The Edmonton Oilers now have a defenceman. On Saturday the Oilers found out that Justin Schultz agreed to sign with the Oilers over Vancouver, Toronto, the New York Rangers and Minnesota after not coming to terms with the Anaheim Ducks.
Considered the best young defenceman not in the National Hockey League, Schultz met with Wayne Gretzky, Paul Coffey and Oilers head coach Ralph Krueger over the last few days.
Aggressive? Perhaps. But a necessary tactic because the Oilers haven’t had a great track record of luring free agents.
I am still a little skeptical because the media has completely overhyped two other players over the last five years before they played an NHL game in Jonas Gustafsson and Fabian Brunnstrom, and both of them one could argue were complete flops.
Schultz did play great at the NCAA level, but who is to say he can make a great transition to the NHL without any growing pains?
Now where does General Manager Steve Tambellini go from here? Well, there are two positions that still need upgraded– a stay at home defenceman that can play big minutes and prevent the opposition from scoring and a goaltender because at the end of the day Nikolai Khaibulin and Devan Dubnyk are not the answers.
Tags: anaheim ducks, Edmonton Oilers, justin schultz, Paul Coffey, ralph krueger, Steve Tambellini, Wayne Gretzky
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