For the first time since starting this blog almost 20 years ago, I’m not sure what to write. The Lowetide blog has entered its ‘invisible ink’ phase and I’m just not certain how long this post will last. The last two disappeared in the wind and I am afraid this one will be the same. So, for however long we have today, I’m just going to ramble if that’s okay.
THE ATHLETIC!
- New Lowetide: Oilers’ opening night roster will be influenced by salary cap, waivers
- Lowetide: Edmonton Oilers’ European, college and junior prospects for 2022-23
- Jonathan Willis: The Edmonton Oilers are rapidly approaching their “all-in” moment
- Lowetide: Why Oilers trading for Patrick Kane makes more sense at the deadline
- Lowetide: 9 Bold Predictions for the 2022-23 Edmonton Oilers
- Lowetide: Edmonton Oilers reasonable expectations for every player in 2022-23
- Lowetide: Why Oilers prospect Raphael Lavoie is in for a make or break season
- Lowetide: Finding Edmonton Oilers’ ideal skill lines for 2022-23
- Lowetide: Oilers have room for UFA contract or PTO. Is there a match?
- Lowetide: Oilers question marks as training camp nears
- Lowetide: Xavier Bourgault leads strong group of Oilers prospects graduating to pro hockey this fall
- Lowetide: Oilers math shows 41 candidates for 23 (or fewer) jobs. Who could play where?
- Lowetide: Why did Oilers select Nikita Yevseyev at the 2022 NHL Draft?
- Lowetide: Oilers’ expectations of Jack Campbell in his first Edmonton season
- Lowetide: Who will the Oilers trade for cap purposes?
- Lowetide: 5 Edmonton Oilers training camp surprises
- DNB: With Oilers roster intact, stars readying for next step
- Lowetide: What are reasonable expectations for the Oilers in 2022-23?
- Lowetide: Four Oilers defence prospects applying for one job. Who wins?
- Lowetide: For Oilers forward Dylan Holloway, the future may come early
- DNB: Oilers’ Brad Holland on AGM role, analytics, working with his dad: Q&A
- Lowetide: Oilers top-20 prospects, summer 2022
- DNB: First-round pick Reid Schaefer can bring ‘big-boy hockey’ to his hometown team
SO, HERE’S THE PLAN
We may lose this post today, so I’m going to save it and re-post if it disappears. It won’t be right away necessarily, I’m on the fly quite a bit during the afternoon. I know this isn’t the best situation, because comments will be lost. It’s what he have today. If there’s new information when the post disappears, I might incorporate that into this item.
PRONMAN’S LATEST
As it turns out, the Oilers drafting in recent years has been good despite the lack of selections outside the first round. Corey Pronman’s list of the best “Under 23” NHL players is 170 names long, meaning five players per team. Edmonton’s group numbers six, meaning just slightly above average drafting and development over recent years. Perhaps most encouraging, there’s a second-round pick in there. Since 2010, the Oilers have chosen in the second round nine times, McLeod’s 81 regular season games so far rank him No. 3 on that list (Tyler Pitlick, Martin Marincin).
CONDORS POSSIBLE ROSTER
I think we’re close enough to training camp to figure out the opening night roster for the Condors. There could be a surprise or two, but one suspects the Oilers will deploy Philip Broberg, Stuart Skinner and Dmitri Samorukov among the prospects, and some of the NHL veterans will start in Bakersfield. Here’s a guess:
- Goaltenders (3): Calvin Pickard, Ryan Fanti, Olivier Rodrigue
- Left Defense (6): Slater Koekkoek, Markus Niemelainen, Darien Kielb*, Yanni Kaldis*, Alex Peters*, Adam Brubacher*
- Right Defense (3): Vincent Desharnais, Mike Kesselring, Phil Kemp
- Center (7): Greg McKegg, Brad Malone, James Hamblin, Noah Philip, Filip Engaras*, Matt Boudens*, Mark Rassell*
- Left Wing (7): Dylan Holloway, Tyler Benson, , Carter Savoie, Matvey Petrov (Jr), Luke Esposito*, Graham McPhee*, Samuel Dove-McFalls*
- Right Wing (6): Seth Griffith, Xavier Bourgault, Raphael Lavoie, Tyler Tullio, Dino Kambeitz*, Drake Rymsha*
We could see Devin Shore in the minors, my article today at The Athletic focuses on another veteran whose cap hit might make him a target for the AHL. Among this group, the kids (Hollowaym, Savoie, Bourgault, Tullio, Petrov if he stays) are the ones to track closest. A forward at 20 who can score in the AHL usually goes straight to the NHL (Tyler Benson excluded). First recalls? Always depends on injuries. Based on what we have here, Philip Broberg and Stuart Skinner would be the feature NHL rookies, Holloway to follow.
