The Edmonton Sun indicates that new head coach Ralph Krueger has been the Oilers' main Nail Yakupov monitor man when it comes to his play in the KHL with hometown Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk. The youngster has scored 10 goals and played point-per-game-plus hockey with 14 points in 13 games.
"Ralph has spent some time with him over there," general manager Steve Tambellini said of Krueger bouncing around Europe out of his base in Switzerland.
"To have been able to watch Nail has been nothing but a pleasure," said Krueger, returning a call from somewhere in Europe Thursday.
"He's a shooting machine!
"To have double digit goals in that Russian league already is nothing short of outstanding.
"He's second in the league in shots on goal — in the whole league — it's really phenomenal," said the longtime Swiss national coach of the KHL.
"He exudes so much confidence. And those Russian teams play so defensive. They play such a structured defensive game. And to top it all off, Nail is not on such a good team."
Krueger admits that in following Schultz and Yakupov he feels like the Oilers had two No. 1 overall picks in the draft last year to go with one No. 1 pick — Taylor Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins — in each of their previous pairs of 30th place overall seasons.
"It's very exciting what these two kids, with this type of talent, are doing playing against men for the first times in their career."
Krueger said he's taking an in-contact but not an in-their-faces strategy with both, wanting them to be coached by their coaches during the NHL lockout.
"With Nail, since I last had dinner with him, it's been mostly by e-mail, texting and one phone call.
"He's always been very interesting to exchange thoughts with in our contact. I can feel the Oilers blood beginning to boil in him."
Krueger admits that in following Justin Schultz and Yakupov he can't help but be thinking of the Oilers power play. He took over coaching the Oilers power play last year as an associate coach under Tom Renney last year and moved it from near-worst to near-first in the league, the Oilers ending up third at 20.6% after being 27th at 14.5% the year before.
You'd figure he'd have Schultz and Nugent-Hopkins pencilled in on the points with Jordan Eberle, Hall and Yakupov up front. But Krueger says he's not thinking one power play but two.
"I think a good team in the NHL needs two groups firing.
"I think Justin on the right side and Nugent-Hopkins on the left is a pretty good foundation for the power play on the back. I'm thinking Nail more as the scorer with Ales Hemsky and Sam Gagner. Nail is definitely a shooter. And I see Eberle as kind of like the clean-up man in baseball on the other unit."
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