WHEN SINATRA SINGS AGAINST NELSON RIDDLE’S STRINGS
Based on some of the comments on the blog over the last 24 hours, there’s an assumption no one from the Young Stars tournament and rookie camp should be expected to make the NHL team this season. That is well short of accurate. Here are the men who made the Young Stars roster over the last several years and then played in the NHL same season:
- 2016: Jesse Puljujarvi, Matt Benning, Drake Caggiula
- 2015: Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Darnell Nurse, Anton Slepyshev
- 2014: Leon Draisaitl, Darnell Nurse, Laurent Brossoit, Bogdan Yakimov, Jordan Oesterle, David Musil
- 2013: Oscar Klefbom, Martin Marincin
- 2011: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
Even with the allowance for lottery picks and their likelihood of making the parent team in the fall, these kids can play in the NHL in the season following their appearance at the Young Stars tournament. It is extremely likely to happen this season, despite the absence of a top 10 overall selection on the roster. Look for ridiculous talent, college men and Europeans.
UPDATED 50-MAN ROSTER
There were two significant developments in the ongoing Oilers roster story yesterday. First, as noted, the signing of Dmitri Samorukov to an entry-level deal. That makes four sliders, which is approaching a meal. The other item was news that Anton Slepyshev is injured and won’t be available until the season is underway. That’s a big one, and does increase the odds of men like Jesse Puljujarvi and Drake Caggiula playing on feature lines. It may also mean Ty Rattie or Kailer Yamamoto have increased their opportunities to make the big club.
PENTICTON ROSTER
- Kailer Yamamoto should be the offensive leader in the tournament, it’ll help if the club spends time on the power play.
- Shots from the point should remind of the song “(I Love the Sound of) Breaking Glass” with big shots like Ethan Bear, Ziyat Paigin and Ryan Mantha available. I’m hoping for a bunch of 5×4’s.
- Drake Caggiula’s NHLE was 44 points a year ago, Spencer Foo comes in at 31 as he tries to make the Flames roster. Joe Gambardella? 39.5. I don’t think Gambardella will get the same kind of push Foo will this year, but this weekend series should be an interesting matchup between the two.
- Fans enter the weekend with a plethora of worthwhile prospects to observe but none who will have the main spotlight on them. That’s progress.
LE CRAP!
The injury to Anton Slepyshev changes the equation again as we enter training camp. My plan was to run a ‘training camp roster handbook’ after the invites were announced, but today I’ll move up the “RW” portion of the post so we can have it as a starter for discussion. My rankings reflect chances of making opening night lineup.
RIGHT WINGERS ENTERING TRAINING CAMP
- C-R Leon Draisaitl, 21. Draisaitl has fantastic natural talent but he also worked on the things that held him back. He was part of a trio that scored 86 goals last season and I think Todd McLellan is extremely likely to return to it. Ryan Strome is also an option here.
- R Jesse Puljujarvi, 19. Puljujarvi is an impressive prospect with great skills, it’s just a matter of waiting for him to show what he is as a mature player. I bet he gets a major push in training camp.
- R Zack Kassian, 26. His foot speed is improved, better than we’ve seen at any previous point in his career. I feel a little as though we are looking at a brand new player who could surprise.
- L Drake Caggiula, 23. He’s in the mix to play with 97, meaning he could be in for a massive raise if things break right. Part of “breaking right” are things that occur to help him rise up the depth chart. Slepyshev’s issues are such a break, sounds cruel but is fact.
- R Kailer Yamamoto, 18. Electric skills and he can score goals. His strength (offense) contrasts with the other hopefuls ahead of him and that’s a massive advantage. He has a shot to make the team.
- R Iiro Pakarinen, 25. The injury to Slepyshev may also benefit Pakarinen, who projects to be 13-14F based on my estimates. I don’t think it will help him move up the depth chart, but McLellan likes him.
- R Ty Rattie, 24. He’s in an even better spot now, I think his scoring ability is close to the men above him (Puljujarvi, Caggiula, Slepyshev) at this time. Rattie could emerge during training camp.
- R Mitch Callahan, 25. Unlikely to break camp with the Oilers, he is a recall option.
- R Anton Slepyshev, 23. I still see him as being a big part of this year’s forward group, but the injury will impact him and allow others to push for jobs. Damnable luck. Ranked here due to injury.