LOWETIDE AND JAMIESON
Tons to discuss 10-2 today, TSN1260. The Elks lose at home, and are 1-1 to start the second half of the season. The Jays were swept by the Angels, the NHL offseason is dwindling down to a few precious days, and the NFL cuts mean trades galore! 10-1260 text, @Lowetide on twitter! Talk soon! Plus, guess the correct time the blog post disappears to win a frisbee!!
You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension—a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You’re moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You’ve just crossed over into the Lowetide Zone.
That 2018-2019 roster was a dog’s breakfast. Go back and look at what Ol’ Dutch inherited! Huge roster turnover and epic turnaround in 3 weird years.
I read Kurt Leavin’s article on CoH regarding Desharnais last night, probably within 10 minutes after it was posted. I re-read it again this morning and it looks like it has had been edited since. There had been a reference to his nickname, which has been removed.
I just wanted to mention it here, because I think it might be the best way to get the word out. I heard of his nickname which is “seaweed” when Brad Malone, who was injured for a good chunk of the 2020-21 season, was providing colour commentary during several Condors games. He was excellent, IMO, not only is he a very good speaker, his anecdotes from inside the locker room were extremely entertaining.
For those interested, the nickname was coined by Dave Manson, because of VH’s size and how he takes up so much space and because he just “hangs there”. I thought it was hilarious when I heard that.
Knights acquire Adin Hill for a 4th.
I’m glad its not Reimer but that is a solid stop gap as Brossoit won’t be ready to start the season.
Hi LT, your post from two days ago titled Start! managed to make it into the Wayback Machine, in case you want to show it off to anyone:
https://web.archive.org/web/20220827143751/https://lowetide.ca/2022/08/27/start-3/
Not sure why it won’t load from your site, but I’m not a WordPress guy (more general web dev). I tried a quick look with DevTools, but I couldn’t spot anything out of the ordinary in the mess that makes up a modern web page. Any chance your post is in the WP trash? Beyond that, I’d suggest turning on the WP debug log and try to access the post, might tell you more. Or, at least, might tell your WordPress-knowledgeable techie more 🙂
Huh. Interesting. It’s stayed today so that’s good. I’m not sure and the smart people aren’t either, so I’m going to blame Alex Delvecchio.
It seems that McDavid hasn’t lost any of his speed (or hands):
https://twitter.com/nhl/status/1564325201046806531?s=21&t=GJDhOcC4J4ZjNvt7XGyF_g
Interesting how those “bonus” two year deals are hampering the team with Koeekoek and Shore. One year for these guys would have sufficed.
How do you think these two contracts are hampering Holland and Oilers? Both can be sent to the AHL and be completely removed from the teams cap calculation. And Holland still has 8 spots available on his contract list.
Nailed it – and he likely 10 spots left given Schaeffer and Petrov will slide.
Not even a little bit – both can be easily removed from the roster with zero cap hit (as Koekkoek was last season).
How does it hamper the team? Both of those cap hits can be 100% buried.
