SO LONG, AND THANKS FOR ALL THE FISH
Pondering deadlines based on the Oilers’ moves feels the same every year: You’re left wondering why they don’t just blow it up. Edmonton entered the calendar year 2015 with three holes (starting goaltender, LH Top-4D, 2C) and have added two more (RH Top-4D, scoring winger) via the David Perron and Jeff Petry deals. Craig MacTavish must cash in those picks acquired in the Perron and Petry deals for immediate help but we’ve seen this movie before and it never ends with an actual trade.
“I’m confident going forward with Oscar, Justin, Nikita, Andrew and Fayne.” MacT on Oilers blueline. #Oilers
— Jason Gregor (@
JasonGregor) March 2, 2015
This is an incredible statement and should tighten the sphincters of Oilers fans across the land. This is like saying “I think four days worth of food is plenty for this two month trip up Everest” and the result is both predictable and catastrophic. The Edmonton Oilers GM told us today he is confident in the group of five listed for next season. Full stop. If you added Chris Pronger 2006 to those five it would still be badly wanting. The best Oilers fans can hope for? That MacT is fibbing, not telling us the truth because Connor McDavid is the goal and he can’t say it. Otherwise, if the counter is true, then there is no hope for this team. Begin stamp collecting, learn knit one pearl two, buy a bike, take photographs. Investing energy in the fortunes of the Edmonton Oilers is a loser’s bet, it’s too difficult.
The Edmonton Oilers are a bad hockey club and they make decisions based on things other than winning. Saying more would only cloud the issue. There is nothing about the actions of this team in recent months that offers us any hope for the future. I have reached this conclusion: The Edmonton Oilers organization has no idea what they’re doing.
The problem with the Perron and Pouliot deals is that in isolation, they look pretty good… But when you put them in context, there are problems.
In both cases, he was running around acquiring some higher end wingers before he had any centre depth. Two years in a row.
This year, the Oilers started the season with 4 lines of playoff calibre wingers, I would suggest. With 2 NHL centres, no 1G, and a terrible blue line, it sure didn’t help much.
In the case of the Perron deal, he had three years on his ticket and that term aligned miserably with the Oilers timeline as a competitive hockey team.
A more savvy GM may have avoided the Gagner debacle along with Eakins… May have put more effort into acquiring some centre options for his coach.
devalue asset and trade–rinse and repeat.
Hello Gagner, Dubnyk, Petry, and Perron.
Courtesy of bituman…
http://i1369.photobucket.com/albums/ag230/bituman532/Mobile%20Uploads/download_zpspl2sil0h.png
“This shows cumulative Scoring Chances For % vs Goals For % with PDO as bubble color since 2005-2006. Basically, this is the Oilers since the start of early published advanced stats. It includes the Pronger team. We don’t get chances, we don’t score, we give up chances, and we get low shooting & save percentage to boot.
This year we’re better than Buffalo & Phoenix. And many stats have us at about 25th for the moment. But after all of the draft picks, coaches, 3 GM’s and trades we’re still guaranteed to finish in the bottom three.
It’s completely astounding. We’re absolutely the worst team of the Corsi era, the worst team post lockout. Nine years of this garbage. It already equals in length Gretzky’s NHL career with the Oilers.”
The bubble placement for the Oilers isn’t even close to the rest of the league. Amazing.
Not if Petry plays well in the playoffs, and helps Montreal win a round or two or three or the Stanley Cup.
His agents correctly assessed that if they want to get a fair contract for Petry, they needed GM’s to see him outside of Edmonton.
Petry, I think, is probably the best of the UFA defensemen traded (exception if Timonen plays anywhere his past peak abilities, and Coburn is not a UFA).
And when that happens, Dallas and Detroit both covet a 2nd pairing mid-career RHD.
Don’t rush Brossoit. OKC is in for a playoff run. There is no need for Brossoit to see more than 1 game with the Oilers as a reward.
Leading an AHL playoff run is much more beneficial to Brossoit than getting shellshocked in Edmonton playing out the season.
Everyone likes to Predict!
They love to 2nd guess.
You are GM:
June 2013:
Start building.
To me the major set us back was the eakins move!
Cost us Dubnyk!
Yak Player development.
How many of you draft Yakimov; Slepyshev.
I spend weeks/months on Prospect game log trending.
i would have been 0 for 2
Excellent work here LT. I believe you’ve summed up the Oilers situation perfectly.
Any EPL fans out there? Who’s your team and why? Who’s your most hated team and why?
I want to get into it and don’t know to start (beyond liking my fellow Dutch players). I cannot stand the Leafs and Yankees types for obvious reasons.
It seems that lots of Oilers fans are Spurs fans. Any correlation?
I’m with you on that. For sure. The other GM stuff wasn’t as serious to me.
rickithebear,
Not to blow my own horn or anything but I wanted both Slepyshev and Yakimov before the draft, even posted it on HfBoards at the time. If you had a decent grasp on the euro prospects their upside was pretty obvious and both are high 2nd rounders at the very least if you looked at plain quality. The scouting of the euro leagues is still lagging behind imo.
I also had David Pastrnak as an easy top ten pick last season. Really wanted Andreas Johnsson with one of the late Oiler picks the year before.
On the other hand some of the euros picked in the top rounds are complete headscratchers. Carl Dahström and Nick Sörensen in the second round? 4th rounders at best. Same with Andreas Englund last year. Decent prospect yes. Worthy of a second round pick? No way.
I’m not a scout and don’t claim to know much about it and that’s what has me surprised on the mistakes made on euro players. I’m thinking that if a little more focus was put on the euro junior leagues, teams would get much more value, especially in the later rounds, the top euro kids are usually fairly well scouted, it’s the second group that are afterthoughts it seems. I’m not saying teams should pick more euros, just pick the right one because often teams are wasting picks.
Part of the reason last years draft was considered weak was that a lot of the best players were european kids, guys like Pastrnak, Nylander, Vrana and Fiala are really talented players, when only one is a top ten pick I’d argue the draft is pretty good.
Once I developed a reading level past grade 3.
I read SF/fantasy(buble gum read)
and
this transition of writers:
Beat:
Neal Cassidy
Kerouac
Ginsberg
Ferlighetti
Burroughs
Cassidy lead to:
Merry pranksters
Kassidy
Kessey
Mcmurtry
Wolfe
Wolfe lead to:
Capote
Harper Lee
Joan Diodon
Hunter S. thompson
Norman Mailer
Joan Diodon
Gay talease
Talease lead to
W.P. Kinsella ( my favourite author)
Kessey lead to:
HellerNabakov
Vonegutt
Fowles
Robbins
Barth
Glass
Kerouac lead to:
Bukowski
McCarthy
Carver
Carson Macullers
Fredrick Barthelme
larry Brown
Macullers lead to
Faulkner
Ane Rice
Mcdowell
W. Percy
Caldwell
My brain enjoys this form of sentences!
Be damned if i can remeber the Book store just off whyte ave that provided great access to out of print boooks (hub????)
rickithebear,
I would contend, then, that your grade 4 reading far outstripped your later years. Seriously, Ann Rice? Plus I have always had a dislike for the over smug, name-dropping Tom Robbins but he did pen a book with Skinny Legs And All as the title.
I love Joe Tex. Seriously.
You do mention some of my very favorite writers. Grade 3? You were a late bloomer, then. I read these all before they were written. ha ha.
I appreciate you, fella. You stand by your convictions and that cannot often be said of the sycophantic nature of blog readers.
Hell that’s why I love this blog, period.
LT you have a hell of an audience.
I spent hours in the same damn bookstore. Turtle Creek or something? I don’t live there any more.