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 Oiler Draft Memory Lane.. [message #824004]
Fri, 26 May 2023 12:13 Go to next message
Skookum Jim is currently offline Skookum Jim
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2016 ..

4 Jesse Puljujarvi
32 Tyler Benson
63 Markus Niemelainen
84 Matthew Cairns
91 Filip Berglund
123 Dylan Wells
149 Graham Mcphee
153 Aapeli Rasanen
183 Vincent Desharnais

McDAVID! Oh YEAH Baby!!
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Keep on Rockin' in the Free World
P. Chiarelli math.. T. Hall = A. Larsson, Yak= bag o'pucks (OK he got one right...) K. Russell = $4.1 M+NMC, G. Reinhart= M. Barzal + A. Beauvillier, J. Eberle = R. Spooner,

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 Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane.. [message #824006 is a reply to message #824004 ]
Fri, 26 May 2023 12:29 Go to previous messageGo to next message
RDOilerfan is currently offline RDOilerfan
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UGH! Don't remind me of that draft.

Supposedly the Oilers were going to take Sergachev but when the Finnish GM knew he'd be a bust and dropped to the Oilers, they took him. What could have been.

Tkachuk, Keller, Sergachev, McAvoy, Thompson, even Chychrun would have been a better pick than JP.

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 Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane.. [message #824007 is a reply to message #824006 ]
Fri, 26 May 2023 13:19 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Mike is currently offline Mike
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RDOilerfan wrote on Fri, 26 May 2023 15:29

UGH! Don't remind me of that draft.

Supposedly the Oilers were going to take Sergachev but when the Finnish GM knew he'd be a bust and dropped to the Oilers, they took him. What could have been.

Tkachuk, Keller, Sergachev, McAvoy, Thompson, even Chychrun would have been a better pick than JP.


Nobody had Jesse less than 3. Maybe one publication. He was neck and neck with Laine most of the year IIRC. They can't be faulted for that pick.

The Canucks on the other hand - that one hurts. Juolevi wasn't exactly a Niinimaki level reach, but he had fallen off quite a bit I think on most rankings, and Keller and Tkachuk were there for the taking.

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 Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane.. [message #824009 is a reply to message #824004 ]
Fri, 26 May 2023 14:17 Go to previous messageGo to next message
smyth260 is currently offline smyth260
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Walking up to draft Puljujarvi was the moment in time that the Oilers had the most assets to have a strong decade ahead.

Before walking up to draft Puljujarvi the Oilers had a young core of:

Connor McDavid on ELC
Leon Draisaitl on ELC
Taylor Hall - 24 years old
Jordan Eberle - 26 years old
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - 23 years old
Oscar Klefbom - 23 years old
Darnell Nurse - 21 years old
Andrej Sekera - 30 years old
Cam Talbot
Nail Yakupov, Pat Maroon, and Justin Schultz
And...the 4th Overall pick

Then Peter Chiarelli happened.

I will maintain for the rest of my life that the Oilers should have traded the 4th overall + other assets for a top defenseman. That team was ready to contend for a long time and didn't need another high pick.



Clean house or bust

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 Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane.. [message #824010 is a reply to message #824009 ]
Fri, 26 May 2023 14:19 Go to previous messageGo to next message
CrusaderPi is currently offline CrusaderPi
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smyth260 wrote on Fri, 26 May 2023 14:17



I will maintain for the rest of my life that the Oilers should have traded the 4th overall + other assets for a top defenseman. That team was ready to contend for a long time and didn't need another high pick.



Agreed! They didn't need the #4 in 2016 and they didn't need the #1 in 2012.

Please do not feed the bears. Feeding the bears creates a dependent population unable to survive on their own. Bears.

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 Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane.. [message #824012 is a reply to message #824010 ]
Fri, 26 May 2023 14:38 Go to previous messageGo to next message
inverno76 is currently offline inverno76
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CrusaderPi wrote on Fri, 26 May 2023 14:19

smyth260 wrote on Fri, 26 May 2023 14:17



I will maintain for the rest of my life that the Oilers should have traded the 4th overall + other assets for a top defenseman. That team was ready to contend for a long time and didn't need another high pick.



