Ferocian
Registered User
Edmonton Oilers April 2016 Depth Chart
Player name, shoots
Left Wing
Center
Right Wing
Left Defense
Right Defense
What we can take from this is the complete lack of depth down the right side of the ice. Almost all of our players shoot left. We have the players who play the left side, who all shoot left. All of our centers except Letestu shoot left. All of our skilled players except Eberle shoot left. Someone might think that would include Yakupov because he plays right wing, but he putts from the rough. He's a left shot who plays on his off side. The lack of right-shot options might explain the continued use of Eberle on the power play despite his lack of a one-timer and all of Letestu's power play time despite him being so far behind many other Oilers in terms of skill.
Another note on this is that while Eberle is a very skilled player and produces a lot of points each season, he's not known for his ability to take pucks off of opposing players or pressure them. Nor is Yakupov. Our right side defensively seems to consist of Jordan Oesterle as the main person who's been able to do a reasonable job of stopping the opposition. I'd only peg him in terms of standard NHL quality as a #4 or #5 defenceman. Gryba and Fayne would be closer to #6 or #7, fairly standard third pairing players.
The obvious takeaway from all of this is that the righthand side of the ice is a weakness that opposing players can exploit game after game. Having a top line player like Eberle is fine as long as you have a stud defenceman behind him to keep things locked down. Not having one there means the opposition has one side of the ice that they can reliably drive up to get the puck into the attacking zone. I believe management was trying to address this problem when they picked up Zack Kassian, but his play hasn't been good enough for the most part for me to change my stance on the idea that the entire right side of the ice is a liability. That lack of right side depth is what results in a player like Justin Schultz getting 24 minutes a night and getting lit up over and over again. This has been a team weakness in my opinion since the loss of Steve Staios in 2009-2010.
I would put the Oilers roster priorities as; #1 a skilled and physical Right Defenseman. #2 a skilled and physical Right Winger. Unfortunately because of the way that our skilled centers shoot, moving one of them to the right wing wouldn't be ideal. When it comes to the notion of trading away assets in a position of strength in order to improve a position of weakness, I'd put our depth in this order in terms of quality; #1 Centers, #2 Left Wingers, #3 Left Defencemen. In terms of abundance of NHL calibre players, that would be Left Defencemen. I'd put the need of having a stronger right side as a high enough priority that it may be worth it for the Oilers to get slightly less than fair market value for the assets they trade away if it adequately addresses the areas of greatest need, with the stipulation that they don't trade away more than 1 left winger, 1 center or 2 left defensemen.
The Draft Lottery and What We Should Hope For
Because the Oilers finished in 29th place, the possible 1st round draft positions are; #1, #2, #3, #4 or #5. Any of the first 3 positions would be gained via lottery. The odds of the Oilers gaining one of the first 3 picks is worse if the Maple Leafs don't get the first overall pick. If the Maple Leafs do gain the first overall pick, the odds of the Oilers getting one of the next two picks increases significantly.
Likely Draft Choice by Draft Position
player name, position, shoots
1. Auston Matthews, Center, L
2. Patrik Laine, Left Wing, R
3. Jesse Puljujarvi, Right Wing, R
4. Jacob Chychrun, Left Defense, L
5. Matthew Tkachuck, Left Wing, L
I would argue that the Oilers would be better off *not* winning #1 in the lottery and winning #2 or #3 instead. Auston Matthews is the best player in the draft and conventional wisdom says to take the best player available at your draft position, even if it's a position of organizational depth. The theory is that even though you'll then need to trade one of the players at that position to another team, you've made your club overall stronger. However, recent NHL trade history has told me that you're unlikely to get fair market value when trading from a position of strength because other teams see them as an "extra" player for the organization trading them and aren't as willing to give up assets.
Meanwhile, the Oilers are already lacking skilled, physical depth on the righthand side. Patrik Laine is listed as a Left Winger but can and has played Right Wing. He could perfectly play Jordan Eberle's current job description: Right Wing at 5 on 5, left side on the powerplay. Laine is a more natural trigger man than Eberle on the powerplay, he's more of a shooter. He's also large and physical. Getting him in the draft would be ideal.
