Despite Gagner being talented enough to hit the league before Turris, despite Gagner having more career pts already than Turris will ever obtain. Gagner was one of the most underrated Oilers through time and played with heart. he never got much help, he often had to play 2nd or 3rd line assignments, never complained, and was inclined to be invisible.
"Oh but Turris is better defensively" lol, yeah we're seeing that. has some of the worst numbers in the league
You guys are being extremely harsh on Turris after 9 games on watching him play with scrubs. Don't forget this team has been a tire fire for 15 years. I did however realize that I'm about as polished up on Sam Gagner as you are on Turris. Looking at some stats, Gagner, definitely had a much better start out of the gate to his carreer. There is no denying that Turris struggled, Ottawa took a chance on him. Turris was peaking when we sent him to Nashville, he had 9 points in 11 games at the time of the trade. He was good for 50-60 points a year playing as the first line center for the Sens and that's with max opportunities, he was on the powerplay etc.,
I do not remember Turris being a defensive liability on the Sens, he was mostly a plus player in his time there.
He went to Nashville to die. As I say.. he was peaking with the Sens the moment we sent him to Nashville and his production dropped off a cliff from there.. something in the water? Not sure.. similar situation I think where Nashville didn't need him in the top 6. Like I say, some players need to play with skill to produce offensively.. I can somewhat agree to that playing hockey as a kid, I could carry a couple scrubs around but if you gave me a skilled guy on my line who could read the ice and know where to be etc etc... I would produce at much higher levels. That is what Turris needs, he excelled with Mark Stone, Mike Hoffman and Erik Karlsson. High skill players.
Stone and Karlsson (in his prime) can be compared to playing with a poor man's Mcdavid and Draisaitl. Stone and Karlsson will put that puck on your stick from anywhere on the ice even when you are not expecting it.. they are not easy and predictable players to play with. Just like Mcdavid and Draisaitl.
I think Turris would excel extremely well in the current Oilers top 6. That is all I'm really saying, surely we can figure out the third and fourth lines, its the easiest thing to accomplish.
Turris - Mcdavid - ???
??? - Draisaitl - Yam
Kahun - RNH - ???
That's as balanced as we could get it right now?
For me? I would stack the top two lines and figure out the bottom 6.. if we don't have it internally then we best be looking externally and fix this problem.
Turris - Mcdavid - Pulj
RNH - Draisaitl - Yam
Kahun - ??? - ???
Of course we could always leave Turris at 3C and try Kahun with Mcdavid? Have we already seen a lot of that? Well they have only played 9 games so no we haven't seen anything..