After sitting in the Lowetide stands for years, I’ve finally decided to step out on to the ice. Why now, you may ask? Well, I think I might have a bit of an answer as to the ‘invisible ink’ problem, and today’s title seemed appropriate: There’s A First Time For Everything.
Now I’m not an IT whiz but I do know a little about computers and troubleshooting. So, as to those missing pages, it seems they might be still there. For example, Start!, the August 27 entry doesn’t show up on the site. But if you are on this site, and type in the url https://lowetide.ca/2022/08/27/ you’ll find it takes you to a page that shows a bit about the entry and a read more link. Click that and you’ll find the whole entry and comments. So I’m thinking, and I tried it, just type in https://lowetide.ca/2022/08/27/ and change the date to get the page in question and bingo, it works!
Is this a foolproof fix? I don’t know but it has worked for me over the past week or so when I’ve tried to find the invisible ink.
And while I’m at, an overdue Thank You to Lowetide for his excellent work. How he does it, I don’t know. In real life, when I’m not cheering for the Oilers (fair warning, I turn off the game when they get behind but I’m not so sure that is the thing to do anymore with this version of the team) I’m a journalist. How someone continues to write so much, and all quality work, after all these years (this blog, the Athletic, and now a book) and not get burnt out amazes me!
Thanks!! And welcome!! I appreciate this.
All this talk about Brobergs rating but not much talk about how hes rated above Brandt Clarke.
Also Bouchard being in top 20 being flanked by Byram and Powers is pretty funny
And no talk at all how Vasili Podkholin who was drafted 2 spots after Broberg is 23 spots ahead in the rankings.
Oops.
I don’t think that’s how you spell his name.
Have you ever tried to edit a post here on an iPad?
Broberg needs to play like a top 4 defenceman before anyone will give him anything much.
Oilers used to have a Finn named Rita who was ranked the 2nd top prospect in the NHL then busted as flat as a pancake.
I mentioned that Broberg was posting picks from (well, at least of) Commonwealth so I presume he’s in town.
Stauff says lots of guys flying back this week and the informal Captain Skates will be starting.
Let’s Do This!!!!
I’ve mentioned numerous times this off-season that Lavoie had major season ending knee surgery and I have no idea if he’s going to be fully healthy to start the year and, if so, he had any chance to hockey train as opposed to rehab.
Stauffer said today he thinks Lavoie misses time.
I’m not surprised.
Disappointed though – big season for Lavoie to get those arrows adjusted. Will be tough starting way behind this year.
— In the spirit of first for everything thought I’d share a fun thing I did last week.
— One of the Avalanche players his wife is from King City and they have a house there. I’m friendly with a guy who played with the player (his girlfriend has cottage by ours)
— Anyway got to go to his house for his day with the Cup! I’ve never seen it outside of the HoF.
— Long story short: we drank out of it sitting down, and then went to local bar where it was open bar untill too many people showed up.
— Might take the under on how many points they will accumulate before Christmas as he was saying the partying has been epic : the first post Covid Cup in a few years…
FUN FACT: only the player is allowed to hoist the cup over his head! It’s the “rule”. Some guy tried to do it and the famous guy who goes with the Cup rushed over and took it away. : They actually had two cup “chaperones” for this event
— all the players are given their date with the Cup months ago, and they work on the schedule. Pretty cool day. Hurt for days after. There were two Avs their : and their buddies egged them on and drinking capacity of fit 20 something athletes is crazy high.
Mark Messier taking the cup to the local Bruin Inn bar in St. Albert for the day is my fave cup story.
They even suck it next to the door for the kids who were not allowed in.
I think you’ve got that Condors’ opening night roster surrounded subject to injury at the NHL level.
I think Holloway is likely starting in the AHL but that’s far from certain and Foegele out trade for cap compliance could change that. Holloway’s $925K cap hit could hurt him.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Brad Malone as 4C or 13F on the Oilers – they could have Holloway on a 20 player opening submission roster (for his bonus structuring) and then send him down for game 1 and recall Malone at a near $200K cap savings.