Agreed! They didn't need the #4 in 2016 and they didn't need the #1 in 2012.


But Matt Tkachuk or Sergachev would have looked alright in orange and blue. I hate Columbus for straying away from the plan. Damn you Kekalainen!

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 Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane.. [message #824013 is a reply to message #824004 ]
Fri, 26 May 2023 15:05 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Kr55 is currently offline Kr55
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Finnish GM passes on the best player of the WJHC who happens to be a Fin too.

Felt like we won the lottery again that day!

"We need to get better immediately. That starts today"
- Lowe, 2013

"Next year I would forecast as another developmental year"
- MacT, 2015

5 x $5,000,000

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 Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane.. [message #824014 is a reply to message #824010 ]
Fri, 26 May 2023 15:06 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Kr55 is currently offline Kr55
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CrusaderPi wrote on Fri, 26 May 2023 14:19

smyth260 wrote on Fri, 26 May 2023 14:17



I will maintain for the rest of my life that the Oilers should have traded the 4th overall + other assets for a top defenseman. That team was ready to contend for a long time and didn't need another high pick.



Agreed! They didn't need the #4 in 2016 and they didn't need the #1 in 2012.


Oh come on. You don't pass on drafting OV-lite.

"We need to get better immediately. That starts today"
- Lowe, 2013

"Next year I would forecast as another developmental year"
- MacT, 2015

5 x $5,000,000

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 Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane.. [message #824016 is a reply to message #824007 ]
Fri, 26 May 2023 18:36 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Skookum Jim is currently offline Skookum Jim
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Mike wrote on Fri, 26 May 2023 12:19

RDOilerfan wrote on Fri, 26 May 2023 15:29

UGH! Don't remind me of that draft.

Supposedly the Oilers were going to take Sergachev but when the Finnish GM knew he'd be a bust and dropped to the Oilers, they took him. What could have been.

Tkachuk, Keller, Sergachev, McAvoy, Thompson, even Chychrun would have been a better pick than JP.


Nobody had Jesse less than 3. Maybe one publication. He was neck and neck with Laine most of the year IIRC. They can't be faulted for that pick.

The Canucks on the other hand - that one hurts. Juolevi wasn't exactly a Niinimaki level reach, but he had fallen off quite a bit I think on most rankings, and Keller and Tkachuk were there for the taking.


I think that can be one negative in drafting high in the draft.

You have a natural bias (forced) to lean towards the consensus of the various draft rankings.. its perceived as less risk.. both to the the scouts/GM careers, as well as to the franchise.

However the risk they inadvertently acquire is the large error in the rankings correlating with the eventual best talent in each draft.

Drafting lower down can almost force you to take the best players the draft.. less leeway to out smart yourself.. I doubt Calgary takes Turtle if they drafted in Edmonton's spot ..
The NHL draft is really a crap shoot once you get past the sure things (Matthews, McDavid) .. 18 year olds can go in a lot of different directions career-wise..

You'd have to have big cojones as a GM, and/or an amazing scouting department to have the foresight to pass on Laine, PLD, and JP.. to take Turtle.. never mind dropping way down the rankings to pick McAvoy, Sergachev, or .. Tage Thompson ! .. man there's a lot of guys on that 1st round list who are just NHL foot notes now..

