No no nope

Keep McDavid-Draisaitl together


your current lineup man-by-man
top6/top9-best player-4th liner
top9?-elite-bottom6 preferably 4th line
rookie-top6-middle6 (if he can keep it up)
4th liner-...-4th liner
AHLer-middle6 I guess

Top4-Top4
Top4-Top4 potential
Top6-BAD top6
Top6

Meh
Welp


F depth is a complete disaster

Goddamn those lines are brutal. There needs to be some established sets of cores in the top-6 in Edmonton. Otherwise, the team is no better than the Kings - who have an actual blueline and maybe a goaltender - and is all but guaranteed to finish last in the West.

I know Tippett is right now of the mindset of his top six featuring pairs of Draisaitl/McDavid and RNH/Neal with a rotating cast of complimentary wingers. If for whatever reason Neal sticks better with McDavid, I could see McDavid/Neal and Draisaitl/RNH being the cores he works with. That leaves me with lines looking something like:

Draisaitl - McDavid - Kassian
Benson - RNH - Neal

OR

Nygard - McDavid - Neal
Draisaitl - RNH - Gagner

The main idea being that McDavid should be glued with another fast skater (Kassian and Nygard in these examples) and a designated finisher (Draisaitl/Neal). Kassian gets the nod in the first example based on results from last season, and his faster physical play would open up the ice some for Connor and Leon. Nygard gets the nod over Benson in the second example strictly due to icetime: I'd prefer to see Benson getting PP2 time on top of his 5v5 time, and pairing him with McDavid for 18+ minutes a night is asking the kid to do too much at once. Joakim's speed and shot are supposedly NHL-caliber, which does open up the opportunity for him to insulate Neal's slower boots.

Nugent-Hopkins gets whatever remains of "top-6" talent the Oilers opt to ice this year, with the second scenario giving him much stronger linemates. Gagner gets the nod on the second line over Kassian for having a better track record of offensive performance. Having three players that can distribute the puck from almost anywhere on the ice on top of Draisaitl's finishing ability results in a strong second line. I don't think Draisaitl necessarily needs to be ran as a center to justify his contract, but rather just needs to produce. If there's more chemistry with Benson and Neal, then I could see the Oilers running:

RNH - McDavid - Chiasson
Benson - Draisaitl - Neal

With RNH playing a more defensively-sound winger position to allow McDavid to really wheel and let Chiasson use his shot more. I would have concerns about the speed of the second line and that they'd probably require some strong defense pairings and a bias in offensive zone starts. The RNH-McDavid duo could be force-fed defensive zone starts and probably finish with a chance on net down the ice in a matter of seconds. The trick would be having blueliners that could move the puck north to either player.

But I don't think there's a scenario where the Oilers could reasonably break up the big three centers on this team: there's less than no depth on the wings and it dilutes the talent on the team too much. I could see them icing RNH - McDavid - Draisaitl in do-or-die scenarios, as McDavid would likely be ready to go for overtime after a short break.

Your wing depth is probably one of the worst in the nhl.

You should maybe try and consider trading quality for quantity to boost up the all around quality of your team.
you should probably consider trading Klefbom/Nurse/Larsson for a lesser skilled top 4 D-Man/near nhl ready good prospect + a middle 6 winger. Or you could trade your draft picks/prospect for immediate help.
I dont think McDavid wants to play for a tanking team, the guy has a winning mentality and will ask for a trade in a few years if the oilers dont become contenders soon.
As a Habs fans, what do you think of a deal around this
One of klefbom/nurse for one of the next package
1) Drouin + Kulak
2) Tatar + Juulsen
3) Byron/Armia/Lehkonen + Brook

If youre gonna break them up I'd do:

Neal - McDavid - Kassian
Nygard - Draisaitl - Chiasson
Benson - RNH - Gagner/Marody
Granlund - Haas - Archibald

but that requires Benson to be a bonafide top 9 winger that can score, chiasson to be the same player he was last year, Marody to be NHL ready / Gagner able to find his old scoring touch, Nygard to be able to play in the top 6, and Neal to bounce back and somewhat replicate what draisaitl can do with McDavid. More likely the lines are:

Draisaitl - McDavid - Kassian
Neal - RNH - Chiasson

being the top 6 and some combination of

Nygard - Gagner - Archibald
Khaira - Haas - Granlund

being the bottom 6. Jurco or Benson can replace Nygard, Granlund or Khaira, along with Cave or Brodziak, can replace Haas, and Marody can find his way to push out a center or a right winger. Like Holland said, it's legitimately gonna be a battle between around 10-14 players (if you wanna counter Puljujarvi, Gambardella, and Yamamoto) for those bottom 6 spots. And although i said the top 6 will probably be those 6 forwards, I think they will get jumbled a lot as well (Neal playing right with another left winger in, Draisaitl and Nuge swaping places, chiassion and Kassian swapping places, etc.) At least in this top 6, you only have to rely on one of Neal or Chiasson to be able to score. And the bottom 6 is less about rushing offense (Benson/Marody) into the lineup and more about playing the best defensive hockey we can and letting the top 6 carry the team

Stop saying these things about my Kings. They're not that good.

Wasn't even referring to Quick, but Campbell and Petersen. It's in LA's best interest to move Quick somewhere and run those two for the next 5 years. And Doughty, Martinez, and Forbort aren't horrible pieces to have either. Probably going to see some strong returns on Martinez and Forbort this season.

I'd like to see Blake deal one of Carter or Toffoli this summer. Their value will only decrease as we approach the TDL. We can't expect Winnipeg to fall for the same gag three years in a row.