Our second best bet (some would argue first) would be Jesse Puljujarvi. He's a skilled, two way right wing that isn't as good of a shooter as Laine is but is a more well rounded player, more of a playmaker and plays a more complete game. He's physically smaller and is less of a goal scorer. He would also make a great addition to the Oilers.
Jacob Chychrun is a skilled left defenceman. He would make our defence corps better after some seasoning and physical conditioning, but it's a position at which we already have depth.
Matthew Tkachuck is a skilled left winger. Same objection as for Chychrun. One thing to note about Tkachuck is that he comes from the London Knights organization that seems to consistently produce players who come into the NHL with a professional mentality. Players drafted from that team rarely ever play below their draft position compared to their peers. Credit to the Hunter brothers for properly developing NHL talent at the junior level. If you want to see an impressive list, go to http://www.londonknights.com/article/knights-well-represented-on-nhl-opening-night-rosters . I can't help but think if Nail Yakupov had played for London instead of Sarnia, his problems with Eakins and McLellan wouldn't have happened. So, if we somehow end up being "stuck with Tkachuck", worse fates have happened.
Our Ideal Scenario
Ideally when the draft lottery happens, Toronto wins the first overall pick. This would both increase our odds of winning one of the next two picks, but also save us from ourselves with regards to picking Matthews. Ideally we win either the 2nd or the 3rd spot and select either Laine or Puljujarvi.
I think the Oilers management should wait until after the draft lottery before they consider making any trades, just to see what they have. Hopefully the lottery goes our way.
[mod]
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the article.
Player name, shoots
Left Wing
- Taylor Hall, L
- Patrick Maroon, L
- Benoit Pouliot, L
- Matt Hendricks, L
- Lauri Korpikoski, L
Center
- Connor McDavid, L
- Leon Draisaitl, L
- Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, L
- Mark Letestu, R
- Anton Lander, L
Right Wing
- Jordan Eberle, R
- Nail Yakupov, L
- Iiro Pakarinen, R
- Zack Kassian, R
Left Defense
- Oscar Klefbom, L
- Andrej Sekera, L
- Brandon Davidson, L
- Darnell Nurse, L
- Griffin Reinhart, L
Right Defense
- Jordan Oesterle, L
- Mark Fayne, R
- Eric Gryba, R
- Adam Pardy, L
- Adam Clendening, R
What we can take from this is the complete lack of depth down the right side of the ice. Almost all of our players shoot left. We have the players who play the left side, who all shoot left. All of our centers except Letestu shoot left. All of our skilled players except Eberle shoot left. Someone might think that would include Yakupov because he plays right wing, but he putts from the rough. He's a left shot who plays on his off side. The lack of right-shot options might explain the continued use of Eberle on the power play despite his lack of a one-timer and all of Letestu's power play time despite him being so far behind many other Oilers in terms of skill.
Another note on this is that while Eberle is a very skilled player and produces a lot of points each season, he's not known for his ability to take pucks off of opposing players or pressure them. Nor is Yakupov. Our right side defensively seems to consist of Jordan Oesterle as the main person who's been able to do a reasonable job of stopping the opposition. I'd only peg him in terms of standard NHL quality as a #4 or #5 defenceman. Gryba and Fayne would be closer to #6 or #7, fairly standard third pairing players.
The obvious takeaway from all of this is that the righthand side of the ice is a weakness that opposing players can exploit game after game. Having a top line player like Eberle is fine as long as you have a stud defenceman behind him to keep things locked down. Not having one there means the opposition has one side of the ice that they can reliably drive up to get the puck into the attacking zone. I believe management was trying to address this problem when they picked up Zack Kassian, but his play hasn't been good enough for the most part for me to change my stance on the idea that the entire right side of the ice is a liability. That lack of right side depth is what results in a player like Justin Schultz getting 24 minutes a night and getting lit up over and over again. This has been a team weakness in my opinion since the loss of Steve Staios in 2009-2010.
