It’s a question that will be asked throughout Edmonton and the rest of the hockey world until June 25, and it’s a question that doesn’t necessarily have an easy answer: Taylor or Tyler?
The question will be asked of the Edmonton Oilers, who own the No. 1 overall pick in the NHL draft and have to choose between two kids that are widely regarded as “sure things.” Yet with Taylor Hall‘s season still alive as he leads the Windsor Spitfires into the Memorial Cup final on Sunday, the Oilers will no doubt feel tremendous pressure to go after the 18-year-old native of Calgary, Alberta.
“Our biggest critics have said, ‘Only the Oilers could screw this up,’ but we haven’t made our decision, to be honest, because [Hall and Tyler Seguin] are really close,” Oilers president Kevin Lowe told Yahoo. “[The decision] needs our year-end meetings, which will happen in early June, and we’ll get into the final debate and discussion and hopefully have our decision by then.”
While the Oilers have a difficult decision in selecting Hall or Seguin, the team with nearly as much at stake is the Boston Bruins. With the No. 2 overall pick, the Bruins will get whomever the Oilers don’t want, and the Oilers hold the power should the Bruins be interested in making a trade in order to guarantee they get their man.
Lowe spoke glowingly of Hall, though it’s believed by many that the Oilers will go with Seguin, if for no other reason than his position as a center. However, Hall’s Windsor coach, Bob Boughner, doesn’t see that as a problem.
“Taylor is a center naturally,” Boughner told the Toronto Sun. “He’s playing left wing on our team, but he’ll take some draws once in a while, and he’s good on draws. I don’t doubt that if he goes to the next level and they need a center, he could play center as well. He’s pretty strong on the puck. The reason I put him on the wing is to conserve his energy and expose other teams wide because he has that speed.”
That’s not great news for Bruins fans who are hoping to see Hall light the lamp alongside either Marc Savard, David Krejci or Patrice Bergeron for the next few years. On the flip side, though there is belief that Seguin could contribute from the wing in the NHL.
“Tyler Seguin makes things happen every time he is on the ice and he makes his teammates better,” Chris Edwards of NHL Central Scouting told NHL.com “He’s a skilled forward. He’s a guy that’s obviously a top-line forward with all kinds of puck skills and play-making abilities.”
From the Oilers’ perspective, Hall is making it hard for them not to select him.
“If they pick Hall, the headline will have an exclamation mark,” said Terry Jones in the Toronto Sun. “If they pick Seguin, the headline will have a question mark.”
Whatever the headline says, it will have a lot of eyeballs in Boston staring at it.
