Green Joins Scouting Staff

The Edmonton Oilers made a bit of a surprising announcement on Wednesday when the club announced that Oil Kings GM Bob Green would be joining on as the Director of Amateur Free Agent Scouting. It’s a position that most might overlook, but it’s one that can bring in some key players. This is another smart move by MacT.

Green is a very smart hockey guy. He was hired as the Edmonton Oil Kings GM six seasons ago, and built the team into the contender that it currently is. He has a good eye for talent and knows how to build a team and find young men that fit into something bigger. That’s a pretty decent skill-set for a front office guy.

Green will be in charge of NCAA and overage CHL free agents, essentially guys that fell through the cracks of the NHL entry draft. The Oilers found Marc Arcobello and Andrew Miller this way, and they also found Justin Schultz through the NCAA free-agent route (although that was a unique experience).

The Oilers have lost out on key guys too over the years (Danny DeKeyser, etc.) and seemingly always come in second for these NCAA players. Now with Green in the fold, the Oilers will be able to devote much more attention to the area and have a better idea of good free agent fits. I expect we see MacT go this route considerably more than any other Oilers GM has before.

Green, as mentioned above, will also be looking for overage CHL players that might be late bloomers. Again, giving the Oilers an upper hand in an area where some teams overlook possible talent. There are always diamonds in the rough out there, you just have to find them.

Overall, I like this move by the Oilers. They get a smart hockey guy that knows young talent, and they are focusing in on an area that has brought some talented players to quite a few teams before. Surrounding yourself with strong hockey people is never a bad idea. To me, this is a great move by the Oilers.

I’d imagine we see quite a few more rookie camp invites and free agent signings from these levels moving forward as MacT tries to go to another well that is under used. We saw him dip into the talent in Russia, and now he is going the college and overage route. MacT is leaving no stone un-turned, and that’s a pretty good sign.

Green is a two time WHL executive of the year, and I’m very pleased with this move to bring him to the NHL club. Attracting amateur free agents appears to be a goal for the Edmonton Oilers, now let’s see if they can get something big out of this.