I would put the Oilers roster priorities as; #1 a skilled and physical Right Defenseman. #2 a skilled and physical Right Winger. Unfortunately because of the way that our skilled centers shoot, moving one of them to the right wing wouldn't be ideal. When it comes to the notion of trading away assets in a position of strength in order to improve a position of weakness, I'd put our depth in this order in terms of quality; #1 Centers, #2 Left Wingers, #3 Left Defencemen. In terms of abundance of NHL calibre players, that would be Left Defencemen. I'd put the need of having a stronger right side as a high enough priority that it may be worth it for the Oilers to get slightly less than fair market value for the assets they trade away if it adequately addresses the areas of greatest need, with the stipulation that they don't trade away more than 1 left winger, 1 center or 2 left defensemen.
The Draft Lottery and What We Should Hope For
Because the Oilers finished in 29th place, the possible 1st round draft positions are; #1, #2, #3, #4 or #5. Any of the first 3 positions would be gained via lottery. The odds of the Oilers gaining one of the first 3 picks is worse if the Maple Leafs don't get the first overall pick. If the Maple Leafs do gain the first overall pick, the odds of the Oilers getting one of the next two picks increases significantly.
Likely Draft Choice by Draft Position
player name, position, shoots
1. Auston Matthews, Center, L
2. Patrik Laine, Left Wing, R
3. Jesse Puljujarvi, Right Wing, R
4. Jacob Chychrun, Left Defense, L
5. Matthew Tkachuck, Left Wing, L
I would argue that the Oilers would be better off *not* winning #1 in the lottery and winning #2 or #3 instead. Auston Matthews is the best player in the draft and conventional wisdom says to take the best player available at your draft position, even if it's a position of organizational depth. The theory is that even though you'll then need to trade one of the players at that position to another team, you've made your club overall stronger. However, recent NHL trade history has told me that you're unlikely to get fair market value when trading from a position of strength because other teams see them as an "extra" player for the organization trading them and aren't as willing to give up assets.
Meanwhile, the Oilers are already lacking skilled, physical depth on the righthand side. Patrik Laine is listed as a Left Winger but can and has played Right Wing. He could perfectly play Jordan Eberle's current job description: Right Wing at 5 on 5, left side on the powerplay. Laine is a more natural trigger man than Eberle on the powerplay, he's more of a shooter. He's also large and physical. Getting him in the draft would be ideal.
Our second best bet (some would argue first) would be Jesse Puljujarvi. He's a skilled, two way right wing that isn't as good of a shooter as Laine is but is a more well rounded player, more of a playmaker and plays a more complete game. He's physically smaller and is less of a goal scorer. He would also make a great addition to the Oilers.
Jacob Chychrun is a skilled left defenceman. He would make our defence corps better after some seasoning and physical conditioning, but it's a position at which we already have depth.
Matthew Tkachuck is a skilled left winger. Same objection as for Chychrun. One thing to note about Tkachuck is that he comes from the London Knights organization that seems to consistently produce players who come into the NHL with a professional mentality. Players drafted from that team rarely ever play below their draft position compared to their peers. Credit to the Hunter brothers for properly developing NHL talent at the junior level. If you want to see an impressive list, go to http://www.londonknights.com/article/knights-well-represented-on-nhl-opening-night-rosters . I can't help but think if Nail Yakupov had played for London instead of Sarnia, his problems with Eakins and McLellan wouldn't have happened. So, if we somehow end up being "stuck with Tkachuck", worse fates have happened.
Our Ideal Scenario
Ideally when the draft lottery happens, Toronto wins the first overall pick. This would both increase our odds of winning one of the next two picks, but also save us from ourselves with regards to picking Matthews. Ideally we win either the 2nd or the 3rd spot and select either Laine or Puljujarvi.
I think the Oilers management should wait until after the draft lottery before they consider making any trades, just to see what they have. Hopefully the lottery goes our way.
[mod]
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the article.
Last edited by a moderator:
