WHAT NOW....
Jason Gregor
June 22 2012 07:39PM
Despite all the rumours about potentially not taking him, the Oilers selected Nail Yakupov with the first pick. He was considered the best player in the draft, and the Oilers agreed.
Yakupov was stoked being the first pick, and was excited about the chance to play with the other young stars in Edmonton. He was very emotional talking about being the first pick, and he had to hold back the tears. He had a great line when he was asked who he would like to play with in Edmonton, "My whole team."
The Oilers now have four, young dynamic forwards, but now the focus turns to finding some solid defenders, and gritty, tough and skilled role players.
The Oilers currently hold the 32nd pick, and they are very high on Henrik Samuelsson. If he is still available in the final few picks of the first round, we might see them try and move up a few spots.
**Edited... Coyotes took Samuelsson 27th overall, so scratch that idea. ***
Another guy who is tough and rugged is D-man Dalton Thrower, best last name in hockey, who they might look at.
You can expect the Oilers to use one, if not two, of their remaining picks to draft some players with a mix of size, skill and toughness. A major void in the organization is players who have a mixture of skill, grit and nastiness.
QUICK HITS
- Steve Tambellini needs to start re-tooling his team now that the 1st pick is in the books. The easy moves are over with, if this franchise is going to move forward he needs to get creative and make some moves that involve acquiring NHL players.
- Now that the Oilers have Yakupov, I'm sure we will hear lots of chatter about possibly moving Hemsky to acquire a blueliner. In theory it makes sense, since they have Eberle and Yakupov on the RW, but I don't see the need to rush into it. I still think Hemsky's trade value might be a tad low right now, so letting him play with the kids for a few months, or a year, and see his value increase.
- The Oilers own the 32nd, 63rd, 91st, 93rd, 123rd and 153rd picks.
- Mitch Moroz would be a great 3rd round pick if he is there. As a 17-year-old he scored 17 goals in a 4th line role with the Oil Kings. He's also very tough. He's exactly what the Oilers need in their organization.
- Here is a great story of Radek Faksa, who went 13th overall to the Stars.
Thank. God.
i wonder how much pepto bismol Rexal sold in the last couple of days?
Tambo is a company man
I don't know, but the body language tells me this was not a consensus pick. They seemed forced and could not wait to get off the podium.
Oilers did the right thing and picked Yakopov the BPA!!! now all we need is to sign Justin Schultz and the Oilers are on their way to respectability.
Nah-yEEl Ya-KOOpf! Whew. One foot in front of the other Tamby. Good job.
Hmm. I don't seem to see very many people apologizing about how wrong they were in their ASSertions that Lowbellini would screw this up.
H2Y..........WHY NOT?
I'm loving this.
Can't wait to see the battle for 'Highlight of the Night' between Hall, Ebs, Hopkins, Gagner, Hemsky and Yakupov! As the kids say, 'Sick'.
Sure Smiddy - you can play too, but you're not going to win very often!
First round almost over and Tambo further shows how F*cking useless he is. Samuelsson gone and could have easily been had if they moved up their 2nd rounder a few spots. Why is he even there. MBS could do the same thing, its his scouting team that comes up with the picks anyway. The only good thing about this team is the scouting department. Everyone else is useless and Tambo is the worst. He shouldn't even do interviews because every time he open his mouth he is full of sh*t. He always says he will do something and then does nothing. This team will never even get to the finals with this group of retards running things.
So the Hemmer and a Nail combo is now official. I guess this means Gagner is Handy Smurf.
How long you been sitting on that one?
As bad as Tambellini is as a GM,Feaster is worse!!! Calgary is going into the sewer fast!!! The flames fans can have fun watching and cheering for the Oilers in the playoffs:)
This team is going to be sick! Yakupov for calder book it!
Did you see the Calgary pick??? That kid would have still been available to them in the second round. And they passed on the chance to select Girgensons at the 14th pick!!! I guess Feaster thinks he has too many prospects coming down the pipe... I hope he'll be the Flames GM forever!
Thoroughly convinced all the chatter about anything other than Yak was to generate some media traffic. Happy with the results but other than that a fairly dull night. Bring on July 1. Desparately need a couple of moves to drag this team to real competitiveness. I am likely the only one on here that is prepared to live with existing goalies for 1 more yr (can't do anything with Khabby for a yr anyway) but as everyone has said, need defense. Hoping, but not convinced it will happen.
Also... it's pretty sad that on the panel discussing who they were going to take Tencer said 80% Ryan Murray Stauffer said Murray was a sure thing and then Jack Michaels agreed.
then, all on his own, Tom Gazzola says Yakupov. Guess we know where the real hockey brains are around there!
"I'm sure we will hear lots of chatter about possibly moving Hemsky to acquire a blueliner"
Michalek went for a collection of picks/prospects and Visnovsky went for a 2nd. Let's hope they look at making that type of move before sending away a player of Hemsky's calibre.
