Justin Schultz

And he was having an excellent rookie season.

Justin Schultz was also a rookie that season.

I, being the Oilers fan that I am, badly wanted Schultz.

Schultz had...

I sound like such an asshole when I say this, but guys were afraid to trade with me in that draft because I had kind of figured things out and gotten pretty good at it.

The guy refused.

He said, no, no, I like Justin Schultz.

He wasn't even no other's fan.

And Shane Wright, he's got the skill set to handle big minutes.

But defensively, we need Justin Schultz type stability if he's there, or whoever is paired with Brandon Montour.

Montour led in goals last game.

He needs to stay involved.

And that's sort of what we utilize in the second half of the summer here.

There are additions from a sports science, a sports performance, a player development aspect, bringing in someone like Justin Schultz.

All these things are focused in and around helping our players, helping our players, whether it's the full-time nutritionist, adding an extra... strength coach in the weight room adding to our medical staff all this is make sure our players understand and have a feel that hey they're giving they're getting all their opportunities to to have the most success and sort of hit their max as a player and you know we talk a lot about whether it's a young player such as berkeley catton or more of a veteran player like bobby mcmahon continue to develop him doesn't matter what age you are continue to develop them I think there's a feeling downstairs in our locker room that the resources are here.

And I think that just adds to players wanting to stay and players wanting to come here.

There's, you know, the Alexis Bernier and Maddie Berniers.

Thankfully, we have been liberated from Jaden Schwartz, Justin Schultz.

So we don't have that to worry about anymore.

But...

Uh, because Jeremy Lauzon is nowhere near worth a second-round pick, but that's what he was traded for and that pick ended up being Jani Nyman Uh, and so Ron Francis like, "Okay, the expansion draft, yeah, maybe that didn't go so well, but you know, we got some, we got some nice deals at the trade deadline." And, and now you're heading into this off-season, and he, uh, signs, um, three free agents.

Uh, Martin Jones, a backup goaltender, uh, Justin Schultz, a defenseman who then, uh, now you have the Justin Schultz, Jayden Schwartz, um, confusing issue.

And then they signed Andre Burakovsky to a pretty significant free agent deal as a, a adding scoring punch.

And Andre Burakovsky, uh, also from Colorado, um, [lip smack] you know, two-time Stanley Cup winner and a real, um, just a real sniper.

There's the carrot in front of the mule.

What was the old sign of the old – when it was Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle and Justin Schultz and Ryan Nugent Hopkins with the Edmonton Oilers, you'd walk into the dressing room and the first sign you'd see is earned, not given.

And you looked around the room and it's like, okay, you gave this guy what spot and which money? And it's like, where's the earn not given? Like, I think it's a great motto for a team.

You just didn't really see it play itself out.

It was a close game, with Burgett inching past Campos 33-31.

Game four of the quarterfinal matches saw Justin Schultz and Al Deuce shoot it out, leaving Schultz the victor, 33 to 15.

In the level one semifinal action, Tony Shively and Chris Diller battled it out in game one, with Shively taking a commanding victory by a score of 39 to 20.

In the second semifinal game, Derek Burgett went head to head with Justin Schultz.

Burgett also had a commanding win with 42 to Schultz's 21.

Chris Diller and Justin Schultz shot off for 3rd place, and Schultz made short work of Diller by a score of 37-17.

In the Level 1 championship game, Tony Shively and Derek Burgett shot it out.

At the turn, Shively trailed by 11 points.