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5 Bold Predictions For The Edmonton Oilers’ 2014-15 Season

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5 Bold Predictions For The Edmonton Oilers' 2014-15 Season

Oilers First Round Talents
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The Edmonton Oilers are off to yet another abysmal start to the season as their eight-year rebuilding process shows no signs of ending. With the team on a three-game win streak after going winless in their first five games, here are my five bold predictions for the rest of the 2014-15 season:

5. Taylor Hall Will Score 40 Goals

Colorado Avalanche v Edmonton Oilers
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5. Taylor Hall Will Score 40 Goals

Colorado Avalanche v Edmonton Oilers
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For all of the ineptitude around the team in recent years, Taylor Hall has been an amazing player who has better than the sum of the team’s parts. Look for Hall to hit 40 goals for the first time in his young career as the former first-overall pick continues to justify his loft draft position.

4. Nail Yakupov Will Be Traded

Nail Yakupov
Charles LeClaire-USA Today Sports

4. Nail Yakupov Will Be Traded

Nail Yakupov
Charles LeClaire-USA Today Sports

The Russian sniper has had trade rumors circulating around him essentially since the team drafted him with the first pick in the 2012 Draft. This will be the year the Oilers ship the winger out of town as the team continues its neverending cycle of getting back to the glory days.

3. The Oilers Will Keep Leon Draisaitl and Send Darnell Nurse to Juniors

LeonD
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3. The Oilers Will Keep Leon Draisaitl and Send Darnell Nurse to Juniors

LeonD
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The team should send both of the teenagers back to their junior teams before they play 10 games, but given that it’s the Oilers, they won’t make the right choice. Look for Nurse to be sent back before the 10-game threshold and Draisaitl to be in Edmonton as a bit player for the rest of the season, wasting a year of development.

2. Dallas Eakins Will Be Fired By the End of the Season

Dallas Eakins
Jennifer Stewart-USA Today Sports

2. Dallas Eakins Will Be Fired By the End of the Season

Dallas Eakins
Jennifer Stewart-USA Today Sports

Eakins was one of the most sought-after names in the coaching community a year and half ago, but he has done an awful job with the Oilers. The team showed signs of progress under Ralph Kruger in 2013, and the regression in the past few years has been almost painful. It’ll shock no one if Eakins is in the unemployment line after less than two seasons behind the bench.

1. The Team Won't Get Lucky in the Draft Lottery

Connor McDavid
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1. The Team Won't Get Lucky in the Draft Lottery

Connor McDavid
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The team will bottom out and be one of the five worst teams in hockey, but won’t land one of the prized big-name prospects in Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel or Noah Hanifin. There really is no end in sight to the Oilers’ cycle of misery.

PowerPlayCJ is a writer for RantSports.
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