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Ralph Krueger | Center

Team: Edmonton Oilers
Age / DOB:  (53) / 8/31/1959
Ht / Wt:  6'0' / 190
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Detroit Red Wings forward Damien Brunner has a lot of respect for what Edmonton Oilers coach Ralph Krueger did for hockey in Switzerland.
Krueger coached the Swiss national team before becoming the Oilers' bench boss. "With Krueger we got pretty consistent making the quarterfinals, he did a great job," Brunner said. "For Switzerland he made them believe we could take the next step. Then when he left, Sean Simpson took over and he’s been able to take the next step by winning a quarterfinal and winning a semifinal. But Ralph Krueger did a great job over the time he was there." Switzerland ended up falling short in the gold medal game, but it was still their best showing in the tournament since 1935. May 22 - 10:30 AM

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Date:

The deadly tornado that tore through Oklahoma on Monday was only half a mile from the practice facility of the Oilers' AHL affiliate in Oklahoma City.

"All of our guys are safe and accounted for," said Barons general manager Bill Scott. "We’re good. Our guys live on the north side of the city or in the downtown area. Our staff was in the office downtown. Some of them live in Moore but all are accounted for." The storm absolutely devastated the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, leveling houses for blocks at a time. Defenseman Alex Plante is one of the players who lives in Moore. "I’d come downtown for a dentist appointment and the family I was staying with in Moore, who adopted three Downs Syndrome kids, managed to get the kids out of their school before the lockdowns," said Plante, who also noted he didn't want to see the damage caused by the storm.
May 21 - 10:24 AM

The Oilers and Edmonton city council have completed the funding agreement on a new arena.

So ends the seven-year debate over the project. The team and city will now split the cost of the final $30 million needed to greenlight the project, which will be completed in time for the 2016-17 season and begin in the spring of 2014. The total cost, including the arena and surrounding infrastructure, will be $604.5 million. The Oilers will be on the hook for $161.5 million, the city $279 million and the remaining $125 million will come from a ticket tax. "The result today is a landmark agreement that enables our city to move forward in an enormously positive way," said Oilers owner Daryl Katz.
Source: TSN.ca
May 15 - 8:29 PM

The Edmonton Oilers will not pick first overall for the first time in four years after losing the draft lottery Monday night.

If only they had Steve Tambellini's lucky tie, the Oilers might be dreaming about Seth Jones instead of picking seventh in what's widely considered a deep draft with four elite players at the top. That's not to say Edmonton is staying put, with new GM Craig MacTavish admitting the Oilers would look into moving back. "We’re definitely going to look at doing something with that pick. I think we’d be very receptive to moving back and picking up another pick potentially," said MacTavish, who previously noted the Oilers could have as many as eight new players next season.
Apr 30 - 10:21 AM

The Edmonton Oilers might try to shop their top pick.

Oilers GM Craig MacTavish promised to make bold moves as the Oilers miss the playoffs for the seventh straight season. "If you’re going to be bold, that’s certainly a bold move," TSN's Bob MacKenzie said on the possibility of the Oilers' trading their pick. "What the Edmonton Oilers really don’t need is another 18-year-old blue chipper. They need some help right now and using that first round pick as currency could get them that help right now." It would allow them to address some of their needs and add a veteran presence without trading a member of their existing core. If they do keep the pick, there's a good chance that they'll select a defenseman.
Apr 25 - 10:36 AM

The Edmonton Oilers will begin a brutal finish to the season on Friday.

Edmonton will play six games in just nine days to close out the season. That's not exactly ideal, but after losing six contests in a row and towards the end of a disappointing season, maybe the constant competition will keep them focused.
Apr 17 - 10:12 AM

New Edmonton General Manager Craig MacTavish has promised bold roster moves.

Former GM Steve Tambellini tweaked the lineup at the trade deadline less than two weeks ago by acquiring only Jerred Smithson, claiming the Oilers were close enough to a playoff spot not to change the roster but they have been in a tailspin ever since and are on the outside looking in on the playoffs. "That's obviously on us," Sam Gagner said of the management change. "We had an opportunity to turn things around here. We were rolling towards the deadline and the team was kept intact because they had faith in us and we didn’t get the job done. It’s a message to us that we have to get something done. It's completely understandable. We've been going through a rebuild for a while here and at some point you have to expect results. I think, as a group, we're being told about the future and how good it's going to be and it just doesn't happen that way."
Apr 16 - 9:10 AM

The Edmonton Oilers have fired GM Steve Tambellini.

