Value of: Can we put the ‘Oilers have no good prospects’ silliness to bed?

[Newsworthy]

The Oilers should be a playoff contender right now and the cupboard should be pretty bare.
Instead the team is thin and the prospect pool is disappointing and the Edmonton Oilers are rebuilding yet again.
Hopefully they have the right management in place now. Oilers are in better shape then some other teams and have a good young nucleus. These next few drafts are pretty key for the team.

 

[Llamamoto]

Tyler Benson is 20, and is 4th in rookie scoring in the AHL. Ahead of guys like Jordan Kyrou, Max Jones, Sam Steel, Logan Brown, and Martin Necas. He was projected as a top-10 talent, but injuries made him drop. He could become a skilled top-6 winger.

Cooper Marody is 21(just turned) year old center, who is absolutely tearing up the AHL. Over a ppg. In his stunt with the Oilers, he looked really good.

Kiril Maksimov is a sniper who has insane numbers in the OHL, a 56 goal, 109 point pace. And he's only 19 years old. Drafted in the 5th round.

Ryan McLeod, Kailer Yamamoto are other more well known players that are projected as future NHLers. And the notion that Yamamoto is a bust is just stupid. Players picked ahead(and behind) him have accomplished no more than he has. Cody Glass, Owen Tippet, Gabriel Vilardi, Nick Suzuki, Ryan Poehling, Morgan Frost, and Eeli Tolvanen are all players considered blue-chip prospects, yet Yamamoto is a bust.

Caleb Jones is playing at a 55 point pace in the AHL, and he's a defensemen. He looked great in his NHL stint, playing 20 minutes a night, with good offensive numbers. Ethan Bear is also doing well in the AHL, and had a good NHL stint last year.

Stuart Skinner, Oliver Rodrigue, Shane Starret, Hayden Hawkey, are all promising goalie prospects.

And obviously, we have Evan Bouchard.

 

[Alklha]

The AHL argument is just nonsense. You can talk up your under-23 players there, but you have no players on your NHL roster who were drafted outside of the top-3 that are 23 or under.

Then they only have 3 players on their roster that they drafted outside of the top 3, and one was at 7 and another at 19.

The drafting might have got better, and they certainly have some interesting prospects, but wait and see what they actually do in the NHL before the outrage.

 

[Funk21]

Every fan base usually overvalues their own prospects while downplaying everyone else’s. the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Where I think the bad rap has come with the exception of most of your first rounders which have mostly been top 10 not a lot of players on your team are from later rounds.

I know you are going to hate this but in the case of the TML you have Johnsson, Brown, Dermott, Sparks, etc. Now they are not all superstars but most are solid NHL players who contribute to the roster.

Lastly you have rushed a lot of players like Pool Party and Yama to the NHL and also likely destroyed Yak(maybe he just wasn’t good). These players needed time to develop and because of the managements win now attitude Pool may be a lost cause.

Hopefully you have some kids able to make the jump because you don’t have a lot of cap space and what you currently have on the roster besides McJesus, Drai, RNH, Nurse, Klefbum, Larsson is not good enough.

 

[StephenPeat]

Seems like every thread that gets started on here involving the Oilers derails with ‘Edmonton can’t draft or develop and has no good prospects’

Our farm team has won the quietest 11 in a row you’ll ever see, largely on the backs of U-23’s like Jones, Marody, Benson, Bear, and Lagesson, with the 24 year old Shane Starrett providing stellar goaltending and the 25 and 26 year old Gambardella and Currie providing goal scoring and leadership. That’s before getting into the strongest CHL group I ever remember this team having.

/minirant

Oh don’t worry every poster on this site knows the jig. The Oilers are actually keeping their NHL-caliber players in the minor leagues to develop because there certainly aren’t many on the NHL roster. Everyone thinks the Oilers themselves suck but it(losing 6 in a row prior to Thurs.)’s just an elaborate dupe to put the rest of the league to sleep so when the Marody’s and Bear’s of the world come storming to burn down our villages we won’t even see it coming.

Here’s the thing, literally every team in the league has prospects as good or largely better than these Edmonton prospects. It’s good that they’re doing well in the minors, kudos. As you should be acutely aware, that means jack squat at the NHL level. Based on where they’ve been drafting, it’s absolutely shocking how poor the Oilers prospect system really is.