- R Patrick Russell. Scored only 8 times as rookie pro but shot the puck a lot and may have been experiencing a Bermuda triangle shooting percentage. Should play prominent role in Bakersfield.
- R Greg Chase. Chase has scoring ability, needs to take advantage of opportunities and find consistency this year. I do think the organization has squeezed him, but have no evidence.
- R Brian Ferlin. Effective when healthy. Has had substantial injury issues. A 2011 Bruins draft pick under Chiarelli, expectations should be low as this season may be about working his way back to healthy.
- R Chad Butcher. AHL deal, skilled and small RW who scored over 100 points with Medicine Hat. He has high skill, could be the new Josh Winquist.
- R Dave Gust. Small skill winger signed to an AHL deal. It feels like he’s Joey Benik’s replacement but we’ll see. All of these new hires are easy to confuse, we’ll know more by Christmas.
- R Zach O’Brien. Played mostly in the ECHL a year ago, can also play center. Had some titanic offensive seasons in the QMJHL years ago.
LOWDOWN WITH LOWETIDE
A short week means extra fun on Friday, we kick start the weekend at 10 this morning, TSN1260. Scheduled to appear:
- Steve Lansky, BigMouthSports. NFL season underway, hockey gearing up, music!
- Jonathan Willis. What’s going on in Jon’s world? Anything new?
- Matt Iwanyk, TSN1260. Eskimos v. Stampeders. Is there a chance?
- Dan Ukrainetz, CFL Fantasy. Best value this weekend for your fantasy roster.
10-1260 text, @Lowetide on twitter. Friday!
Oilers game to watch tonight?
YES!
“That makes four sliders, which is approaching a meal.” – I love it! Thanks again for the excellent morning read.
A friendly reminder to everyone that today’s Young Stars Tournament opener is the Oilers vs Flames game at 5 pm (AB and SK time).
I will have a GDT (!!!) up around 4pm Edmonton time.
Lowetide,
LT, if they had an Old Stars Blogger Tournament you would be my pick for MVP. 🙂
Do you know if the game is being streamed online? I was hoping the Oilers network would have it, but I can’t find any links or related info.
Looking forward to it!
I think the one player playing in the tournament that has a shot at making the team is Joe G. I think its a long shot that he’ll make it out of camp but I think he might have an NHL future and might even play some games this year.
This is mainly based off the verbal as opposed to seeing him play – very much looking forward to watching him tonight.
I hope the feed is adequate.
It will be streamed on the Oilers website.
Ahhhh shiiitt.
It’s that time folks!
Woodguy will you be doing a game day “clap clap” post?
About time you had a GDT blog up.
Sheesh!
Does Sleppy injury = Iggy or Jagr invite? I hope so.
They were in on Doan (now it makes more sense) so not out of the realm of possibility.
WE WAIT!!!
James MirtleVerified account @mirtle 4m4 minutes ago
Happy to announce our initial @TheAthleticEDM team: @JonathanWillis @sunilagni @Lowetide @minniafeng @blackdogpat
Congrats to LT and the others. Great team.
I had just subscribed a few days ago, assuming at some point the Atlantic would have a Rockies/Plains version. So excited for this.
Thats fantastic. Finally the Athletic has some Western content.
dustrock,
This is awesome news! I just subscribed earlier this week.
Awesome. Now I can sign up. Congrats LT!
The cost is minimal and I had signed up already just because of the quality of the Eastern team.
Highly recommended.
frjohnk,
– Great post LT!
– Re: The Athletic: there was a great round-table yesterday on the FAN in Toronto about this. Don Banks (formerly SI), was talking about it on the drive-home show.
– Basically: the Athletic is trying to go after the local markets that they think there is enough interest in creating local, subscription-only no commercials sports content. Contrast this with for instance Sportsnet.ca, which when you click on it: it’s a Toronto Centric site.
– It will be interesting : another front that the newspapers will have to fight, and the ability of these type of operations to “localize” content, like how City Newspapers did in generations past…
– $4/month doesn’t seem like much: economies of scale are huge
– Hope this doesn’t mean Lowetide gets phased out….