1	Auston Matthews (C)	United States United States	Toronto Maple Leafs	ZSC Lions (NLA)
2	Patrik Laine (RW)	Finland Finland	Winnipeg Jets	Tappara (Liiga)
3	Pierre-Luc Dubois (LW/C)	Canada Canada	Columbus Blue Jackets	Cape Breton Screaming Eagles (QMJHL)
4	Jesse Puljujarvi (RW)	Finland Finland	Edmonton Oilers	Karpat (Liiga)
5	Olli Juolevi (D)	Finland Finland	Vancouver Canucks	London Knights (OHL)
6	Matthew Tkachuk (LW)	United States United States	Calgary Flames	London Knights (OHL)
7	Clayton Keller (C)	United States United States	Arizona Coyotes	U.S. NTDP (USHL)
8	Alexander Nylander (LW)	Sweden Sweden	Buffalo Sabres	Mississauga Steelheads (OHL)
9	Mikhail Sergachev (D)	Russia Russia	Montreal Canadiens	Windsor Spitfires (OHL)
10	Tyson Jost (C)	Canada Canada	Colorado Avalanche	Penticton Vees (BCHL)
11	Logan Brown (C)	United States United States	Ottawa Senators (from New Jersey)1	Windsor Spitfires (OHL)
12	Michael McLeod (C)	Canada Canada	New Jersey Devils (from Ottawa)2	Mississauga Steelheads (OHL)
13	Jake Bean (D)	Canada Canada	Carolina Hurricanes	Calgary Hitmen (WHL)
14	Charlie McAvoy (D)	United States United States	Boston Bruins	Boston University Terriers (Hockey East)
15	Luke Kunin (C)	United States United States	Minnesota Wild	Wisconsin Badgers (Big Ten)
16	Jakob Chychrun (D)	Canada Canada	Arizona Coyotes (from Detroit)3	Sarnia Sting (OHL)
17	Dante Fabbro (D)	Canada Canada	Nashville Predators	Penticton Vees (BCHL)
18	Logan Stanley (D)	Canada Canada	Winnipeg Jets (from Philadelphia)4	Windsor Spitfires (OHL)
19	Kieffer Bellows (LW)	United States United States	New York Islanders	U.S. NTDP (USHL)
20	Dennis Cholowski (D)	Canada Canada	Detroit Red Wings (from NY Rangers via Arizona)5	Chilliwack Chiefs (BCHL)
21	Julien Gauthier (RW)	Canada Canada	Carolina Hurricanes (from Los Angeles)6	Val-d'Or Foreurs (QMJHL)
22	German Rubtsov (C)	Russia Russia	Philadelphia Flyers (from Chicago via Winnipeg)7	Russia U18 (MHL)
23	Henrik Borgstrom (C)	Finland Finland	Florida Panthers	HIFK JR. (FIN-Jr.)
24	Max Jones (LW)	United States United States	Anaheim Ducks	London Knights (OHL)
25	Riley Tufte (LW)	United States United States	Dallas Stars	Fargo Force (USHL)
26	Tage Thompson (C)	United States United States	St. Louis Blues (from Washington)8	Connecticut Huskies (Hockey East)
27	Brett Howden (C)	Canada Canada	Tampa Bay Lightning	Moose Jaw Warriors (WHL)
28	Lucas Johansen (D)	Canada Canada	Washington Capitals (from St. Louis)9	Kelowna Rockets (WHL)
29	Trent Frederic (C)	United States United States	Boston Bruins (from San Jose)10	U.S. NTDP (USHL)
30	Sam Steel (C)	Canada Canada	Anaheim Ducks (from Pittsburgh via Toronto)11	Regina Pats (WHL)

[Updated on: Fri, 26 May 2023 18:44]

McDAVID! Oh YEAH Baby!!
Tic-Tac-Tao!
Keep on Rockin' in the Free World
P. Chiarelli math.. T. Hall = A. Larsson, Yak= bag o'pucks (OK he got one right...) K. Russell = $4.1 M+NMC, G. Reinhart= M. Barzal + A. Beauvillier, J. Eberle = R. Spooner,

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 Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane.. [message #824020 is a reply to message #824007 ]
Mon, 29 May 2023 09:00 Go to previous messageGo to next message
RDOilerfan is currently offline RDOilerfan
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Mike wrote on Fri, 26 May 2023 13:19

RDOilerfan wrote on Fri, 26 May 2023 15:29

UGH! Don't remind me of that draft.

