Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Wednesday Re-Set

Yesterday's running of The Pipeline Show was the Season 4 edition of our annual audit on the Oilers and their prospects. Being located in Edmonton we naturally spend a bit more time talking about the Oilers and once a year we have a exec from the team come in and give us his State-of-the-Union address on the prospects.

June 20th, 2006 was Kevin Prendergast's first in-studio visit. In Season 2 we spoke with Kevin Lowe for an hour. Prendergast was back in studio right before the 2007 NHL Draft. In Season 3 we again had Kevin Lowe in for an hour, shortly after the trade deadline on March 25th.

Last night we continued the tradition by having Kevin Prendergast join us for a little more than an hour. You can hear the entire show in the media archive located HERE.

The hour is divided in three segments. In the first we tried to stay focused on the current Oilers but from a prospects perspective - Why the trio of Sam Gagner, Andrew Cogliano and Robert Nilsson all seemed to have the stereotypical sophomore slump this year... has Theo Peckham shown enough to be pencilled in to next year's roster because he brings something the team is missing on the back end... Liam Reddox and why he had success... the encouraging recovery of JF Jacques... Jeff Deslauriers and what the future might hold... and whether the NHL coaching change might help some prospects who couldn't play for Mactavish.

The second segment was designated as our Springfield slot: The first question was basically "WTF!?"... Is Rob Daum the guy Edmonton wants running the show in Springfield next year?... was there a lack of AHL depth?... A few Rob Schremp questions including his struggles, the ramfications of MacT's comments about Schremp and Europe... Gilbert Brule and why TPS has always been on the fence with him... Ryan Potulny... Taylor Chorney vs Cody Wild... the implosion of Slava Trukhno... Colin McDonald's evolution since college... where Ryan O'Marra fits in the organization going forward from here...

Segment 3 with KP began with the upcoming NHL draft and the catch-22 they are facing... Drafting for positional need... what happened with the negotiations with Linus Omark... are the Oilers in the hunt for Swedish UFA goalie Jonas Gustavsson?... Are any of Edmonton's Euro prospects in the mix for N.A. next year?... is the door closed on Alexei Mikhnov?... With Darryl Katz look to increase the size of the scouting staff, specifically in Europe?... Alex Plante and Milan Kytnar contract plans... Will any of their collegians leave the NCAA and turn pro?... a tentative schedule for the summer prospects camp...

So LOTS of ground covered by KP for Oiler fans to digest.

Also last night we spoke with Mike Oke from International Scouting Services about the World U18s - who went up and who went down on the newest rankings because of how they played?

If you missed it live, click the archive... HERE.

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