Oilers 2012 Draft watch

I know many of you are thinking, 'What the heck?'. With this past 2011 Draft now behind us, it's back to the grind for the amateur scouts of the Edmonton Oilers. In fact The Magnificent Bastard Stu MacGregor even said so himself this past Friday in a interview on 
'Oilers Now'.

I had been working on this for a bit already, so thought I should wait it out before starting to blog more on this topic. However, while I have been waiting for things to settle in regards to RNH, the masses have started before me throughout the blogging world and all over the scouting agencies.

There are several groups who have their listing of top 30, or top 10, 2012 Draft prospects. I am going to give my top 15. Let's call it...hmm...

"Rev's Top 15, Oilers 2012 Draft Watch"

The reason behind the 15 top selections is because of the placement I see the Oilers likely to finish the season in. Some have the Oilers sneaking into a play-off spot. I like that idea but not to positive they can improve that many points in a single season. The worst the Oilers could finish would be worst over all (3rd year in a row). I sure hope we are not 30th place, cause that would mean, we had a lot of injuries again. Not to mention it would also mean we did not see the improvement from players like Hall, Eberle or Paajarvi. Putting that all aside, I am estimating the Oilers will end up picking somewhere between 15th-30th over all. (the reason for"Rev's Top 15 Oilers 2012 Draft Watch".  )

Many seasons in the past, most Oiler fans had no clue of the players available to pick from in the NHL entry draft other then what they had been fed the last few months leading up to the draft. My thought is, 'Why not follow the higher ranked player's ourselves'? I mean, doesn't draft time seem a little more exciting when you know more then 2 or 3 available players? If the Oilers can improve say 5 spots and pick 25th in the 2012 NHL draft, would it not mean more to us as Oiler fans if we were a little more educated on possible players to draft?

So, having said all that, I came up with the idea to have a list of 15 players to rank throughout the year, which we can all possibly follow. Starting the first week of the NHL regular season I will be posting "Rev's Top 15 Oilers 2012 Draft Watch". This should be fun and also very interesting to see the development of the players and their progression throughout the year. I generally have done this on my own the past couple season's, but look forward to having more time to really dissect the class of 2012. Week 1 will be my rankings, followed by the 1st over all ranking and so forth, each week, until we have covered the top 15 I will be listing. At the end of those ranking, I will give a updated ranking. (estimating that will be in late January) Should there be new players who have jumped up in their ranking, we will take time to discuss more on them as well as those who may have fallen back behind my original projected top 15. As the weeks go by, I will be giving little updates of games, injuries and anything of special note on the various prospects via twitter.

Remember, while you may just be interested in knowing the potential draft picks for 2012, what we really want to do here at oilersjambalaya is take a closer look at who our NEXT potential Oiler Draft pick will be. If at anytime, there is a player who I have not mentioned and you think he deserves props and a good look, let me know. Need some info on the player? Ask away. I will try to do my best to get whatever information I can get for you. The draft is deep in higher end talent this 2012 draft where defence and centerman are plentiful. Anyone in the top 15, I would be happy to see in Oiler silks sometime in the future. #GO #OILERS

For continued information on Oiler and Barons news and 2012 NHL draft watch, you can follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/revingev