Supposedly the Oilers were going to take Sergachev but when the Finnish GM knew he'd be a bust and dropped to the Oilers, they took him. What could have been.

Tkachuk, Keller, Sergachev, McAvoy, Thompson, even Chychrun would have been a better pick than JP.


Nobody had Jesse less than 3. Maybe one publication. He was neck and neck with Laine most of the year IIRC. They can't be faulted for that pick.

The Canucks on the other hand - that one hurts. Juolevi wasn't exactly a Niinimaki level reach, but he had fallen off quite a bit I think on most rankings, and Keller and Tkachuk were there for the taking.

I saw all the draft projections where JP was no lower than 3 on anyone's board. Early in the year, he was #2. So I don't necessarily blame them for making the pick. It sill doesn't make it any less disappointing for me now considering what he has become vs what they passed up.

I would have liked to have been in the interview with him. The fact he couldn't speak a word of English other than Yes, to me is a big red flag. He was a high end prospect for years, so he would have known playing in the English speaking league of the NHL or the AHL has happening real quick, you'd think his agent would have gotten him into English classes. Then the Finnish GM who would have more connections than most other teams mostly likely passing on JP was another big red flag. But it is what it is now.

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 Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane.. [message #824025 is a reply to message #824007 ]
Mon, 29 May 2023 13:13 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Adam is currently offline Adam
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Mike wrote on Fri, 26 May 2023 13:19

RDOilerfan wrote on Fri, 26 May 2023 15:29

UGH! Don't remind me of that draft.

Supposedly the Oilers were going to take Sergachev but when the Finnish GM knew he'd be a bust and dropped to the Oilers, they took him. What could have been.

Tkachuk, Keller, Sergachev, McAvoy, Thompson, even Chychrun would have been a better pick than JP.


Nobody had Jesse less than 3. Maybe one publication. He was neck and neck with Laine most of the year IIRC. They can't be faulted for that pick.

The Canucks on the other hand - that one hurts. Juolevi wasn't exactly a Niinimaki level reach, but he had fallen off quite a bit I think on most rankings, and Keller and Tkachuk were there for the taking.


This is the thing. People have all these dumb ideas that Columbus knew something, because he's a Finn and he didn't take the Finn, but that just isn't how it works - and you would never have people claiming an American GM knew something more about an American kid, just because of what country he's from.

As for not speaking English - you know who else spoke zero English when he was drafted? Jari Kurri. He learned in Edmonton watching Happy Days re-runs. It's not a big red flag either - especially considering that he seemed to have limited aptitude for language. I would hazard a guess that someone like Ryan Smyth wouldn't have picked up other languages very quickly at the same age. Probably didn't do pre-draft interviews with the Canadiens in French...

It's all hindsight. Nothing more.

With regards to the draft overall? That's not terrible actually. They got over 300 games and over 100 points out of Puljujarvi and they've got another 100+ games out of Benson, Niemelainen, Desharnais and Dylan Wells - of whom the first three are all still in the organization. No one moves the needle much, but we've had a lot worse years.

After Draisaitl, only Lagesson (60 games) made the NHL from the 2014 draft. In 2013, you had Nurse, and then only really Slepyshev (102 games). A single game for Yakimov too. Some truly awful ones pre-turn of the century too - like 1997 where 5th rounder Jason Chimera was good for 1107 games (mostly not with us) but there were only 19 other games for Michel Riesen (12) and Peter Sarno (7). And of course 1990 - when the Oilers were the only team in NHL history to miss on ALL their picks for an entire draft year. 11 picks, not a single NHL game for any of them. 1986 wasn't much better. Out of 12 picks, half got cups of coffee, but no one played more than Dan Currie (22 games) and the sum total was just 50 games in aggregate.

So while no one is going to be writing ballads about our 2016 draft, and while I agree that a better GM would have used that pick or free agency to find a good defenceman or two rather than betting that Puljujarvi plus Lucic made Taylor Hall redundant, the draft could have been a lot worse.