I love this:
Nurse/Ceci
Kulak/Bouchard
Broberg/Barrie
Samorukov/Russell (if they have room for 23 players and 8D)
Niemelainen/Deharnais
Koekkoek/Kesselring
Kaldis/Kemp
Name doesn’t start with “K”? Mind if we make some changes? Just to keep it clear –
KNiemelainen/KDeharnais
Koekkoek/Kesselring
Kaldis/Kemp
Oy those better not be cricketers!
(I felt compelled)
TEAM – PLAYERS IN PRONMAN’S TOP 120 UNDER 23
Buffalo – 9
Columbus – 7
New Jersey – 7
New York Rangers – 7
Edmonton – 6
Anaheim – 6
Detroit – 6
Minnesota – 6
Calgary – 4
Carolina – 4
Dallas – 4
Los Angeles – 4
Montreal – 4
New York Islanders – 4
Ottawa – 4
Vancouver – 4
Winnipeg – 4
Arizona – 3
Florida – 3
Philadelphia – 3
San Jose – 3
Vegas – 3
Washington – 3
Chicago – 2
Colorado – 2
Nashville – 2
Seattle – 2
Toronto – 2
Pittsburgh – 1
St. Louis – 1
Boston – 0
Tampa Bay – 0
Boston and TB have one each. AS a matter of fact, IIRC, Boston’s is #170 on the list…
Top-120.
The list is 170 names long. The breakdown is as follows, by Division:
ANA -9
CAL -4
EDM – 6
LA – 8
SJ – 5
SEA – 3
VAN – 4
VEG – 4
ARI – 7
CHI – 4
COL – 4
DAL – 5
MIN – 9
NAS – 3
STL – 3
WPG – 6
BOS – 1
BUF – 11
DET – 9
FLA – 3
MTL – 8
OTT – 6
TB – 1
TOR – 4
CAR – 6
CLB – 8
NJ – 7
NYI – 5
NYR – 7
PHI – 3
PIT – 2
WAS – 5
Jaxon was listing the numbers from the top 120 only though – that’s why the guy at #170 didn’t rate.
To dig a little deeper, Here is a summary grouped by Division, showing # in top 170/# top 120/top 60 and list of players in top 60…
ANA – 9/6/4 #3 Trevor Zegras, #24 Mason McTavish, #34 Jamie Drysdale, and #51 Olen Zelwegger. 2@ 61-120, 3@121+
CAL – 4/4/0 None in top 60. Top #81 Jakob Pelletier. 4@ 61 -120.
EDM – 6-6-1 #19 Evan Bouchard, 5@61-120
LA – 8/4/2 #22 Quinton Byfield, #33 Arthur Kaliyev. 2 @ 61-120, 4 @ 121+
SJ – 5/3/1 #50 William Eklund, 2 @ 61-120, 2 @121+
SEA – 3/2/2 #14 Matthew Beniers, #16 Shane Wright, 1 @ 121+
VAN – 4/4/2 #4 Quinn Hughes, #53 Vasily Podkolzin. 2 @ 61-120.
