MacTavish wants core group to drive Oilers forward
/Edmonton Oilers GM Craig MacTavish gave an end-of-season press conference Tuesday morning.
Can he get a high-end defenceman without trading away a core piece?
"That's a question I'll be asking. I think we can. I mean, there are lots of assets that we have. Notwithstanding the draft choice, we have a considerable amount of assets and developing defencemen. I think we can.
"But I'll say this about the core group I refer to. This group - we're building our team around this group and you have to have pieces in that locker room you view are going to develop into winners. Guys that are going to develop into superstars. And I feel strongly we have a number of those pieces in there and those are the guys we're going to build that team around and I want them to feel the ownership. I want them to feel the loyalty from myself and the coaching staff that we have the confidence in them to drive this team forward.
"When you talk to those players - Jordan Eberle, Nugent-Hopkins, certainly Taylor Hall, Justin Schultz - those guys have to feel that they're the Edmonton Oilers and they have the responsibility to drive this core for many years."
On Justin Schultz's RFA status and whether MacT is open to long-term or a bridge deal:
"Well, I'm open to both. It'll be dependent on really what Justin wants. I think I've been clear all along on the upside I see from Justin Schultz. He's a developing player. He's just completed his first NHL season. His upside is limitless. So I have a lot of confidence and would have the confidence to extend Justin on a long-term deal. When I analyze the deals we've extended to some of the other players, some of the other long-term deals, I mean - the argument against a long-term deal for a younger player is that it takes away their motivation. I can't say that any of those long-term deals dissuade any of those individuals from aspiring to be as good as they can be."
On the Oilers' drafting philosophy:
"Our drafting philosophy that we instituted last year was draft the player that's going to have the greatest impact on his team over time. That's our philosophy."
On free agency:
"The UFA market for defencemen is weak this year. Everybody is signing their defencemen, as Philadelphia did with MacDonald. So there aren't very many high-end defencemen that are getting to the market. We do have some financial flexibility from our ownership. We want to make sure we're spending that money prudently."
On Nail Yakupov:
"We can talk a little bit about Nail. My sense is there have been a lot of guys that go through a sophomoric jinx, a soft sophomore season, a lot of great players that have struggled in their sophomore year and we're looking for Nail to improve. He's getting bigger and stronger and sending him to Oklahoma City was never in the cards from my standpoint.
"When you pick a guy as a No. 1 pick in the draft, you're committed to bringing him into your organization and developing him immediately. I can't think of another No. 1 pick, or too many, that spend too much time in the minors and we're committed to developing Nail."
On drafting Yakupov in the first place:
"We very much targeted Nail Yakupov as an offensive phenom. We felt that he was very deserving of being the No. 1 pick. We felt that his upside was maybe higher than Ryan Murray that Columbus ultimately drafted. So, we drafted him for the right reasons. We believe he's going to be a great goal scorer. There's a premium on goal scoring and Colorado did a similar thing last year when they drafted Nathan MacKinnon. There's lots of upside in Nail and it's up to us and our organization to get that from him. But he was a very legitimate No. 1 pick and we still feel strongly that we made the right decision."