Forum » Voelker versus William Macario

EDMONTON -- Now that the Edmonton Oilers have secured their offensive future, the defence is next on their to-do list. With Thursdays signing of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the Oilers have their three key forwards -- Nugent-Hopkins, Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle -- locked up for the next six or seven years. The focus now shifts to Justin Schultz, the future of the teams blue-line who is in the final year of a two-year contract he signed as a free agent. "Long-term, Justin Schultz is definitely going to be a key ingredient for us," defensive coach Steve Smith said after Fridays skate. "Justin just has a natural gift to be an offensive player. He jumps into the play so well, hes so skilled, he shoots the puck hard, hes able to find open spots in the offensive zone and, quite frankly, hes strong defensively." The 23-year-old is still happy he chose the Oilers when several NHL teams were pursuing him and he sees himself being in Edmonton for a long time. "All of us want to be here for a long time," said the six-foot-two, 185-pound Schultz, adding hes not concerned about his contract. "Not worried about that at all. I have this year to play and well see what happens." What the Oilers see happening is Schultz leading the development of a number of key defensive players and becoming the face of that group, which is fine with him. "You want to be one of those key guys," he said. "Its nice to have the responsibility. Were all a pretty young core group of guys and some veterans who came in who can help us." But Smith noted its not just Schultz, who had eight goals and 27 points in last years 48-game shortened season. "Weve got a bunch of guys who compete real hard," he said. "Its a hard-working group and theres a lot of character in it so theres a lot of promise moving forward." He had particular praise for 25-year-old Jeff Petry, who Smith says carries the puck well and is "as pure a skater as there is the game as far as Im concerned." Smith, a former defenceman with the Oilers, was generally pleased with the way the defence played last year, although he concedes the team did struggle in its own end, partly because of the lack of commitment to defence by the young forwards. "We had some good results offensively," said Smith. "Justin coming in definitely helped us in the offensive zone. And Jeff Petry is another one. They just have abilities that just arent taught. So you look at it and say both of those guys are pretty well-rounded players and the future is very bright." Short-term, he said, the club bolstered its defence with the addition this summer of free agent Andrew Ference from Boston and Nick Schultz last year. Add a pretty consistent Vladislav Smid and the Oilers do have some steady veterans to help the youngsters. Plus, there is young Darnell Nurse, their first-round pick in last springs draft. "Hes raw and hes got some steps to take to get the NHL level, but I have to tell you were really happy with what weve seen of him so far," said Smith. The Oilers are home to the Vancouver Canucks in another pre-season meeting Saturday evening. Wholesale Baseball Jerseys .Cullen scored the go-ahead goal at 13:47 of the third period and Nashville beat the slumping Dallas Stars 3-2 on Thursday in a game that wasnt decided until the last shot of the night. Cheap MLB Jerseys Authentic .This one was bigger than most.Ben Roethlisberger and LeVeon Bell came up big in a game that Pittsburgh had to win Sunday, leading the Steelers to a 42-21 drubbing of the Cincinnati Bengals that left the AFC North race wide open. https://www.mlbjerseyschina.us/.A. Dickey, even though he was coming off a Cy Young Award in 2012. Many felt the Jays would regret giving up righthanded pitcher prospect Noah Syndergaard and catcher Travis DArnaud over the long haul. Wholesale Nike MLB Jerseys . -- Chris Tillman paid no attention to the Baltimore bullpen as it started to stir in the ninth inning. Fake Nike MLB Jerseys . -- Isaiah Pead took a stutter step forward, then raced to the left sideline and travelled 60 yards up the field before finally getting tripped up by a leg tackle.TORONTO -- Another chapter to the post-Georges St-Pierre welterweight story will be written at UFC 171, with No. 2 contender Carlos (The Natural Born Killer) Condit taking on Tyron (The Chosen One) Woodley. The title recently vacated by St-Pierre will be on the line at the March 15 card in Dallas when No. 1 contender Johny (Bigg Rigg) Hendricks faces No. 3 (Ruthless) Robbie Lawler (22-9 with one no contest). Hendricks (15-2) is coming off a controversial split decision loss to St-Pierre at UFC 167 last month. The Condit-Woodley winner could become the next title contender. The 170-pound championship has belonged to St-Pierre since he won it back from Matt (The Terror) Serra at UFC 83 in Montreal in April 2008. St-Pierre (25-2) beat Condit at UFC 154 in November 2012. Condit (29-7) has beaten Martin (The Hitman) Kampmann and lost to Hendricks since then. The Condit-Woodley announcement Tuesday means that seven of the UFCs top 10 welterweights have fights scheduled. Condit was due to meet No. 8 Matt (The Immortal) Brown last Saturday on a televised card in Sacramento but the fight was called off when Brown (20-11) was sidelined with a back injury. The unranked Woodley had campaigned on Twitter to be Browns replacement. Woodley (12-2) is coming off an impressive first-round TKO win over veeteran Josh Koscheck.dddddddddddd The 31-year-old from St Louis went 8-0 in Strikeforce before losing via fourth-round TKO to Nate (The Great) Marquardt in a title bout. He opened his UFC account with a first-round stoppage of Jay Hieron before losing a close decision to Jake Shields. Shields, ranked seventh among 170 pounders, is expected to meet Hector Lombard at UFC 171. Montreals Rory MacDonald, ranked fourth, is to fight No. 6 Demian Maia at UFC UFC 170 on Feb. 22 in Las Vegas. And No. 10 Tarec (Sponge) Saffiedine takes on Hyun Gyu Lim on a televised card Jan. 4 in Singapore. The only ranked welterweights currently without fights are Brown, No. 5 Jake (The Juggernaut) Ellenberger and No. 9 Kampmann. Other UFC welterweight matchups already announced include: -- Bobby Voelker versus William Macario and Siyar Bahadurzada versus John Howard at UFC 168, Dec. 28 in Las Vegas. -- Luiz Dutra versus Kiichi Kunimoto, Jan. 4 in Singapore -- Adlan Amagov versus Jason High, Jan. 15 in Atlanta. -- T.J. Waldburger versus Mike Pyle, UFC 170, Feb. 22 in Las Vegas. -- Alex Garcia versus Sean Spencer, UFC 171, March 15 in Dallas. The highest-profile welterweight outside the FC is former Bellator champion Ben Askren (12-0), who recently signed with the Asian-based One FC promotion. ' ' '