Fraser's Edmonton Oilers 2009-10 Preview

I will be previewing all 30 NHL clubs. I will be looking at their available salary cap room, the additions and deletions from the 2008-09 rosters, and where I think they will stack up in their division and conference for the 2009-10 season. 

Let's get a move on with the Edmonton Oilers, which play in the Northwest Division and the Western Conference.

The Craig MacTavish era is over in Edmonton and Harvey the Hound no longer needs SPCA protection while doing his thing at the Saddledome.  For the first time since joining the NHL back in 1979, the Oilers will be led by a non-Oiler alumnus. 

It will now be up to G.M. Steve Tambellini, New Head Coach Pat Quinn and New Associate Coach Tom Renney to lead the Oilers back into the Western Conference playoffs.  The Oilers have missed the playoffs during the past three seasons.

The Oilers have always been built on the premise of speed and skating ability first.  The organization is littered with good young players that if they ever reach their potential could bring back memories of the ‘80s in Alberta’s Capital City.

It was thought that Quinn would not be a fit in Edmonton because he liked a more veteran line-up.  However, over the last seasons, he has been able coach both of Team Canada’s entries in the 2008 IIHF World U-18 and the 2009 IIHF World U-20 Hockey Championships to Gold Medals. 

Is Quinn the man to lead the Oilers back to the Promised Land?  To quote the new Head Coach, "I like skilled teams. You can't all be foot soldiers who dump it in and bang the puck. Move and use the skills you have. Lose it and be damn gritty to get it back."

Let’s take a look at the ‘09-‘10 version of the Edmonton Oilers.

Significant Additions

The unrestricted free agent deals that were signed to join the Oilers this season are as follows: Nikolai Khabibulin (Chicago), Chris Minard (Pittsburgh), Dean Arsene (Washington) and Matt Nickerson (Sweden, formerly with the Dallas Stars). 

Significant Deletions

The unrestricted free agents that have moved on from Edmonton are: Kyle Brodziak (Minnesota), Ales Kotalik (N.Y. Rangers), Dwayne Roloson (N.Y. Islanders), Mathieu Roy (Columbus) and Dany Sabourin (Boston).

Remaining Oilers, who have yet to sign a deal with another franchise, are: Sebastien Bisaillon, Carl Corazzini, Stephane Goulet, David Rohlfs, Tyler Spurgeon and Bryan Young. 

Rob Schremp remains the only Restricted Free Agent that the Oilers still have to decide what they want to do with this asset.

The Oilers currently have 19 players under one-way contracts; ten forwards, seven defensemen, and two goaltenders.  The most likely four two-way contracts to start the season in Edmonton are; Sam Gagner, Andrew Cogliano, Gilbert Brule and either Liam Reddox or Steve MacIntyre.

The Oilers current Salary Cap sits at $55.6 million with these 23 players on the opening day roster.

Top Young Faces in the Organization

The Oilers have two players currently entering the final year of their Entry Level Contracts; Gagner and Cogliano.  Both players are coming off of less than spectacular sophomore seasons.  If the Oilers have any chance of making the playoffs this season, they will need these young players to take their games to the next level.

Here are some of the other top young faces that will be looking to impress the Oilers' management this season. 

Jordan Eberle

Edmonton's first round pick (22nd overall) in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft has played with the Regina Pats of the Western Hockey League, for the last three seasons.  At the end of the Pats’ season last year, Edmonton sent Eberle to Springfield of the AHL to play in their last nine games.

Pat Quinn is very familiar with Eberle from his time with the Canadian U-20 Hockey Team.  It was Eberle that scored in the tournament’s semi-final against Russia, with six seconds left in regulation time, to help Team Canada move on to the Finals and win his country’s fifth straight Gold medal.

According to NHL Director of Central Scouting, E.J. McGuire, “Eberle is a slippery scorer with great hands. He has NHL hands and the skating to get him into good shooting position. Jordan is an up-and-down the wing tease, in the sense that sometimes he'll look like he's just going up and down the wing and you have him slotted as a checker and then he'll cut in off the wing and use that shot to put his team up by a goal.”

McGuire goes on the say, “he needs to improve a little bit on his consistency, in that sometimes his up and down game gets too frequent and he has to learn that all his good skills can't be hidden - he has to use them more often.”

Riley Nash

The Oilers’ first overall pick (21st Overall) in the 2007 Entry Draft has spent the last two seasons at Cornell University.  Nash has yet to sign his first entry level contract, so it would appear that he will return to Cornell for his junior season. 

According to hockeyfutures.com, Nash lists his favourite player as Steve Yzerman which is quite fitting because Nash has a very good, but not flashy, offensive game and is reliable in every part of the rink.  In addition to having the ability to stickhandle past opponents, Nash has a sound puck possession and cycling game. 

