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DRAFT DAY 2012

Wanye
By Wanye
11 years ago
Years from now we may ask ourselves "what was the general mood back at the 2012 Entry Draft?" You know, before the Oilers win all those Cups and everyone agrees that Steve Tambellini really did have a plan and after all – he drafted The Nuge right? That says something?
Right.

PICK YAKUPOV

We have read a ton of tweets, blogs, articles and restroom graffiti that all points to the Oilers trading the first pick overall or making a rogue move and picking someone other than our favourite Yak Herdsman Nail Yakupov. We say forget all of that nonsense – pick the best player available.
Sure you might make a good move, pass on Yakupov and pick a good NHL ready defenseman. You might also deal the first pick overall and find that history judges you as a genius for who you get in return. Or you might just take the best player available, see how he fits into your lineup and go from there.
If it turns out you have an embarrassment of riches upfront and still lack skill on the back end, either bank on the fact that all of the Super Studs on forward are enough to attract some free agent D men, or bank on the fact that many unreal youths will be sufficient to trade to fill holes down the road.
Don’t do anything silly Tambo, Lowe and Company. Have the pills to do nothing at all.

PARTY AT THE PINT

History may also wonder how we handled successive seasons of picking first, first and first overall in the OilersNation. Let the record show that we partied our way through the entire terrible time. Sure the team on the ice might inspire something far less in other cities, but here in Edmonton we are happy to be getting better every year despite what the on ice record may suggest.
Today we are going to assemble at The Pint in Downtown Edmonton. We are selling tee shirts to mark the occasion and donating all of the monies to earthgroup.org – a fantastic company that helped provide nearly 200,000 meals to children in school in 2011 and sell their fundraising water, coffee and tea in a variety of places including the imcomperable Oodle Noodle.
And once the dust settles and we know who the Oilers did end up picking – we will be selling shirts on this here lil website with all of the profits going to this very same organization.
We party here in Edmonton, but if we can send a few quid to a good cause – even the better. If you can join us today we will surely see you at the party. If you can’t be here in body but are throwing it down in spirit – holla @wanyegretz and show the Nation how you are celebrating the big day.

THE STICKER MIRACLE

A funny thing happened last week. We got an email from a fine chap who said "why don’t you guys have a gillion stickers out in circulation? I read JetsNation all of the time and I would totally run a sticker on my laptop if such a thing existed. I won’t hold my breath for NationGear, but we have to be able to get some stickers out can’t we?"
Now we get emails with suggestions of "WHY DON’T YOU DO MORE WORK AND NEVER SLEEP IN YOUR LIFE?" and we shake our head sadly and move onto the next email which is usually a helpful advertisement for some variety of erectile medication.
But the second half of the email made this mystery caller even more of a hero. "My company Jet Label is Western Canada’s largest label maker. We can make you stickers in a jiffy and would like to talk more about advertising on the sites."
Add in a sales call that involved Jason Gregor talking confidently and yours truly being in over his head and the deal has been done. Stickers o’plenty arrived at OilersNation HQ and we welcome JetLabel as one of our most beloved partners. They have not only solved the sticker issue but have amazingly agreed to be a sponsor of the Nation Network. A local Edmonton company, we now love JetLabel more than we can accurately describe using words currently in the English lexicon.

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