The Draft Lottery aka Fail 4 Nail

[Ravin]

Draft lottery is on tonight and five teams have a shot at Yakupov.

1 Columbus Blue Jackets 25.0
2 Edmonton Oilers 18.8
3 Montreal Canadiens 14.2
4 New York Islanders 10.7
5 Toronto Maple Leafs 8.1

Those are the teams that can get the first overall pick.

Columbus
If they get the first pick, they need to take Yakupov. No question about it. With Nash on the way out, Yakupov will be the next crowd fav and he know's how to work a crowd really well. He'll get that place jumping.

Edmonton
Defence! They need to draft the best dman available this year. Can't take another forward. Matt Dumba is #2, and they have to take him, no question about it. He would be a perfect fit in Edmonton.

Montreal
Anything they take is good, as their system is a disaster. They could use someone with some size down the middle. Either Forsberg or Grigorenko is their best option, but at this point, any top 5 player is helping them rebuild a very shitty system.

New York I
These guys are full of young players, so basically at this spot, they could do whatever they want with this pick. They could use some defence, so depending if they move up or down, I could see them getting Morgan Rielly.

Toronto
They need another scorer and some size. Yakupov would fit in so well in Toronto, but if not, then I think they really have to look at Grigorenko and maybe even go as far as to look at Alex Galchenyuk. They need a #1 centre in Toronto to stop the endless cycle of #1's coming in there. Bozak is not it, and with these two young guys, the best thing Toronto could do is get them into the line up fast. Grigorenko is NHL ready, Galchenyuk is not.

 

[wr50l]

Tavares, Yakupov, Crosby, Malkin, Parise, Kovalchuk, Giroux, Jagr, Gaborik, Richards.

Seems fair.

 

[Ravin]

The NBC division looks so sexy. :yao:

 

[leaffan]

Here's hoping the leafs get the #1 so tsn can :troll: everyone

 

[Ravin]

Edmonton wins it again. Jesus Christ, they are going to have so many forwards, as there is no way they can pick a defence with the first pick. They almost should look into trading it.

If Edmonton takes Nail, they need another centre. Then they go Eberle/RNH on line one, Nail/Hall on line two. Or some kind of mix up, or throw Eberle/RNH/Nail on line one. Almost to much young talent.

 

[leaffan]

They almost have to trade that pick away wow.

 

[Sigona]

Goodbye Hemsky.

 

[Ravin]

Edmonton is just going to be so loaded with forwards you really have no idea what they are going to do.

Nail Yakupov (18) RW
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (19) C
Taylor Hall (21) LW
Jordan Eberle (22) RW
Sam Gagner (23) C

Those are their young forwards and what age they will/should be next season. Two centres, two right wingers and a left winger. Endless amounts of combinations, and just a sick group of people.

Hemsky's days are numbered easily, as at $4.1M he isn't worth it anymore to be playing on a second line or possibly the third line. Horcoff is another guy you have no idea about, and could be a third line guy now if he wants, but I expect him to be shipped as well, if they can find someone to take that contract on.

Oilers though are going to have to do some huge money things with this team starting now. Hall and Eberle each have one year left on an entry level contract then they will want the big money. RNH follows a year later, and Yakupov a year after that. Thing is, you know none of them are going to ask for huge money, and I suspect Hall/Eberle will earn about 5M-6M each and this will be one of those "stay together, take cheap deals" teams.

They still need a goalie though, and their defence needs work, so if they can trade those bums, they could be good.

 

[leaffan]

:yao:

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

The NHL desperately wanted Edmonton to be a power in hockey...they couldn't make it more obvious they are rigging this damn thing.

 

[killgod]

if you believe there's any degree in fixing in pro sport, then you'd be spot on here. Edmonton is a struggling market and need to turn it around soon to go with the money being spent there on a new arena.

losses all around if that team doesn't perform and sell that place out for a few seasons.