2011 NHL draft

[StirCrazy]

ok so, theres no doubt my team is Edmonton, has been for 44 years now and will never change (sorry I don't jump on or off bandwagons) having said that I guess I have two favorite teams...

Edmonton, and anyone who plays Calgary

so no team fighting, no riot talk, blah blah balh..

lets here your predictions for the draft and why. then in a week we'll see how close we were.

Now there have been a few people thinking that Edmonton should take RNH in the draft, this is crazy talk he is 2 to 3 years away from being NHL ready, especially size wise. what this years Cup final has shown us is it doesn't matter about talent unless you have the size to go with it. at 167lbs RNH might be slipping down the ranks just due to size.

even though the oilers lost a lot they scored a tone of goals.. usually when you are scoring 2 or more goals a game and still losing the forward aren't the week area.

so my hope and recommendation would be to take Larson. #1 for the European skaters and he is NHL ready (I hate that they rank the NA skaters in a different pool than the Europe ones) Larson is in the running with RNH for #1 in all the draft and I do think he will go first. this is the scouting notes on him.

“Adam is one of the best skater’s in this year’s draft -- he has excellent speed and mobility. He also has patient puck handling abilities and can surprise an opponent with a solid hit. His size and skating ability make him comparable with Tampa Bay Lightning defense-man Victor Hedman.”

he is also being compared to Calle Johansson and Nicklas Lidstrom.

enough on that. the other and probably the biggest issue my oilers have is goalies. Edmonton has always been known for descent goalies, but rolison was the last descent one they have had.. habby is washed out and never should have been grabbed by Edmonton, Dubby is going to be real good, but thats a year or two off yet. Gerber had been good when used, 4 starts 4 wins (two shutouts) but can he do that on a regular basis? We also have no "stand out" defense.. we had sourey and its really to bad about his attitude. so we have whitney.. he is good, but not at the sourey/pronger level

I guess if they have number 1 and 2 picks they could draft both RNH and Adam Larson, trade RNH for a good goalie and be laughing, but we don't and you can be sure if anyone grabs one of those two the other will be gone right away.

the other way to go is to grab Larson and with the 19th pick grab one of those hotshot young goalies, but that is a long term thing and goalies are a big gamble, better to let some one else develop a goalie and then trade for him later.

[BlueTang<3]

It will be a tough call they already have a ton of small forwards so i really think they wont draft RNH, but on the second hand it seems defence men are taking a long time to develop Hedman who was supposed to be a stud is kinda turning into a flop, same with Johnson the last high d man taken that is turned out is doughty. If it were my team I would buy out boulin and horcoff and start from there. Lots of rumours of them trading Hemsky for the #2 pick and taking both Larson and Rnh around here tho but its probably just people living a pipe dream. Its too bad both years Edmonton has had high picks there hasn't been a true stud to take, Crosby, Ovi , Stamkos talent.

[MMAX]

No doubt in my mind they'll take RNH. Best player available. So what if he's on the south side of 170lbs, he's also only 18 years old. Once he fills out he'll pack on 20lbs easy if not more and there's nothing wrong with a 190lb center. I've seen in some draft reports that Larssen might have slipped maybe to 4th. I guess we'll all see on Friday.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by BlueTang<3

Its too bad both years Edmonton has had high picks there hasn't been a true stud to take, Crosby, Ovi , Stamkos talent.

I don't know about that. Hall is no slouch, just had an accident and got hurt.. 42 points in 60something games from a rookie on a rebuilding team is nothing to laugh about. I am predicting 100 point seasons out of him once they all finnish gellin.

as for this year, if RNH lives up to the hype he will be better than any of them and yes he would be good to have, but I don't think he would be better for the team than some good defenceive players at this point. there is that other defence man who is ranked right behind Adam larson (don't know where you read he may have slid, he is still #1 euro and the strongest skater in the draft, but anyways) this other guy is the most NHL ready player in the draft.

its to hard for us to say though, with out knowing whats going on in Steve Tambellini's head maybe he will trade who ever they draft this year for some veteran talent in a couple key areas.

Steve