Friday, July 10, 2015

Oilers roster has been overhauled twice in a few years

So I was at a friend's last night and we ended up playing NHL '13.  Wearing my new Oilers McDavid shirt, I, of course had to pick the Oilers and partner with a buddy.

The lineup from 2012/13?  Do we even remember?  I'm going to put a rating next to each player on what their performance was like for their role.

Hall (B+) - Nugent-Hopkins (B) - Hemsky (B-)
Smyth (C) - Gagner (C) - Eberle (A-)
Hordichuk (D-) - Belanger (D-) - Jones (D+)
Eager (D) - Horcoff (C)- Petrell (C+)

Smid (C+) - Petry (B-)
N. Schultz (B-) - Whitney (C)
Peckham (C-) - Fistric (C-)

Khabibulin (B-)

Only three players remain from that roster from only 3 years ago.  Four, if you include Lander, then five if you include Yakupov.

Now, the current roster and what I think their performance will be at with this experience and linemates.  I'm basing this on my gut instinct.

Pouliot (B+) - Nugent-Hopkins (A) - Eberle (A-)
Hall (A+) - McDavid (A-) - Yakupov (B)
Korpisocki (C) - Lander (B) -  Purcell (B-)
Hendricks (A-) - Letestu (C+) - Klinkhammer (B) / Gazdic (D+)

Sekera (A-) - Fayne (B-)
Klefbom (B+) - Schultz (C+)
Nikitin (C-) - Ference (C-)

Talbot (B-)

Now, I know that half the defense may change, but I don't see one of Griffin Reinhart or Gryba on the starting line.  There is a distinct possibility that Darnell Nurse will play and that Nikitin and/or Ference and/or Schultz gets traded or bought out for UFA Cody Franson, Christian Ehroff, or traded for Seabrook.  Ideally, the D might just look like this:

Sekera (A-) - Seabrook (A+)
Nurse (B) - Franson/Ehrhoff (A)
Klefbom (B+)/Nurse (B) - Fayne (B-)

Now look back to '12/'13.

What a difference good management can do.

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