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 Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane.. [message #824029 is a reply to message #824025 ]
Mon, 29 May 2023 14:04 Go to previous messageGo to next message
RDOilerfan is currently offline RDOilerfan
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Adam wrote on Mon, 29 May 2023 13:13

Mike wrote on Fri, 26 May 2023 13:19

RDOilerfan wrote on Fri, 26 May 2023 15:29

UGH! Don't remind me of that draft.

Supposedly the Oilers were going to take Sergachev but when the Finnish GM knew he'd be a bust and dropped to the Oilers, they took him. What could have been.

Tkachuk, Keller, Sergachev, McAvoy, Thompson, even Chychrun would have been a better pick than JP.


Nobody had Jesse less than 3. Maybe one publication. He was neck and neck with Laine most of the year IIRC. They can't be faulted for that pick.

The Canucks on the other hand - that one hurts. Juolevi wasn't exactly a Niinimaki level reach, but he had fallen off quite a bit I think on most rankings, and Keller and Tkachuk were there for the taking.


This is the thing. People have all these dumb ideas that Columbus knew something, because he's a Finn and he didn't take the Finn, but that just isn't how it works - and you would never have people claiming an American GM knew something more about an American kid, just because of what country he's from.

As for not speaking English - you know who else spoke zero English when he was drafted? Jari Kurri. He learned in Edmonton watching Happy Days re-runs. It's not a big red flag either - especially considering that he seemed to have limited aptitude for language. I would hazard a guess that someone like Ryan Smyth wouldn't have picked up other languages very quickly at the same age. Probably didn't do pre-draft interviews with the Canadiens in French...

It's all hindsight. Nothing more.

With regards to the draft overall? That's not terrible actually. They got over 300 games and over 100 points out of Puljujarvi and they've got another 100+ games out of Benson, Niemelainen, Desharnais and Dylan Wells - of whom the first three are all still in the organization. No one moves the needle much, but we've had a lot worse years.

After Draisaitl, only Lagesson (60 games) made the NHL from the 2014 draft. In 2013, you had Nurse, and then only really Slepyshev (102 games). A single game for Yakimov too. Some truly awful ones pre-turn of the century too - like 1997 where 5th rounder Jason Chimera was good for 1107 games (mostly not with us) but there were only 19 other games for Michel Riesen (12) and Peter Sarno (7). And of course 1990 - when the Oilers were the only team in NHL history to miss on ALL their picks for an entire draft year. 11 picks, not a single NHL game for any of them. 1986 wasn't much better. Out of 12 picks, half got cups of coffee, but no one played more than Dan Currie (22 games) and the sum total was just 50 games in aggregate.

So while no one is going to be writing ballads about our 2016 draft, and while I agree that a better GM would have used that pick or free agency to find a good defenceman or two rather than betting that Puljujarvi plus Lucic made Taylor Hall redundant, the draft could have been a lot worse.





Are you seriously using a guy drafted 36 yrs before JP as an example?! Kurri was drafted in 1980. Come on!! When Kurri was drafted, European players were no where near as common in the NHL as they are now. There are lots of Europeans now so knowing at least some English is pretty standard.

If a regular person knew years in advance they were going to be moving to a country that spoke a different language, the massive majority of people would in advance at least try to learn some of the local language to help with the transition. JP could barely say Yes. Most people would do this on their own without a PAID professional manager giving them advice. It was a major screw up by JP and his agent not to at least have some level of English before the draft. Was it the only mistake by both sides? Absolutely not but it was a factor and to say it wasn't is absolute BS.

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 Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane.. [message #824030 is a reply to message #824029 ]
Mon, 29 May 2023 15:42 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Adam is currently offline Adam
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RDOilerfan wrote on Mon, 29 May 2023 14:04


Are you seriously using a guy drafted 36 yrs before JP as an example?! Kurri was drafted in 1980. Come on!! When Kurri was drafted, European players were no where near as common in the NHL as they are now. There are lots of Europeans now so knowing at least some English is pretty standard.

