GDT: Game#61 - Oilers@Blue Jackets - 5PM

[OfCorsiDid]

I was today years old when I realized that MacT signed Mark Fayne for a contract that was the same length and more expensive than Ceci's but he gave it to Fayne in 2014. It was over 5% of the cap.

What the f***. I knew I hated that guy for a reason.

 

[K1984]

You may not know this but I cant stand Vegas.
So I take no pleasure at all in saying this but when Martinez gets back that is the best defence in the NHL...full stop.

I think it was before though.

I am seeing it this way - did adding Kent Nilsson in '87 make a major material difference to the outcome of the Oilers offence? He was a good player and produced, but so would have whoever played in that spot anyways. It's a nice to have for sure, but I don't think it changes much.

 

[alphahelix]

I was today years old when I realized that MacT signed Mark Fayne for a contract that was the same length and more expensive than Ceci's but he gave it to Fayne in 2014. It was over 5% of the cap.

What the f***. I knew I hated that guy for a reason.

MacT inherited like 1 NHL defenceman and so he hit the UFA market every year he was here and offered the most money to every top 5 UFA d man every year. A couple of them signed. Fayne was one. If you look at which UFA d men were available those years, its mostly pretty grim. Ference was like the 2nd best D to hit UFA that year.

I blame him basically 0 for this as we were a rebuilding team with nothing to spend the money on anyway. At least he identified the area of need correctly, which other GMs seemingly didnt. Think of how we're failing to attract/acquire top players now, then imagine you are also the last ranked team in the league playing in the worst building with a poverty ownership group.

 

[SupremeTeam16]

Canuck's have around 20. Canada's team my ass.

Thats why they’re going nowhere.

Teams full of Canadians tend to get it done.

 

[oXo Cube]

MacT inherited like 1 NHL defenceman and so he hit the UFA market every year he was here and offered the most money to every top 5 UFA d man every year. A couple of them signed. Fayne was one. If you look at which UFA d men were available those years, its mostly pretty grim. Ference was like the 2nd best D to hit UFA that year.

I blame him basically 0 for this as we were a rebuilding team with nothing to spend the money on anyway. At least he identified the area of need correctly, which other GMs seemingly didnt

Fayne also was a borderline top 2 option in New Jersey before coming here too. As it turned out, Andy Greene was a way better player than anyone thought he was and we all thought he was pretty awesome.

The risk here seemed alright at the time. Ference and especially Nikitin on the other hand...

 

[CycloneSweep]

MacT inherited like 1 NHL defenceman and so he hit the UFA market every year he was here and offered the most money to every top 5 UFA d man every year. A couple of them signed. Fayne was one. If you look at which UFA d men were available those years, its mostly pretty grim. Ference was like the 2nd best D to hit UFA that year.

I blame him basically 0 for this as we were a rebuilding team with nothing to spend the money on anyway. At least he identified the area of need correctly, which other GMs seemingly didnt. Think of how we're failong to attract/acquire top players now, then imagine you are also the last ranked team in the league playing in the worst building with a poverty ownership group.

I don't blame him but term was a problem.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

Fayne also was a borderline top 2 option in New Jersey before coming here too. As it turned out, Andy Greene was a way better player than anyone thought he was and we all thought he was pretty awesome.

The risk here seemed alright at the time. Ference and especially Nikitin on the other hand...

I always felt a little bad for Ference. He gave everything, but was just asked to do too much.

Fayne was a nice hustle from the Devils and Nikitin had one magic year and got paid for it.

 

[K1984]

I always felt a little bad for Ference. He gave everything, but was just asked to do too much.

Fayne was a nice hustle from the Devils and Nikitin had one magic year and got paid for it.

Not to disparage Ference because I like him and agree with you 100%, but whenever I see his name I can't help but think about his last game in the NHL, which may actually be one of the worst games ever played.

If memory serves he played around 4 mins and was a -4 (could have been -3) in Detroit. He basically got nuked and scored on every shift, then was immediately LTIRetired after. He was obviously a banged up shell of himself at this point.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

Not to disparage Ference because I like him and agree with you 100%, but whenever I see his name I can't help but think about his last game in the NHL, which may actually be one of the worst games ever played.

