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The last thing I want to do is beat a dead horse, but I thought it was interesting to take a final look at how the Oilers' lineup might look had some of the discussions we had over the summer come to fruition:
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| David Perron | Taylor Hall | Jordan Eberle | |||
| Linus Omark | Mikhail Grabovski | Ales Hemsky | |||
| Jesse Joensuu | Boyd Gordon | Nail Yakupov | |||
| Ryan Smyth | Mark Arcobello | Ryan Jones | |||
| Ron Hainsey | Tom Gilbert | ||||
| Ladislav Smid | Jeff Petry | ||||
| Anton Belov | Justin Schultz | ||||
| Press Box | Nick Schultz | Corey Potter | Lou Gazdic |
This is a lineup that can hang. It's not going to dominate, but it will pull it's own weight in Western Conference games.
When Gagner and Nugent-Hopkins come back from injury, this lineup gets ridiculous.
| Taylor Hall | Ryan Nugent-Hopkins | Jordan Eberle | |||
| Linus Omark | Mikhail Grabovski | Ales Hemsky | |||
| David Perron | Sam Gagner | Nail Yakupov | |||
| Ryan Smyth | Boyd Gordon | Jesse Joensuu | |||
| Ron Hainsey | Tom Gilbert | ||||
| Ladislav Smid | Jeff Petry | ||||
| Anton Belov | Justin Schultz | ||||
| Press Box | Nick Schultz | Corey Potter | Ryan Jones |
This lineup is less than $1 million more expensive (against the cap) than the current lineup. I believe it's the third-best lineup in the West.