We’re going to talk about the recent Oilers rumors making their rounds briefly and then move on to take a look at how the Oilers draft would look like if we used Steve Kournianos’ 2019 NHL Draft Report to make the Oilers selections at this year’s NHL entry draft.
THE RUMORS
Corey Perry is the latest to come up and if Anaheim can’t find him a new home via trade, the talk is that they’ll buy him out. Now, I wouldn’t mind having the former Hart winner on the team because he’s an epic shit talker and you never know when you’ll need someone to concuss a goalie or pick on a rookie? But if he’s going to cost the Oilers anything more than $2M, I don’t think I’m interested. The Oilers ARE trying to get faster right?
Nikita Zaitsev has the same agent as Pavel Datsyuk and we know who the former Red Wing’s GM used to be right? It’s the Oilers new GM, Ken Holland. I don’t believe there’s much to this Dreger rumor and Friedman basically shut it down on Oilers Now yesterday morning. Edmonton’s defense is full at the moment, why would they be looking to add another overpaid option and weaken their leverage? I mean, are the Leafs looking to add some functional truculence to their team? In that scenario, let’s talk.
Would you rather have James Neal, Loui Eriksson, or Milan Lucic? For me it depends. Would I rather have someone who can score, help out on the PK, or address my puck possession numbers? Neal will kill on defensively but he’s not that old and he is still a bit of a pest at times. Lucic can’t score but he doesn’t kill you in the fancies. Whereas Eriksson will offer some veteran guidance to the younger players on the team, but not much more than what Lucic is giving you production-wise, apart from the puck not dying on his stick.
The fact of the matter is, Milan Lucic has gone to management THREE SEASONS IN A ROW and has made it known that he wouldn’t stand in the way of a trade… That followed an incident in Calgary that involved some alcohol and him breaking his leg thus making him ineligible to play in the final Battle of Alberta of the season and subsequently the one game where Connor McDavid gets hurt… I think that’s a poor display of leadership from someone who was brought in to bring just that to the locker room.
THE DRAFT ANALYST’S 2019 NHL DRAFT REPORT
The 2019 NHL Entry Draft is just around the corner and I’ve got a plethora of draft guides sitting on my desktop and in my tablet just waiting to be utilized. So I thought a good idea might be to use the picks from each guide’s rankings to perform the draft for the Edmonton Oilers.
Check out the previous articles written in the 2019 series below:
Drafting with the Future Considerations NHL Draft Guide
Drafting with the McKeen’s NHL Draft Guide
Drafting with Hockeyprospect.com’s NHL Draft Guide
Now, some guides don’t have enough players ranked to do the entire draft, so we’ll just have to do with rounds one to four in that case, but for the rest that do have enough, I’ll lay them out for you and give you the best brief reports on those players that I can. I haven’t watched all of the players and therefore I’ll be forced to go with reports from other publications and my own digging about to get a good idea on them in order to present it to you.
Today we’re going to use one of the most affordable draft guides available, The Draft Analyst’s 2019 NHL Draft Report. You can find it for the low low price of $5 right here. What will you find in this guide? Let’s let the Draft Analyst himself, Steve Kournianos, tell you,
The Draft Analyst’s 2019 NHL Draft Report is now complete. Inside you’ll find 249 player profiles that take an in-depth look at every prospect’s skills, strengths and weaknesses. Also included are rankings for both first-year eligibles and draft overagers, as well as the most detailed NHL team previews around! Find out what each club is doing right, doing wrong or in some cases, not doing a thing! Each team’s top prospects are listed by position, as well as immediate draft needs and the players they should target to address each one.
Want more? How about a two-round mock draft, top-25 rankings by position and a detailed breakdown of the draft order. I’ve also added a Top-31 ranking for the 2020 NHL Draft. There’s no better guide to have in your hands as NHL teams run through pick after pick. Don’t miss out on one of the most detailed draft primers on the market.
For $5 there’s no way you can go wrong with the amount of content you’re getting. Steve is an independent scout and you’d be doing a massive service to him and his efforts by grabbing his draft report. For the price of a Big Mac meal, you won’t regret it and you’ll be healthier for it!
The Oilers have the no.8, 38, 85, 100, 162, and 193 picks in the draft. This is who The Draft Analyst has ranked at those numbers.