As we commented earlier, Tambellini's biggest failing was his inability to build around the impressive core of skilled forwards the Oilers have accumulated via the draft. Former Oilers player and coach Craig MacTavish will reportedly take over as the team's general manager and he'll be tasked with solidifying the team's bottom-six forwards and bolstering their defense. Edmonton hasn't made the playoffs since 2005-06, but if MacTavish plays his cards right, he could oversee the next great Oilers' dynasty.
Apr 15 - 11:44 AM

Terry Jones of the Edmonton Sun thinks that GM Steve Tambellini should be fired at the end of the season.

Jones states that while the Oilers have a lot of front end talent, their bottom-six forwards and lack of strength on the blueline fall on the shoulders of their GM who has not addressed the problems. The Oilers are in line to miss the playoffs once again as they have not been in the playoffs since their Stanley Cup final run of 2006.
Apr 15 - 9:47 AM

Don Cherry feels the Edmonton Oilers are losing because they're not being aggressive enough physically.

"Last in the league in fights," Cherry said before adding sarcastically, "Oh yeah, fights don’t win don’t games." Cherry also argued that Mike Brown, who the Oilers added to make their team tougher, isn't a heavyweight. Edmonton has recorded 907 hits this season, which puts them in the bottom half of the league, but then again, Chicago is dead last with 686 hits and things seem to be working out for them. Chicago is also near the bottom of the league in fights while the Blue Jackets and Flyers rank second and third in that category. So obviously, fighting and toughness is not a prerequisite for success and a lack of it is not a guarantee of failure. That being said, the Oilers already have more than enough skilled forwards and their focus when acquiring players will probably be on adding toughness to compliment guys like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle.
Apr 14 - 9:51 AM

The Edmonton Oilers will play three games in four nights five times in the month of April.

That's a lot of action for the young squad and they will likely need to split the net between Devan Dubnyk and Nikolai Khabibulin barring any trades at the Wednesday deadline. Be a bit wary of the Oilers down the stretch as they should be a tired team in a couple of weeks.
Apr 1 - 9:15 AM

Scott Howson, the former GM of the Columbus Blue Jackets, has joined the Edmonton Oilers as a scout.

"I want to get somewhere where I can contribute and feel useful," said Howson. He previously worked under Kevin Lowe as the assistant GM of the Edmonton Oilers. In addition to scouting NHL players, Howson will keep an eye on US colleges to determine if there's any soon-to-be free agent prospects that the Oilers might want to pursue.
Mar 14 - 9:55 AM

The Edmonton Oilers are likely to trade much in the way of prospects or picks for immediate fixes.

"Whether you’re in the playoffs or not, if you can upgrade your team or improve it, we’ll do that, but most of the people here are the people we’re going to be counting on for some time," Oilers GM Steve Tambellini said. "You’re not going to give up youth just for a quick fix there, that’s for sure." The Oilers have an abundance of skilled young forwards and could maybe use more veteran leadership, but a trade seems unlikely. It looks like Edmonton will stay the course as far as their long-term rebuilding plans go.
Mar 13 - 10:31 AM

Edmonton Oilers coach Ralph Krueger expressed his displeasure at his team after their 3-0 loss to the Detroit Red Wings.

Krueger felt Detroit outplayed Edmonton in every category for about 10 minutes in the second period, which swung the previously scoreless contest to Detroit's favor. "There’s no excuse for this one," Krueger said. "We cannot stop playing for 10 minutes against the Detroit Red Wings and expect to get points. We just stopped playing for 10 minutes and that was enough." Edmonton entered this season amid expectations that they were finally ready to take the next step in their rebuilding efforts, but that hasn't happened yet. They have a 8-10-5 record, which puts them closer to 30th place than a playoff spot.
Mar 8 - 10:29 AM

The Edmonton Oilers are 1-2-2 on their current road trip.

To make matters worse for them, they still have to play in four more road games over the next six days. "We just have to get our confidence and our mojo back in this locker-room," winger Ryan Jones said. "We need to recognize that we are a good hockey team. It’s a tough road trip as it is, and if we make it tougher on ourselves, it will be never ending." Edmonton is already falling out of the pack in the Western Conference playoff race. If they don't win at least half of their remaining games in this road trip, they will have dug a sizable hole for themselves.
Mar 7 - 10:10 AM

Depth Charts

All Positions
PosRoleName
C1Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
2Sam Gagner
3Shawn Horcoff
4Eric Belanger
5Lennart Petrell
6Anton Lander
LW1Taylor Hall
2Ryan Smyth
3Mike Brown
4Magnus Paajarvi
5Jerred Smithson
RW1Jordan Eberle
2Ales Hemsky
3Nail Yakupov
4Ryan Jones
D1Ryan Whitney
2Justin Schultz
3Jeff Petry
4Ladislav Smid
5Nick Schultz
6Corey Potter
7Mark Fistric
8Theo Peckham
G1Devan Dubnyk
2Nikolai Khabibulin