I.E. I’m a Capitals fan and we’ve consistently drafted roughly 10-15 spots later than the Oilers over the past ~8yrs and the Caps prospect pool is inarguably as strong if not stronger than the Oilers. The Capitals have A/B prospects at D and in Goal (in spades) and can call-up guys like Bowey, Djoos, and Siegenthaler and give them limited and sheltered NHL minutes while still winning games that allows those prospects to develop in more appropriate competition circumstances.

The Oilers, on the other hand, have been so chronically mismanaged that their F prospects (which they have in spades) are being forced to play over their heads (because of the pathetic drafting in all rounds) in the NHL and are developing in a culture of failure (Yamamoto and Puljujaarvi). It’s a problem that has an obvious solution (changes at top levels of management and ownership) but the Oilers pathologically avoid meaningful changes to the franchise culture.

 

[justafan22]

bouchard aside, almost every team has those calibre of prospects

 

[DFF]

LOL..Look like they drafted for the AHL not NHL.

They are very good for the AHL but not many of those guys are good enough for the NHL.

You should be worry instead.

 

[HolyGhost]

bouchard aside, almost every team has those calibre of prospects

Just checked out their roster. They have maybe 2 or 3 Legit prospects. The rest are projects. Maroody and Benson are legit prospects. But Maroody still needs to work on his skating by the sounds of it. And as I posted earlier. Prospects are usually up to the age of 23. Once you get to 24. They are projects. Currie and Gamberdello are 25 and 24. It should be noted some of the top players down there are on AHL contracts and not nhl cconntracts. If you compare their roster with other AHLERS rosters? They are a little older.

 

[DingDongCharlie]

On defence we have a good collection of prospects that should have an NHL future in Bouchard, Bear and Jones. Upfront is pretty shallow after Benson and Yamamoto who project as middle 6.

We definitely have a weaker overall prospect pool which hurts substantially with no NHL depth. Our d core and center depth in the next few years could be a strength but our winger collection both NHL + prospect is one of the worst if not the worst league wide

 

[ChaoticOrange]

Cage successfully rattled, I see.

No, AHL success is not a guarantee of NHL success, but it’s a strong upward arrow. Winning means nothing? LOL. There is a direct correlation between winning AHL franchises and producing solid prospects.

The u-23 guys I mentioned in OP are all legitimately good prospects performing well at that level. I know it’s hard when your favourite chew toy gets taken away, HF Puppies, but it’s time.

As for the older guys I mentioned, franchises are starting to see success with older rookies brought along slowly. Gourde and Par Lindholm come to mind.

It’s unlikely that Benson/Marody/Jones/Bear/Lagesson/Starrett/Gambardella/Currie become superstars, or worthy of HF recognition/Pavlovian drooling, absolutely true. But the Achilles heel of this team is lack of depth in all areas and I would say there’s a pretty darned good chance at least three of that group carve out NHL careers. All we need them to be is functional.

 

[Talonted]

“Oilers rush their young players and always RUIN them instead of letting them develop in the AHL!”

“Oilers having 21 year olds tearing up the AHL means absolutely nothing!”

Pick one

 

[SFKingshomer]

It doesn't matter if you can't develop them.

 

[HolyGhost]

Cage successfully rattled, I see.

No, AHL success is not a guarantee of NHL success, but it’s a strong upward arrow. Winning means nothing? LOL. There is a direct correlation between winning AHL franchises and producing solid prospects.

The u-23 guys I mentioned in OP are all legitimately good prospects performing well at that level. I know it’s hard when your favourite chew toy gets taken away, HF Puppies, but it’s time.

As for the older guys I mentioned, franchises are starting to see success with older rookies brought along slowly. Gourde and Par Lindholm come to mind.

It’s unlikely that Benson/Marody/Jones/Bear/Lagesson/Starrett/Gambardella/Currie become superstars, or worthy of HF recognition/Pavlovian drooling, absolutely true. But the Achilles heel of this team is lack of depth in all areas and I would say there’s a pretty darned good chance at least three of that group carve out NHL careers. All we need them to be is functional.

Gambelli, Curri, Strattart, and laggarsson will never be nhlers full time. Benson and yamamoto are your best bet. The other guys a scrubs.

You have not shaken are cages. You are coming off as desperate for any hope. Which the oilers do not have

 

[ChaoticOrange]

Gambelli, Curri, Strattart, and laggarsson will never be nhlers full time. Benson and yamamoto are your best bet. The other guys a scrubs.

You have not shaken are cages. You are coming off as desperate for any hope. Which the oilers do not have

Lol. Yes, your complete butchering of their names really shows your wealth of knowledge about these players. I would happily bet you that one of those guys at least carves a NHL career out.

