I would take the Oilers young players over the Avalanches. Taylor Hall is a future Top 5 player along with Nugent Hopkins. Taylor Hall is almost already a superstar. Nugent-Hopkins won't be too far behind, I see those two hitting early stardom the way Toews and Kane did. Landeskog and Dushcene are the next tier down, good players but not in the same league. Also, Eric Johnson is borderline bust and Stastny ain't turning out as expected. O'Reilly is a solid two-way player but not a super highly skilled star in the making.Potatoe1 wrote:The Sedins are just 31 and given their style of play and fitness level they likely wont decline until well into their mid 30's.RoyalDude wrote:I'm not to enamored with what we have comimg down the pipe to be replacing the Sedins as they start to decline. Sorry to say, but Cody ain't no Sedin. I like Cody, but he ain't the next coming. It's pretty much Cody vs Hall/Nugent-Hopkins/Eberle/Paajarvi/Omark/Gagner. Way too early to call Jensen a sure thing. Gillis needs to fatten the future a little bit more, cause After the Sedins start to slip, the Oilers will be eating us for Breakfast for many years, post Sedin dominance.
Point being, it is very premature to be worrying about how we will be able to compete with another team that really has yet to prove a thing.
Personally I'm a bit surprised so many have fixated on Edmonton when the Av's seem to have just as my quality young players and a far better balance positionaly.
Stasney, Duchane, Johnson, O'reily, and Landeskog, seems like a pretty dam fantastic young core as well.
I think we all have a lot of angst over Alberta having a better team then Vancouver.
The Sedins are a decade and more older than the Oilers young stars, in 3-4 years when we will be seeing the demise of the Sedin dominance, the young Oilers won't even be mid twenties yet. And who do we have to go head to head with the likes of their youth along with the Avalanches in our division? Cody will need a lot more help.
Yes, I know, way too early to be talking like this, but this is first time in a while where I am not seeing the next generation of Canuck star(S) knocking on the heels of the current Canuck Stars. We still have some good years with this group as we are relatively middle-aged in hockey years, but the true test for Gillis is will he be able to maintain a competitive team as this current group ages as we see the young gun Oilers and Avalanche on the verge.
The one thing that is not making hate the Booth trade completely is that Gillis got a 3rd round pick. Hopefully this is a sign of whats to come from Gillis, an eye on the future, instead of unloading draft picks galore like he as up to this point.