What if the Oilers went off the board and picked one of our own Copper & Blue experts as the next head coach? After the jump we will consider the alternatives.
Note the poll is at the very bottom.
Candidates are taken from those worthy to rate the top 25 under 25...Since we don`t have relevant coaching records from our short list, we will consider their u-25 rankings, and finish with an opinion from Scott Reynolds about all the possible choices.
I have listed each top 6 forwards, top 4 defensemen, and top goalie. So we can evaluate each prospective coach on who they would likely push through as the future of the Oilers. We`ll ignore the players over 25 as we all know this is a continual rebuild. Who can we best entrust our future Oilers with?
Benjamin Massey-"Goalies are the nemeses of all humanity."
F1-Hall, Gagner, Nugent-Hopkins
F2-Eberle, Paajarvi, Omark
D1-Petry, Peckham
D2-Klefblom, Marincin
G-Roy
Bruce McCurdy-"Different people have different opinions in my experience"
F1-Hall, Nugent-Hopkins, Eberle
F2-Gagner, Paajarvi, Lander
D1-Petry, Klefblom
D2-Marincin, Tuebert
G-Bunz
Dawgbone-"All I will say that at least one of your statements is wrong."
F1-Hall, Eberle, Nugent-Hopkins
F2-Gagner, Paajarvi,Omark
D1-Klefblom, Petry
D2-Peckham, Tuebert
G-Bunz
Derek Zona-"Maybe I’m jaded by the constant and never-ending stupidity on Twitter."
F1-Hall, Gagner, Nugent-Hopkins
F2-Paajarvi, Eberle, Omark
D1-Petry, Klefblom
D2-Marincin, Simpson
G-Roy
Jonathan Willis-“More pragmatic than Kevin Prendergast”
F1-Hall, Nugent-Hopkins, Eberle
F2-Gagner, Paajarvi, Omark
D1-Petry, Klefblom
D2-Musil, Teubert
G-Bunz
Ryan Batty-"I briefly considered listing Abney at number one to try and skew the results and help him get into the top 25."
F1-Hall, Eberle, Nugent-Hopkins
F2-Gagner, Omark, Paajarvi
D1-Petry, Klefblom
D2-Marincin, Teubert
G-Bunz
Scott Reynolds-"These people are crazy."
F1-Hall, Nugent-Hopkins, Eberle
F2-Gagner, Paajarvi, Omark
D1-Petry, Klefblom
D2-Marincin, Simpson
G-Bunz
And now Scott Reynolds analysis of the candidates, I believe you will find this slightly biased...(I have parsed these to make them seemingly more relevant)
Ben - Ben thinks the Oilers' prospects suck. There's no other explanation.
Bruce - If you're a marginal prospect, the key to success in Bruce's eyes is playing in the WHL where it's easy for him to get some look-sees in order to justify liking you.
DB - I appreciate the way that DB went out of his way to piss Derek off by ranking Chris VandeVelde at #43. Good work.
Derek - Derek has his favorites, but sometimes I think he likes to be contrary for the hell of it.
Ryan - He knows that all the hip kids hate goalies, so he made sure to rank the two best goalies in the system lower than everybody else.
Jon - Draft position is a pretty major part of his decision-making process.
Scott - My rankings are all excellent.
Disclaimer: Winning this poll in no way assures the winner of a contract offer with the Oilers.