New era Oilers. RIP Jack-o.

The devils just don’t need wright. They have Hughes who will be there #1 C and Hischier will be their #2 C Wright is not gonna be a #3 center his whole career

anyone but the devils please. leave some 1c for the rest of us.

Not even close

Embarrassment of riches down the middle in NJ. Maybe better off trading down a couple spots for Nemec or Slafkovsky?

And Sharks accept my original trade proposal lol

Still think they have to just take wright. Hischier isn’t a 1C, and while Hughes looks awesome, the poor guy just can’t stay healthy. Makes more sense to take wright and shift one of them to the wing.

True. Nico and Jack never get hurt, and he's physically incapable of playing on the wing otherwise. Thanks for correcting me.

This is just 22-23.

I'd run Wright - Hughes - Holtz longterm.

Minor nitpicks: Nico is a fringe 1C by most metrics and Jack hasn't missed time due to injury until this year. the shoulder might rear it's head in the future but the knee /shouldn't/

Regardless, drafting for need in the NHL, when the draftees are 18 and not even closed to developed, is a monstrous error. See: McLeod and Zacha when we needed centers.

Wright is wasted at wing. Trade down a few spots and get an additional 2nd and then draft Slaf, Nemec or Kemell.

A lot of centers are not good on the wing. For example, Hughes Sucks on the wing. You can’t plan on guys being hurt like that. Ok Wright is only gonna be the franchise center when Hughes or Hischier is hurt then he will go back to being a 3rd liner. They should trade the picker for a really good goal scoring winger.

Hughes sucks on the wing because his entire game is built on speed through the neutral zone! C'mon dude you can't actually be serious rn lmao It's just too on the nose.

I'd play him with Hughes on wing unless Jack or Nico got hurt, then shift him to C

Hasn’t he had two major injuries (shoulder and knee) in what amounts to 2 seasons of NHL hockey? Given his frame, i think that’s concerning. Not the end of the world, but its something I would be a little nervous about.

Hischier is maybe a 1C on a bad team. Maybe.

Agreed completely about drafting for need. Best available. Always.

Trading down a few spots to get an additional second is legitimately one of the worst ideas I’ve ever heard.

The lost value there is just ridiculous.

Yeah, the shoulder is the only "major" one though, in reality. The low-grade MCL sprain won't be an issue long term. I /am/ worried about the shoulder though.

That's pretty much the definition of "fringe", yeah. He's worth like 2.3 wins according to Dom L.

two way sniper - playmaking transition god - one of the top shooters in the world
doesn't seem overly wasteful to me.

Hey, if he takes the 2C from Nico well that's just gravy. But no, not taking Wright because he plays C would be folly. And that would require the teams at 2/3/4 wanting to trade up, which they won't.

Haha, it wasn't meant as a slight-It's pretty easy to draw comparisons between two teams that have gone on similar decade long runs of non-success (1 playoff appearance since 2012 for NJ vs. 1 over a span of 12 years for the Oilers during their pre-McDavid times...). I mean, there's a lot of ways that you could compare the actual picks made throughout these periods as well.

If anything, it should show fans that it takes a heck of a lot more than just drafting well to have success in the NHL.

Agreed! We just need a top 2-5. Want to have a chance at Slav or the two RHDs.

ok.

He was slammed to the ice with the shoulder, hardly made of glass, most would have been injured. Would him bulking up have helped, definitely! But woudl not have stopped the injury. The MCL strain is just bad luck but not career-ending. 3 wks left in the season, he'd need one to get back, to what ...potentially re injure it for a handful of pits. Its good asset management IMO. He stats are F'in insane. Quietly becoming a superstar. BPA, with an edge to what staff thinks of the RHDs.

I'm obviously not the staff but I take Slafkovsky and Cooley over Jiricek and Nemec. Though I'm not "mad" with quite a few people at two, ranging all the way to Savoie and Nazar lol

Not sure i would say his stats are insane. They’re very very good. I need to see it for more than 50 games before i start mentioning terms like superstar, but i do think that if he can learn how to protect himself a bit, the way the Patrick Kane’s and johnny gaudreau’s of the world have, he’s very much headed in that direction.

Sheesh. I just hate the analytics crowd so much. No harm in having an opinion of your own folks.

Why wouldn't you just use Zacha in the Garland trade instead of Walsh?
It's not like Devils are flush with RHD within the organization.
Would prefer targeting a goalie in FA over trading for Kähkönen anyways.

Even though the lineup looks kinda sick, I wouldn't want whomever Devils draft in 2022 making the team right away.
If it's Wright I'd love for him to play one year in a european pro league, think that'd be great for him.




Just to add, JFresh puts Hischier at 80% WAR as of two weeks ago.
Also, Hischier's been absolutely fantastic these last few months, and was probably the best player on the ice against the Rangers last night from what I saw.
At 23 years old he has yet to enter his prime.
I can't wait to see what kinda player he will be in two-three years time.

I am not sold on Wright as the #1 overall yet.
Cooley and Nemec should also be in that conversation.

I do not think a trade-down from #1 is likely...unless some other team in top-5 was willing to do something silly.
Fun to think about though.