The Edmonton Oilers need for a defenceman

[Pwillows]

Q: With the Edmonton Oilers in the midst of their rebuild, who is the best free agent they could sign this summer?

(Braden Dicker)

A: The Oilers will be targeting defencemen if they go the free-agent route, but there is a difference between who could sign and who will sign. There is no stampede of free agents wanting to sign with a 29th-place team, even if they have Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to build around. Free agents like to sign with teams that have a shot at the Stanley Cup, so they don’t have to bide their time. They’re not getting Ryan Suter of the Nashville Predators, somebody the Detroit Red Wings are likely targeting. They aren’t getting Brad Stuart, who wants to relocate back to California where his family has been living while he’s played in Detroit. The others are Dennis Wideman (Washington Capitals), Matt Carle (Philadelphia Flyers), Filip Kuba (Ottawa Senators), Carlo Colaiacovo (St. Louis Blues) and Joe Corvo (Boston Bruins). Would any of those cause you to start dancing?

There has been rumors that the Oilers are willing to trade their early round pick for an established defenceman. There are no top pairing d-men available on the free agent market.

[umbrellavoid]

The Oilers have to stand pat and look to only acquire a talent like Suter of Webber. Maybe they can trade down and select a Dumba or Murray. There are not too many Chara's available for trade.

[Pwillows]

Oilers draft picture a muddy one

http://www.edmontonsun.com/2012/03/2...re-a-muddy-one

The last two drafts were easy. It doesn’t take Scotty Bowman to finish last and use the first pick overall to select Central Scouting’s top-ranked player.

But the rebuild is about to get a little trickier for the Edmonton Oilers.

This isn’t Taylor-vs.-Tyler or Nugent-Hopkins-vs.-Gabriel Landeskog, where the second pick is as good as the first.

This year there is a significant drop off, leaving a minefield of burning questions and potential regret for whoever’s drafting second — likely Edmonton.

For starters, the scariest ingredients in any draft are Russians, defencemen and dropping in the order, which is interesting because Russian forwards are ranked 1 and 2 and six of the next eight prospects are defencemen.

Oh, and the 29th-place Oilers are in real danger of catching Montreal, the Islanders and Minnesota.

Gulp.

The water could get very murky. Here’s a look at the issues and scenarios facing Edmonton on June 22 in Pittsburgh.

Should Edmonton win the lottery (there is an 18.8% chance if they finish 29th and 14.2% at 28th), then the pick will make itself.

Nail Yakupov.

He’s too gifted and dynamic to pass by, even if he is another small forward on a team that’s soft up front and doesn’t protect its kids.

The 5-11, 189-pound winger is a game-breaker with fire in his belly who would give Edmonton an embarrassment of riches up front, but still leave them woefully short in three significant areas — defencemen, size in the top six and strength up the middle.

Nevertheless, there’s no need to overthink this one. A quick scan of the last nine forwards taken first overall tells you all you need know about what the Oilers should, and will, do if their lottery number comes up.

If all the trends hold true, however, the Oilers will pick second, the spot with the most options and biggest potential pitfalls.

The question isn’t who the Oilers take at No. 2, it’s what.

Big centre or stud defenceman.

They need both. Badly. And both options, 6-3, 200-pound centre Mikhail Grigorenko or one of the prospect blueliners will be right in front of them.

But both come with significant risk. Defencemen are a crap shoot with (somebody cover Cam Barker’s ears, please) major bust potential, while Russians can be a one-dimensional, temperamental lot who are one plane ticket away from a KHL escape hatch.

For every Pavel Datsyuk and Evgeni Malkin, there is an Alex Ovechkin and Ilya Kovalchuk, extreme talents who struggle with team play and have accomplished little in the playoffs.

There is also the KHL factor. As Alexander Radulov just showed, playing four full seasons in Russia because the rubles were greener there, the flight risk is very real.

Maybe even greater now that Radulov, who played for the same Junior team (Quebec Remparts) as Grigorenko does, got filthy rich by bucking the system.

What happens, for example, if there’s a lockout and Grigorenko decides to start the season in Russia? Maybe gets a little comfortable …

Remember Alexei Mikhnov (Oilers No. 1 in 2000)? Of course not; nobody ever saw the guy. Stayed in Russia. Of the 98 players Edmonton drafted in the 11 years since, only five were Russian. Nothing higher than fourth round. None since 2006. And none have ever played a game for Edmonton.

Coincidence? Maybe. Or maybe the Oilers management doesn’t like the thought of collecting Aeroflot miles.

OK, so just take a defenceman (and if they fall to third, they won’t have much choice).

There’s the polished Ryan Murray (6-2, 205), big two-way Jacob Trouba (6-2, 193) and rough and tumble Matt Dumba (5-11, 183) to choose from. All very good, but there doesn’t seem to be an impact player in the lot.

And, unfortunately, defencemen can be a bigger risk than Russians.

There have been some beauties lately in Drew Doughty and Alex Pietrangelo, but Thomas Hickey, Karl Alzner, Erik Johnson, Jack Johnson, Cam Barker, Joni Pitkanen and Ryan Whitney were also lottery-pick defencemen.

Cam Fowler is going to be excellent one day, but today he has the fourth-worst plus minus in the NHL (-22) and is -47 in 150 career games.

Defencemen simply take longer to develop and they hurt your team more while they’re learning the NHL.

Trade the No. 2 pick?

If they’re drafting second and aren’t sure about Grigorenko, this might be the year Edmonton puts that pick on the market. Trading from 2 to 4 (to the team that wants to leapfrog No. 3 to get Grigorenko) will get them one of the young defenceman and something else.

Of course, if Grigorenko grows up to be Malkin, it’ll haunt them for the rest of their lives.

Plenty to think about.

This figures to be the last major piece of Edmonton’s multi-year puzzle (they can’t be a lottery team four years in a row, can they?) so they can’t afford to mess this up.

Happy drafting, Steve.

[Leafland Kyle]

There are not too many Chara's available for trade.

Teams are not willing to trade a top defencman for a draft pick, no matter how high. The teams that are willing to make this kind of deal don't have a top defencman to trade.