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One Day Until the Draft: Make Your Prediction!

By Alan Hull
TORONTO - APRIL 13: Deputy Commissioner of the NHL Bill Daly announces top pick to the Edmonton Oilers during the NHL Draft Lottery Drawing at the TSN Studio April 13, 2010 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Abelimages / Getty Images for NHL)
TORONTO - APRIL 13: Deputy Commissioner of the NHL Bill Daly announces top pick to the Edmonton Oilers during the NHL Draft Lottery Drawing at the TSN Studio April 13, 2010 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Abelimages / Getty Images for NHL)
Getty Images for NHL

We've reached the point of critical mass for all of the trade talk and speculation heading into the 2012 NHL Draft tomorrow night. With just over 24 hours left until the first overall selection is named, Oiler management and their scouting staff are no doubt having their final meetings to determine what they are going to do with the gift of a third straight #1 overall pick.

So, here at Copper & Blue, we want to ask our readers to go out on a limb and call your shot. What are the Oilers go to do with the #1 pick?

As far as I can tell, there are really four options:

1. Keep the #1 pick and use it to draft Nail Yakupov

2. Keep the #1 pick and use it to draft someone else. (Murray, Reinhart, Galchenyuk, etc.)

3. Swap picks with another team and trade down to a later pick in order to acquire a 2nd asset as well as a highly regarded prospect

4. Trade the pick outright to acquire immediate help at the NHL level

Feel free to speculate as to which other teams and players may be involved and see if you can predict the future the way I did with the NHL lottery (NOTE: I didn't really. In fact I totally covered my ass by NOT saying it in that story, because, well, I was a coward).

We would also love to hear a definitive answer as to what YOU would do if given the chance to decide. It's quite plausible that many of our readers can come up with better solutions than Steve Tambellini, so let's see how you would handle the situation.

Be sure to state which predictions are things you think WILL happen vs. those you think SHOULD happen. Because if you say that you think Mr. Dithers is going to step up to the podium and say "With the historic 1st overall selection of the 2012 NHL Draft, the Edmonton Oilers are proud to select, from Dubuque of the USHL, Zemgus Girgensons!" then we want to be able to praise your predictive powers when you are proven correct, or, more likely, to point and laugh when it turns out you are way off base.

So, the floor is yours Oiler fans...what do we have to look forward to tomorrow night?