He will need to bulk up if he’s going to be as effective along the boards at higher levels of competition.  His size, however, is the only impediment at this point between him and a NHL career.  He is a complete player. 

Jeff Petry

Edmonton's second round pick (45th overall) in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft has played the last two seasons with the Michigan State University in the NCAA.  How long he will remain there beyond 2008-09 is very much up in the air.  The Oilers feel he is a legit top-pairing prospect.  He still has not signed his entry level contracts.

According to hockeyfutures.com, Petry is a smart two-way defenseman who is an excellent skater with good mobility, which he uses to shut down opponents. He plays with an edge and can lay out some good hits.

He also doesn’t mind battling in front of the net. Offensively, Petry has a cannon for a point shot, but often uses a wrist shot so that it does not get blocked and does not allow the goaltender to set up. Likes to use his skating and stick skills to make accurate passes out of the zone or to skate the puck up himself, which he has the speed and stickhandling to do.

He steadily improved as the season wore on to become a strong mix of size, skill and awareness.

Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson

Edmonton’s first round pick (tenth overall) in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, the 18 year-old, Swedish born Left Winger was so highly converted by the Oilers, Tambellini and the rest of the Oilers’ organization was in a state of shock when Paajarvi-Svensson was still available.

According to Director of Central Scouting E. J. McGuire, “Magnus perhaps is the stereotype of the skilled Swede coming over here in recent years—outside speed extraordinaire, ability to freeze defenders and make all his good moves work even more effectively.

"He was a good contributor to his team at the World Junior tournament and I think will be an essential member of any NHL team in years to come. He showed, at the World Junior championships, why the 1980 comparisons to Mats Naslund, Kent Nilsson and more recently a Peter Forsberg will follow him over to his NHL team.

"He’ll be a high draft pick and I’m sure he’s going to be a combination of the kind of offensive flare and skills that have made those other three predecessors’ great NHL players."

Edmonton will have to wait for Paajarvi-Svensson; the 6’1” 200 lbs forward has one more season left on his contract with Timra, in the Swedish Elite League.

Toni Rajala

Edmonton’s fourth round pick (101st overall) in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, has been called the next Teemu Selanne.  At the World U-18 Championships, Rajala broke Alexander Ovechkin’s tournament record with 19 points in six games. 

They is no doubt that the Finnish born forward has amazing skill but the 11th ranked European skater by NHL Central Scouting, going into last June’s entry draft, fell to the fourth round because of his size.

At 5’10”, 163 pounds, the Oilers have already signed Rajala to his first NHL contract and it would appear that ’09-’10 will probably mark his North American debut. 

Recap of 2008-09

The Oilers were fourth in the Northwest Division and finished 11th in the Western Conference with a record of 38-35-9, good for 85 points. They were in the hunt for the eighth and final playoff spot going into the final week and a half but ended up finishing six points out of the playoffs.

The Oilers' offense was lead by Ales Hemsky (23 goals & 66 points) and Sheldon Souray (23 goals). The Oilers had four nine players with double-digit goals. The Oilers as a team ranked 18th in goals for (228 goals) and were 22nd overall in goals against (244 goals).

The Oilers' power play ranked 22nd in the NHL, clicking on only 17.0 percent of their chances, and they were 27th in killing penalties (77.5 percent).

Outlook for 2009-10

A new coaching staff, a new goaltender but the same forwards and defense core, is Quinn, Renney and Khabibulin enough to get this team into the playoff?

There's 829, which is the number of NHL wins between Quinn and Renney. 

And 299, which is the number of NHL wins for Khabibulin but which goaltender will show up in Edmonton.  “The Bulin Wall” did a disappearing act in Chicago until the Blackhawks went out and signed Huet, prior to last season.  He also started off slow in Tampa Bay until John Grahame starting pushing him for playing time.

At this stage in his development, Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers is not ready to push Khabibulin for the number one spot between the pipes.  Will he be the goalie that won the Stanley Cup in 2004 or the goalie that played in Chicago for the first three years of his four year contract?

If they Oilers can stay healthy and the young kids can bounce back from their disappointing sophomore seasons, they have a chance to make a run into the playoffs but a lot of things will have to go perfect for it to happen.

I believe the Oilers will finish third in the Northwest division but tenth in the Western Conference.  There is nothing better for the province of Alberta and the NHL if the Flames and Oilers are in the playoffs at the same time but it may still be a year away.

On Aug. 25, I will be reviewing Florida Panthers as I continue to preview each of the 30 NHL clubs. Look for my four-part article on how I would improve the NHL and my other previously published articles on bleacherreport.com.