Monday, July 11, 2011

This post was brought to you by the # 5



This is what Ryan Strome saw on his garage when he came home from the draft.  I guess it was getting dark.  It's probably a lower number than many thought it would be, and that is understandable. Ryan Strome went ahead of other talented and highly rated forwards Sean Couturier and Mika Zibanejad.  That being said he's not as controversial as Mark Scheifele at 7 ( and even that can be rationalized as I did here on darft day).

I guess I was in a larger minority than I thought, however, being of the opinion that the Islanders were taking him 5th, as now I have won not just ONE but TWO radio/internet draft contests this year based largely on this selection.


Was it a difficult pick to make?  Sure.  Does this pick make sense here?  I think so based on an evaluation of their depth chart, their draft tendencies, their history of being strong down the middle during their glory days, their loss of Doug Weight and the different kinds of players left.  I spent quite some time evaluating and ranking the prospects starting almost a month before the draft.  In the last week or two before the draft I started looking more specifically at the draft order. The last week before the draft I spent time looking into teams depth charts, their recent drafts, their free agents and their long and short term needs.  I looked at every team in this way but for all of the teams owning picks in the top 19, I looked at them up and down pretty closely.  The way I saw it, the top 7 I chose in my Mock Top 12 were almost a lock.  I nailed the top 6, Scheifele went 7th, and then I was close for a while before it got wide open.  There was a reason I could only get to 12 in my mock.

I got 23/30 of my players ranked in my top 30 taken in the first round ( only two less than Bob McKenzie and he's connected! He nailed both Minnesota's picks with Brodin at 10 and Phillips at 28!  That's cool! ).  I was very comfortable with the position we were in at 31.  My final rankings was not supposed to be a mock, just where I liked the players versus the others, but it's still a measuring stick of sorts.

I did all my research, and everything for this site, because I take an interest in how our Oilers are doing in scouting, drafting, developing and everything else the team does ( ever really ) and because I love this team.  I also sometimes dream of getting a job in sports someday somehow, but one dream at a time.  Right now I'm focused on the Cup.  Am I a nerd for wanting to know all this stuff?  Probably.  But I have a hell of a time studying up for the draft this year and will probably do the same for next year.

It's nice for sure that I can win but the real winners here are all the fans.  The Oilers have drafted some quality players in value positions this year.  Same story last year.  Consider that Ryan Smyth is back and that we signed some quality veteran depth in the NHL and for the Barons.  We also put the Souray thing to bed.  We seem fairly healthy through-out the line up ( Brule aside maybe ) and we've addressed some team toughness issues.  It's an exciting time and I am excited to be an Oilers fan today.

And I won : D

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