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Oilers » Pregame: Anaheim @ Edmonton (Game #30)

Re: Pregame: Anaheim @ Edmonton (Game #30) [message #799976 is a reply to message #799971 ]	Thu, 17 February 2022 09:39

Adam
Messages: 6925
Registered: August 2005
Location: Edmonton, AB

6 Cups

Zegras vs. Broberg today!

https://theathletic.com/3135315/2022/02/17/oilers-picking-ph ilip-broberg-over-trevor-zegras-is-still-debated-heres-why-k en-holland-stands-by-it/?source=emp_shared_article

Quote:

Why the Oilers picked Broberg

Ken Holland was only a few weeks into his new job as Oilers GM when the draft came, but it seemed like this pick had been telegraphed for almost as long.

The Oilers lacked high-end forward prospects. Blueliners like Ethan Bear and Caleb Jones were pushing for full-time roles. Evan Bouchard was selected at No. 10 the previous year by then-GM Peter Chiarelli.

Still, all the scuttlebutt was that Holland was going to pick Broberg. That’s exactly what happened.

“I’m certainly aware that we need forwards, but I also know that you’ve gotta have a good defence. It’s gotta be deep. It’s gotta be talented,” he said in Vancouver after picking Broberg. “That’s really important in the league today.”

He lays it out even more clearly two and a half years later.

“Stanley Cup teams have good defences, big defences, and it was a good opportunity to get a big defenceman with skill,” Holland said.

There were a lot of high-quality forwards still on the board when it came time for the Oilers to pick. In addition to Zegras, fellow United States National Team Development Program members Matthew Boldy and Cole Caufield hadn’t been selected.

When Holland ran the Red Wings, he lived in Northville, Mich., a suburb of Detroit that’s a 10-minute drive from the development team’s home rink in Plymouth. He saw many of their games live. And while there was much to like about the forwards on that elite team, none to them still available quite stacked up to Broberg in his mind.

“Most of them, if not all of them, are going to be really good players for their teams for a long time,” Holland said. “My philosophy in team building was you’ve got to be good in the back end.”

In 2019, Zegras was considered by many to be the more impactful prospect than Broberg.

TSN scouting director Craig Button had Zegras sixth and Broberg seventh in his final rankings. The Athletic colleague Corey Pronman put Zegras sixth as well on his draft board, putting him in his elite/high-end bubble tier; he had Broberg ninth and a peg below in the high-end NHL prospect category.

Fellow The Athletic teammate Scott Wheeler slotted Zegras 12th and Broberg 19th in his final rankings. Wheeler felt Boldy, who went 12th to Minnesota, would have been the best choice for Edmonton at the time.

“I didn’t truthfully love the Broberg selection at the time, in part because they’d just drafted Bouchard and they’ve sorely needed talent insulation up front for (Connor) McDavid and (Leon) Draisaitl,” Wheeler said. “I was also just lower on Broberg than most at the time, believing he was sporadic and played too much on instinct.”

Some more Holland-isms in this article:

Quote:

“American League is very, very valuable for players’ development, and that’s been the case with Phil,” Holland said. “I believe in experience. You’ve got to smell the bus fumes.”

And the finale:

Quote:

Is there any chance Broberg ends up being the better player?

Holland isn’t concerned about Broberg’s progress in the slightest. He has high hopes for Broberg’s future.

The expectation from the GM is Broberg will slide in behind Nurse on the left side for years to come.

“I believe he’s going to be a top-four defenceman in the National Hockey League,” Holland said. “In my mind, that’s not a question.”

Because the Oilers are trying to win now, Broberg will be in that position on a regular basis when it’s deemed he can help the Oilers do just that.

A top-four defenceman is far from a bad outcome for a No. 8 pick. As Broberg continues to improve, he could be a staple of Edmonton’s defence and team. That’s all well and good.

It probably doesn’t mean the Oilers picked the best player available, though.

“Even with my glossier view of Broberg today than at almost any point prior, I think it’s fair to expect Zegras to be the more impactful player now and into the future,” Wheeler said.

Holland isn’t concerned about what-if scenarios or prognostications when it comes to Zegras.

“I can’t go back three drafts,” he said. “That’s not the luxury I have.”

He knows Zegras is and will be a good player — and that would have likely happened regardless of which team picked him.