– Good overview of the business model here:
http://www.niemanlab.org/2017/07/the-athletic-that-local-sports-startup-with-no-advertising-raises-5-4-million-and-scoops-up-sports-illustrateds-former-top-editor/
Psyche,
Yeah, me too. When Lebrun signed on I was sold (him and Pronman was enough for me especially knowing that Edmonton was on the way.) Bringing in Lowetide and BDP is awesome, love their writing. Congrats.
The Athletic is expanding so quickly that they are covering electronic dance music now?
“Kailer Yamamoto should be the offensive leader in the tournament, it’ll help if the club spends time on the power play.”
I’m going with Joe G. being the offensive leader with help from Kailer – it will be a little bit of “quieter offence” from Joe than from Kailer but he should be productive.
If Slepy can’t start the season, I think this solidified Drai at 1RW.
I think the plan is to start Drai at 1RW in any event as I can’t see McLellan intentionally losing his most “trusted” center in Nuge and I think they want Strome at C (at least long term).
Even if Slepy is ready for Game 1, without camp, its likely best to ease him in a bit with bottom 6 minutes (which might be where he should be in any event).
Kinger_Oil.redux,
I’m sure he can answer this for himself but I doubt Lowetide gets phased out. Willis said that he’ll be a weekly column.
Good news about the athletic. I signed up a week ago after the pronman announcement. They seem to be landing some good talent, and avoiding the negative Nancy’s which I prefer.
GDT!!
Also. Does anyone know if there are open skates at Rogers in the coming weeks that the public can watch?
Hmmmmm, maybe this site is worth a purchase.
On Right Wing:
Kassian’s 3-year contract may mean that he gets a push into the top-6. If he can score 20 he becomes the new Maroon on Starboard side.
Lowetide,
Will you still be writing for ON?
– Hope so, but it’s a business…
– I really do like the concept. Won’t be as “folksy” as LT, but this blog has great content: most blog sites are designed for clicks. LT built his the right way IMO: content and community.
– From the article: “The Athletic has absolutely no care about page views. It is paying its writers “competitive” salaries in exchange for original stories.”
” Parikh also indicated that The Athletic does not need 100,000-200,000 subscribers to make it profitable.
“It is not a very high bar to reach profitability,” said Parikh. “It’s different than an ad supported model.”
That is perhaps the most interesting part of this contrarian type of media company. With an advertising-supported model, a company may only be able to prosper with scale; The Athletic can carve out a profitable business by only focusing on the die-hard fans willing to part with a small parcel of their paychecks. It is focusing on content accessible on mobile devices and is referred as the “first mobile-first content platform for sports” by Parikh.
What is most compelling is that The Athletic needs a bit less than 2,000 subscribers per team per market in order to break even, according to Founder and CEO Alex Mather.”
I’ve subscribed for about 6 months now and it is certainly worth it.
There’s great hockey stuff from writers in TOR, CHI, SJS, MTL, CBJ and DET already.
Adding in writers from VAN, CGY and EDM makes it a no-brainer.
LeBrun and Duhatschek being the lead National Hockey writers is the cherry on top.
Not for the rookie tourney.
I’m not even sure if I usually do it for the pre-season games.
So, does this mean Willis is the Centre? or is it Sunil?
The Athletic looks really interesting, but we’ll have to see if it has enough content to make a paywall subscription worthwhile, considering you can get most of the same content on other sources like Bleacher Report Team Stream for free, even if you need to wade through some clickbait and junk articles. I also really like the team Twitter centralized feeds in Team Stream.
There has to be a value to paying, and just clearing away junk and clickbait and a quality comment system may not be enough.
Sports news paywalls have not fared well in the past mostly due to the hyper-accelerated news cycle and multiple sources of the same content, but if there’s enough current and exclusive content there, I’ll give it a try.
I downloaded the app and checked my local news outlets, most of the content I saw was accessible for free elsewhere. Maybe there will be enough exclusive content when hockey gets going.
Kinger_Oil.redux,
I don’t think that this blog competes with The Athletic, so I don’t see any issue in the “it’s a business” aspect. I actually think that if someone has a great blog with a loyal following they would want to keep it alive to continue to drive subscribers the The Athletic. Besides, LT, Willis, Gregor have all written in multiple different places at the same time so I don’t see why this would be any different.
