This is how i see the Oilers going into training camp and opening night. All indications are that the top line will be Draisaitl - McDavid - Kassian. From there, it will most likely be Nugent-Hopkins with Neal, although they is debate on which wing Neal with play. The only other guarantees on this roster are the goalies and the fact that Larsson, Klefbom, and Nurse are your top 3 defenders. Everything else is kinda up in the air.
Personally, I have Neal playing right wing, as he has stated that is his preference when playing with a skilled Left handed center (aka Nuge in this case). Looking at the options at left wing, I think the 3rd spot on this line is Benson's to lose. Outside of Benson, the only other one in the running are Granlund. Khaira is not a top6 option and im not going to rate the european players (in this case Nygard) very highly until they play some NHL games. If Benson can't play 3rd line left wing next year, expect him to be in the minors and Neal on the left side. While there is a chance gambardella makes the team on the fourth line and move Granlund and Khaira up a line, I think it would be better to keep him in Bakersfield to continue to improve that team.
So barring Benson being sent down, a lock for the 3rd line right wing position is Chiasson. While i can see him moving up during the year, i think its best do put neal in the best possible place to succeed to start the season. Which also means our final right wing spot will go to Archibald. While i would like to play him higher in the line up, Neal being on the right wing prevents him from going any higher, barring a tryout on McDavid's line succeeding.
Currently, I see Grandlund as the second best left wing option (if you dont count benson) due to his defensive play. While it would be nice for him to put up points every once in a while, Draisaitl and mcdavid are a lock to put up at least one goal together, ergo if we don't let in any goals we should win more than we lose. Hence why one of our better defensive options is on that third line. I also have not seen enough from Khaira to suggest that he deserves that spot on the third line. I think he plays best on the fourth line in a shutdown role on the wing. I don't think he should be playing center, he has proven time and again that he gets lost at that position and is much better suited on the wing. Barring a huge amount of growth, this is where he should play the entire season. Nygard is left as a scratch due to my unwillingness to overrate him as someone with McDavid speed that will put up 40 on the top three lines. Until he proves me wrong, hes a scratch and gets looks on the third line if there is injury. Gambardella is in my opinion a worse version of khaira right now, which is why he isn't in my starting line up. I'm assuming hes the first injury call up, and while he could win a spot on the fourth line in camp, I'd attribute it more to Nygard busting and Benson needing more AHL time.
As for the bottom two centers, we currently have Brodziak, Cave, Gagner, Haas, and Marody fighting for those spots. Brodziak's best years are behind him, and he's too slow to compete in this league. Hes buried. I think Marody gets a legitimate look as the 3rd line center, and we could potentially have a line with him, Benson, and Chiasson to start the year. However, I think Holland will opt to give him one more year developing in the minors. For our final three options, ill reiterate that my opinion on Haas is very low. However, I didn't see anything out of Cave that blew me away last year. Since Haas refuses to play in the minors for any more than a week, I have him penciled in as fourth line center and cave as the 13th forward. Which ends up leaving Gagner as the 3rd line center, which is less than ideal. Firstly, he's better off as a right wing. However, there's currently no room on the right side and I don't think they scratch him. I also think giving him a shot here is a much better chance than a waiver wire pick up, a european import, and a sophomore pro at this time. As for the final forward listed, I can see Yamamoto getting a chance on that second line with Neal on the left and benson in the minors. However the chances on this are so incredibly slim that I don't think it will happen. Yamamoto should play the entire year in the minors. no injury call up, no "we are playing bad and need a spark", nothing. I respect Holland's philosophy of letting prospects overmarinate and I sure hope Yamamoto is allowed to develop properly.
As for defence, there isn't much to discuss going into the season. One topic of discussion is whether or not you play Nurse on the top pair or Klefbom. I think klefbom plays best with Larsson, and I don't think that Nurse has the potential to play top pair minutes like Klefbom. Pray for Klefbom's health, it's a big factor in the team's success. The other question is what you do with Russell. All indications from the coaching staff are pointing towards Russell playing the 3rd pair left side, which is fantastic news. I think Russell is (unfairly) thrown under the bus due to the fact that he has to play on his off side. With the speed of the game being where it's at now, having a winger on their offside is a lot harder to pull off. I think that on his comfortable side in a 3rd pair role, he will excel.
However, now we have two problems: Caleb Jones and the 2nd pair right side. I don't think Benning is able to play second pair minutes (i barely trust him with 3rd pair at this moment), and again my thoughts on the European players (Persson) are healthy scratches until proven otherwise. In addition, most people are of the mindset that Jones should play in the NHL next season. So we have two options: play him with Nurse (on his offhand!) and hope to god he's NHL ready. Or we put him in the minors until we can trade out russell, which leaves us without a 7th d-man and probably too many d prospects in bakersfield. In this instance, I put him with Nurse because seeing him in the minors is not a good situation for our other d prospects. The other option is Bear, and while I do see him getting a shot here as well, he is also considered further away from the NHL than Jones at this point in time.
Finally, the LTIR represents the players that i think come in on PTO. Brassard, Dano, and Brickley are the three best options still left on the market for a center, so the Oilers are basically hoping one or two of them can be good enough to push out our bottom two centers and come in on reasonable salaries (looking at you Brassard). As for stone and McQuaid, I think these are the best RHD players left on the market. Maybe one or both of them can come in force a trade to be made on defense.
I don't think its a lock for them to miss. Sharks only got worse (lost pavelski), Arizona is still can't score (outside of Kessel, who will still end up taking a dip in production), Calgary definitely overperformed last year (Giordano's Norris caliber year) and now they have Lucic to weigh them down so they regress, Vancouver did not get that much better (they are still a pettersson injury away from being irrelevant), the ducks are still a joke, and the Kings are guarenteed last in the division. The oilers main problem is actually their lack of offense from their bottom 6 and defensive play (especially pk). Holland brought in plenty of guys to remake that bottom 6 (many that are good on the pk) and got a much better coach to iron out that defense. Arizona had **** teams for years but at least they could play some d. McDavid and Draisaitl will score enough together to win games, just need the rest of the team to be able to shut the other team down. They wont be first in the division, but 3rd/4th isnt that far out of reach
McDavid, Connor
250 000 $)
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