Sarnia Sting and Nail Yakupov

On the June 4th Oilers Now, Bob Stauffer makes a comment during the Nail Yakupov segment. He states that Nail Yakupov's Sarnia Sting aren't as elite as the other CHL teams that had a top 3 draft pick stationed there. This statement is true, but it doesn't reflect badly on Yakupov, at least it shouldn't.

Five Alive

Stu MacGregor said today that there are 5 guys left in the running for 1. Yakupov, Grigorenko, Murray, Forsberg, and Reinhart. This is a pretty interesting list, and we should be thankful because teams don't often release this kind of info, especially pre-draft.

Farewell, Good Sir

The news has finally been dropped. The Oilers are parting ways with Tom Renney.

Thick Swiss Cheese

Devan Dubnyk is making head way!

The Oilers and Their 50-Man Roster

This is Tobias Rieder, the Oilers signed him to an entry-level contract today, adding to the already plump list of professional contracts.

WHC Underway

Team Canada played their first exhibition game today, and who's the guy to save the day? See above.

Looking at Leadership

 Some question floating around about the Oilers leadership, why there's no pride. I don't put a ton of stock into it, but I decided to look at the current captains in the NHL by record. Somehow my brain justifies that this is a plausible judge of leadership. Shawn Horcoff and Mark Streit are the only ones with records under .500. Both of these guys play for shitty teams, so it's not their fault, it's the GM's. If Horcoff stays captain I think his record will slowly creep toward .500, as with Streit too. But by the time this teams good I don't see a chance in hell that Horcoff is still captain. Number 4 will be the leader by then.