If memory serves he played around 4 mins and was a -4 (could have been -3) in Detroit. He basically got nuked and scored on every shift, then was immediately LTIRetired after. He was obviously a banged up shell of himself at this point.

Yeah, his body was falling apart too from what I remember.

 

[FiveFourteenSixOne]

Oilers have made a trade for a top 6 forward.

Foeglethorpe!

 

[joestevens29]

MacT inherited like 1 NHL defenceman and so he hit the UFA market every year he was here and offered the most money to every top 5 UFA d man every year. A couple of them signed. Fayne was one. If you look at which UFA d men were available those years, its mostly pretty grim. Ference was like the 2nd best D to hit UFA that year.

I blame him basically 0 for this as we were a rebuilding team with nothing to spend the money on anyway. At least he identified the area of need correctly, which other GMs seemingly didnt. Think of how we're failing to attract/acquire top players now, then imagine you are also the last ranked team in the league playing in the worst building with a poverty ownership group.

I mean he was also the idiot that challenged Petry publicly after given him a one year deal when the guy was willing to sign long-term. Only to give Schultz more

He didn't know wtf to do with defense

Fayne also was a borderline top 2 option in New Jersey before coming here too. As it turned out, Andy Greene was a way better player than anyone thought he was and we all thought he was pretty awesome.

The risk here seemed alright at the time. Ference and especially Nikitin on the other hand...

No he wasn't. Fayne was essentially used as a bottom pairing d-man there.

His even strength time on ice doesn't lie. He just ended up with a lot of total time on ice on that club because of injuries and such

 

[joestevens29]

Not to disparage Ference because I like him and agree with you 100%, but whenever I see his name I can't help but think about his last game in the NHL, which may actually be one of the worst games ever played.

If memory serves he played around 4 mins and was a -4 (could have been -3) in Detroit. He basically got nuked and scored on every shift, then was immediately LTIRetired after. He was obviously a banged up shell of himself at this point.

Which was sad, because man was that guy a health nut. Still is I believe.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

MacT inherited like 1 NHL defenceman and so he hit the UFA market every year he was here and offered the most money to every top 5 UFA d man every year. A couple of them signed. Fayne was one. If you look at which UFA d men were available those years, its mostly pretty grim. Ference was like the 2nd best D to hit UFA that year.

I blame him basically 0 for this as we were a rebuilding team with nothing to spend the money on anyway. At least he identified the area of need correctly, which other GMs seemingly didnt. Think of how we're failing to attract/acquire top players now, then imagine you are also the last ranked team in the league playing in the worst building with a poverty ownership group.

MacT's "solutions" included trading assets for Nikita Nikitin, signing an unknown Russian Anton Belov and shipping our 1 good defenseman away for nothing (Petry), creating another hole on the blueline
he was awful

 

[alphahelix]

IIRC Petry extension negotiations already soured under Tambellini and MacT just failed to rescue it. By the time Mac was around Petry was already asking for a lot more than the initial negotiations. Still would have been better to just sign him than deal him, but oh well. The D was hopeless either way. We got Nurse and Drai out of it

 

[oXo Cube]

IIRC Petry extension negotiations already soured under Tambellini and MacT just failed to rescue it. By the time Mac was around Petry was already asking for a lot more than the initial negotiations. Still would have been better to just sign him than deal him, but oh well. The D was hopeless either way. We got Nurse and Drai out of it

There are quotes from Petry's camp suggesting the opposite, but they came out after he was moved so it's hard to be sure of the veracity.

Either way it was clearly ridiculous and unacceptable that MacT and Eakins treated their best defender by a margin like an afterthought and they did that right from game 1.

 

[OfCorsiDid]

MacT inherited like 1 NHL defenceman and so he hit the UFA market every year he was here and offered the most money to every top 5 UFA d man every year. A couple of them signed. Fayne was one. If you look at which UFA d men were available those years, its mostly pretty grim. Ference was like the 2nd best D to hit UFA that year.