No. 8 – Cole Caufield – RW – 5’7″ 162lbs – USNDTP (NCAA/USHL) – 64gp 72g 28a 100pts
At this point, you’ve probably heard everything there is to hear about “Goal” Caufield. The comparisons to DeBrincat are a tad shallow I feel. Sure, they’re small and they score goals but I think that Caufield is a bit better off the puck than DeBrincat is. The way that Caufield finds the areas on the ice where he can pull the trigger is really reminiscent of how Brett Hull used to do it. The other thing I like about this little fella is that he’s pretty effective at digging the pucks out of corners and finding an open teammate. I don’t reckon he’ll be winning and Selke trophies anytime soon but nobody cared about Hull’s 200ft game when he was scoring 70 goals a season and Cup-winning goals.
Put him on a line with McDavid or Draisaitl (or both) and the Oilers will reap the benefits.
BLH’s Pick: Cole Caufield – RW – 5’7″ 162lbs 0 USNTDP (NCAA/USHL)
I have to agree with Kournianos here. Boldy is already gone in his rankings, as is Turcotte, Podkolsin, and Zegras. So I’ll take the next best thing in my books, the scoring specialist. It might be fair to wonder about the choice mind you, the Oilers do have Kailer Yamamoto, who is the same size, coming along and there’s been no definite decision made on Jesse Puljujarvi yet. I simply feel that if all the other options are off the board, you take the goal-scoring specialist.
No. 38 – Samuel Poulin – RW – 6’1″ 208lbs – Sherbrooke (QMJHL) – 66gp 28g 47a 75pts
He’s a bull in a China shop folks. When’s the last time you saw Edmonton draft and develop a proper old-school power forward. I’m not talking about the days when Cameron Abney and Mitch Moroz were picked and no disrespect to Abney and Moroz, but Poulin is much more of a player than those gentlemen.
As I watched Poulin at the U18s, I noticed how responsible of a player he is defensively. Having an NHLer for a father has paid massive dividends with regards to Poulin’s hockey IQ and awareness. He’s not the fastest but he knows where to go and the best way to arrive at his destination. You’d think for a man of his size he’d lack in the finesse dept. but not Poulin. He’s got a good set of soft mitts on him and he can dangle.
BLH’s Pick: Albin Grewe – RW/LW – 5’11” 187lbs – Djurgardens U20 (Superelit) (ranked 50th)
I’ve watched Albin Grewe be a complete non-factor in games and I’ve seen him take over games as well. This is a player who is as feisty and pesky as he is skilled. He could very well be the next elite pest and we might be saying his name in the same breath as the Brad Marchands or Claude Lemieuxs of the world.
Grewe will blow past you, deke your D partner out of his jock, create a scoring chance, and then wallpaper your teammate in the corner chasing the loose puck. You have to keep our head on a swivel and be mindful of when he’s on the ice or you might just find yourself counting sheep.
It sounds like Grewe is the next coming of Cam Neely or something, right? He’s pretty dangerous but the way I see him is that he’s a throwback player with modern skills. He’d be the next Esa Tikkanen if the Oilers drafted him sans the Tikkanese.
No. 85 – Marek Berka – LW – 5’11” 159lbs – Litvinov u20 (Extraliga JR) – 48gp 29g 21a 50pts
The feather-lite Berka is best described as a gamble that could pay off massively should his development plan succeed. He is a dangerous player on the ice at all times as he loves to play inside the dots. His motor runs high at all times and you’ll never question his work ethic.
Berka’s wrist shot is hard and accurate, and he likes to use it off the stride.
BLH’s Pick: Shane Pinto – C – 6’2″ 192lbs – Tri-City (USHL) (ranked 88th)
Pinto is a really smart player that can see the way a play is developing before it does. His wrist/snap shot is pro-ready, he’s got the strength, hockey IQ, and positional flexibility that coaches at the next level will really love.
He’s not the most physically engaging player, but he doesn’t shy away from it. He could probably work on his defensive awareness in his own zone. I reckon he’d be a good pick for the Oilers as he’s pretty much flown under the radar until recently, I feel like with his size and toolbox, he could turn out be at the very least a depth scorer and at best, a two-way middle-6 forward. Edmonton could use as much depth as possible.
No. 100 – David Karlstrom – C – 6’1″ 187lbs – AIK U20 (SuperElit) – 41gp 9g 11a 20pts
Karlstrom is your standard 3rd line checking forward. He works his butt off and plays a very honest blue-collar game. He’s pretty average at everything sans his wrister, which is actually quite powerful and accurate.
