More like, I have seen how deadly his shot is on the right side.
You know he's not forced to stay on the left side of the ice at ALL times. In the offensive zone, players go wherever they please. Hell, most of Eberle/RNH cycles happen on the left side. When a breakout happens, players change wings quite often to find an optimal shot. I think most people have seen him score a lot of goals on the right side, you have to understand though, most of them were on the PP, where he's primed for a one-timer (like Hall).
There's no doubt he will get most of his goals from the right circle (esp on PP), much like Eberle (RW) who gets most of his goals from the left side. With that said, goalscorers like these can score wherever on the ice.
I'm not trying to change the player, it's just funny people count it out right away. I myself think he has a good chance at succeeding at LW. I have watched quite a few games of his and he flies down the LW with no problems at all, in fact he looked like the LW on that line. Especially his rookie year, he really looked like a LW, where I actually thought he was originally a LW. Just saying.
If Gagner shows the inconsistency he has in the past, then we'll end up seeing:
Hemsky-RNH-Yakupov
Paajarvi-Hall-Eberle
Personally Paajarvi might turn out to be a better C.
We won`t see Hall as center this year. He has been open in that he would play center, but that he would really strongly prefer to have the entire off season to train as a center. With his shoulder injury, he probably won`t be able to do that, and I don`t see the Oilers messing with him like that.
If there isn't a next season we'll have a really good chance at MacKinnon or Jones
Not if they do it the same as last time. One fewer ball for every first overall pick. We'll end up with a horrible pick in that case, we'd only have one ball in the machine.
I have a a hard time believing he won't be ready for camp when it was reported that he was ahead of his projected recovery timeline. This kid has the will and the rubber band mechanics. I'll wager whatever you want on him being in the opening day lineup.
I dunno, I'm just going from memory. I thought that he was projected to be out until November. It also looked as though he was hving a hard time putting his suit on for the Hall/Tavares game.
I dunno, I'm just going from memory. I thought that he was projected to be out until November. It also looked as though he was hving a hard time putting his suit on for the Hall/Tavares game.
“Recovery time will be between five and six months, so our hope is that Taylor will be ready for the start of next season.” – Tambellini
There are better quotes out there, but I'm pretty sure that was always the timeline. Some mentioned him possibly missing preseason games.
Surgery was done April 3rd I think so that would bring it to sep3-oct3 if all goes well. Based on them saying he is ahead of schedule, he should be ready for the season opener
“Recovery time will be between five and six months, so our hope is that Taylor will be ready for the start of next season.” – Tambellini
There are better quotes out there, but I'm pretty sure that was always the timeline. Some mentioned him possibly missing preseason games.
Surgery was done April 3rd I think so that would bring it to sep3-oct3 if all goes well. Based on them saying he is ahead of schedule, he should be ready for the season opener
Especially when the season opener will likely be October 3, 2013.
Worst case scenario they dig in and ***** at each other over 2 percentage points of hockey revenue and we start the season in late November.
Hope so... but the NHL is starting with a 24% drop in player salaries... that's a hell of a lot of middle ground that has to be fought over in just a few months.
I'm a Flyers fan, but I find the Oilers to be a fascinating team (finally!) due to the recent influx of incredibly talented top-drafted players. So I've been playing around with lines in my head and it is my opinion (similar to zeus3007's) that Eberle, Yakupov, and Hemsky should all be playing their natural RW positions. Sure, Hemsky isn't exactly a third-liner, but he will still get significant PP time. My lines would look like this:
Hall - Nugent-Hopkins - Eberle
Paajarvi* - Gagner - Yakupov
Smyth - Horcoff - Hemsky
Eager** - Belanger*** - Jones
*Hartikainen and Omark could compete with Paajarvi for this spot.
**Hordichuk and Petrell could compete with Eager for this spot.
***Maybe one of Petrell and Hartikainen could even take Belangers' spot.
This is the list of the 13 forwards who are on one way deals, although some (notably Petrell and Hordichuck) may be waiver fodder if younger guys impress.
Presumably the Oilers will run with 14 forwards, although I would prefer to go with 13F/8D, meaning that there is one spot up for grabs, the two most likely candidates being MPS and Hartikainen. Before I get into possibilities including these two players, I would like to go through a couple possible permutations with this set of players alongside explanation.