Honestly....if we walk out of this weekend with Justin Shultz and Nail Yakapov we are truly blessed. 2 great pieces of the 2015 Stanley cup champion Edmonton Oilers
Yes! Thats all! and FIST FIST FIST!
Yes!!! Fist overall pick! Go Yakupov!
Mmmmmmbop
I sure am excited - I was mad all day thinking the rumours I was hearing from Stauffer and Tenser were true and that they were taking Murray...thanks for this gift!
Thank goodness I think short of trade there was no way I wanted anyone else selected by the Oilers.
Now get us a couple more good D men and were on our way!
where is he playing next year if there is a delay to the start of next season
It was the right choice... I'm waiting to see Tambi get up and work the room for a trade...
Hall on one line steaming down the left, Yakupov on another flying down the right. Oiler domination to follow!
Thank God!!! and a HUGE sigh of relief!
Now the ball is in Tambellini and the Pro-scouts court to improve the defense. Come on boys bring us a seasoned D-man!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pYzOQFpGPYE
The pressure is now on for the Oil to get a dman coming through FA or a Trade. It should be considered a colossal offseason failure if they do not. I like the pick of Nail, but Tambo does need to do something. Lets get these young players some Playoff experience.
Man, if we can grab one of the Dmen floating around, this could be one hell of a weekend. My hope is for Yandle just so I can yell "That Yandle is so hot right now!" like I was Mugatu every time he scores.
I'll also settle for Hjalmarsson.
Very thrilled as I was worried they were going to draft Ryan Murray. Welcome to the Edmonton Oilers Nail Yakupov and I'm sorry Tambellini's body language was so unenthused.... he'll be gone shortly anyway.
The Oil will be a force to be reckoned with. Nail certainly has the personality, skill and attitude to make a splash.
Great pick.
Is Yakupov going to be the best player from this draft class? Probably.
And that's all there is to it.
Realizing Yakupov's talent, why don't I feel better about this? D'men are being picked like crazy!!
yak is going to twist the nipple on the need to win fast... i can't imagine that swagger functioning very well on a losing team...
hopefully that pushes us up rather than leaves us stewing
The longer this draft goes, the more amazed I am that Eberle was picked 22nd.
FOR all those geniuses like Bob stauffer and Dan Tencer who thought they had inside information!!! jajajajajaj
Been waiting a long time to see this much talent amassed at once in Edmonton. I remember as a kid going to many games in the 80s. Going to an Oiler game was like going to a great rock concert and circus all at the same time! There will still be growing pains here and i hope the fans don't put too much pressure on these young guys. I think they are motivated enough to want to win. it will take time to obtain the rest of the pieces and for the drafted dmen to develop. We have a great group that will entice good free agents want to sign here.
In the meantime, we will be fortunate to see some highly skilled passionate hockey with a bit of that rock star circus atmosphere. Welcome to Edmonton Nail!
Should be interesting to see how much more we learn about this via inside info/Oil Change/whatever.
@jazzman
we all know how that job was acquired... go yak
Another opportunity comes and goes. Far too little urgency in Oiler managements game. Still 4 holes to fill in the bottom of the fishing boat.
Wonder what they were working on that fell apart. Tambellini and the rest of management almost looked disappointed and thought Nail Yakupov was the last guy they'd be looking at on stage for that first selection. Moments before it became official it appeared they all remained seated for what seemed like an eternity hoping that phone would ring, but it didn't. Have to think they were working on something big and it all fell apart for them.
They also passed on Teuvo Teravainen lol
@Greg the Hammer Valentine
thats funny..........good one.........you want really good material tune in the live chat the flames fans are whining and crying.......and suicidal..........its great stuff,,,,,
Although I do wish we had made the move on Lubo.
@dman09 I couldnt agree more,Tambellini should just sit on Lowes lap and be his Dummy!!!
what now...they take Matthew Finn next pick
I think the Flames rebuild will start at the next draft. Draft a project going to college. I bet Iggy goes at trade deadline. Flames will take another college player tomorrow. I'm betting Dman with size, as a 3 year project.
Happy to see Yak. Should be three dynamic lines next year. Bump Harti up to second line to play wing with Yak and Gagner. (then stop worrying about Samwise's size)
Please Schultz, we need you to sign with the Oil. I promise not to criticize (for a year).
@ dman9
This is a really good point; really Macgregor is essentially doing the hard work here, the due diligence.
Tambellini hasn’t really done anything to improve the Oilers situation through trade, couldn’t even make a trade to get a defensemen or Samuelsson in the first round at the draft, and couldn’t have taken much to get into the last 5 picks of the first round?
could be worse we could have Feaster as GM
Oil finished 29th last year. They add 1 rookie, leaving 2 defence positions and 3 forward positions occupied by sub-NHL talent. If injuries occur they will once again finish 29th unless Cbus comes on strong. Why is Tambo employed here? Is it because Mr. Vancouver(Katz) doesn't want to see a successful team until the palatial new arena is open?