If anything the Oilers would trade one of their current players over the pick this year. Yakupov is going to be a better player than RNH, Hall or Eberle, so those three are more expendable than this draft pick in my opinion. Besides, the Oilers know that they will eventually have one or more of those players leave the team in the coming years because they won't be able to afford them, especially if they hope to grab a goalie like Schneider or Bernier in the offseason since they'll be due for a big paycheck as well. They could bypass Yakupov and go for Murray since they ought to develop a complete team instead of an overwhelming offence (cause that plan worked so well for the Caps) but Yakupov is just too good to pass up.
And Montreal is fucked. They can either pander to their fans, who don't know what it takes to win in the NHL anymore (doesn't take billingualism), or they can **** their fans off and start Edmonton-ing it up.
I could not agree more. Yakupov has been compared to Malkin and many believe he will be the best Russian player in the league once he develops. The dumbest thing a team can do with a #1 overall pick is draft for need. You ALWAYS take the best player available. Defencemen are really difficult to find in the draft. It takes a cerebral quality to be a valuable defenceman in the NHL and scouts are bad at reading that quality in young players. There is no way the Oilers trade the #1 pick. Yakupov is the best player in the draft since Stamkos. This is awesome! I can't believe we got the first pick again!
There are a few intriguing RFA goaltenders out there, such as Cory Schneider, Tuukka Rask, Anders Lindback, Ondrej Pavelec, and obviously Carey Price. It would be really difficult to get most of those guys. I think Schneider would be the most acquirable because the Canucks would be unlikely to match an offer sheet due to the fact that they have Luongo locked up for big money. That being said, Schneider proved that he's a vastly superior goaltender to Luongo this year (20-8-1, 1.96 GAA, .937 SV%, 3 SO in 33 games vs. 31-14-8, 2.41 GAA, .919 SV%, 5 SO in 55 games). I doubt that the Oilers try that though. We'll probably just sign re-sign Devan Dubnyk (who is also an RFA) and give him the chance to start next season, but I don't know if he will ever be a quality starting goaltender in the NHL.
We obviously need to acquire some top defencemen. Ladislav Smid is a top-rate defensive defenceman, but we need a couple of first-pairing quality two-way defencemen who can man the powerplay. I like Ryan Whitney (if he can stay healthy) as a second-pairing defenceman and Nick Schultz as a third-pairing defenceman. Available RFAs include Shea Weber (for whom I would sacrifice my pinky toes to acquire), Mike Green, Kyle Quincey, Erik Johnson (not too sold on him), Erik Karlsson (obviously going to be impossible to steal away from Ottawa), Michael Del Zotto, P.K. Subban, John Carlson, Cody Franson (I like his upside), Nikita Nikitin (an under-the-radar guy who played really well in Columbus this year and could be cheap enough to acquire), and Marc-Andre Gragnani (has potential). UFAs include Scott Hannan (still a depth defenceman), Steve Staios (love to see him back, but he's old), Sheldon Souray (not a snowball's chance in hell of returning to Edmonton), Sami Salo (old), Carlo Colaiacovo (had a good year in St. Louis), Joe Corvo (old), Johnny Oduya, Ryan Suter (want him), Pavel Kubina (old), Dennis Wideman (would love to have him), and Nicklas Lidstrom (will obviously re-sign in Detroit or retire). Of all those guys I think we can acquire two or three of them and be much better on defence.
As for Oiler RFAs, we have Sam Gagner (with the plethora of young, talented forwards we have he projects to a third-liner in a couple of years or maybe even next year, it would've been nice to get something for him, but I'd like to see him go; he was a sixth overall pick and he looks to be a perennial 40-point man, not good enough, but he'll probably be re-signed), Cam Barker (don't want him, bye), Devan Dubnyk, and Linus Omark (I'd like to see him back again next year). UFAs include Ryan Smyth (want to see him retire as an Oiler) and Darcy Hordichuk (could go either way, I like him on the fourth line, but we don't need him). And bad contracts, lets see, Shawn Horcoff is under contract for THREE more seasons (ugh), Ales Hemsky was re-signed for two years instead of traded at the deadline like he should've been, Ryan Whitney for $5 million next year, and Nikolai Khabibulin for $3.75 million for next year.
If we can get rid of some bad contracts in the offseason that'd be great, but the focus needs to be on building a solid core of defencemen; with the forwards we have and Yakupov to come we already have the core of forwards we need for the next few years. Acquiring a better goaltender would be good too, but I don't see that happening.
:cussing: I heard the officiating looked like it was showing out for BUTTMAN as a result..