I have absolutely no clue what The Athletic is, haha. But good job and congratulations in that, Lowetide. I’m sure it’ll be great.
For those interested, I will be keeping the blog and writing articles here, at Oilers Nation and now at the Athletic. One of their priorities is to have writers behind the paywall (makes sense) and the Athletic folks graciously agreed to make an exception.
I feel this blog has been a chronicle for too long, and the comments section are a big part of that chronicle. To shut it down or change it in any way would be wildly unfair, selfish and I’d miss it too much.
Oilers Nation gave me an opportunity to earn money as a writer, something I’d dreamed of doing for a long time. I won’t give that up either, as loyalty counts for a lot in my world and I won’t forget those who gave me the initial opportunity.
If you can, subscribe to the Athletic, not for me necessarily but for the other writers (who are top drawer). Jon will join me at 10:40 to discuss.
Lowetide,
Thank you sir. For all these years. Still on the Lowedown as well?
– – Hey I hope your right. I’m interested in the business aspect of this. And it’s strange to be talking about LT and his “business” on this blog
– From another article: it would appear they are paying top dollar for the writers. I’m merely pointing a “threat” from my own selfish point of view.
– On that, how many of us click on the paypal for LT? This is his business. I give a multiple of the the Athletic proposed sub rate, to this blog, as it’s by far the single source of free content I use (excluding porn! LOL).
– Just a reminder: please help LT, he isn’t running a charity for us goofs as a conduit to be mean to each other in the comment section:
“The athletic launched 6 months ago in Chicago – they hired the top sportswriters in the city on a full-time basis, and have them write a total of five to ten quality pieces of content a day. The startup is credentialed by all five sports teams in the city, and mixes in traditional sports reporting with inside access and exclusives from team executives and agents of the hottest players.”
* edit: LT just said that he has been granted an “exception”, as it was my take the the Athletic hired the writer’s full-time. We are lucky, and smart of the Athletic to not insist on LT’s exclusivity.
I’ll be tuning in – looking forward to find out more info.
As of right now, with my obsession with the Oilers, I am almost overwhelmed by content and feel “stress” trying to keep up and its the damn off-season. Soon, I’ll have interviews to watch every day, etc.
I’m not sure I can handle more content.
Lowetide,
This is good to hear and I’m sure I’m not the only one that is not the least bit surprised that they would make an exception for you.
Kinger_Oil.redux,
Yeah, 2,000 subscribers per team would be around $3,000,000 annually. Plus whatever else they’d make money from presumably.
– Take it back to Edm: 2,000 subs, @ $50/year = $100K. 4 writer’s @ $20K+ corporate = B/E
LT.. if you need to stock the warchests and go behind a paywall, I’d pay. Just saying 🙂
Great to hear. Thanks for the update. Might be a good time to think about clicking the PayPal button folks.
EDIT – Kinger beat me to it.
LT, not sure if you use something like Spotify, or buy vinyl only, etc.
Neil Young’s Hitchhiker out today.
1. “Pocahontas”
2. “Powderfinger”
3. “Captain Kennedy”
4. “Hawaii”
5. “Give Me Strength”
6. “Ride My Llama”
7. “Hitchhiker”
8. “Campaigner”
9. “Human Highway”
10. “The Old Country Waltz”
All acoustic.
The writing I’m looking to see out of The Athletic isn’t stuff that’s being reproduced elsewhere. I’m not terribly interested in seeing another site do generic game previews, or even “news”. That stuff IS readily available elsewhere.
I’m more keen on actual full length pieces, off the beaten path stories and in-depth analysis. Also excited that Pronman is doing some stuff there vis-a-vis prospects/draft.
I’ve had it 24 hours and have loved it. Especially good if you consume more than just Oilers sports media…not that I’m saying anyone here does that. Also had a really good experience with their customer service when I wanted to change some log-in information.
Highly recommended and I’m super pleased LT et al are going to have stuff there!
Lowetide,
I hope that your time won’t get stretch too thin. I would hate for you to have to stop watching hockey games so that you can find time to write about hockey. Just because the Toronto media thinks that it works doesn’t make it so.
