The Extra Period is going to tackle 30 game plans for 30 teams in 30 days over June before NHL free agency starts on July 1st. Here we will tackle all the problems that teams face and try and solve them.....sorry, not try.....just....solve them. So why don't we just jump into it:
**AS OF TIME OF WRITING**
**AS OF TIME OF WRITING**
Bik Nizzar: With the first overall selection in the TJ Molland and Bik Nizzar 30 Plans for 30 Teams in 30 Days..... We select the Edmonton Oilers –after all they’re usually 1st overall, except of course for their on-ice play. How is the natural hat-trick of 1st overall draft selections not a bigger deal?!?! Gretzky has 50 hat-tricks and now Steve Tambellini has 1. Seriously Oilers, there are 29 other spots in the draft you can pick– lets figure out how they can move out of this spot in the future. Actually give Tamby 2 hatty’s now... just released his 3rd coach. Catching up to 99!!!
TJ Molland: I totally read that in a ring announcer’s voice slowly turning into your sarcastic tone haha. Tambellini has some real big questions to ask, and I think it comes down to these 3. What do you do with the first overall pick? (Trade it, defenseman, forward) What do you do about the defense? And who is going to be the man behind the bench? The Oilers have shown a lot of promise but this year in particular is going to decide their identity moving forward. Personally I think this is a time to get a structured coach with maybe a few veteran d-men signings to finally give this team a solid foundation to work with. No one questions their offense (20th despite missing Hall and RNH for long periods of time) but their defense needs an upgrade. It's time to tackle that problem.
Bik Nizzar: Let’s start with the coach because you gotta figure they sort that out before the draft. Why not just embrace their defensive ineptitude and play some fire-wagon hockey and beat teams 7-5? Now I don’t mean forget playing defense.... I mean – HIRE MARC CRAWFORD!!! (As I wrote that down I realized it's essentially the same thing) Seriously, who would you rather have around your young stars – Ron Wilson, Jacques Martin or Marc Crawford? Why not bring some flash and fun to your team and let your players enjoy playing hockey. But in reality it appears Brent Sutter is the lead candidate (Calgary Sun). And it does make a lot of sense. He’s got a good rapport with young players, obvious NHL experience, and perhaps best of all... He’ll be in Alberta.
TJ Molland: I love the idea of "fire-wagon" hockey or as I like to call it "Atlanta Thrashers" hockey. We will score 6 times a night and just hope you...uh....don't score 6 times? Might finally be the key that draws in free agents though. A high tempo offensive game with some freedom in the offensive zone. Finally a reason to go to Edmonton! Sutter does make a lot of sense as far as putting together a structured team that can compete night in and night out. If you are looking at the teams that made it far in this year’s playoffs you see that defense complimented with some offensive pieces is the formula. It would be thrilling to see Crawford coach again with high end offensive talent (a la Canucks early 2000's) but it just doesn't look like a winning formula in today's NHL. So let’s say Sutter is the man, you have to figure they finally go with a defenseman with the top pick? We have seen a lot of success with young d-men over the last couple years (Myers, Doughty, Del Zotto, Larsson). Murray or Dumba would be a nice piece to have.
Bik Nizzar: We’ll go Sutter until Kevin Lowe tells us otherwise.... (The Edmonton Journal did profiles on other candidates back in March... Click here, and here for some of my favourite candidates). Ok the draft. It seems CRAZY to pass on Nail Yakupov. A lot of teams struggle to find the pieces for secondary scoring... Now bringing in Yakupov doesn’t mean Edmonton will always score... but it does give them RNH, Hall, Eberle, Yakupov.... The pieces will be there, just up to them to produce. If they want to go defense though (which they should probably do, and I think they should do) I just don’t know how you don’t move back a spot. Murray or Dumba (I’d probably take Murray ahead of Dumba). Taking a d-man at #1, while makes sense for the franchise – it isn’t maximizing value. And the last thing you want is a fan base groaning when everything else seems optimistic (Youthful explosive core– new arena). Best player available or best for the franchise?
They can go Yakupov and try to sort their defense out via Free Agency. They’ve got cap space to work with currently with $42 million committed for next year (btw can’t believe they’re paying Horcoff until 2015 and 1 more year of Souray buy-out #winningstrategy). We can forget about Ryan Suter because he’s not going there, but there is a lot of buzz regarding 21 year old University of Wisconsin product Justin Schultz. Teams seem to think they’ve got the inside track on him (Detroit, Vancouver most notably), but he might not be a key contributor right away but really neither would Murray or Dumba. Here’s a thought, trade the 1st overall pick – to say Pittsburgh for Jordan Staal.
TJ Molland: Makes sense to drop down a spot or two. You still get the player you want and probably some other asset in trading the #1 pick. Their defense does have enough parts already that they can fill the holes with free agency, but there isn't much top-end talent available in this year’s crop (Rozsival, Jackman, Kubina). Even more reason to take Murray. Realistically the Oilers should grab a couple of the middle of the pack defenseman such as Oduya or Carle to help the young players on the back-end mature and improve. Then they hope they can fight for a bottom playoff spot. As long as they can compete night in and night out you have to imagine that is the goal for this team. The Stanley Cup is still a few years away....which is scary to say because if they make the right moves NOW it may ONLY be a few years away.....As a Canuck fan it's going to be tough to watch their young stars improve, and get more dangerous as they start to become relevant again in the Western Conference.
I guess the last question to answer is who do you put between the pipes? Re-sign Dubnyk and finally hand the reigns to him?
PS: $5.5 million for Horcoffs 34 points as a now third line center.......eeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwww
Bik Nizzar: Carle is going to be the 2nd most sought after free agent defenseman after Suter, so if Edmonton were to somehow land him that would be a real coup on their part, I don’t see it happening though. I’m not a big Oduya fan, but I am a big Canucks fan – so sure let’s have the Oilers sign Oduya. Perhaps someone more like a Greg Zanon might fit their mold. There isn’t much in the UFA d-man pool. They’ll carry Whitney (who I think has a bounce-back year), Smid, Schultz, Barker, Sutton, Peckham, Teubert, Petry into next year. If you can add in some more stable depth plus a developmental d-man, (a Murray/Dumba scenario) I think that could be a viable NHL defense in 2 years time. Ideally it plays out that Teubert, Smid, Petry continue to advance, add 1 younger elite piece and you still have a Vet like Whitney.
If this were a multiple choice test and Devan Dubnyk was the question........ I would just choose “C” and hope I guessed right.
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