Forward depth charts and what to do with the kids

It’s been hard trying to find worthwhile material for this non-Edmontonian to cover in the past month. Without having the kind of access to the Prospects Development Camp that others like Coming Down the Pipe or Copper and Blue are privy to, I decided to leave that job up to them. And boy did they produce, great job men. You’re filling my apparent niche so well I’ve been able to enjoy much more time outside this summer.

But I’ve gotten restless, and it appears that my writing skills have deteriorated because I’ve tried to finish this sentence about four times already. In the words of Lisa Simpson “I’m losing my perspicacity!”

With that in mind, I’ve decided tonight to take a look at the organizational depth charts (in my opinion) and try and find a place for our three wunderkind winger prospects to play this year in order to maximize both their potential and their contract situation. Please keep in mind that these are projected depth charts at this time, and I’m taking a couple of liberties in placing some NHLers in potentially un-traditional spots.

Center: Horcoff, Gagner, Cogliano, Fraser, Moran, Vande Velde, O’Marra

I don’t want to place an 18-year old Taylor Hall on the C-depth chart because, in my opinion, he shouldn’t be thought of as a center. If you drafted him as a winger, then use him as a winger. If you wanted the centerman, then you should have taken Seguin.

Left Wing: Penner, Hall, Paajarvi, Jones, Jacques, Giroux, Reddox, Cornet

Two of our prospects of interest here, I’ve slotted them two and three on the depth chart, but as I see it there’s only one spot between the two of them to fight for as they should both be playing Top-6 minutes to be successful. Penner should have the 1LW spot locked up in ink. I’d rather have Jones and Jacques (maybe Reddox) fill out the bottom-6 roles than Hall or Paajarvi. Actually, I’d rather have a veteran winger that would effectively pump Jones to the 4th line and Jacques to the press box but that has yet to materialize. Neither Hall or Paajarvi have the makings of third liners, so I’d rather not see one of them plodding along like Cogliano was forced into doing last year.

In a normal situation, I’d say let the players make the decision in training camp with their play being the deciding factor, but there are a couple of conditions that make such a decision a little tricky.

- Taylor Hall is the future of this franchise, and there will be outrage among the Oiler faithful if he does not make the team coming out of camp.

- If Hall does not make the Oilers, he has to go back to Windsor. He’s shown in previous seasons that he has outgrown the OHL and rightly so. Because he can’t go to the AHL (in one of the most unsuccessful contractual legalities in prospect history), he needs to be in the NHL to get better as a prospect.

- Magnus Paajarvi can return to Timra (SEL) without the Oilers losing a year on his entry-level contract, or he can play in the AHL without losing a year on his contract.

- However, if Paajarvi plays more than 40 games in the NHL, the Oilers lose a year on his 7-year exclusive negotiating rights clock.
For these reasons, I go with Taylor Hall as the #2 LW. I send Paajarvi back to Sweden for the season for a couple of reasons.

- He won’t be the #1LW in Oklahoma as that should belong to Alex Giroux if he’s not playing NHL hockey. He certainly has a shot at playing in the NHL and deserves that opportunity after ripping the AHL apart for the last two seasons. You can bet that he’ll be the first call-up to the big club if Penner or Hall succumb to injury.

- Paajarvi has the ability to return to Timra as the de-facto #1 LW, continue to play against men, and be comfortable in his home country for another season.

- In returning to Sweden to play, Paajarvi has the opportunity to play for the U20 team once again. Some prefer to underrate the importance of this tournament due to the small number of games played, but I like to see prospects compete against their own age group to see how far ahead or behind their cohorts they are. Last year it showed us that Taylor Hall was indeed the real deal and that Nazem Kadri will make Brian Burke look a fool in the coming years.

Magnus might be a little peeved at the demotion, but I think in the long run he is better served being a go-to guy in Sweden than playing third-fiddle on a bad team.

Right Wing: Hemsky, Brule, Eberle, Omark, Stortini, MacIntyre, Ondrus, Stewart, Hartikainen

For much the same reasoning that put Paajarvi back in Sweden, I think it’s best for Jordan Eberle to be kept away from this team until either injuries force Management’s hand or he blows the doors off the AHL. Jordan Eberle will never be mistaken for a third-line NHLer so why bother putting him there in his first NHL season when there are other options? Hemsky is the bona-fide 1RW, so Eberle will have to outplay Brule in training camp to get his shot at the Top-6. I like Brule better at this point because he provides more intangibles to the NHL team such as hitting and NHL experience. Both are smaller players with high-end offensive skills but Eberle’s two-way contract might play against him here. I like Stortini and Omark to take the 3 and 4 spots; Stortini because he’s done it before and Omark because he’s played against men for the last three years in Europe and likely has less development less. He won’t necessarily need Top-6 minutes to develop any further.
In going to Oklahoma, Eberle will be fighting it out (maybe literally) with Ben Ondrus for the 1RW spot with the loser of that battle likely to be given the 2RW spot.

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Penner-Horcoff-Hemsky
Hall-Gagner-Brule
Jones-Cogliano-Stortini
Jacques-Fraser-Omark
MacIntyre

*Note: I’ve only placed thirteen forwards on the roster for a reason. I’m predicting a three-headed goalie nightmare (Version 2.0) again this year, until the Khabibulin issue is sorted.

So there’s my take on what to do with our impact wingers. You’d think that for a rebuilding year I’d have preferred to put all our youngsters on the team to try and gel together as quickly as possible, but I just can’t do it. I’d rather have our prospects placed in positions to succeed, and the best way to do that is to keep them away from the Oilers for as long as possible.