Oilers 'Pre-NHL Draf't rumours flying

Can't go to far without hearing a new rumour swirling right now for the NHL during free agent frenzy, 2014 NHL Entry Draft and apparently a good time trade week.

I just wanted to touch on some possible trade situations that are being discussed or looked at. Right now the Oilers still covet a Top 6 Center and a Top 2 defence man. The draft will answer 1 of the 2 immediately. I know your saying 'what?' Yes, Aaron Ekblad, Sam Reinhart and/or Leon Draisaitl will be likely to good to be sent back to their CHL team. Please don't give me the 'they have to earn it first' lecture. Of course they have to earn it and they will. All I am saying is, I believe they are all ready for the jump, they are that good right now. Maybe Leon could need 1 more year but not likely.

So having said that, the Oilers could have potential interest in Vincent Lecavalier as a temporary second line center to give them a year or two before finishing off the last time on the third line.

Hall/Nugent-Hopkins/Eberle
Perron/Lecavalier/Yakupov
 Would that work? Do you hate the idea of a slower Vincent playing for the Oilers? Willing to trade for his salary and give up Klefbom? Think he is washed up? I actually don't mind this idea but would be a possible solution if they strike out at Stastsny.

Sounding like Edmonton has 5 impending trade possibilities but two are based on trading the pick. This will be a interesting next 24 hours. Let the good times roll! The Oilers are definitely in the mix on almost anything they can and keeping their hands on as much as possible.

In the meantime Oiler fans, enjoy the last night before the Draft. It's year 5 of the rebuild coming up. Oilers plan on improving so maybe one last ride upon the good ship Koolaid?

follow me on twitter www.twitter.com/revingev for prospect news and oiler and hockey talk

MOCK Draft 2014 NHL - who do the Oilers take?

Just finished last night my 2014 NHL Mock Draft. As promised to several of you on twitter and here at Oilersjambalaya.com, I would post the day before draft day in Philadelphia.

Here are my results……

	REVS 2014 NHL MOCK DRAFT
#	Team	Player
1.	Florida Panthers	Sam Reinhart
2.	Buffalo Sabres	Sam Bennett
3.	Edmonton Oilers	Aaron Ekblad
4.	Calgary Flames	Michael DalColle
5.	New York Islanders	Leon Draisaitl
6.	Vancouver Canucks	Nick Ritchie
7.	Carolina Hurricanes	Hayden Fleury
8.	Toronto Maple Leafs	Nikolaj Ehlers
9.	Winnipeg Jets	Jake Virtanen
10.	Anaheim Ducks	Brendan Perlini
11.	Nashville Predators	William Nylander
12.	Arizona Coyotes	Alex Tuch
13.	Washington Capitals	Jared McCann
14.	Dallas Stars	Ivan Barbashev
15.	Detroit Red Wings	Kasperi Kapanen
16.	Columbus Blue Jackets	Travis Sanheim
17.	Philadelphia Flyers	Roland McKeown
18.	Minnesota Wild	Kevin Fiala
19.	Tampa Bay Lightning	Julius Honka
20.	San Jose Sharks	Dylan Larkin
21.	St.Louis Blues	Anthony DeAngelo
22.	Pittsburgh Penquins	Nikolay Goldobin
23.	Colorado Avalanche	Joshua Ho-Sang
24.	Anaheim Ducks	Conner Bleackley
25.	Boston Bruins	Adrian Kempe
26.	Montreal Canadiens	Jakub Vrana
27.	Chicago BlackHawks	Nick Schmaltz
28.	Tampa Bay Lightning	Robert Fabbri
29.	Los Angeles Kings	Nikita Scerbak
30.	New Jersey Devils	Thatcher Demko
	In the meantime you can follow me on twitter www.twitter.com/revingev on more NHL talk, rumours and mostly prospect info on the NHL Entry Draft

Could the Oilers be one of the 12 teams chasing UFA Jiri Sekac?

JIRI SEKAC

What are the chances this 6'2, 190 lb Czech player lands in Edmonton? He has taken a long road to get to the NHL but is being highly sought out right now according to those in the inside circles of hockey. I highly doubt he is coming to Edmonton but never say never for a team that has been trying it's luck outside the NHL for talent to bring in.

Check out his stats here at elite prospects . Nothing shouts out at you that he is a top 6 player but possibly a player to add some skill and bigger size on the third line. You have to try swinging for the fence sometimes otherwise you never even hit first base. This recent tweet suggested the following...

Vishal Hussain @vishal_hussain
European Sources: Jiri "Cakes" Sekac has eight NHL offers, #Devils #Flyers #Senators appear to be frontrunners for his services.

It's rumoured that he will likely select to play in New Jersey with the Devils as Jagr is once again a prime recruiter as per usual. Don't think he ends up here in Edmonton just more curious if he actually may have been at least targeted by the young Oilers team.

for more info on NHL prospects or oilers news follow me on twitter www.twitter.com/revingev

'REVS 2014 Top 15 NHL Prospect Rankings' (Final Rankings)

Way back in August of last year I put out my rankings for this coming draft. It's always interesting how half way through a season people like to rip apart a ranking list but have no idea how much more difficult it is to rank players before they even start the new season going into their draft year. I was quite pleased the past 3 seasons with my early pre-season rankings (10 months in advance) out and once again am happy that I was able to still anticipate most the top selections far enough in advance.