But he’s also pleased Broberg is an Oilers player and considers him an important building block for the future.

“If you’re going to be a Cup contender, you need to be big, rangy, good and talented on the back end,” Holland said. “You look at the St. Louis Blues defence when they won. You look at the Tampa Bay defence when they won one. You look at the Boston Bruins defence when they won.

“You’ve got to be good and deep on the back end. Certainly, that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Not a lot of confidence there from Holland that he picked the right guy. Says he likes him and he'll be an important player but definitely not making any prognostications of future greatness from Broberg.

I think Broberg's looked generally pretty smooth so far this year, although Tippett far from an ideal first coach, and his minus numbers give some concern that he wasn't really ready for the push yet. That's not the end of the world for sure - there's a lot of defencemen who aren't ready to excel in their first taste of the NHL. I still think that Holland out-thought himself at that draft table.

"Thinking that a bad team's best players are the reason the team is bad is the "Tambellini re-signing Lennart Petrell" of sports opinions." @Woodguy55
~~#FireLowe~~ #FireBobbyNicks #FireKenHolland #FireKeithGretzky

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Pregame: Anaheim @ Edmonton (Game #30)	By: OilFans on Thu, 17 February 2022 02:00
Re: Pregame: Anaheim @ Edmonton (Game #30)	By: Oscargasm on Thu, 17 February 2022 07:52
Re: Pregame: Anaheim @ Edmonton (Game #30)	By: Adam on Thu, 17 February 2022 09:39
Re: Pregame: Anaheim @ Edmonton (Game #30)	By: Oscargasm on Thu, 17 February 2022 09:58
Re: Pregame: Anaheim @ Edmonton (Game #30)	By: RDOilerfan on Thu, 17 February 2022 10:09
Re: Pregame: Anaheim @ Edmonton (Game #30)	By: oilfan94 on Thu, 17 February 2022 10:02
Re: Pregame: Anaheim @ Edmonton (Game #30)	By: Adam on Thu, 17 February 2022 10:43
Re: Pregame: Anaheim @ Edmonton (Game #30)	By: RDOilerfan on Thu, 17 February 2022 10:07
Re: Pregame: Anaheim @ Edmonton (Game #30)	By: Dragon_Matt on Thu, 17 February 2022 11:18
Re: Pregame: Anaheim @ Edmonton (Game #30)	By: Adam on Thu, 17 February 2022 11:30
Re: Pregame: Anaheim @ Edmonton (Game #30)	By: Adam on Thu, 17 February 2022 13:23
Re: Pregame: Anaheim @ Edmonton (Game #30)	By: Goose on Thu, 17 February 2022 14:16
Re: Pregame: Anaheim @ Edmonton (Game #30)	By: Dragon_Matt on Thu, 17 February 2022 14:32
Re: Pregame: Anaheim @ Edmonton (Game #30)	By: Adam on Thu, 17 February 2022 14:39
Re: Pregame: Anaheim @ Edmonton (Game #30)	By: Oscargasm on Thu, 17 February 2022 11:31
Re: Pregame: Anaheim @ Edmonton (Game #30)	By: NetBOG on Thu, 17 February 2022 13:18
Re: Pregame: Anaheim @ Edmonton (Game #30)	By: benv on Thu, 17 February 2022 14:01
Re: Pregame: Anaheim @ Edmonton (Game #30)	By: NetBOG on Thu, 17 February 2022 14:13
Re: Pregame: Anaheim @ Edmonton (Game #30)	By: Oscargasm on Thu, 17 February 2022 14:35
Re: Pregame: Anaheim @ Edmonton (Game #30)	By: Dragon_Matt on Thu, 17 February 2022 14:38
Re: Pregame: Anaheim @ Edmonton (Game #30)	By: Kr55 on Thu, 17 February 2022 14:48
Re: Pregame: Anaheim @ Edmonton (Game #30)	By: RDOilerfan on Thu, 17 February 2022 15:36
Re: Pregame: Anaheim @ Edmonton (Game #30)	By: Oscargasm on Thu, 17 February 2022 15:44
Re: Pregame: Anaheim @ Edmonton (Game #30)	By: Kr55 on Thu, 17 February 2022 16:26
Re: Pregame: Anaheim @ Edmonton (Game #30)	By: K.McC#24 on Thu, 17 February 2022 16:20

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