big leagues full time? Some might surprise and get there, but no one looks remotely close to helping the team in the next 2-3 years. I realize a large reason for this is that so all our early first rounders (and Eberle) are already in the show, but the picks outside of the first round...

(Nurse obviously)

Well, you can't forget about guys like Travis Ewanyk and Mitch Moroz. They're not "sexy" picks because they're not top 6 projected players, but they could be very good checking line players in the NHL, and that's something this organization hasn't been as good as it used to: developing bottom six players. They're just as important to winning as the Yakupovs and Eberles. I think the org. is finally starting to realize that--MacT at least seems to realize that with a lot of what he has spoken about in terms of team depth and quality bottom line guys. It's good to hear, and hopefully he can improve that area. The Boyd Gordon signing was certainly a good start, but as his signing shown, it's expensive to buy quality guys of his ilk; it's much cheaper to develop them. They need to start doing that ASAP, and not just try to hit home runs with super star, elite talent level players. It takes all kinds to win a championship. Pretty much every SC winning team--even the Oiler teams of the 80's--have shown this.

Sorry for wall of text.

 

[Toydarian]

I just watched the clip on TSN concerning McDavid's play against Nurse.

It wasn't even really much of a play. The puck was bouncing as Nurse attempted to swipe it away while simultaneously trying to make contact with McDavid. McDavid hops around Nurse, lifts Nurse's stick and regains control of the puck. However, at this point both players are behind the goal/red line by the boards. Nurse quickly re-establishes body position and rubs McDavid out as McDavid drops a pass to the trailer who is also below the goal/red line.

It wouldn't consider it an embarrassing play for Nurse.