Hey guys –
I think the guys at the Athletic are pretty aware of the importance of unique content that you can’t get at blogs or anywhere else. Last couple of weeks, I’ve written:
*How Auston Matthews changes differently than Bozak/Kadri and other star players
*How San Jose’s offence has changed to being the most point shot heavy in the league at 5v5 and how it’s impacted Thornton
*Draisaitl contract in the context of the past decade of second deals
*San Jose’s PP taking too many point shots
etc.
Certainly for me, a big goal is to tell people things about teams and the game that they can’t learn anywhere else. Hope you check it out.
Wow!
“Recorded under a full moon in late 1976”.
Willis and Lowetide just sold me on the radio.
I’ve subscribed and looking forward to this Yamamoto article Jon mentioned.
I assume the athletic is a new diet/workout regimen mrs. lowetide has Mr. Lowetide on
Yamamoto and JP are only 4 months apart. I know JP has played against men for 2 years and has an NHL size body but perhaps this opening(s) on right wing is a little closer, and Yamamoto has a shot; like LT has suggested.
In a perfect world, the future is having these to occupy 1 RW and 2 RW. Maybe the future is now?
As per Stauffer, line’s for tonight:
Safin-Gambardella-Yamamoto
Koch-Butcher-Maksimov
Saigon-Bauer-Fix-Wolansky
Polei-Glover-Owre
That first line is amazing – the 3rd/4th lines, meh, but that first line….
Apparantly Willis is about to put on an article on The Athletic about the unreasonable bias in the NHL over the years against smaller player – I’ll be curious as to what he has to say.
Holy crap, a Dellow sighting!
OriginalPouzar,
I think this is where analytics is starting to help general managers and Scouts properly evaluate talent. It has been proven in professional sports and in politics that size Matters for the eye test. Now that GMs have a different tool besides just their eyes they’re starting to see that little players can impact the game just as well as big players.
Sound the alarms, this is not a drill.
I repeat, NOT a drill.
I thought butcher played wing?
Also, little surprised polei wasn’t given a bit more of a push. He has a contract over the four above him
Does each area focus only on its area it’s located out of?
Like will LT be only writing about the oilers, or will different people be writing different content about different teams all the time?
Or do you just focus on analytics for anything in the league, pronman focus on prospects for the league, etc?
Shortage on Right Wing due to injuries. So they had to bring LT in on a PTO 😉
russ99,
considering you can get most of the same content on other sources like Bleacher Report Team Stream for free, even if you need to wade through some clickbait and
I disagree that the content I’ve read at The Athletic can be read at other sites.
Its not even close imo.
Safin-Gambardella-Yamamoto
Koch-Butcher-Maksimov
Saigon-Bauer-Fix-Wolansky
Polei-Glover-Owre
Jones-Mantha
Paigin-Bear
Samorukov-Lagesson
Wells/Skinner
That defence is AWESOME!
None of the invites – all 6 signed to NHL contract and 5 playing pro this year.
Should be rock solid.
Everyone I really want to see is playing tonight I think – love it.
Woodguy v2.0,
I think that is one of the challenges that they are aware of. Anybody that is under the age of 40 expects content for free. Seems like so far they’ve stirred up quite a demand and I believe they’re onto something. As long as their content is quality and unique I don’t think people mind paying $4 a month
Especially that top line for both F and D (well, top two D lines). Beautiful.
Yup, even that third pair.
I want to see this newly signed 3rd pick and see how Lagesson looks (I’ve ready varying reports on his skating).
congrats LT.
I can vouch its easily worth the money.
I signed up back in January to try and show edmonton would be interested in their own site.
Easily been worth every penny even before todays announcement.
LT, so excited to see you, Jon, Pat and Sunil at the Athletic! I just joined a few days ago because Dellow/Pronman, but you gents are all well worth the dime too!
All: watch for price breaks on the introductory articles (Lebrun’s was the highest I’d seen at 30% off), but beware that it is USD in case you’re pinching pennies.
stush18,
The structure is that we have people focusing on each team and then, for lack of a better term, national people above that who are free to focus more broadly. One of the cool things about doing this, in cities where we’ve got a strong presence on the ground, is that we can really blend some analytics insights with some questions that we ask, something that I’m excited about.
