Edmonton..looks bad

[Roof Daddy]

Good ol' Chiarelli. Horrible gm in Boston, horrible in Edmonton. Guy values heavy bodies but the league has become a fast league. He overvalued guys like Lucic and Maroon. Maroon is in no way a 1st line guy but if he has two solid players he can work. But the problem is the Oilers only have 2 solid forwards in their entire lineup so now all you have to do is focus on one line. They have the worst second line in the entire league and two fourth lines. They overpaid for Kris Russell who is a 6th dman, not a number 4. It's a horribly run franchise that got lucky how many times for he lottery and if not for all that they'd be dead last. How a team can still be mediocre after winning the lottery 4 times in 5 years is beyond me. Chiarelli hands out of contracts all the time. Guy is a horrible negotiator. Watch Maroon get 5 per year! Lol

We won the lottery 3 times - 2010, 2012 and 2015. That is still lucky, no doubt, but that is what tanking/mismanaged teams do - put themselves in a position to win the draft lottery. If you were talking about picking 1st overall, it was 4 in 6 years from 2010-2015 (Nurse 7th OA in 2013, Drai 3rd OA in 2014). Was it incredibly lucky to win the lottery in 2015 to grab the best 1st OA in a decade? Yes, but I’d argue it was equally unlucky to have Yakupov turn into (possibly) the worst 1st overall ever.

As for Chia’s grade as a GM, I’d say he’s middle of the pack. There’s been some questionable trades/signings, but there’s been some good ones too. What he has is balls, which is exactly what it took to pull off the Larsson trade when you knew the public perception would be losing the trade, but knowing it would improve the team.

As for the thread topic, yes we look ugly right now, but we kind of did last year to start the year too. Talbot was garbage the first 2 weeks and it took a home ice embarrassment courtesy of the Sabres to shame the team into heavy reflection and refocus. I’m confident the same will happen after this past Saturday.

Or maybe I should put $100 on Jersey and Vegas to meet in the finals if two weeks predicts an entire season?

 

[xVolchenkov]

We won the lottery 3 times - 2010, 2012 and 2015.

What about 2011?

 

[EchoesoftheEighties]

What about 2011?

New Jersey won the lottery and moved up to pick 4. Edmonton was last in the standings.

 

[xVolchenkov]

New Jersey won the lottery and moved up to pick 4. Edmonton was last in the standings.

Fair enough. Miss read on my part. Still, I believe his point was drafting 1st overall.

 

[Weitz]

I think the Oilers have looked bad, I agree with that.

But I do find it funny, you go 1-3 to start the year and its the end of the world. You go 1-3 in January or February and no one cares.

 

[NyQuil]

I think the Oilers have looked bad, I agree with that.

But I do find it funny, you go 1-3 to start the year and its the end of the world. You go 1-3 in January or February and no one cares.

That's why it's more fun to go 3-1 in October.

 

[LickTheEnvelope]

I only judge teams in 20 game blocks. 4 Games is mostly irrelevant.

 

[yababy]

That "horrible GM in Boston" won Boston their Stanley Cup. The current management team has had one lottery win. One. Did our former management run it poorly? Yep. But you can't say that it is mismanaged when looking at the job that the current management team has done. The lone questionable piece is the Russell deal, but you are wrong when you say he is a #6. His past three NHL GM's used him as a #4, just like we are now. He's very underrated. And slightly overpaid, but not so much that it makes him impossible to move (remember, RD get a premium). How did he overvalue Maroon exactly? He gave up nothing to get him, and Anaheim is paying half of his salary? Lucic is still one of the top power forwards in the league, you are fooling yourself if you think he is overpaid.

Basically, when I look at your post, my first reaction was that you must think its opposite day, because nearly everything you say is incorrect.

What are you talking about?
Russell is signed for 4 years and has a no movement clause

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

What are you talking about?
Russell is signed for 4 years and has a no movement clause

and he hasn't been the problem and has come as advertised

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

I think the Oilers have looked bad, I agree with that.

But I do find it funny, you go 1-3 to start the year and its the end of the world. You go 1-3 in January or February and no one cares.

Not saying I agree, but it's more because if you start 1-3, that's all anyone has to go by to judge the team's performance. Whereas if you're already well into 40+ games, a 1-3 stretch may not be indicative of how that team has performed the entire 40+ games.

No different than why it stands out more when a player stars the season pointless in his first 5 games compared to if a guy with 70 points after 50 games going pointless for the next 5 isn't even noticeable.

 

[Knies iT]

I'm really not impressed by their offense. They have a lot of sluggish, overachieving wingers in the top nine (Kassian, Maroon, Lucic) and a lack of depth beyond Draisaitl and McDavid. They're too slow as a unit (excluding McDavid) and not dynamic enough outside of the top line.

Their defense also lacks a serious offensive threat and seems to be hurting without Sekera. Goaltending is fine.

I feel like adding a few pieces like Josh Leivo (cheap, effective top 9er who can cycle), Tyson Barrie (dynamic OFD), and another top 9 centre (allowing Draisaitl to stay with McDavid) would go a long way in remedying the above issues.

