2010-11 Edmonton Oilers Season Preview: Back to the Drawing Board

Location doesn't matter to most professional sports franchises.

It's not quite the same in Edmonton.

While it's fair to say that a prideful player will go wherever it takes to play in the NHL, Edmonton is behind the eight ball when it comes to their location. Their closest neighbor is rival Calgary, 175 miles away, and fellow Northwest Division rival Vancouver is over 500 miles away.

After trying to lure players like Dany Heatley, and four years removed from a playoff drive led by Chris Pronger, who signed a long-term deal with the Oilers and then wanted out after one season, Edmonton is committed to their youth movement. It's a youth movement that really started a couple years ago, but was kicked into high gear in June when the team used the No. 1 overall pick in the draft on Taylor Hall.

After pushing themselves to the ceiling of the salary cap the last three years, Edmonton finally was able to resist the temptation to spend like the proverbial drunken sailors this offseason. Gone were foolish contracts for overrated players, big money spent for the sake of spending big money. Instead, general manager Steve Tambellini is focused on trying to build his team the right way.

Gone, also, is veteran coach Pat Quinn. He's a competitor, even as he gets close to 70 years old, and coaching a team in a full rebuild wasn't the way for him to go out. Instead, assistant Tom Renney was elevated to the head coaching position a year earlier than planned.

While the goal is for the Oilers to make a return to the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since their run to the Final in 2006, this isn't necessarily the season in which that will happen. Instead, this season will be about getting three dynamic young talents up to NHL speed as quickly as possible.

Along with Hall, it's expected that forwards Jordan Eberle and Magnus Paajarvi -- both first-round picks, too -- will make the final NHL roster. It's not so much about Edmonton's lack of depth. It's just that they're ready, and there's no good reason to hold any of them back.

Hall is a sniper. His shot is lethal from anywhere on the ice, and he will challenge fellow left wing Dustin Penner for a spot on Edmonton's top line. Penner has been up and down a ton during his stint in Edmonton, and last year was a perfect illustration of that. After scoring 15 goals and 30 points in the Oilers' first 27 games, Penner slipped to 17 goals and 33 points in the remaining 55. It's just a matter of time before Hall's elite ability takes him to that top grouping.

The same could be true of Eberle, though his rise to the top line might be a little bumpier. The rather undersized former Canadian World Junior star scored 50 goals and 107 points in just 56 games for the Western Hockey League's Regina Pats last year. Eberle and a (hopefully) healthy Ales Hemsky will be the Oilers' top two right wingers. Hemsky should be entering his prime at age 27, and he showed flashes of brilliance early last year -- 22 points in 22 games -- before missing the final 60 games with shoulder problems that required surgery. He has a physical element to his game, and that makes him a prime candidate for the top line.

Paajarvi is also expected to play wing. He's the biggest of the three young prospects, just a bit bigger than Hall. His time spent in Sweden -- playing in the top-flight Swedish Elite League -- will help him transition to the NHL, as he's got experience against bigger and stronger players. His offensive upside is tremendous, but we probably won't see more than 20 or so goals out of him as a rookie, even though he should get gobs of ice time as long as he can handle it.

With Shawn Horcoff, Sam Gagner and Andrew Cogliano, the Oilers aren't bad down the middle. The hope is that the three will give them stability and smart two-way play, along with working well with their young linemates.

This isn't a Cup-winning team in Edmonton. In all likelihood, they are left to hope for the kind of season the Islanders had last year, where they played well for a good chunk of the season, beat some good teams, and were clearly more competitive than the previous season. If Tambellini is patient and continues to build the organization by stockpiling young talent, Edmonton will be plenty successful in due time.

2010-11 NHL Previews

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FanHouse is getting ready to step back on the ice, previewing one team a day leading up to the season's opening night. Read them all. FIXING A LEAKY DEFENSE

While Edmonton didn't make any huge moves involving their defense during the offseason, they did jettison two forwards who did virtually nothing to help that part of their game.

Former captain Ethan Moreau was a huge target of scorn for his lack of defensive prowess. According to the Edmonton Journal, Moreau was guilty of an eye-popping 1.18 "goal-causing errors" for every 60 minutes of even-strength play. Combine that with an underwhelming offensive statline (nine goals, 18 points in 76 games) and a horrific minus-18 rating (he lost eight points off his 2008-09 production, and his plus-minus was a zero), and you have a recipe for problems.

He wasn't the worst offender among Edmonton's forwards.

Patrick O'Sullivan never realized his massive potential. The forward was taken in the second round of the 2003 draft by Minnesota, and turned pro after impressing with great production during a four-year stint in the Ontario Hockey League. His rights were traded to Los Angeles after a prolific season in the AHL, but it's been all downhill since a 22-goal, 53-point season with the Kings in 2007-2008.

Last year, O'Sullivan scored just 11 goals in 73 games for the Oilers. He also managed a rating of minus-35, easily the worst in the NHL last year. You almost have to try to be that bad defensively.

An offseason trade shipped him to Phoenix, where he will get a fresh start and perhaps learn a bit of defensive responsibility.

As for the Oilers, they will rebuild their team, and it starts with both getting better goaltending and doing a better job of protecting the netminder. Constantly hanging goalies out to dry will accomplish nothing, and Renney needs to instill a culture of responsibility in the defensive zone from the first day of training camp.

BUILDING CHARACTER

Like many teams that don't win, Edmonton's overall effort was in question for a good chunk of the 2009-2010 season. Having Moreau become a complete non-factor while wearing the "C" was just the beginning.

The Oilers knew they needed to improve the character on their team, and the hope is that guys like forward Colin Fraser (acquired from Chicago) and defenseman Jim Vandermeer (Phoenix) can help them do just that. The team also re-acquired big forward Steve MacIntyre after he went to Florida on waivers during the 2009-2010 season.

It's not just about fighting. Fraser doesn't bring that element. He's a hard-working two-way player who should serve as the Oilers' third- or fourth-line center, provided Shawn Horcoff turns it around after a miserable season in which he posted a minus-29. Fraser will be a key cog in the Edmonton rebuild.

On a team that features offensive types like Ryan Whitney, Sheldon Souray, Kurtis Foster and Tom Gilbert, Vandermeer's defensive ability will be a huge addition on the blue line.

He will work his tail off defensively, likely won't be responsible for a lot of mistakes, and he will win battles in his own zone. Vandermeer will have to, because the Oilers are counting on Whitney and Gilbert to eat a lot of minutes without getting lit up.

Without an elite goaltender to pick up the slack, Edmonton simply has to work harder and be more effective in their own zone. There is no other way around it.