The Los Angeles Dodgers acquired LHP Tarik Skubal last night, and the world of baseball reached madness shortly afterward. Los Angeles won the past two World Series and is a strong bet to win a third this fall.
This is what you want your team to do, every season. The Dodgers have a fantastic draft and development model, and the team has enormous piles of money, but the key is willingness to use all options to make the team better. That’s it, that’s all.
The Oilers could be that, but over the last dozen years have chosen to mortgage the future at every turn. The team now sits in a difficult spot. There’s every chance peak McDavid era happened in 2024. I can’t see the 2030’s being a successful decade if the current plan (hatched by Peter Chiarelli, tweaked by Ken Holland and now entering the Stan Bowman ‘caulking the leaks’ period) continues.
Thing is, the team is trapped. You can’t start using the No. 24 overall draft pick to build back the prospect pool, Edmonton can’t go fast enough to get there early in development. The 2027 first-round pick isn’t going to help until 2030, at the earliest possible marker.
So, what to do? I think Bowman has it mostly right. Keep McDavid, Draisaitl and Bouchard, slowly move Savoie past the Nuge, hope like hell Ike Howard can supplant Zach Hyman when the time comes, and build the things you can through drafts, free-agent signings of college and European players, and hope to get lucky and find another (Miro) Satan late in a draft.
I will quibble over some of the draft picks. Edmonton had a high pick this year and turned it into what looks like a sure-fire NHL checking center. That has value. However, when you don’t have a future 20-goal man in the system (after Ike Howard graduates), it makes things tough. Not impossible, Bowman’s deal for Vasily Podkolzin showed us there are ways to find useful skill players. But tough. Very tough.
The other way for Bowman to find a difference maker? Wait in the weeds for a great option to reveal itself in the days before training camp. Someone out there wants to trade a good player, someone on the free-agent wire is getting antsy. Bowman is waitng now, sitting on his money mountain and keeping his powder dry.
I think it’s the play here. The Dodgers have it right. Get good players, keep good players. You’re going to make mistakes (Yordan Alvarez is the best hitter in the game and was once a Dodger) but winning championships is how we keep score.
