Hey! Not a bad attempt, but I would like to tweak it a bit, because of chemistry, and what I think would be good. I would bury Turris, yes they say he’s in good shape, but I don’t think he will be good.

Hyman-McDavid-Puljujarvi
Nuge-Draisaitl-Yamamoto
Foegele-Ryan-Kassian
Shore/Benson-McLeod-Archibald

Nurse-Barrie
Keith-Ceci
Koekkoek-Bouchard

Smith
Koskinen

Scratched: Kris Russell, Tyler Benson/Devin Shore.

I like your lines. I’m personally not that high on yam and could see him if signed getting time in the bottom six and easier match ups to try and build more consistency offensively. That becomes even more likely the more time he misses from camp.

@Nhl_oilers

My own analysis leads me to these lines:

Hyman - McDavid - Yamamoto
Nugent-Hopkins - Draisaitl - Puljujarvi

These lines have the best possible combination of size, speed, skill and defensive ability.

Small sample sizes, but NST's line tool feature shows us that Puljujarvi does better with Draisaitl than with McDavid, and Yamamoto does better with McDavid than Draisaitl.

Wouldn’t be against that idea just because Hyman can play a big mans game and handle a decent amount of the battling which does address and help cover up the concerns I personally have with yam. Still not totally sold on him in the top six but it is the best possible option to do so.

Either or I would be perfectly happy with. I like Puljujarvi with McDavid, mainly because of his speed, defensive ability, shot, he knows where to go, and how big he is. If he was a little meaner, he would be a guy that would be scary to go against. Yamamoto also is a good player, and maybe your lines would work, but yah, I don’t care as long as McDavid gets Hyman, Draisaitl is centring his own line, with Nuge, and Puljujarvi, and possibly Yamamoto is in the top 6. I’m in for trying different lines, and switching Yamamoto with Puljujarvi for sure! Also, Puljujarvi and Hyman going into the corners, and feeding McDavid would be awesome!

But that leaves Draisaitl with two smaller, less physical wingers. My intention here was to split Nugent-Hopkins and Yamamoto... Puljujarvi is a good fit for McDavid as you suggest but Hyman takes over his role on that line going forward.

I know a lot of people are suggesting Kassian in the top-6, and while that could work I'd like to see more consistent effort and more consistent defensive reads from him first. Those things aren't issues for Yamamoto (he's elite in those areas) or Puljujarvi, and since Tippett likes to run power v power I think these traits are important for the top-6 wingers.

Sorry for the slightly off-topic question, but I need some Oiler fan feedback;

What are the chances that Puljujarvi gets a legit shot on the top PP unit this year? Asking for my fantasy team that heavily weights special teams points. Thanks in advance!

That’s a great question I wish I knew for certain. My best guess is he will get a look and Hyman will more likely get the bulk of time and jp will begin to get more pk minutes. Not what I want to happen but just my best guess watching how Tippett does things.

I know Hyman will be a great puck retriever for the group, but having JP's right shot off the left circle seems like a potentially lethal option for cross-ice feeds or rebounds.

Actually, given the offensive prowess of the Dmen, I think the PP units would look good like this;

JP - McDavid - Drai
Barrie - Nurse

Hyman - RNH - Yamo
Bouchard - Keith

I want to see them deploy two units but it’s questionable if Tippett will go in that direction he’s loaded one for two seasons in a row and the success rate is hard to argue.

No doubt, when your first unit is that good the 2nd doesn’t matter as much. I just think these units don’t take much overall from PP1, but PP2 is way better with RNH at Center.

In my opinion we have enough skill and depth to run a second unit for the remaining 45-50 seconds of any pp this gives the big guns a quick breather so they can get back on the ice right after the pp and perhaps catch a tired pk unit and force an icing or score a goal 5-5. Having Barrie and Bouchard on the same roster it just seems like a waste not to give both a reasonable amount of pp time without switching them in and out of one unit. That’s the approach I believe in but I’m sceptical if Tippett will make any change and it’s hard to argue why fix what it’s broken.

That’s okay sir, and to answer your question, I believe Puljujarvi on be on the second unit. Hyman also plays the same role on the PP, and Hyman is better. I would like to try both, but that’s just my best guess.

I think his PP time will go up, but I can't say for sure if he'll become a fixture on the 1st unit. He has all the tools to be a world class net front guy though, so there's that...

I don't know much about the Oilers depth, but I thought McDavid, Draisaitl on their own lines and then the 3rd, 4th and 5th best players on the 3rd line.