 

[lwvs84]

The way I see it, last year Edmonton had something to prove. They came out of the gates swinging after a decade of being horrible. This year, they have much higher expectations and less of a chip on their shoulder. They are probably easing into the season like a lot of the other teams, while also dealing with injuries and probably some rust (especially after Talbot played so many games last year, I would think he took a break over the summer). They were and still are my pick to run away with the Pacific this year. How long is Drai supposed to be out for? If it's long term, that would change my opinion, but otherwise I don't see another team really challenging them in the Pacific.

 

[Mikeshane]

What is going on with Draisaitl? First it was a minor thing, then he missed a game and now it's a concussion and I still haven't see video of what happened.

 

[Canucks1096]

New Jersey won the lottery and moved up to pick 4. Edmonton was last in the standings.

If you are last in the standings it doesn't Gurantee you the 1st pick overall. You still need to win it.

 

[PunkRockLocke]

For all Chiarelli hate: He is a Cup winning GM. Doesn't necessarily mean he's doing a great job right now, but he definitely knows what he's doing and is an above average GM. There are a lot of bad ones.

 

[MJ65]

Edmonton is going to be fine as they have enough talent and depth to overcome early set backs (loses) - A loss against Sens was a downer but it was just one game and they are going to bounce back soon

 

[EchoesoftheEighties]

If you are last in the standings it doesn't Gurantee you the 1st pick overall. You still need to win it.

It does when the lottery winning team can only move up 4 spots like under the old rules. NJ went from 8 to 4 by winning the lotto and Edmonton retained first overall by being last that year.

 

[SmoggyTwinkles]

I only judge teams in 20 game blocks. 4 Games is mostly irrelevant.

There seems to be this idea that you can more safely predict the entire season after 20 games.

We're 5 games in for most teams.

So only 1/4 of the way to making any kind of predictions really.

Edmonton, like any team, can turn it on a dime and go on a run and we'll be saying completely different things.

They went pretty far last year, and McJ is sooo good. Let's wait a bit at least 10 more games.

Oilers will make the playoffs for sure and anyone can make a run especially these unpredictable young teams.

 

[Thenameless]

The Oilers will be fine. Just growing pains.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

What about 2011?

New Jersey won the lottery and moved up to pick 4. Edmonton was last in the standings.

Edm had the 2010, 2011, and 2012 1st overall picks. (Picked Hall, RNH, and Yak respectfully) In 2011 season Jersey had the 4th overall and picked Adam Larsson.

 

[ijuka]

I think the Oilers have looked bad, I agree with that.

But I do find it funny, you go 1-3 to start the year and its the end of the world. You go 1-3 in January or February and no one cares.

It's because 1-3 right now could be 100% of the season's sample size whereas in February it could be 8% of the season's sample size.

In February, you might think "well, this team's already shown how good they can be this season", but right now you don't really have anything like that to fall back on.

 

[Kamiccolo]

Talbot bailed out a pretty meh defense last year, that only got worse with a key injury back there. He will rebound, and the Oilers will make the playoffs.

No one should be surprised that Edmonton isn't sleep walking through the NHL to a cup. This is a process that young teams need to learn. They need to get their ego's broken a bit. It happened before, and it is happening in the NHL with other young teams as well.

Edmonton will be fine.

 

[tucker3434]

They’ll be okay, not great, but a solid playoff team. McDavid covers for some roster flaws, but as long as he’s healthy I guess it doesn’t matter.

 

[ManofSteel55]

What are you talking about?
Russell is signed for 4 years and has a no movement clause

It was initially announced as a partial NMC. Not sure if capfriendly is wrong of the initial announcement was wrong. Either way, he's been good so we don't need to worry about it. D-men like Russell will get that type of payday routinely once the cap jumps thanks to Vegas joining the league.

 

[sepHF]

Good ol' Chiarelli. Horrible gm in Boston, horrible in Edmonton. Guy values heavy bodies but the league has become a fast league. He overvalued guys like Lucic and Maroon. Maroon is in no way a 1st line guy but if he has two solid players he can work.

He got Maroon for a bag of pucks, how did he overvalue him? He brought him in for NOTHING and the guy almost scores 30g... seems like Chia did good on this one. And Lucic passed up more money t play here... so other GM's "overvalued" him too

But the problem is the Oilers only have 2 solid forwards in their entire lineup so now all you have to do is focus on one line. They have the worst second line in the entire league and two fourth lines.

Really? A 2nd line featuring RNH and Lucic is the worst second line in the entire league? I'd like to hear your logic here I can think of a bunch that are worse.

They overpaid for Kris Russell who is a 6th dman, not a number 4. It's a horribly run franchise that got lucky how many times for he lottery and if not for all that they'd be dead last. How a team can still be mediocre after winning the lottery 4 times in 5 years is beyond me. Chiarelli hands out of contracts all the time. Guy is a horrible negotiator. Watch Maroon get 5 per year! Lol

and if he didn't sign Russell they'd be even more screwed... we need him, and 4m isn't unresonable. Maybe a year longer than I would have liked... big deal.


And when the Oilers won the lottery the players available were Hall/RNH/Yakupov/McDavid

Only two of those players are even top liners... that's how. Bad years to lose, if they lost in the years priror they could have got Kane and Stamkos / Tavares... Instead they got Nuge Hall and Yak, its pretty simple bud