ilers ruining more young careers

[rustyisin]

Seen it over and over the past 20 years. Oilers organization is the black hole for young stars.
If you want your career to end just join that sad sack team. Sadly, they keep banging their head against the wall trying to recreate the Gretzky years by throwing
too many young players together at once. The consistent losing makes losers out of them, not winners.
Tough to be an Oilers fan these last two decades.
Say goodbye to card values for Hall, Nugen-Hopkins, Eberle

[Wickabee]

Remember you said this in 3 years when they're running all over the league. Their defence needs some development and...maybe an upgrade from Dubnyk, but that's about it.

[Reinhart]

It's not just the defense, I'd say the defense has been better than expected

The first line of Eberle - RNH - Hall have done nothing

[evilcise1234]

I have to disagree. If you look at there 05-06 roster (when they made the cup run) it was tons of veterans. After that they unloaded alot of there veterans over the next couple years... Jarrod Stoll, Steve Staios, Jason Smith, Pronger, Pisani, Peca... the list goes on. They started a rebuilt. The year they drafted Hall ( and eberle played ) was just the biggest step. They had Cogliano, Nelisson, but it didn't work out past 10-11. My point is, every team rebuilds after losing there veterans. Look at the Pens. Getting Fleury, Malkin, Staal, Crosby, Goligoski, Kennedy and Letang. I would call that "alot of young players at once". But look how they turned out. I think the oilers need to work on strengthening their defensive core, getting J. Shultz was huge, but having all these young players is nothing but positive. To be honest...i'm thinking your probably just a flames fan.

[rustyisin]

they have 6 forwards with the same role.
Tell me how different are Eberle, Hall, RNH, Hemsky, Gagner, Yakupov?
Where's the power forward?
Where's the faceoff specialist for puck possession?
Where's the Norris type stay at home D-man?
Where's the goalie?

The last two picks were mistakes - Oilers should have traded them for veterans, leadership.
They need to purge Nugent Hopkins and Taylor Hall.
Start shopping them now

[rustyisin]

Remember you said this in 3 years when they're running all over the league. Their defence needs some development and...maybe an upgrade from Dubnyk, but that's about it.

Defence isn't the problem.
I'm simply stunned they can't score.
I'm OK with their record if they're losing 6-5 or 5-4
But alarm bells are ringing because, even with all this high priced offence
they can't score worth a dang

[mooneyes]

I'm not certain what the issue is, maybe dominating the AHL wasn't such a good thing for the Hall/Eberle/Nuge line after all? Perhaps they got used to having an easier time playing against slower inferior talent and got a bit over confident thinking it would be the same in the NHL...but, not so! The caliber of goalies, defense man and all round defensive play is night and day superior in the NHL. Seems as well offense in the NHL is created from defense and the Oil don't strike me as a hard checking gritty team. Maybe a change is coaching philosophy is needed, kinda like the Leafs, suddenly their less heralded young talent is putting up some points because they have a solid defensive system in place.

[centrehice]

Nicklas Kronwall in his after the game interview when the Red Wings had defeated the Oil by one goal said he did not relish playing this Oiler team in 2-3 more years. He said that if they can play a little better defensively that they have the ability to roll over the league in this 2-3 year time frame.

Patience young Padawan.

[rustyisin]

I'm not certain what the issue is, maybe dominating the AHL wasn't such a good thing for the Hall/Eberle/Nuge line after all? Perhaps they got used to having an easier time playing against slower inferior talent and got a bit over confident thinking it would be the same in the NHL...but, not so! The caliber of goalies, defense man and all round defensive play is night and day superior in the NHL. Seems as well offense in the NHL is created from defense and the Oil don't strike me as a hard checking gritty team. Maybe a change is coaching philosophy is needed, kinda like the Leafs, suddenly their less heralded young talent is putting up some points because they have a solid defensive system in place.

dominated the AHL?
That Oklahoma team was basically .500 stocked full of NHL players.

[evilcise1234]

they have 6 forwards with the same role.
Tell me how different are Eberle, Hall, RNH, Hemsky, Gagner, Yakupov?
Where's the power forward?
Where's the faceoff specialist for puck possession?
Where's the Norris type stay at home D-man?
Where's the goalie?

The last two picks were mistakes - Oilers should have traded them for veterans, leadership.
They need to purge Nugent Hopkins and Taylor Hall.
Start shopping them now

I dont know where your getting this from but it's just unrealistic.
Hall, Eberle and Nugent-Hopkins. Hall is more of the powerforward with bursts of speed. Eberle is more of a playmaker with a ability to set up just as many goals as well. Hopkins is a playmaker, and if you actually watched his play this year you would see he has been developing more of a 2 way role. His defensive play has been much better. And he's the center. Hopkins is only in his second season...Crosby wasn't great in the faceoff circle until a couple years down the road. Nick Shultz is the d-man stay at home type. Yeah the oilers defensive core needs work, but it's alot better than you give credit for. If you actually did a little research you would see Dubynk has faced the most shots in the NHL by a goalie. Other than the 6 goal San Jose game he has been extremely solid, if anything better than anticipated. You cant rebuild a team in 2-3 years. It takes time, 5 years at least.