If a regular person knew years in advance they were going to be moving to a country that spoke a different language, the massive majority of people would in advance at least try to learn some of the local language to help with the transition. JP could barely say Yes. Most people would do this on their own without a PAID professional manager giving them advice. It was a major screw up by JP and his agent not to at least have some level of English before the draft. Was it the only mistake by both sides? Absolutely not but it was a factor and to say it wasn't is absolute BS.


How'd you do in all your high school courses? Straight A's in everything? Did you fully apply yourself constantly?

"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
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 Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane.. [message #824038 is a reply to message #824030 ]
Tue, 30 May 2023 08:41 Go to previous messageGo to next message
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Adam wrote on Mon, 29 May 2023 15:42

RDOilerfan wrote on Mon, 29 May 2023 14:04


Are you seriously using a guy drafted 36 yrs before JP as an example?! Kurri was drafted in 1980. Come on!! When Kurri was drafted, European players were no where near as common in the NHL as they are now. There are lots of Europeans now so knowing at least some English is pretty standard.

If a regular person knew years in advance they were going to be moving to a country that spoke a different language, the massive majority of people would in advance at least try to learn some of the local language to help with the transition. JP could barely say Yes. Most people would do this on their own without a PAID professional manager giving them advice. It was a major screw up by JP and his agent not to at least have some level of English before the draft. Was it the only mistake by both sides? Absolutely not but it was a factor and to say it wasn't is absolute BS.


How'd you do in all your high school courses? Straight A's in everything? Did you fully apply yourself constantly?

I did pretty well in most classes. I do do engineering for a living so generally you have to do pretty well in school.

If your point is he was a young guy just making mistakes. It doesn't apply in my opinion to him and it's just another made up excuse for the guy who screwed up big time. Like it or not these "young guys" are not your normal young finding his way in the world. He from a young age would have been identified as being special and had people guiding him. He would have been told what to do, when to do it and how to do it since he was a young teen to give him the best chance.

Do you seriously think that McD or Leon or name whatever successful player in the NHL you want just woke up one day as a teen and knew how to train, how to eat, how to act, how to do all the things they needed to do to get to the next level? Of course not. All the NHL players were born with god given talent but all of them would have had outside help. So could it be that JP just isn't smart enough to figure out that maybe learning a little English would be a good idea when you plan on working in an English speaking country? I guess so. You can literally download an app on your phone and learn a language so these days, it's not hard to get access to some but hey, maybe that was beyond his thinking of being important. But he would have had multiple people working around him who's literal job was to make sure he did what was needed to get to the next level and succeed. So someone in the JP camp screwed up big time.

Did I expect him to be able to speak fluently? NO but how about being able to put together a few words in a sentence and maybe understand some. How are you supposed to function when you have no clue what the coach is saying in practice and especially no clue what he is saying on the bench or have any clue what your linemates are saying on the ice or bench. You watch the bench, guys are talking all the time about what they are doing and JP wouldn't have been able to do any of that and it showed because he a lot of times looked completely lost. I watched his interview after he was drafted, he could barely say yes. That's ridiculous and that's on him and his development team.

If you Adam took a job in a non English speaking country and you at least 1 yr before you had to show up to work, you show up for work not able to speak or understand a word of the language and not being able to read the language and as your boss tells you what he needs you to do in that language and you got no clue what he says because you never bothered to learn any of the language, who's fault is that, yours or your bosses? The excuses need to stop for the guy. He was a first line forward on the World Junior team of a country that regularly produces players for the NHL. So well in advance before he was actually drafted, he knew he would be drafted, he knew he would be drafted very high and he knew he would be in North America playing hockey very soon after his draft. It was a major screw up on his part and his development team.

