A brand new point of view
The place on the Oilers’ roster with the most new faces is up front with the forwards. Out are Jarret Stoll, Geoff Sanderson, Raffi Torres, and Marty Reasoner, and in their places are Erik Cole, Ryan Potulny, and Gilbert Brule.
Both Brule and Potulny are younger players who still have yet to find their place in the game. In Philly, Potulny saw flashes of success—including 12 points in 35 games in 2006/07—but he never stood out enough in the Flyers system, and began tumbling down the depth chart, almost akin to Dany Syvret in Edmonton.
Brule meanwhile, has been the epitome of a bust so far in his NHL career.
Drafted sixth overall in 2005, Columbus was confident they had found a player with the ability to play alongside Rick Nash. Following a four-point, seven-game audition in 2005-06, the Jackets were encouraged by what they saw, but still returned him to the Vancouver Giants for seasoning.
Over the next two seasons, though, Brule was awful. In 142 games, Brule was only able to gather 28 points—and had only nine last year, in 61 games—for a minus-24.
Although it’s hard to expect anything more than 10 or 20 points this season, Edmonton is hoping that Columbus was just giving up on a player who took a little longer to develop than they wanted. After all, Brule is only 21—so he could very well come back and make Columbus rue July 1, 2008.
In Erik Cole, the Oilers know exactly what they’re getting, thanks to the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals. The former Hurricane is a tough-as-nails player who’ll stop at nothing to get on the ice. Remember, he somehow recovered from a broken neck at the hands of Brooks Orpik to play in the finals that season.
Aside from being gritty and hard-working, Cole can also find his way around the scoresheet—he’s had three straight 20-goal seasons, including a 30-goal season in ’06 after only 60 games. If not for injuries, Cole could very well be flaunting three straight 60-point campaigns around right now too.
But the biggest thing about Cole? He’ll help protect Edmonton’s young centers.
It may surprise you to know that of all Edmonton’s centers, only Sean Horcoff is over 24 heading into this season. Granted, that means that their only really established scorer down the middle had 50 points in 53 games last year in an injury-shortened effort.
But that also provides shootout wizard Sam Gagner, Kyle Brodziak, Andrew Cogliano, Mark Pouliot, Brulet, and Potulny (and possible Rob Schremp) with plenty of playing time, and plenty of room to improve. Expect both Cogliano and Gagner to crack the 50-point barrier after coming close last season.
The wings of the Edmonton Oilers offer a little more muscle than flair with the Stortini’s and the Moreau’s, but if Fernando Pisani and Robert Nilsson are able to provide some consistent secondary scoring and Dustin Penner (who actually improved in his first season with Edmonton) can up the production to 55-60 points, these Oiler forwards are pretty dangerous.
CSSR or USSR? Wait—what’s the difference?
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