Oilers Hump Day Randoms: McDavid, Wisniewski and More

The NHL has finally taken a page out of the NFL and MLB’s book by taking a look at the top players in the league during the off-season. The NFL looks at the top 100 players, while the MLB looks at the top ten at each position. NHL Network will countdown the top 20 forwards, top 20 defenders and the top ten goalies in the NHL. After that, a full top 50 list will be revealed live on the network.

This past Saturday night, the network aired their special counting down the top 20 forwards in the NHL. To the surprise of no one, Edmonton’s Connor McDavid made the list. Where he clocked in, however, comes as a bit of a surprise. McDavid checks in at #13 on the list, just ahead of Patrice Bergeron (#14) and Johnny Gaudreau (#15) and right behind Vladimir Tarasenko (#12) and Steven Stamkos (#11).

I actually think that McDavid is underrated here, but I understand the ranking. McDavid only played in 45 games last season, and hasn’t proven that he can produce at an elite level in the NHL over a full season just yet. Do I think he will prove that? Absolutely, and I think he will this season, but the conservative ranking is understandable because of games played.

I think he is better than Tarasenko already, and I’d rather have McDavid than Joe Pavelski (#6) as well. I’d have placed McDavid at #11 if I were making these rankings.

Next season, I suspect we see McDavid easily make the top ten of this list.

Wisniewski On A PTO?:

James Wisniewski has been discussed at length on this blog throughout the course of the summer. I profiled him here and I’ve been on the record saying he is the best of the remaining realistic options. I think it’ll take a contract to bring him to Edmonton, even after missing last season, but Bob Stauffer thinks a PTO is still possible.

Although he wasn’t hosting his show, Oilers Now, on Monday, he did drop a nice tidbit of information regarding the rearguard. The following comes from Heather Marginet on Twitter.

Listened to oilers now Today, Stauffer away but did a hit and said that if Wizniewski does not sign a contract he will be invited to a PTO

— Heather Marginet (@margih99) August 8, 2016

Lowetide gave his thoughts on the tweet at the end of his Tuesday morning article, which you can read here.

My thoughts? I still think it would take a contract to get Wisniewski on board, but if he is willing to accept a PTO, I am all for it.

He’s always been a strong option for the powerplay, has a heavy shot that teams would have to respect, and can move the puck exceptionally well. Speed is a concern and at his age, we have to wonder if the injury took a step or two away. I remember watching Dennis Seidenberg’s career completely fall off a cliff after he suffered the exact same injury two seasons ago.

Point Projections:

It’s that time of the summer again, time for player point projections. The Hockey News yearbook is out and the Oilers are actually surprisingly well projected here. The publication has the following as Edmonton’s top scorers, compliments Kris Hansen.

Hockey News Fantasy Projections FWD:
McDavid 96,
Lucic 65,
RNH 58,
Draisaitl 52,
Puulujarvi 46,
Pouliot 44,
Maroon 37,
Yakupov 36

— Kris (@WildcardKH) August 9, 2016

Kris later added that he forgot Jordan Eberle’s total, which was 70 points on the season.

I think the McDavid number is right around where he’ll clock in, and I think both Eberle and Milan Lucic will have big seasons with McDavid at pivot on their line. That said, I feel that these other projections are a little high. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins should get around 50 points, but I think 58 is a little much.

Leon Draisaitl, to me, is around a 40 point guy right now, especially with the loss of Taylor Hall. Jesse Puljujarvi seems to be highly projected here at 46 points, I’m setting my sights on 30 for the upcoming season.

If these projections do in fact come to reality, then Edmonton will likely have made the postseason. Three 60 point scorers is an indication of an elite offense, while two more 50 point scorers would put Edmonton in the same territory as Dallas last season. THN has Edmonton projected to have seven forwards score over 40 points. That’s exceptionally good.

THN isn’t the only publication that is high on Edmonton’s offense, either. David Staples over at the Cult of Hockey broke down some projections from another publication that had Edmonton as an elite attacking team. You can read that here.