VEG – 4/3/0 None in top 60. Top #69 Lucas Cormier, 3@ 112+
=====================================
ARI – 7/3/3. #17 Logan Cooley, #25 Dylan Guenther, #44 Barrett Hayton. 4 @124+
CHI – 4/2/1 #28 Lukas Reichel. 1@ 61-120, 2 @ 121+
COL – 4/2/2 #18 Bowen Byram, #57 Alex Newhook. 2 @121+
DAL – 5/4/1 #55 Thomas Harley. 3 @ 61-120, 1 @ 121+
MIN – 9/6/3 #21 Matthew Boldy, #52 Jesper Wallstedt, #60 Calen Addison. 3@61-120, 3@121+
NAS – 3/2/1 #45 Philip Tomasino 1@61-120, 1@121+
STL – 3/1/0 None in top 60. Top #90 Zach Bolduc. 2@121+
WPG – 6/4/1 #38 Cole Perfetti. 3@61-120 2@121+
=======================================
BOS – 1/0/0 Only player is ranked last at #170
BUF – 11/9/5 #7 Rasmus Dahlin, #13 Dylan Cozens, #20 Owen Power, #39 Jack Quinn, #42 Peyton Krebs. 4@6-120, 2@121+
DET – 9/6/3 #2Moritz Seider, #9 Lucas Raymond, #32 Simon Edvinsson. 3@61-120, 3@121+
FLA – 3/3/2 #29 Anton Lundell, #40 Spencer Knight. 1@61-120
MTL – 8/4/3 #15 Juraj Slavkovsky, #30 Cole Caufield, #41 Kirby Dach. 1@61-120, 4@121+
OTT – 6/4/3 #5 Brady Tkachuk, #8 Tim Stutzle, #27 Jake Sanderson. 1@61-120, 2@12+.
TB – 1/0/0 best is ranked #158 Isaac Howard.
TOR – 4/2/0. None in top 60. best #65 Matthew Knies 2@61-120, 2@121+
======================================
CAR – 6/4/3 #6 Andrei Svechnikov, #12 Seth Jarvis, #49 Jesperi Kotkaniemi 1@61-120, 2@121+
CLB – 8/7/5 #23 David Jiricek, #35 Kent Johnson, #47 Cole Sillinger, #58 Kirill Marchenko, #59 Adam Boqvist. 2@61-120, 1@121+
NJ – 7/7/5 #1 Jack Hughes, #11 Luke Hughes, #26 Simon Nemec, #46 Dawson Mercer, #56 Alexander Holtz. 2@61-120
NYI – 5/4/1 #31 Noah Dobson. 3@61-120, 1@121+
NYR – 7/7/3 #10 Alexis Lafreniere, #43 K’Andre Miller #48 Kaapo Kakko 4@61-120
PHI – 3/3/2 #37 Joel Farabee, #54 Cutter Gauthier 1@61-120
PIT – None in top 60. Best is #84 Ty Smith 1@61-120, 1@121+
WAS – 5/3/1 #36 Martin Fehervary 2@61-120, 2@121+
======================================
From this I might deduce teams in great need of prospects in trades are: Calgary, Vegas, St Louis, Tampa Bay, Toronto and Pittsburgh especially. Teams who have deep prospect pools and may be more willing to use them in trade are Anaheim, LA, Arizona, Minnesota, Buffalo, Detroit, Montreal and Columbus.
Another thing to consider is who is heavy/light in draft picks against this list as well. But that is for another day as I am almost out of caffiene!
Ya, Proman’s write-up of the Oilers cited some very good players at the top end but lack of depth overall.
Quality nearly always trumps quantity at NHL level.
Edmonton has 6 in the top 120. If this was a top 120 under 23, it seems Edmonton might have one of the best groups. 120/32=3.75.
I’m not sure who has the most in the top 120. I’m very good at cherry-picking stats.
In the last post, Jaxon was talking about Ryan McLeod’s forechecking (using hits/82G) being a concern. I’m wondering about the bottom 6 as a whole this year, especially if Foegele gets traded…they’ll have Nuge, Ryan, McLeod, and Shore, who are all low in hits/82G. Add Janmark who only had 19 hits in 67 games last year, dead last on Vegas for hits/60, and that element is really going to be missing this year, barring some last-minute additions. Maybe Malone or even Holloway could help a little bit, but still…
Don’t worry there’s talk amongst Oilers fans that the team might sign Sam Gagne… oh, wait.
I never thought of it that way. Kassian, Archibald, and possibly Foegele gone. Malone, Benson, and possibly Shore likely in the minors. Even Perlini and Brassard were in the top half of the team in hits/game. Maybe Benson gets some ice time just based on being more physical (he didn’t have enough icetime to make the table below). Hopefully, Holloway brings some of that element.
