Oilers offseason…the draft.

Taylor or Tyler?  Centre or Winger?  Birthdates?  Getting hit too easy?  Who will be the best player five years from now?  Higher compete level?

Steve Tambellini answered a host of questions.  I think really that this was the easy choice.  Pretty much the consensus number one pick.  A few smatterings of Seguinites suggesting that he would be the better player long term, and the hardest thing to find since Nessie, a number one right-handed pivot.

I think the reasoning was simple.  By taking Taylor Hall, two time Memorial Cup MVP, the Oilers couldn’t be second guessed.  At this moment and by pedigree, Taylor Hall is the BPA.  Personally, about 25% of me wanted to take Seguin because of his down to earth, regular joe, personality.  He is by far the better interview.  The rest of me wants the guy that would fight with every breath to see the Oilers win.  He is the guy.  Excellent choice.
Sadly though the rest of the draft went off with hardly a whimper.  No second first round choice,  some size, some grit.  A good but not great day at the draft.

Oilers: An offseason review…so far

On April 21, the first big move of the offseason began. Although there were precursors to the rebuild at the deadline, Steve Staios, Lubomir Visnovsky and Denis Grebeshkov were shipped off at the deadline bringing in Ryan Whitney, Aaron Johnson and a couple of 2nd rounders to show. All very solid moves for a team that decided to get younger, and culture change began.

Kevin Pendergast was excused of his duties and the first step to a new reborn franchise was complete. This was a completely necessary action since Pendergast performance in the last 20 years could only be categorized as barely passable.

The draft has been poor until Stu MacGregor took over, the minor league teams have either been non existent or performing poorly.

His drafting record is a who’s who of ineffectiveness. Consider that he was still on staff for all the debacles that occured since 1990, his charge of the draft began in 2000. I personally don’t subscribe to the “How many NHLers were drafted” and how many games they have played. Just because they were your best option to play doesn’t mean they were effective players. The blind Russian Tractor Boy, Alexei Mikhnov. Jesse Who? and Pouliot vs. Parise some of the most notable gaffes.

Steve Tambellini set the wheels in motion with this firing, and much more to come as the offseason wore on. This was a solid move.

Lowetide to Oiler Nation

Congrats, it is a long time coming.

Please try to limit the MA Pouliot posts to a minimum.

I will be doing a draft/fa/trades review shortly…..now that time seems a little settled for me.