I blame him basically 0 for this as we were a rebuilding team with nothing to spend the money on anyway. At least he identified the area of need correctly, which other GMs seemingly didnt. Think of how we're failing to attract/acquire top players now, then imagine you are also the last ranked team in the league playing in the worst building with a poverty ownership group.

I sort of agree. But I think it also shows an extreme lack of creativity if you're just going to the free agency well constantly looking for the same player. Now I can also understand the hesitance to be creative. Through trades we basically also failed spectacularly under Tambellini to find decent defencemen. Our blue chips from that era (Peckham, Teubert, Plante, Grebeshkov) all turned tits up by the time MacT took charge. The only real decent defencemen we had were the ones we drafted (ironically) in Tom Gilbert, Jeff Petry, Darnell Nurse and Oscar Klefbom. Kinda proving my theory that when it comes to defencemen, 8/10 its better to draft and develop than make a splash in free agency.

It might have been more prudent to draft and develop as well as pursing trades with our futures to find the right fit. That being said we could always get suckered into the Nikitin trap and strap ourselves to an overpaid slug.

IIRC Petry extension negotiations already soured under Tambellini and MacT just failed to rescue it. By the time Mac was around Petry was already asking for a lot more than the initial negotiations. Still would have been better to just sign him than deal him, but oh well. The D was hopeless either way. We got Nurse and Drai out of it

Yeah I remember that. It's interesting that the DoD documentary I watched earlier this afternoon suggest that Petry was shuttled off because we were winning too much near the conclusion of the McDavid lottery ball year. Now if that's true, that would be an interesting development.

 

[Oilers in NS]

Foeglethorpe!

The Man
The Legend

I would love to see what that player could do.

Pound a few heads

If he’s buying. I’m in!!!

Buddy Burgers for everyone

 

[joestevens29]

MacT's "solutions" included trading assets for Nikita Nikitin, signing an unknown Russian Anton Belov and shipping our 1 good defenseman away for nothing (Petry), creating another hole on the blueline
he was awful

Honestly I have zero issue with Belov. But banking on him to be anything more than an extra d-man was the issue.

That and I often wonder how he would've done with another coach. Eakins isn't the coach you want for guys that actually can play in North America, let alone a guy that's never played in North America before

 

[Sweetpotato]

I'm too lazy to search are our new players in the game tonight? Someone at work said they were

 

[guymez]

I think it was before though.

I am seeing it this way - did adding Kent Nilsson in '87 make a major material difference to the outcome of the Oilers offence? He was a good player and produced, but so would have whoever played in that spot anyways. It's a nice to have for sure, but I don't think it changes much.

The Oilers of the 80's added a one dimensional offensive player. I think thats why Nilssons mpact was limited.
I think that when you elevate the quality of a defence then it elevates the quality of the team. Especially when we are talking about a defence that can defend at a high level and transition the puck at a high level.
Vegas is now a better team than they were last season.
The Oilers will have to be a lot better to beat them.

 

[FiveFourteenSixOne]

I'm too lazy to search are our new players in the game tonight? Someone at work said they were

That’s a big ten-four, rubber ducky.

 

[guymez]

MacT's "solutions" included trading assets for Nikita Nikitin, signing an unknown Russian Anton Belov and shipping our 1 good defenseman away for nothing (Petry), creating another hole on the blueline
he was awful

MacT was a much better coach than he was a GM.
His game plan against that stacked Detroit team in 2006 was a coaching masterpiece.

 

[BlackDogg]

Ill be on my SHINY NEW TREADMILL to lose weight while I watch, so don't disappoint me and my new treadmill.



Kek they kind of look like the new kids walking into a new classroom, quickly eyeing the class to see who will and won't be their friend if they pick the wrong seat.

I'll be eating chocolate and nachoes getting fatt.

 

[TB12]

Which was sad, because man was that guy a health nut. Still is I believe.

He certainly still is. Can confirm.

 

[RegDunlop]

Oilers have made a trade for a top 6 forward.

I've always said it's what we've been missing.

Oglethorpe or Lumley