Looking at the players I was hoping they might sign, Svechnikov hits the most. He’s in pretty good company. Steel doesn’t hit much, but enough and still 50% more than McLeod. Dahlen and Sprong don’t hit much at all. Sprong’s numbers surprised me. I thought he was more of a buzzsaw type.
I believe this was 5v5 Away Stats only:
Player – Hits/82GP – HITS/60
Zack Kassian – 180 – 12
Evander Kane – 227 – 11
Devin Shore – 102 – 9
Evgeny Svechnikov – 99 – 7
Kailer Yamamoto – 100 – 5
Warren Foegele – 68 – 4
Zach Hyman – 78 – 4
Jesse Puljujarvi – 60 – 3
Sam Steel – 45 – 3
Derek Ryan – 37 – 3
Connor McDavid – 57 – 2
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – 42 – 2
Daniel Sprong – 36 – 2
Ryan McLeod – 29 – 2
Leon Draisaitl – 39 – 2
Jonathan Dahlen – 13 – 1
Wow, 1 thumb up and 1 down. I’m not sure there was even enough time to read the post. Haha.
I noticed the same thing – I had a -1 the second my post hit the site. Weird.
This makes me think they should be going for Svechnikov and Steel and forget about Sprong and Dahlen.
Re: Steel, Sprong, McLeod.
In the big picture these guys are ranging from one hit every 2 games to one hit every 3 games.
IMO it wouldn’t be wise to make any strong conclusions, or player-related decisions, based on that kind of a difference.
Skating and positioning are far more important in todays game. A degree of physicality is a plus but this doesn’t have to be in the form of a hit!🤫
Also, if they’re looking for hits, the UFAs they should be targeting are:
Aston-Reesse 69 GP/ 231 hits
Motte 58/117
Ritchie 41/78
Svechnikov 72/104 (as you mentioned)
Boyle 66/95
Roussel 53/74
Vessey 68/85
Yeah still some options out there. On this team the 4th line hardly plays but maybe they at least boost the 3rd line
Taking away time and space on the backtrack has become more important than trying to hit quick mobile D who have already moved the puck. Stifling play in the neutral zone and turning over the puck there for counterattack rush chances is taking precedence over dumping the puck in and trying to forecheck and hit the D.
You stop Makar and Toews by clogging up the neutral zone on the back track, because you aren’t going to be able to forecheck and hit them.
Plus McLeod elite zone entries for a bottom six player far outweighs his lack of hitting.
Fair enough. I just hope the bottom 6 is ‘hard enough to play against’
Tampa gets by with Maroon. Colorado with really nobody.
Tampa in 20/21 had Maroon, Goodrow, Coleman and Joseph in their bottom 6 that were high in hits/60. Colorado last year had Aube-Kubel and Helm. It probably still has a place in certain situations.
If Kadri doesn’t take out Binnington it’s a different series. St. Loo matches up well against the Av’s and it wouldn’t surprise one bit if they get some revenge especially with Berube behind the bench.
what is hard to play against?
Skilled players who can put the puck in the net and provide good defensive play including neutral zone defense and slot defense?
Or is it guys who leave that wide open to make a big hit in the corner?
Not certain about this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2Upmg3Vnbw
Archibald and Kassian hit but they are lousy defensive players (despite Archibald’s rep he got killed on goals %).
we need to worry less about hits and more about posession.
The winger going in to blow up a dman in the deep ozone ala josh archibald or zach kassian, results in them being caught way behind the play as it transitions up into the oilers dzone.
This in turn results in odd man rushes (very bad defensively) and makes it far more challenging to control the play or have sustained ozone pressure.
I would far rather have a player who can keep plays alive, make a solid pass, or skate a puck out of danger, rather than someone who blows up opponants in the ozone.