I’m certainly not restricted to writing just analytics. I’m getting kind of beyond the whole analytics/not-analytics dichotomy at this point, which I think a lot of the more progressive media is. I’ll be writing hockey. There will be some analytics. It’ll also be paired with video and, hopefully, insight from coaches and such as we try and bridge the gap between numbers and what we see when we watch.
– The dissemination of news and sports is at an interesting juxta-position. I’m in the over-40 camp. Grew up being a voracious reader of newspapers, and loved going through all the stats when the Globe or the local paper on the Saturday would have a few pages of stats from all the different leagues.
– If you are of that vintage: you can remember when they would have each MLB/NBA/NHL would list every player, and all their stats, and every pitcher, etc. That would be a whole page of stats. And they might have a few articles from each of the major sports, but they were in-depth ones, summary of the week type stuff and a few ancedotes: not just game-day predicitions.
– I don’t enjoy clicking on what I think is an “article” on a sports site, and it’s actually a .jpeg clip. But I understand that many (most?) under-40, they just don’t read, and they prefer those video clips.
– The Tribune appeals to I think those who are “old-school” and like content. I just wonder if its appealing to the younger generation. And as you say, will they pay for content, when it’s been free all their lives, and quite frankly not the same quality content that MSM used to produce
– Its a different kind of “journalism”, a different pace….
– That’s what is unique about LT: he’s folksy, he’s not game-day match-up blog, its thoughtful, oiler-centric, but the content is what drives the bus (and his non-hockey backdrops of course)
*hi pay-pal button on this site everyone
Signed up when I saw the talent announced today combined with the purpose of the company. But I am particularly enthused with exactly this prospect of combining these uniquely interesting aspects into a more unified view.
I remember when you stopped blogging that you were delving into context-level analytics (on breakins etc) and combining the analytics to show the effects of different strategies. That kind of unification has always fascinated me as a way of diving deeper into the game strategies and outcomes (and side-effects). Adding the level of interleaving input from coaches sounds even more fascinating.
I’m grateful there is a medium even tackling the approach for greater content, and even more-so pleased that they seem to be hitting it out of the park with great talent to head it in that direction. All the best.
What Tyler is really trying to say is that he’ll be writing articles on biking and constitutional law as well as McDavid.
Wait, that sounds interesting.
Question – Ill be stuck indoors due to Irma the next few days … how are these games being broadcast this year? (Sorry if its been asked already)
Streamed on edmontonoilers.com and on their youtube page.
Spector is now reporting that the ankle injury to Slepy is NOT serious.
So will there be the annual uproar tonight when the game stream isn’t available in certain regions?
jonrmcleod,
Uhhh… yup. Am expecting it here in Seattle…
Already trying to temper my expectations for when I am frothing at the computer trying to get some OILERZ action and there is nothing but a black screen…… Maybe Reddit will help… who knows…
ALSO:
GOILERS!
Yes of course.
jonrmcleod,
You mean it won’t be available in Ontario?
Its also available on the Oilers youtube page.
Oilers youtube page will show the game.
I sure hope Gene Principe isn’t doing the play-by-play. All he does is go off topic about some players holidays who’s mothers dog saved a bird out of a tree and then yells goal.
Pouzar saves the day again.
As is tradition
Lowetide,
Very late to the party but congrats LT!
Hopefully it will be available for all. I just know that there always seems to be some issue every year with these streams.
Cats.
Don’t forget about cats.
I think the cat writes the cycling stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f-EniGQoDU
Not surprisingly, Joe G. is looks like the Oilers best forward early – beauty cross-ice pass to Mantha on the PP for a one-timer – nice save by Parsons.
Yamamoto finds some open ice twice.
Cuts in for a bad angle chance and its almost poked in by the trailer.
Are the minor penalties only 1 min?
Chad Butcher ties it up for the Oilers (103 points last year in Medicine Hat) – nice hands in front.
He’s on an AHL only contract with the organization.
Pretty dirty hit from Glover.
Pretty even first couple of periods.
Bear, Mantha, Yamamoto, Joe G, Wells the most noticeable for the Oilers to me.
Maksimov having a tough first game – had a couple decent plays late in the 2nd though.
Polie deflects a Mantha shot and the Oilers have the lead.
Jones with 2nd assist.
Maksimov scores – Oiler goals in bunches.
Great release.
#Makcity!
….
Too soon?