[Updated on: Tue, 30 May 2023 08:51]

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 Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane.. [message #824039 is a reply to message #824038 ]
Tue, 30 May 2023 10:19 Go to previous messageGo to next message
AndersonRules is currently offline AndersonRules
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As a random but very related item ... it surprises me that MLB has numerous foreign-born players that do not become fluent in English. For the Blue Jays alone - Ryu always interviews through a translator, ditto for Kikuchi. Even Guerrero uses a translator for most of his interviews. I don't know what it's like in the clubhouse, but clearly the team feels it is (a) acceptable for players to not be fully fluent in English, and (b) worth their while to pay for translators to assist non-English-speakers.

Is there any reason that NHL teams could not approach foreign players similarly? (For what it's worth, I can think of one - but it's not terribly compelling in my mind.)

Also - RD, I was (and still am) an outstanding student. I have a Ph.D., am a published author in my field, teach and speak as my full-time gig. But I suck at languages.

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 Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane.. [message #824040 is a reply to message #824039 ]
Tue, 30 May 2023 11:21 Go to previous messageGo to next message
RDOilerfan is currently offline RDOilerfan
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AndersonRules wrote on Tue, 30 May 2023 10:19


As a random but very related item ... it surprises me that MLB has numerous foreign-born players that do not become fluent in English. For the Blue Jays alone - Ryu always interviews through a translator, ditto for Kikuchi. Even Guerrero uses a translator for most of his interviews. I don't know what it's like in the clubhouse, but clearly the team feels it is (a) acceptable for players to not be fully fluent in English, and (b) worth their while to pay for translators to assist non-English-speakers.

Is there any reason that NHL teams could not approach foreign players similarly? (For what it's worth, I can think of one - but it's not terribly compelling in my mind.)

Also - RD, I was (and still am) an outstanding student. I have a Ph.D., am a published author in my field, teach and speak as my full-time gig. But I suck at languages.

I 100% understand learning a new language is difficult. But I bet if you got a job in a non speaking English country and you had a year to prepare before you made the move, you would do what you could to try and learn the language as best as you could. They start doing draft ranking years in advance. JP would have been ranked very high well over a year before he was drafted. He had time to try to learn at least some English. Many people will try to learn a new language as best as they can in a short time just because they are going on a trip to another country for longer than a week. JP was going to be moving to North America to live and work whether it was the AHL or NHL so you'd think he could have put in a little bit of effort or someone around him set it up.

For your example of baseball. If a coach has to go talk to a pitcher, you can have a translator walk out to the mound because the play physically stops. Baseball also uses a lot of hand signals that a person can memorize and know that when he taps his arm in a certain way, it means this. Baseball also has plenty of down time where someone can come over and talk to the player while he sits for 5, 10 mins after he's done batting. Baseball in general is also a way slower sport than hockey so there is more opportunity to translate if you have too. Could you have a translator at practice for hockey? Sure. It would slow things down but you could. You can't have a translator on the ice while the play is going. When he was on a line with McD and as that line comes off the ice for 1 or 2 shifts to rest and McD leans over to his linemates and says "when I do this or that, you should do this" you can't have a translator on the bench running over. Or same with the coach when he leans down to talk to a player for 10 seconds.

So make up all the excuses you want, but when a person takes a job, the employer expects that person to be prepared to do the job to the best of their ability. That includes doing whatever training that is part of the job description. Being able to communicate is part of a hockey players job. So if the coach or your linemates can't communicate with you, it's going to impact how you do your job.

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 Re: Oiler Draft Memory Lane.. [message #824043 is a reply to message #824040 ]
Tue, 30 May 2023 14:34 Go to previous message
Dragon_Matt is currently offline Dragon_Matt
Messages: 766
Registered: January 2009
Location: edmonton
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Baseball is not a fluid game like hockey is. You could go a full game and not say a word to your team mates and have no better or worse game because of it. In hockey players are constantly communicating during play. You take that guy, I've got this spot, go up the boards etc etc.
Language is substantially more important in our game. Does an 18 year old bear responsibility, absolutely. His parents and agent hold most of the blame though for not getting him prepared.

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