Yeah, this topic got away on me a bit. I don’t think hitting is the be-all end-all that it may have seemed to be from my posts. I started with observing that McLeod didn’t finish checks. And I mean removing player from the puck opportunities, not hitting the D after the D passes the pick away. Those are missed opportunities that I feel he needs to improve upon. Then I got curious about how much he hits and the stats backed that up. He hits less than anyone on the team. Which I think is odd for one of the fastest skaters in the league who is also 6’2″, 207lbs. Then, when Orion mentioned the loss of players who hit, it seemed something worth investigating. And the Oilers have lost a lot of hits since last year’s roster. If hits are a proxy for physicality, then maybe they should be looking at signing a player or two who brings at least some physicality to the role. And in that $1 million range, Svechnikov seems like one of the best candidates. I wouldn’t mind Steel either. But Dahlen and Sprong seem less than ideal in this light. I’d dig deeper on Sprong, though. I think he has other speed elements to his game that may be valuable, similar to McLeod. Who, by the way, I still like, but I just don’t think I like as much as others do.
Invisible ink reminds me of the show Ghostwriter.
Man that show had pop.
Word.
Per Matty, Ladi Smid will be getting in to coaching with the OilKings.
Love this. He seems like a great guy and has stuck around Edmonton since retirement – it’s home for him. Love it.
Looks like all 6 are in the top 120 players. Pretty solid.
Also a nice balance across positions.
Holloway-McLeod-Bourgault
Schaefer
Broberg-Bouchard
Can they all find their way into the Oilers top 9/top 4?
Zegras #3…Broberg #76
I guess that settles that.
No, I wouldn’t say that.
Broberg is the 25th defenseman on the list.
And?
We need to see where Zegras gets to from the 60 point, -20, can’t win a faceoff player he is today.
Likewise we need to see how high Broberg can go as an NHL defenseman. He’s got all the tools.
Wheeler doesn’t think he has the toolkit.
We were discussing a ranking of U23 players by Corey Pronman.
https://theathletic.com/3509131/2022/08/29/nhl-players-prospects-rankings-under-23/
Is this list meant to rank the players by where they are at at the moment of is it meant to be predictive of their careers?
Both in a sense, since in most cases time has passed since the draft.
The first consideration is current value but Wheeler also includes a projection of the players ceiling.
Pronman?
“This is a ranking meant to show who I think will have the best pro careers, not who I would take in a game tomorrow. “
Thanks. I was just wondering. I think you know how much credence I give these prognostications.
Haha, yup.
Yes we were.
What exactly is he missing? Sometimes he looks like a sure thing then at other times he looks lost. Is it Hockey sense could it be inexperience?
What is missing?
The development time that we knew he needed on draft day and is currently getting. He just turned 21 and is developing slightly ahead of schedule – ahead of Klefbom slightly.
The older you get with less experience, the worse you will be ranked.
There is not a (sane) GM in the league who would trade Zegras for Broberg and that’s a fact.
I also know a guy who doesn’t seem to have the toolkit lol…
The freelance prospectors hated the D in Broberg’s draft class, and loved the forwards. The D in Broberg’s draft class are overachieving and the forwards are underachieving. The D are arriving in the NHL almost as fast as the forwards, and the forwards have been underwhelming.
Not a generational talent amongst the forwards. And there look to be perhaps one or two franchise type D, and a whole lotta #2 and #3D emerging from the class.
The only 2 D who are over achieving are Byram and Seider which is why they were picked so high…the rest are porridge.
Zegras is essentially right where he was projected to be on draft day.
Broberg is also essentially right where he was projected to be on draft day, maybe even a little ahead of schedule and with an better first AHL season than projected (the production for a 20-year old d-man in the AHL was VERY high end).
Both players are still developing on their respective trajectories and Broberg is right on track to be a legit NHL 2nd pairing D within the next 12-18 months with the potential to be much more given the raw tools.
Both are right where we thought they would be and are progressing – nothing is settled, that’s for sure.
But notice that hes above Brandt Clarke.
Of course he is.
Clarke was still in junior.
How’s Brogan Rafferty these days?