Listed above is what I believe is the most natural combination of top-6 players. We clearly have exactly 6 players who definitively have top-6 skill-sets, and are very likely able to deliver in line with those expectations in the upcoming 12-13 season. This is why I am not in favour of moving Hemsky (or anyone else) out of the top-6.
Of the 3 top-6 RW on the Oilers, I believe that Yakupov should absolutely not be moved to the left, I think that his one-timer is an elite asset, and even though he surely can move anywhere across the ice when on offence, I believe that on the rush, he will not always have the time to switch wings, particularly on odd-man rushes. In addition to that, Yakupov being a rookie I would not want to tack on the responsibility of learning a new position.
I believe that Eberle would have the smallest learning curve moving to the LW. I also believe that he should be glued to RNH, and that Yakupov would benefit the most from playing with RNH.
Given the above combination, HGH line would be a natural power on power line (why I listed them 1st), and in combination with the 3rd line taking on the difficult opponents, the 2nd line would be able to face soft competition, ideal for an offensive line featuring a rookie and a sophomore, additionally RNH and Eberle excelled in this role last season.
Assuming that those six players do in fact start the season playing on two complete lines, I believe there is only one other good option to compose the top-6:
Hall-RNH-Eberle
Hemsky-Gagner-Yakupov
The attraction to this combination is simple – you have the return of the 106 line comprised of the 3 best forwards on the team. I have already mentioned two reasons (Eberle-LW, RNH-Yak) why I prefer the other combination, and would posit one further: this combination does not have a natural power on power line, however I concede RNH and Eberle may be ready for that challenge.
Finally, however tempting it would be to combine the 1st overalls I think that splitting RNH and Eberle is a mistake.
With the assumption those six players are in the top-6 I will move on to the bottom six. Retyped default line-up is as follows:
As already mentioned I would be content with the above and am in favour of trading the 14F slot to carry 8D, assuming that doesn’t happen alternative lines I would propose are:
Of the two players I mentioned being likely to compete for the last forward slot, I believe only the one listed above should make our team to a play bottom-6 role. I have no doubt that MPS would be effective in that role already, and if that is all he becomes in the future so be it, but he should not be groomed for that role. He still has top-6 upside in my opinion and at this time should be playing in that role regardless of his NHL/AHL placement.
With that said I am hopeful for the unlikely event that MPS shows up to training camp and pushes his way onto the roster as a top-6 player allowing for the following combinations:
This would further increase our scoring depth from what should already be very good. It pushes Jones to the 4th line, which I believe is a better fit for his level of ability, completing what I thought was the only palatable combination of three players including Belanger last season. When these 3 players know they are playing with equally simple players, they make smarter plays like dumps rather than passes in the neutral zone, and shooting everything available rather than looking for one more pass, which are tendencies they have when trying to fit in with superior players.
One additional scenario is that both MPS and Hartikainen push their way onto the roster, forcing the Oilers to waive someone (Read: Petrell). This seems very unlikely however the result would be the following:
Hall-RNH-Eberle
MPS-Gagner-Yakupov
Smyth-Horcoff-Hemsky
Eager-Belanger-Hartikainen
Hordichuk, Jones
In my mind, if this scenario occurred it seems highly possible that Hartikainen may even push Smyth to the 4th line (if he doesn’t exercise his god given veto power…).
However, I think I’m entering dream mode now…so I should probably conclude before I start talking about trading Gagner and Hemsky, moving Hall to center, and gifting both MPS and Hartikainen top-6 roster spots.