BLH’s Pick: Dustin Wolf – G – 6’0″ 156lbs – Everett (WHL) (ranked 106th)
Half of my prospect covering super duo, Max (@TPEHockey), had this to say about Wolf at the beginning of the season,
Wolf’s game is highlighted by his technical play that is common with a lot of upcoming high-level goaltenders. Every movement is calculated and crisp. He doesn’t panic when out of position and makes a recovery using his skating ability and edges. Wolf is a butterfly goaltender and makes a lot of his movements on his knees. He’s good at sealing the ice which prevents him from opening up holes when moving.
Another quality to his game is his puck tracking and vision. Screens and tipped shots don’t phase him since often a shot is taken through a screen and Wolf can easily find it and pick it out of the air.
The hits on Wolf are his size and ability to take up the net. He measures in at about 183cm (6’0”) which is under the expected height for a top goaltending prospect at 188 (6’2”). This doesn’t combine well with his lack of aggressiveness. Wolf relies a little too much on his lightning quick reflexes and could come out of his net more to take away space. Although this isn’t a huge issue as it’s something he could easily fix as he progresses his game.
One of the reasons I really like this player is his ability to handle the puck. Watching the Oilers offensive attack die on the vine because they’ve attempted to dump it in only to see the goalie stop it and make a counter play, it’s made me really appreciate how much skill it takes to handle a puck for a goalie. To add to that, Wolf put up comparable stats to Ian Scott (Prince Albert) but because Everett wasn’t as deep (read: successful), he lost the WHL Goalie of the Year to Scott.
I know that Edmonton has Skinner, Wells, Starrett, and Rodrigue in the system, but none of those netminders have the hands and calmness that Wolf has. I’m not sure I see Wells and Starrett as long-term members of the Oilers as it is.
No. 162 – Simon Jellus – C – 6’2″ 194lbs – Lulea U20 (SuperElit) – 35gp 12g 15a 27pts
Kournianos is the only person who has a report on Jellus in the draft guides I’ve covered so far. So really, all I’ve got to go on is what The Draft Analyst says with the young Slovak, which is thus,
An inventive playmaking center with size and strength who shows flashes of dynamism.
Jellus is crafty and creative with the puck, using a series of moves and tricks to get himself inside for a clean look at the net. Jellus is a very good set-up man who looks to involve the entire five-man unit into the attack.
Jellus is a heady player who keeps his eyes open and looks over his shoulder quite a bit, even when moving quickly up ice. He has excellent speed and strong balance, with little to no regard for traffic no matter how thick the wall of opponents at the line may be.
BLH’s Pick: Jackson Lacombe – D – 6’1″ 171lbs – Shattuck (HS-MN) (ranked 164th)
The Eden Prairie native is a fantastic skater with the silky mitts who models his game after Shea Theodore (VGK). Lacombe is an intelligent puck mover and an adaptable defender. Meaning, he can read situations quite well and he’s not all gung-ho offense all of the time. He knows when to go and when to stay back. He used to be a forward, so he has those scoring instincts ingrained into him hence the gaudy point totals.
This puck-moving defender played for Shattuck St. Mary’s High School program last season and racked up 89pts in 54 games. He did play five games for the Chicago Steel (USHL) but didn’t manage to put up any points. Apparently, Lacombe would’ve played more if not for an injury. According to Hockeyprospect.com, he should spend the year playing in the USHL next year and then move on to the Univ. of Minnesota.
I wonder long-term if we’re looking at a player who will find himself being compared to Cale Makar, Thomas Chabot, and Shea Theodore due to his outstanding mobility and edgework?
No. 193 – Keean Washkurak – W – 5″10 184lbs – Mississauga (OHL) – 66gp 16g 31a 47pts
Washkurak is your typical short-statured hard-working grinder. He’s a smart player who knows where to go with and without the puck. He’s the kind of player that teammates love having on their squad because he goes to battle for them. Problem is, his skating isn’t great and he’s not that skilled. His ceiling is a 4th-line role player if he makes it to the NHL.
For me, I really think that these players can be found as free agents and that using a draft pick on them is a bit of a waste with the way the league is trending.
BLH’s Pick: Jonathan Brinkman – W – 5’11” 165lbs – Aalborg (DEN) (ranked 204th)
Brinkman is considered Denmark’s premier u18 prospect. He’s fast, intense, tenacious, gritty, elusive, and his shot and release are both lightning quick. I look at players like Michael Grabner and Marcus Sorenson, for example, and I think that taking a shot at Brinkman in the 7th round has very little risk and quite a bit of upside. I think the Oilers’ plan is to get faster and more skilled and Brinkman is both of those.
What do you think of those selections? Let us know in the comments below!
