2012 NHL Draft Final Prospect Rankings:

Since I began personally attempting to evaluate and rank the players in the draft in 2007, this year's draft I have found to be the most difficult. Added to this was my ambition to extend my draft rankings further than I have ever attempted before. The result is a list that I'm less certain of, but more proud of for completing. I am not a scout, just a dedicated draft observer. I look forward to seeing most, if not all, of my ranked players being drafted, and watching them progress in their careers over the next several years

 This is not a mock draft. This is my evaluation of the prospects' potential overall impact on the game (in their prime) based on available information.

Here are my Top 90 Ranked 2012 NHL Draft Prospects:

The Pardubice Prince Signs!

I'm quite glad things worked out.

Hemsky started finding some chemistry and consistency here recently and I think this ultimately allowed for this deal to happen.  

Ales, keep up the dipsey-doodle at speed and smooth puck movement and this will be a beauty few years.

Stu's Job

If I had to do The Magnificent Bastard's job, I might fare ok in the first round.  For the last few years, I think it's safe to say many people would have fared well, being as we were picking first overall.

The worst feeling...

Do you know that feeling you get when you know someone you care about is moving away?

October's Oiler Notes

The Oilers have played October's games and I thought I'd share at least one line on each player:

Tom Gilbert has been exceptional to start this campaign.  I've seen 2 or 3 games in which I would describe him as a solid 2nd pairing player who was getting some good bounces, and the rest of the games where he flat out looked like a first pairing guy.  His fumbles behind his own blue line, particularly when being fore-checked from the other team (under pressure) have almost dried up.  I'm on board with this Tom Gilbert.

Nikolai Khabibulin is playing like Dwayne Roloson circa the '06 run right now.  Out of his skull good.  Looks like he's getting a better result than he honestly deserves on technical merit, but his effort, concentration and feel for the puck right now are incredible.  This is the goalie I hoped we were getting a few years back.  I think Khabibulin feels confidence in his conditioning, ability and experience right now and is using the challenge being put forth by Dubynk and the energy of a young and exciting team in front of him to bring the best out of a quality veteran who had a lot to prove coming into the season.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins kept the Pen

That's the Nuge by thumb in the top corner of the top pic.  The hardest one to read is the Eberle autograph on the Oilers logo on the top of the brim, the only one signed with a black sharpie (it was already in his hand).

I was the first person RNH (and many of the Oilers) signed for but when Hoppy came by ( last Oiler to leave ) I told him he could keep the silver sharpie and that he was probably in more need of it now than I was.  I also told him he was the easiest pick in my multi-contest winning mock-draft.  On pace for 82 this year, eh Ryan?

Thanks to all the boys who so graciously signed my ballin' hat.

ROCK AND ROLL

Tonight would be incredible if it was as good as last years home opener.  Even if it isn't, it's good to get going again.  GO OILERS GO!!!!!

2011 Oilers Projected Opening Day Rost...er, oops, too late

Well, I'm about half an hour late for this post to be able to be compared to the results but here is (was) my projected opening night roster with injured players in red:

Hall ( L )	Nugent-Hopkins ( L )	Eberle ( R )
Smyth ( L )	Horcoff ( L )	Hemsky ( R )
Paajarvi ( L )	Lander ( L )	Omark ( L )
Hordichuk ( L )	Belanger ( L )	R. Jones ( L )
Petrell ( L )	Brule ( R )
	Gagner ( R )	Eager ( L )
Jeff Petry	Tom Gilbert
Theo Peckham	Cam Barker
Andy Sutton	Corey Potter
Taylor Chorney	Ladislav Smid
Taylor Fedun	Ryan Whitney
Dubnyk
Khabibulin

In this case we would not add another D-man to the roster at this time and Brule would stick with the team.  Obviously Brule has since been waived and if all D-men in red remain unhealthy we have a spot on D for a call-up or waiver claim.  I suspect at least one of the D-men in red will become healthy prior to October 9th, filling the spot.

Petrell, I would have argued, will make the team or the Oilers lose him to Europe.  We can always cut him later if we want.

Lander deserves to be here, even more than Hartikainen, who also deserves to be here.  Lander plays centre too.  'Nuff said.

RNH was almost always for sure going to get his 9 games at least.  Health and RNH's first 9 will determine the make-up of this team going forward.

Oilers Defensive Depth Chart: October 2011

  This is a reflection of where I see the Oilers defencemen slotting in on a depth chart to start the 2011-2012 season. I've actually created a chart listing the players in order according to their handedness and then have a 2nd chart reflecting their "overall" depth spot on the team, handedness aside.

Unlike the forwards, I have not given any opinion on progress because almost everyone here has completed their development or appears to be developing well (aside from perhaps Motin).  Even Plante looked better this year.  With defence in particular, age and draft position played heavily in some decisions and I suspect these charts will be very different a year from now.  For the time being though, I see it as so:

Oilers Forward Depth Chart: October 2011

This is a reflection of where I see the Oilers forwards slotting in on a depth chart to start the 2011-2012 season.  I suspect some movement before the trade deadline, particularly from Tyler Pitlick and Ryan Martindale, whom I expect to be moving up faster than anyone else on the chart.

I've included some opinion on how each player is trending on a whole as well.  There may be a few degrees of difference between one player whose development appears to be “trending up” and another in terms of the speed the respective players are progressing at (some are getting better by the heartbeat while others are getting better season over season) but I think the general idea will get across.