Dabura

Gimme Konecny. EDIT: Wait, nvm, this Burke guy is a moron.

Yup. The Oilers are absolutely desperate for a talented scoring winger or two. Perry's got size, he's got a mean streak, he's got veteran experience, he's a RH shot, and he's a natural born goal-scorer. Probably doesn't cost the Oilers much cap space and it would be a stopgap. IMO, it's a good fit. Perry isn't the player he once was and I honestly haven't followed the Ducks closely enough to know how he compares to, say, 2018-19 Thomas Vanek. But this seems to me like a classic low-risk, high-reward proposition.

I think it's a testament to how deep this top 20-25 appears to be.

Cam Robinson: Final NHL Draft Rankings [Dobber Prospects]

Hello Edmonton!

If you like MERCAns, this is definitely the draft for you.

NHL Mock Draft 2019 [NJ.com] Ted Kulfan's 2019 NHL mock draft [The Detroit News]

Should've signed Jeff Gorton. smdh

Yzerman is lazy and he sucks.

Oh, yeah, I don't mean we should only draft forwards with our key picks. We're definitely getting at least one defenseman with our first five picks. I'm just saying if there's a voice in Yzerman's head that continually tut-tuts him about the sorry state of our blue line, he should ignore it.

Cam Robinson - Final 2019 NHL Draft Rankings (Part 3) [Dobber Prospects] Robinson's 3-12: 3. Alex Turcotte 4. Bowen Byram 5. Trevor Zegras 6. Alex Newhook 7. Peyton Krebs 8. Vasili Podkolzin 9. Dylan Cozens 10. Kirby Dach 11. Matthew Boldy 12. Cole Caufield

I'm probably in the minority on this, but at this point I think I'm content to just keep adding really good forward pieces and bide our time re: that 1D hole. Yzerman doesn't have an especially good record when it comes to producing high-end defensemen. Maybe that was more on his Tampa scouts and he'll immediately draft some low-key great defensemen as Wings GM -- but I'm assuming we're ultimately gonna end up filling at least one of our top three D slots with a big-name UFA or a big-name trade acquisition (made possible by a surplus of good forwards in our system). Speaking of surplus... Correct me if I'm wrong (I'm no Bolts historian), but I wanna say Yzerman leaned pretty heavily on bridge deals when he was putting together that Bolts team. Hindsight is 20/20 and all that, but I wouldn't be surprised if one of the lessons he's taken away from his time in Tampa is "Be very careful with bridge deals. They are not necessarily your friend." I think the good news for us is that Larkin's the top dog in our system and his contract is probably going to age beautifully, in terms of 1) the bang we're getting for the cap he's eating and 2) setting a team-friendly precedent for future RFA deals. If a few years from now we have a couple of kids who've made a good case for getting bigger deals than the Larkin deal...well, that'd be a sticky situation, but I suppose it'd be a nice problem to have, as it would mean we have several legit core guys. If we have to move one for cap reasons, well, so be it. We can cross that bridge when we come to it.

Was thinking about this yesterday. Even if we assume Berggren, Hirose, Rasmussen, Svechnikov don't amount to much/anything, we're still looking at a potential top six of Athanasiou, Larkin, Mantha, Veleno, Zadina, Zegras/Dach/[insert forward of your choice]. And that's without any big UFA signings or big trade acquisitions.

Any interest in Ehlers?

That's barely a fourth line right now, imo.

Pens fans hate Maata almost as much as Wings fans hate Ericsson. His cap hit is a little over $4M until 2022. Chicago has a fairly deep blue line, so Maata might end up thriving -- but I dunno that I'd bet money on it. Kahun's low-key good. Can play any forward position. Put up just shy of 40 points in 82 games last season. Turns 24 next month, so he could be heading into his prime years. Cap hit is $925,000, one year left. All in all, I think the Pens are probably the winners here. However, this is basically fallout from the dumb Jack Johnson signing, so I'm not giving Rutherford too much credit.

Cam Robinson: Final 2019 NHL Draft Rankings (Part 1) [Dobber Prospects] Cam Robinson: Final 2019 NHL Draft Rankings (Part 2) [Dobber Prospects] I put a lot of stock in Cam Robinson's opinions regarding prospects and drafts and such. It's definitely worth reading his stuff. Because French Canadians are godless heathens.

Saying there isn't much separation within a group of players is an assessment of perceived potential, not an assertion that said players are all going to have the same success in their respective careers. There's always going to be separation in the long run, and I agree that it behooves any and every team to do everything in their power to get as firm a handle on a given group of players as possible so as to give themselves as good a shot at landing a gamechanging player as possible. That being said, if I'm an NHL amateur scout, I don't know that I see Broberg's "lack of dominance" as a meaningful point of concern. Maybe I ultimately conclude it is, but I will have reached that conclusion after having sunk countless hours into soul-suckingly tedious deep diving. Is Gustav Lindstrom a good comparable? Is Adam Boqvist a better comparable? Those might be among my first questions -- the first of many increasingly specific questions. Armchair scouts like us can say, "Broberg isn't truly an offensive defenseman. Just look at his stats," and we'll pat ourselves on the back because that's damn near the smartest thing you're going to read in your average hockey forum discussion. Meanwhile, Official Oilers Scout Guy Who Every Oilers Fan on the Internet Believes to Be a Fool Because He Liked That One Player Who Ultimately Became a Career AHLer and He Really Should Have Known Better has binders full of data and anecdotes on dozens of players and a vault of videos of every game each of those players has ever played.

It's gonna be interesting, no doubt.

FC's 2019 NHL Mock Draft [FC Hockey]

That's the thing with Foote. Like I said, I'm not sure that they can afford to lose a top prospect lile him unless they're getting something really juicy in return. I'm assuming they'd be able to dump the Callahan contract without being forced to include Foote.

Just for the record, I'm not really interested in taking Broberg 6th overall. I'm just saying the case against him isn't necessarily cut-and-dry.

Yep. Feels like if you want Foote then you're going to have to be willing to work out a deal that goes beyond just the cap dump thing and probably sees us parting with a significant asset. The Bolts are really high on Foote, and for good reason. Unless they land Karlsson, I dunno that they can afford to part with their top D prospect. Raddysh could probably be had for, like, a 2nd + taking on Callahan.