LW:
Taylor Hall
Ryan Smyth
Ben Eager
Darcy Hordichuk
Teemu Hartikainen
Magnus Paajarvi
Tyler Pitlick
Curtis Hamilton
RW:
Jordan Eberle
Ales Hemsky
Nail Yakupov
Ryan Jones
Lennart Petrell
Antti Tervainen
*Phil Cornet
C:
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
Sam Gagner
Shawn Horcoff
Eric Belanger
Anton Lander
Chris Vande Velde
D:
Jeff Petry
Ladislav Smid
Ryan Whitney
Justin Schultz
Nick Schultz
Andy Sutton
Corey Potter
Theo Peckham
Colten Tuebert
Martin Marincin
Brandon Davidson
G:
Devan Dubnyk
Nikolai Khabibulin
Yann Danis
Olivier Roy
Tyler Bunz
Honestly, the centre position, in spite of having no different names, looks much better for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins' arrival. There's a legit 1, a legit 2, a legit 3 and a legit 4, with two quality call-ups for bottom six positions. LW has depth, but RW has top end depth. I wish there was a name a top the D pile to knock everyone down one spot, but I'm comfortable with 4 of those guys ability to play 20 minutes a night, and one of the others may be able to. I'm a lot less nervous about Bulin with Danis pencilled in right underneath him. It's a better group not only because of Yakupov/Schultz, but because of growth.
LW:
Taylor Hall
Ryan Smyth
Ben Eager
Darcy Hordichuk
Teemu Hartikainen
Magnus Paajarvi
Tyler Pitlick
Curtis Hamilton
RW:
Jordan Eberle
Ales Hemsky
Nail Yakupov
Ryan Jones
Lennart Petrell
Antti Tervainen
*Phil Cornet
C:
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
Sam Gagner
Shawn Horcoff
Eric Belanger
Anton Lander
Chris Vande Velde
D:
Jeff Petry
Ladislav Smid
Ryan Whitney
Justin Schultz
Nick Schultz
Andy Sutton
Corey Potter
Theo Peckham
Colten Tuebert
Martin Marincin
Brandon Davidson
G:
Devan Dubnyk
Nikolai Khabibulin
Yann Danis
Olivier Roy
Tyler Bunz
Honestly, the centre position, in spite of having no different names, looks much better for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins' arrival. There's a legit 1, a legit 2, a legit 3 and a legit 4, with two quality call-ups for bottom six positions. LW has depth, but RW has top end depth. I wish there was a name a top the D pile to knock everyone down one spot, but I'm comfortable with 4 of those guys ability to play 20 minutes a night, and one of the others may be able to. I'm a lot less nervous about Bulin with Danis pencilled in right underneath him. It's a better group not only because of Yakupov/Schultz, but because of growth.
I Like everything about this except the defence. I'd like to see
Smid-Petry
J Schultz-N Schultz
Whitney-Sutton
The reason I disagree with that (other than the notion that a healthy Whitney is the best D in that group) is that we have a chance to put a left handed first pass with a right handed first pass.
In a group that should be big on transitional offense, that's huge. Remember the ridiculous ES results that Grebeshkov/Gilbert got in the second pair? Imagine that with our current forwards.
I, too, like Sutton more than Potter, but I'd kind of like to see him play his way out of that spot. Again, a right handed shot puck mover, fits the hole better than Sutton. If he plays like he does in the last half of the season, it's easy enough to go back to Sutton.
I know I'm going to be in the minority here, but I want Yakupov to start off playing on the third line with Horcoff he he can earn his time and work his way up.
If he can produce with Horcoff, he can probably produce with anyone so it'll be effective in instilling a mind set of having to work hard in his mind from day one.
I know I'm going to be in the minority here, but I want Yakupov to start off playing on the third line with Horcoff he he can earn his time and work his way up.
If he can produce with Horcoff, he can probably produce with anyone so it'll be effective in instilling a mind set of having to work hard in his mind from day one.
Smyth and Horcoff are also more defensively responsible than the other two lines so that'll help Yakupov learn the two way game in the NHL.
For me playing Yak on the 3rd line sets up the rest forwards nicely. It give Yak his needed responsible line mates, it would also keep Horcoff and Smyth happy and energized being able to play with an uptempo guy. It also gives Gagner two wingers who drive the play the right way 5x5 against the toughs and allows RNH's line to soak up the gravy minutes. IMO this year Krueger is going to throw Gagner into the deep end and find out if he can keep his head above water playing against the toughs.
Hall Gagner Hemsky
MPS/Harski RNH Eberle
Smyth Horcoff Yakupov
Eager Belanger Jones
Petrell/Hordi
That forward group is pretty deep and strong with a number of guys who can slide up and down the lineup.
(if he doesn’t exercise his god given veto power…). 
