Alberta native James Love has made a lot of changes to the Edmonton Oilers franchise in the past six weeks shipping out local favorites Ilya Kovalchuk and Marc Savard with a "Out with the Old, In with the New" mentallity. The team is now built on newcomers Olli Jokinen, Martin Havlat, Johan Franzen, Patrick Berglund, Scott Hartnell, Colton Gillies, Glen Wesley and Ian McMillan. Yet despite all of these changes the local fans and media alike want more, claiming that the Edmonton Oilers aren't good enough to compete now and a full re-build is in needed. So far GM Love has stood strong.
"We've made a lot of changes in the last while. This is a completley different team right now. We've added prospects we like, we've added a lot of long term players that are very good players. Maybe on paper we aren't as deep as some others but it's not always the best team on paper that wins. Let's give these guys a shot, I'm always looking at ways to improve but with the core we have let's see what they can do. The teams play will dictate our direction" -- General Manager James Love.
The starting lines for the team heading into the pre-season are as followed:
