i completely agree...

but with the amount of youth around, it would be crazy to think that we would regress as a team.... especially with full, healthy years from horcoff, souray, torres, pitkanen, etc...


the oilers future looks incredibly good....

contrast that with the flamers who are about to be blown up.

Eric_Isles wrote:

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philly wrote:

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Eric_Isles wrote:

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You're looking through Rose-Colored Glasses and are starting to sound like a Canuck fan of the 2001-03 era. No offense..

But, seriously. The Oilers had a lot of overachievers on offense this year. Hemsky is the only player who has been consistant over a decent amount of years. Yes, they are young, and are PROJECTED to grow. But these aren't players who have top pedigree's and are all but garunteed to continue. Yes, I expect them to progress accordingly. However, you cannot deny the possibility of it not hapening.
The team has a lot of work ahead of it. Compared to the other teams in the West, but their potential is nice. Despite the fact that by the time they're all likely to be blooming, their financial structure could ruin the team...

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Eric would you concede that for every Oiler likely to not "progress" next year, that at least 1 or 2 will definitely progress even further (offensively)

-- Edited by philly at 00:24, 2008-04-18

 

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I don't disagree that there won't be 1-4 players from this team who are very good players in the NHL for the next handful of years. I think Gagner is an awesome player to have, and is probably another 1-2 seasons away from starting to really excel (which I think is 99.9% going to happen). Cogliano is another piece as well.

I'm not saying there will be players who will progress. I'm just stating that they all won't become 40 goal scorers, and 90 point getters. So some of them will level off quickly, or even decline next year. Happens all the time in the NHL.

 

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Youth does not equal talent. It only equals potential.

HOTLANTA wrote:

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but youth that has proved it on the nhl level = progress.. or is LA going to be worst team in nhl again next year? not likely in my eyes to much good proven nhl youth.. it will come together for them like it did for chicago this season.. possibly playoffs in a couple years...

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They haven't proven anything yet, except their potential.  If you could comprehend these letters and words I use to form sentences, then you might understand what I've said before.

They have done it in 1 year, 1 - ONE. They have not established any form of consitancy in the NHL to PROVE their progression. Are they capable of repeating, heck yeah. Are they capable of not repeating, yes. Anything can happen. They haven't proven they can do it, because they haven't had the chance, yet. Time will come for the 08-09 season where you can then start to assess them on a more level playing field. Until then, they're a lot like the other NHL players who've only had 1 good NHL season.

You're correct that they're on the right track. But anything can happen from year-to-year.