Yes – this Anaheim Apple is far superior to this Oiler Orange. Of course!
Well done you!
So I have been reading and seeing alot about Kane. Does anyone else feel that is the wrong Blackhawk to target? The Oilers already have a good offense and if anywhere need help defensively. My suggestion is to target Toews and not Kane. Yes he is a center but do we need a 4c if your top 3 are McD, Drai and Toews. Toews also is a very good pk player and will be cheaper to aquire. Would I like to see Kane here, sure yes but Toews would get us closer to a cup IMO.
The main difference is that, while Kane remains an elite producer, Toews is down the other side of the cliff. I don’t believe that player helps the Oilers at this stage.
Sure at 90% retained.
We’ll probably start hearing some names for PTO’s soon, always an LT favourite.
There are three already
Really ? Who might they be ?
3 official for Edmonton?
https://lowetide.ca/2022/08/26/an-invitation-3/
I was hoping for something closer to a Da Haan or a Milano.
According to CapFriendly there are 32 UFA’s who played at least half the season on an NHL roster last year still without a contract.
Now the Oil are looking very good the blog starts to disappear. I think the call is coming from inside the house and blame hairball!
Thank you for doing these things that you do. Even just doing radio and this blog must take a lot of your time and effort. Kudos.
Speaking of commitments, I am undertaking a substantial theatre commitment that will dominate my next three months. That means my ol’ prospect reports that the LT denizens have come to know and
lovetolerate will not be as timely or frequent as usual. A Sporadic Update Warning is now in effect until the calendar hits December.If the board is fine with this, I will continue to provide. Otherwise, I’m content to hand over the reins to someone (OP? Todd M? Other?) who can devote more attention to reporting. Or it can be a hybrid arrangement.
Food for thought.
We all appreciate the time you put in too Tarkus.
Whomever and whatever happens, hope you have a righteous time doing your thing.
Looking forward to December!
Your contributions are one of many golden treasures of this comments section. As someone with some theatrical past in my youth, I certainly understand the level of commitment necessary, so vaya con dios amigo!
What theatre endeavor!? I’m a vet of the Edmonton stage but have been in LA for years and years. Do we know each other in real life?
Doubtful. My theatre career has been confined to the 306 (with special guest 639).
Glad to see another thespian here!
A fellow 306er! Wonderful to hear Tarkus.
Although, I haven’t been a thespian for a few decades, I always appreciate the theatre and its’ committed community. Best wishes with your work!
Many many moons ago I was involved with Wheatland Theatre and briefly with Celebrations Dinner Theatre (very briefly thank God)… used to work for Chico Ruggieri as well. Ring any bells?
Sorry, no bells rung here.
I’ve only done theatre since 2008–mostly community, with a sprinkling of professional work.
Most of mine was pre 2000, but woked for Chico at Ruggieri Staging and Lighting about 7 or 8 years ago.
Woah. Possible small world? It was a long time ago for me, but do you know Marty Chan, Michelle (VanderKeemel) Chan, Robert Woodbury, or Sean Nikolai Smith by chance? Old friends from back in the day…
“This is the Great Theatre of Life. Admission is free, but the taxation is mortal. You come when you can, and leave when you must. The show is continuous. Goodnight.” -Robertson Davies
Now that, my friends, is how a quote is done. Bravo!
I was thinking of Karn Evel 9 myself… “Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends…
I like yours better, more heft, more gravitas!
Best of luck this fall, and thanks as always for the commitment and levity you bring to the much-valued endeavour!
Unfortunately work will be ramping up significantly for myself starting in Sept. as well, so the best I could offer would only be sporadic updates also. For Seinfeld fans out there, this may equate to Jerry and George each being only “half a man” when George acted as his relationship intern, hopefully our arrangement works out better than it did for them!
I may be able to pitch in there, as I dabble in the prospects realm quite often….hopefully I do it justice and I would be more than happy to pass it back to you in December.