Which is a greater need, wingers who can score or D-men who can transition the puck to the forwards?

[Soul8]

With having so many players struggling over the years it seems to me that the greater need than wingers who can score is having dmen who can actually get the puck up to the forwards. Our team as a whole lacks offence other than Draisaitl and McD and McD takes the puck end to end so often that it isn't an issue having not having dmen in his case.

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[oobga]

Tend to agree, the need is on D more than wing. Just looking at how our transition game went completely in the toilet when Klef went down shows how terribly shallow this team is for puck movers. Everything needs to start deep in our end from a standstill for forwards, and we really only have 1 guy on the team that can consistently do anything dangerous starting a transition like that.

I have confidence that Paul Messier will pro scout us to a boat load of good PMD shortly. Winning is in the genes.

 

[Sugi21]

Defenseman for sure!!! You would see a big difference having a Doughty, Karlsson, Hedman, Subban, Carlson, Giordano, Burns, Letang more than a winger could make!!! All these guys can skate with the puck, shoot the puck, pass the puck and can QB a PP!!! No winger can do all that.

 

[GodPucker]

we REALLy need some smart D

Man I remember a play by Nurse yesterday.

He skates out of his zone. takes way too long to make a pass

Cross center

Unloads a hard bomb of a pass 10 feet to Drai or another Oiler standing still at the opposition blue line lol

That crap happens game after game.

 

[Soul8]

Also, Avuitu was a great example last year, when he played he moved the puck well and the team scored quite a bit more in the games he played. Tmac just didn't want to play him .

 

[McJesusSaves97]

Ok

Defenseman for sure!!! You would see a big difference having a Doughty, Karlsson, Hedman, Subban, Carlson, Giordano, Burns, Letang more than a winger could make!!! All these guys can skate with the puck, shoot the puck, pass the puck and can QB a PP!!! No winger can do all that.

Okay, so now that we have identified the issue...we should start making trade threads for stud D-men other teams don't want & will give us for crap that we don't want

 

[Sugi21]

Ok

Okay, so now that we have identified the issue...we should start making trade threads for stud D-men other teams don't want & will give us for crap that we don't want

The issue of a stud d man has been an issue since Pronger left town it’s no secret! Chia tried to sell Larsson as an elite top pairing damn when he traded for him but he’s far from that so the issue still remains.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Yes.

 

[Mcnotloilersfan]

Don't get me wrong. This team would be significantly better if we had more scoring threats and could attack effectively with more than 1 line.

But as others have pointed out, look out how different we are with a healthy Kelfbom vs not. Look at how good we were when we have both Klef and Sekera healthy.

While I like to dream about adding a player like Seth Jones, we simply need more smart dmen like Klefbom in the lineup. I have hope for a lot of guys in our system, but our D needs a lot of work.

 

[A91]

Im more confident in Bouchard, Jones and Bear than I am in Pulju, Yammo and Benson

I want scoring forwards

 

[McShogun99]

Bouchard and Jones will be NHL players, how good they will be is still up for debate. Bear still has work to do but I can see him being a 3rd pairing/PP specialist type of player.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Jones and Bouchard will help the D as soon as next season. Barring a huge step up from Jesse or Yamamoto, we don't have that RH forward that is at least at RNH's level.

I'd target the RH high end winger first.

 

[780il]

Im more confident in Bouchard, Jones and Bear than I am in Pulju, Yammo and Benson

I want scoring forwards

Same

Give me good forwards. Besides, they're easier to get (we could maybe get one with our shitty assets).

 

[Ctrain2k]

Wingers for sure

 

[MinimaMoralia]

I have to go with puck-moving defenders. Bouchard, Jones, Persson and Bear look nice but, out of that bunch, not one has made a case to be a surefire lock.
An established, top four, puckmoving defenceman will continue to be the weakness until it’s consistently filled.

 

[The Nuge]

Wingers, and I honestly don’t understand how anyone can think otherwise. Seriously, we have 4 top 4 dmen, and 0 top 6 wingers. Our top 4 wingers by points are Chiasson, Khaira, Lucic, and Kassian. How can someone blame the defense for not turning Zack Kassian into a top 6 winger?

Our top 4 wingers (0.34 PPG) have ONE more point, in 12 extra games, compared to our top 4 dmen (0.36 PPG). If our dmen are good enough to generate offense to the point where they’re out pacing our wingers, while also playing defense, why are we blaming them? How about we blame the guys who aren’t producing, and are floating around doing nothing

 

[Oilhawks]

The greatest need for this team is an owner who isn't a f***ing moron.

 

[BoldNewLettuce]

Scott Howson

 

[barry halls]

I may be in the minority here but a legit goalie trumps both in my opinion.

 

[syz]

In terms of quality, defensemen would make the biggest impact. The forward situation is only so distressing because so many of the forwards on this team are so far below average.

 

[soothsayer]

The Oilers have literally 0 defensemen who can transition the puck at a high level. Pick any wingers you want; The NHL is too damn skilled to succeed without a good transition from the back end.

 

[Jepprey]

I've been waiting for this team to have a competent d corps for over a decade. Chia was brought in to bruinize this team and fix the defense. Well, he overdid it with the Bruinizing and didn't fix the defense.

Less defensive dmen that can't skate and more dmen that can get the damn puck out the zone safely.

 

[Mcnotloilersfan]

Wingers, and I honestly don’t understand how anyone can think otherwise. Seriously, we have 4 top 4 dmen, and 0 top 6 wingers. Our top 4 wingers by points are Chiasson, Khaira, Lucic, and Kassian. How can someone blame the defense for not turning Zack Kassian into a top 6 winger?

Our top 4 wingers (0.34 PPG) have ONE more point, in 12 extra games, compared to our top 4 dmen (0.36 PPG). If our dmen are good enough to generate offense to the point where they’re out pacing our wingers, while also playing defense, why are we blaming them? How about we blame the guys who aren’t producing, and are floating around doing nothing

We have a lower end #1 dman and a pair of #4 dmen. Saying we have 4 top 4 guys makes it sound like we are a complete team. Look how much better we are with klef healthy. Imagine if we had 2 players as good as him?

 

[Mcnotloilersfan]

The Oilers have literally 0 defensemen who can transition the puck at a high level. Pick any wingers you want; The NHL is too damn skilled to succeed without a good transition from the back end.

We had 2. Klefbom and Sekera. If only they had remained healthy.

 

[The Nuge]

We have a lower end #1 dman and a pair of #4 dmen. Saying we have 4 top 4 guys makes it sound like we are a complete team. Look how much better we are with klef healthy. Imagine if we had 2 players as good as him?

Forgetting we have Larsson? We have a #1/2, a #2/3, and two #4s. That’s not the end of the world. Look how good Toronto has been and up until they got Muzzin, they had a #1, a #3, and a bunch of #5/6/7 dmen.

Why stop at 3 #1 dmen. Why not go for a nice even 6 #1 dmen? And even if we did that, we’d still suck because we’d still not have a single top 6 winger on this team.

We all know we could use another quality dman who can move the puck but it’s a hell of a lot less of an issue than our wingers. You’re telling me you can look at a group with Chiasson, Khaira, Lucic, and Kassian as its top 4 wingers, and think “ya. That looks about right”? That’s absolutely insane