Author Archives: jtunnicliff

2018 NHL Draft

Oilerhockey Draft Rankings 11 – 20

This is a follow up to Oilershockey’s Top 10 Draft Rankings – April to list the players I’ve ranked from 11 – 20 for the upcoming NHL draft.

11 C Rasmus Kupari 6’2 183lbs – FIN – Shoots Right

League: Liiga – 39gp 6g 8a 14pts NHLE: 12.8

Kupari is a strong skilled skater with an above average shot. While his NHLE number doesn’t look great we need to be aware that Kupari’s minutes were limited after being called up and he did have a strong performance at the U18 tournament picking up 7 points in 4 games.
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AHL or NHL

Where Will Cooper Marody Play Next Season

As everybody is likely aware of by now the Oilers have signed the NCAA C Cooper Marody to an entry level contract.  Although the contract details are not confirmed capfriendly.com has the numbers at 3 years with a $925k cap hit and there is no word of bonuses as of yet.

To help get an idea of how Marody will fit into the Oilers forward depth charts I’ve put together a table comparing his NCAA seasons to Drake Cagguila, Patrick Russell and Joseph Gambardella all of whom were signed as UFA’s from the NCAA.  Note that these players all finished their NCAA careers and were UFA’s as they didn’t sign with the NHL team that had drafted them while Marody is turning pro with 1 year of NCAA eligibility remaining.

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McDavid and Nurse

Oilers Costly Win And McDavid’s Historic Season

The Oilers closed out the season last night with a 3 – 2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks in a shootout. Normally that would be a good thing but in this case the win moved the Oilers past the Blackhawks and the Rangers to finish the season in 23rd place overall or more importantly 9th last. If they had lost the game in regulation last night not only would the Sedins have left on a more positive note but the Oilers would have finished 7th last and had a better chance for a higher draft pick.
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Vegas Knights

Who Will The Oilers Expose In The Upcoming Expansion Draft?

The NHL will hold an expansion draft on June 21st of this year in which the Vegas Golden Knights will pick one player from each team to build its roster for the 2017/18 season.  Each team will have the ability to protect a list of players from the expansion draft but are required to expose a minimum number of players who meet certain criteria.
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The Stanley Cup

Oilers Clinch!!

On April 13th, 2006 the Edmonton Oilers beat the Anaheim Ducks 2-1 at home to clinch a playoff spot.  It was their 81st game of the season and it was a great day.

This is a great day too.

The Edmonton Oilers beat the LA Kings 2-1 at home to clinch a playoff spot!!!!

Anybody remember what they did back in the that 2006 season?

Oilers Sign Another College Kid

Peter Chiarelli won the jackpot last season with the signings of Matt Benning and Drake Caggiula and he’s at it again.  Today the Oilers have signed Joe Gambardella to a two-year deal and have added some much needed depth to the center position in the organization. Gambardella is coming off a big season where he scored 52 points in 41 games centering the top line for UMass Lowell in the NCAA.

The 23 year old Gambardella isn’t huge at 5’10 and 201lbs but seems like a suitable replacement in the organization for Anton Lander who appears to jetting off to play in the KHL next season.

This is a big signing imo, this kid is probably on par with what Drake Caggiula was a year ago when he signed with the Oilers and Caggiula was able to make the team out of training camp and stick with the big club all season.  I don’t expect Gambardella to make the Oilers out of camp next season but I think he’ll be in the conversation and could be an early call up if a center is injured on the big club.

Oilers trade Nail Yakupov for Cap Space and a Pick

The Oilers have traded Nail! Sad days.

Nail Yakupov to the Blues for Zach Pochiro and a conditional pick.

There has been all kinds of speculation that Yakupov had asked for a trade and that the Oilers were close to trading him last season but honestly we’ll never know for certain how much truth there is to this stuff. What we do know is that Peter Chiarelli has now traded two of the wonder kids from the previous administration and in both cases cap space was a large part of the decision.
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