Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Nash to join TPS Tuesday

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Put on your Surprise face - Riley Nash has signed with the Canes.

Wow...anyone see this coming. This was almost as predictable as the sun rising. Riley Nash was dealt at the draft by the Oilers for a 2nd round pick. The reason was Nash wanted to go back for his senior season at Cornell, and was likely going to become a free agent next summer. Boom goes the dynomite and he's now signed, sealed and delivered to pro hockey after signing an entry level deal with Carolina today.

Unlike some, I think Nash will be a good pro hockey player. Was he the best choice for the Oilers in 2007? That's still to be debated, but word is every scout was on board with taking the then BCHL sniper. Oilers head scout Stu MacGregor has a good relationship with the Nash family, which tells you things must have really soured for him to decide he wanted to play elsewhere.

In talking to some, the fact that the Oilers had a log jam of centres was one of the reasons Nash wanted to play eleswhere. We'll find out if that's true and how he views the spots down the middle in Carolina - Staal, Sutter, and very soon Skinner, Paradis, Dalpe, Boychuk - when Nash joins us Tuesday night, 7-9 PM MST on the TEAM 1260 in Edmonton or online through The Pipeline Show site.

6 comments:

Bryanbryoil said...

This should be good. I for one liked him as a player, but I am not much of a fan of his at this point to say the least.

Brent Huska said...

Can't wait to hear what he has to say. I'll be tuning in.

SumOil said...

carolina traded paradis to TOR for Tlusty right?

Mark-Ryan said...

And Toronto dealt Paradis to Chicago in the Versteeg deal.

Dean Millard said...

right...sorry missed that when I was looking at their depth chart...thanks for catching it.

Anonymous said...

Boychuk played LW for most of last season in Albany and during his call-ups to Carolina. I don't think the Carolina views him as a C, otherwise he would have been playing there given Albany's lack of scoring-line centers last year. Carolina actually had Patrick Dwyer and his stunning 34.8 face-off % play at center instead of Boychuk after Matt Cullen was traded.