Monday, October 11, 2010

Oilers website exaggerating the size of their players

As some of you know, I went to Penticton for the rookie tournament. I visited with some of the players and had some good conversations. I also compared my size with some of the players i met, it's a common occurrence - I want to know how these guys stack up. I stand at an exact height of 6'1 and 3/4" and weigh in at 220 IBS. When I met Paajarvi I was very surprised how small he was, but I was also led to believe by the Oilers media that this was a big kid, but sadly I was hulking over him in size. He was definitely shorter than myself, and obviously lighter in weight. He had small arms and was a pretty skinny kid in general, I remember thinking to myself that this kid needed to bulk up, but at age 19 what do you expect?
I looked up some of the players on the Oilers website today. What I have noticed is the EdmontonOilers.com has been changing the height and weight class of some of their players. I viewed Magnus Paajarvi's profile approximately a month ago and they had him listed at 6'1". A couple weeks later they had him listed at 6'2". Now get this, today his profile again has been adjusted and his size is  now listed at 6'3" and 200 Ibs. Apparently Paajarvi has been eating his wheaties this past month and I'm expected to believe that he's a late bloomer.

I feel like my intelligence is being insulted with the profiles on the Oilers website. Not only are they changing them, and I've caught on - but their height and weight are fabricated. If I had to give Paajarvi's size, I'd say 185IBS max and around 6'0" to  6'1", but shorter them myself at 6'1 and 3/4".

Many of the players listed have inaccurate weight and height, which now makes me believe that it's a possibility that all of the players heights are inflated. I haven't had the opportunity to meet every player but I have seen many of the rookies in person. Eberle for instance was listed at 5'10" on many sites and my opinion I would judge that as an accurate height, but on the Oilers website  he is listed at  6'0". Taylor Hall in my opinion couldn't have been any taller then 5'11" but he is listed at 6'1". I ran into Hemsky years ago at a down town club and he couldn't have been anymore than 5'10", but of course he is listed at 6'0" on edmontonoilers.com. Given the fact that the Oilers website is the most viewed among NHL teams, it's important for them to hold some sort of credibility. Many of us reference from this site, however I think I will need to find a better site for this sort of information.

What's the reasoning for the adjustments? Are the Oilers nervous that their star players may be a target and feel the need to inflate their size?  Maybe they're sick of fans ragging on the team for having too many smurfs in the line up? Whatever their motives are, I don't like the innacuracy.

You can see here the Oilers have Paajarvi listed at a hulking 6'3" and 200 IBS. Also I encourage you to scroll through the other more talented players. Maybe you have met some of the players I have not and have a better idea if they're accurate.

http://oilers.nhl.com/club/player.htm?id=8475175

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