 

[Volica]

Most teams have prospects like this or better, I wouldn't get too excited about depth prospect scoring in the AHL.

 

[HolyGhost]

Lol. Yes, your complete butchering of their names really shows your wealth of knowledge about these players. I would happily bet you that one of those guys at least carves a NHL career out.

Reading comprehension not your strong point. Benson, yamamoto and maroody(if he learns to skate at the nhllevel) could be good players. Bear and Jones 5 or 6 dmen at best.

Might I suggest you head back to the oilers board to have A love in over there for how positive things are for the oilers. Currie and gambino child are AHL guys, if They were not they would be on the oilers now #delusionaloilerfan

 

[Macheteops]

Oilers have been a poor drafting team. They haven't been able to get anything outside the first round. They have whiffed on two top three picks (Yakupov, Puljujärvi).

Bear and Jones might have a NHL future so at least there is some hope.

They took the best player available at those picks. They weren't bad picks at that time. I d say the majority of teams would of done the same. But it does seem they have issues developing players within the organization.

Jones definitely looked like an NHL player during his stint this year with the Oilers but they really don't have much exciting coming up through the ranks besides Bouchard and maybe with some seasoning Yam.

 

[le_sean]

You can make this thread again when the NHL gifts your team yet another 1st overall.

 

[LMFAO]

Only worthy prospects are Bouchard and Yamamoto. Others have limited upside. And even then those two just arent that good.

Thanks Clueless Claude.

Marody is ppg as a 22 year old rookie.
Benson is on pace for 65pts as a 20 year old rookie.

Jones and Bear are both over 0.5points per game as defenseman at 21 years old.

 

[Just Linda]

The problem is not their depth, it's their available assets. A repeat bottom team should have a great number of prospects able to jump into bottom six roles. Edmonton does not have a top 10 propsedt pool and that is a problem.

Bear, Bouchard and Jones likely make the team next year in bottom 4 roles. They won't make the Oilers a much better team but fill a need, Bouchard is the only one who's anything special. Almost every team has at least 1 Jones/Bear level prospect.

The thing with AHL success is that those players haven't made the NHL. I don't consider AHL success anything special, a lot of guys do really well there but can't crack the big league.

Of the forwards, none are sure fire top 6ers. None are game changers. All but a few teams have propsects that can do what those guys can do.

Yamamoto, Pool Party and Bouchard are all great prospects but the needs of the Oilers are seeing their development rushed. They aren't being brought in as support players, they are expected to be pillars before they are ready.

It's really not a special group of prospects.

Again though the problem isn't the under 23 crew, it's the prospect depths. I think Pronman highlighted it well during the offseason, he ranked the Oilers 1st for 23 and under but had their prospect pool at 22nd in the league (and that was before Yamamoto and Pool Party were guaranteed to be in the big club). That's the problem.

 

[Philadelphia Ducks]

Because the values of Oiler prospects when they’re included in trade offers constantly gets downplayed - because they’re Oilers.

welcome to hfboards, where every other teams prospects are junk but your own teams are stellar and underrated. Sounding like a Leafs fan claiming to being picked on for your team when every team gets shit on here.

 

[yababy]

Seems like every thread that gets started on here involving the Oilers derails with ‘Edmonton can’t draft or develop and has no good prospects’

Our farm team has won the quietest 11 in a row you’ll ever see, largely on the backs of U-23’s like Jones, Marody, Benson, Bear, and Lagesson, with the 24 year old Shane Starrett providing stellar goaltending and the 25 and 26 year old Gambardella and Currie providing goal scoring and leadership. That’s before getting into the strongest CHL group I ever remember this team having.

/minirant

Redirect Notice

I don't see any Oilers in this top 50 list.

It's not silly, it's sad.

 

[KidLine93]

If 2015 was an average draft year you guys would be so incredibly bad

and we still managed to f*** up our other pick in that first round....

 

[loki2185]

so because your team is doing well you mean to say that your players are under rated. So whats your opinion on the maple leafs. They're one of the top teams in the league, and your one of the many who undervalue any leafs player thats mentioned in rumors

 

[Coach Parker]

If the goal here was to whine that you're teams prospects (who aren't anything in the top half of the NHL) are better than other think because you say so then mission failed.

You didn't convince anyone to your point and you actually shone a light on how poor the development system is in Edmonton by making people stop and look at the terrible situation.

If anything, I read this and then realized it was worse than I thought.