Here was my official ranking to start the season back in August 10/13;

1.Sam Reinhart

2.Aaron Ekblad

3.William Nylander

4.Roland McKeown

5.Jake Virtanen

6.Blake Clarke

7.Nick Ritchie

8.Leon Draisatl

9.Michael Dal Colle

10.Jakub Vrana

11.Ivan Barbashev

12.Jared McCann

13.Anton Karlsson

14.Joshua Ho-Sang

15.Sam Bennett 

Honourable mentions:

Oskar Lindblom

Haydn Fleury

Nick Schmaltz

Well, the season of hockey has been completed. Tournaments are done, playoffs are finished. Combine is past us and now players are being interviewed by NHL teams this week. The draft is just over a week away and now we are ready to see whose name is called out by which team a week from this coming Friday.  I have 4 players being moved out of the top 15 with one of them being put in honourable mention while having 1 from my honourable mention last August being moved into the Top 15. 

NOTE: Some may question Sam Bennett in the ranking and that is fair, but last August you would be hard pressed to find any rankings with him in the top 15. I have moved him from #15 to #6. Blake Clarke was my biggest disappointment and scouts were shocked his season provided a move backwards rather then forward. This year's Nick Ebert? Time will tell. The biggest change for me was putting Nikolaj Ehlers at #4 when he was not on my last August radar. Truth is, he was a player, I just plainly missed and didn't follow or hear of him much before this season coming into Halifax. Many of his points were provided without Jonathan Drouin so his point totals are not misrepresented IMO. William Nylander dropping had more to due to the lack of point production he was able to show this year but in fairness to Nylander he still has great skill but was tossed around several club teams in Sweden.

The lists I put out are based on "Best Player Available" on NHL Draft day. That is the criteria  for my selection in the Draft Rankings

FINAL RANKINGS for REVS 2014 - Top 15 NHL Prospect Rankings:

1. Sam Reinhart

2.Aaron Ekblad

3. Leon Draisaitl

4.Nikolaj Ehlers

5.Michael Dal Colle

6. Sam Bennett

7. Jake Virtanen

8. Nick Ritchie

9. Brendan Perlini

10.Haydn Fleury

11.Kasperi Kapanen

12.Ivan Barbashev

13. William Nylander

14. Rolan McKeown

15. Jared McCann

Honourable Mention:

Joshua Ho-Sang

Kevin Fiala

Alex Tuch

Questions, comments? Disagree, agree? Let me know, always willing to dissect the players bit by bit. After all, isn't that what makes this so fun? 

I will be posting a NHL MOCK Draft next Thursday the night before the Draft. I still think the Oilers will be selecting one of Aaron Ekblad or Leon Draisaitl this NHL Entry Draft and it is very likely they will be playing the 2014/15 season full time with the Oilers past the 9 game mark.

For Oiler and Baron news or 2014 NHL draft watch 

www.twitter.com/revingev

What to make of the 2014 NHL Draft Top 4 Prospects?

The city of Edmonton and Oiler fans everywhere are buzzing about this years NHL Entry Draft coming up at the end of June. Granted there is not much else to be focusing in on with the exception of the hiring of Craig Ramsey yesterday as a assistant coach.

The difference this year is the unpredictability of who the Florida Panthers and Buffalo Sabres will be picking and what will be left for the Edmonton Oilers. From the best information I can gather the Oilers so far have the players ranked in this order if they could select their Top 4 rankings. They will select the highest ranking player they have listed and be happy doing so.

#1. Aaron Ekblad

#2. Sam Reinhart

#3. Leon Draisaitl

#4. Sam Bennett

The only thing that may stand out different for the Oilers from most of the NHL is where they rank Draisaitl. Very few teams rank him in their top 3 and would much sooner have Bennett in that slot. Until recently I was pretty sure needing offence the Panthers would for sure select Reinhart or Bennett but a recently posted article here may tell us different. Ekblad may be a risk but Florida even last year did not go with the high offensive output of Drouin instead selected the big man-child from Finland. It is very likely this could be the situation this year and a franchise defensemen is not such a bad prize to grab.

Buffalo is up next. On their website they specially linked this video to their site evaluating players at the draft. Reading too much into this? I don't think so. There is lots of other opinions and this video could be a tell they want Sam Reinhart. Should he be off the board then it's highly likely a low scoring team like Buffalo will go with Bennett. 

So if the Oilers do have their rankings as listed above by me, it's almost a certainty that Reinhart will be gone in the top 2 picks regardless. That leaves their list as they pick up Ekblad at the #3 spot if Florida takes Reinhart but if Ekblad goes to Florida and Buffalo takes Reinhart, then the Oilers will select Aaron Ekblad.

I am pretty sure when the Oilers walk to the podium June 27th they will be selecting a large, skilled and smart franchise Defensemen in EKBLAD or a potential #2 large bodied, strong, skilled Center in DRAISAITL. Either way, the Oilers will be getting bigger and more skilled in one of their most desperate needs moving forward. It's a good year and Oiler fans have something to be excited about.

NEXT UP? My Year End 'REVS 2014 Top 15 NHL Prospect Rankings'

For Oiler and Baron news or 2014 NHL draft watch 

www.twitter.com/revingev