How the Oilers will win the cup next year.

Posted 12:02 AM ET | Comments 0

Yup.

As they say in literature, " If there's a will, there's a way." There is always a way for a team in the NHL to win a cup. Even Calgary if Feaster wanted to. The GM just has to know what he's doing and make smart moves. I'm not saying the Oilers should do this because I'm completly opposed to half the moves I'll suggest in this blog, but I'm trying to state that there's a way for the Oilers to win the cup next year.

He goes.....

Obviously if the Oilers want to win a cup we need to:

1) Add size to top 6 to add a physical presence

2) Have at least 3 lines that can do damage and can score.

3) Upgrade the defensive core.

4) Solidify the crease.

So we pretty much have to start from scratch. As much as I like the 1st line (Hall, Nuge, Eberle) we would have to move some of these guys to bring back enough skill to make a run. The only players I would call untouchable if we where to try to win the cup are Hall, Yakupov and Schultz. These guys you can't move because they mean too much to the success to the team.

To start off I think I'll address the size issue in the top 6. A player that I think would be a good target is Lucic. He brings a great physical presence and has top 6 skill. He would cost a lot to get so we would have to give up a lot to get him. I think if we're already going to give up a lot that we should make this trade a blockbuster. Sequin and Lucic would be great additions for Edmonton. Seguin would be a perfect 2nd line center after Nuge. To get both of them we would have to give up a lot. I think we would have to put Eberle in this trade to make it go through. He's someone I wouldn't want to part with but we would need to give up a superkid in this trade and he would be my first choice. Yes he's got 70+ points before but he isn't a game breaker like Hall or Yakupov.

Eberle wouldn't be enough though so we would have to add another asset. I'm thinking our 2014 1st round pick and Marincin. If we are trying to win the cup the 1st round pick wouldn't be high so we would have to add yet another asset. Marincin would be good because he's a stud defense prospect that's going to be great and would be a perfect fit with Hamilton in a year or 2. But he won't be of use to us because we're trying to win the cup next year and prospects won't help that cause.

Now we have 1 more spot in the top 6. Iginla would be good because he's got lots of skill and would be a great captain. We would be able to persuade him to come to Edmonton because he wants to be on a team with a chance at the cup and we would be building a cup winning team. He also grew up in Edmonton and would more than likely be thrilled to play in his hometown.

So if we did these 2 transactions our top 6 would be....

Hall - Nuge - Yakupov

Lucic - Sequin - Iginla

Not bad, but we would need a good 3rd line to add some secondary scoring. We already have Paajarvi but we would need 2 more good players. Bozak would be good because he's 2nd line talent and would excel on the 3rd line. He wants too much money but if we sign him for a 1 year we could deal with it. Now we need a 3rd line winger.
Nathan Horton. I know he's a 2nd liner and wouldn't be happy on the 3rd line but we could pursuade him because we have enough cap space to overpay and he would want to go to a place with a chance at a cup.

So if we sign these 2 our 3rd line would be....

Paajarvi - Bozak - Horton

Epic for a 3rd line. Now if we want to contend for a cup we would need a functional 4th line with tough players but we would still need a little skill. Lander is good for a center but then we need 2 wingers. We still have Hemsky to trade and we could easily get a 4th liner and a draft pick for him. Chris Neil from Ottawa would be perfect because he's big and tough but isn't completly useless. For the other wing I think re signing Brown would be good because he's tough and a good fighter and he has lots of heart.

Doing this would make the Forward lines.....

Hall - Nuge - Yakupov

Iginla - Sequin - Lucic

Paajarvi - Bozak - Horton

Brown - Lander - Neil

Now we would have to fix our defense. The only weak spot is that we need another top pairing defense. Shea Weber. Yup. How we would get him you may ask. With lots of players and prospects. We have Gagner that we need to trade so he will be part of the deal. We also have defense that we can trade. Smid would be going back in the deal and we would also need to give up Nuge to make the deal happen. Add a couple prospects to make it happen. Gagner, Nuge, Smid + prospects is a lot to give up but you have to give up talent to get talent. You can't trade a bunch of spare pieces for a car. You have to give up another car or two to get the good one.

So if we traded for Weber the defense would look like....

Weber - J. Schultz

N. Schultz - Petry

Belov - Klefbom

I would also sign Gilbert and send Klefbom to the AHL for developpement. This would be great but trading Nuge would open up a spot on the 1st line. A lot of you won't like this but I think Briere would be good. Sign him for 1 year and he can play on the second line. If he doesn't pan out you can switch him up with Bozak and it'll still be good.

Now for Goaltending. Dubnyk isn't good enough to be a starter on a tean trying to win a cup. We would have to give up a lot for a legitimate starter. Miller would fill the void. I think trading Dybnyk, N. Schultz and a 2nd rounder would get him because Miller wants out of Buffalo and this is the best offer they'll get. For the back-up position I think they should sign Dipietro. Yup. The 1st overall bust. He went 1st for a reason. He has skill. In a back-up role he could find and fix the holes in his game and return to his once promising form.

So doing this our line up would be.....

Hall - Sequin - Yakupov

Iginla - Briere - Lucic

Paajarvi - Bozak - Horton

Brown - Lander - Neil

Weber - Schultz

Gilbert - Petry

Belov - Klefbom

Miller

Dipietro

A lot different than before huh? Again I will restate that I'm not in favour of this happening, I'm just trying to prove that if we wanted to we could win next year.

Do you this tean could win the cup?

Filed Under: Oilers