oilersrule66

"the young hockey addict"

Welcome to the next oilers dynasty • Canada • 21 Years Old • Male

The Acton Effect

When the Oilers hired Keith Acton as their associate coach I knew almost immediately that Will Acton will be on the Oilers opening day roster. It's politics. Will would be a borderline player going into camp with about a 50/50 chance to make the team if his father weren't one of the coaches, but with his father there he's pretty much a lock to make the team. It makes sense, if Will would of been a borderline player if his father weren't there, there would be no question that with his dad there and him already having a chance at the big club that he would be chosen above players that he's equal with skill wise. Unfair but it's reality. But if Acton makes the team this begs the question, how will he affect the opening day roster?

With Lander and Acton the Oilers would have two 4th line centers. How would the Oilers fix that? Lander in my opinion is a NHL player and shouldn't be sent down because it would kill his confidence and could screw up his future with the team. See Temmu Hartikainen. So if Lander and Acton were to stay on the big club one of them will have to play the wing. Has either of them ever done that? I think Acton has played left wing before with Toronto so he can slot in as the 4th line LW and solve the dilemma. That fixes that problem but it opens up another problem. Look.

Hall - Nuge - Eberle

Perron - Gagner - Yakupov

Jones - Gordan - Hemsky

Acton - Lander - Joensuu

Moving Acton to the wing pushes Smyth off the roster. Smyth in my opinion isn't good enough for the NHL anymore but a lot of people think he still is and if he's in the press-box all season it would be like a slap in the face to his integrity. So even if him and Brown split time on the 4th line so that Smyth doesn't have to play a full 82 game season the Oilers still have to open up another spot for them. Someone has to go, but who?.

Hemsky is obviously the one to go. He is a top 6 forward and the Oilers have no space for him anymore. But the problem with trading Hemsky is that MacTavish have already tried to, but no team wants his cap hit. The best option for the Oilers is to let Hemsky play in the top 6 while Nuge is out and hope he plays good enough to drive his stock up and when Nuge comes back trade Hemsky for whatever they can get. It's better than losing him to free agency.

So if the Oilers do this the roster would look like.........

Opening Night

Hemsky - Hall - Eberle

Perron - Gagner - Yakupov

Smyth - Gordan - Jones

Acton - Lander - Joensuu


After Nuge returns

Hall - Nuge - Eberle

Perron - Gagner - Yakupov

Smyth - Gordan - Jones

Acton - Lander - Joensuu

This is a lot of work to do for just one player but that's life. How would you like this roster for the 2013-14 season?

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