What happened to the 17-18 Oilers?

[Satoru Gojo]

So I wasn't following the team as closely back then but I recall this edition being cup favourites before that season started only to not only miss the playoffs but finish in the bottom 10 of the League

It's interesting because the year prior the Oilers had finished with over 100 points and nearly/almost should have beat the Ducks in the semi's

What caused the drop off? Goaltending? Coaching? Did the 16-17 team just overachieve?

The team ended up back in the playoffs 2 years later but it was an interesting time for sure

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[oXo Cube]

Talbot's game collapsed, they turned Jordan Eberle into Ryan Strome, Klefbom and Sekera both had significant injury problems through that season and beyond.

In a nutshell.

EDIT: Should be noted there were red flags with the 16-17 team. The WOWY numbers with McDavid on the bench were bottom 5 bad.

 

[TheTradeIsOneForOne]

Imagine the start of this season, but instead of us pulling out a 9 and 12 game win streak to bring us back into a playoff spot, the suck just continued through the next 2 seasons….

Seeing this team turn it around shows me the core of this team has matured a lot. And that’s what is needed to win it all.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

In his infinite wisdom, Peter Chiarelli opted for more cap space instead of actually pushing the team forward and sure enough that cap space was completely wasted on nothing before extensions kicked in. Talbot regressed and the team fell apart with him.

I don't think it's a stretch to say that offseason set the Oilers back years. Chiarelli proved himself a fraud and the Oilers cup window closed for a few years before it even began.

And obviously benefit of hindsight but Yamamoto was a crap pick. What makes it more painful is Oettinger went a few picks later. At least we got Skinner.

 

[La Bamba]

Chia banked on internal growth and it back-fired. The entire roster basically regressed and the flaws were exposed. I don't blame Chia for that but I do blame him for making terrible in-season panic trades that burned minor assets for no reason. That's why I appreciate Holland more than others

 

[tiger_80]

So I wasn't following the team as closely back then but I recall this edition being cup favourites before that season started only to not only miss the playoffs but finish in the bottom 10 of the League

It's interesting because the year prior the Oilers had finished with over 100 points and nearly/almost should have beat the Ducks in the semi's

What caused the drop off? Goaltending? Coaching? Did the 16-17 team just overachieve?

The team ended up back in the playoffs 2 years later but it was an interesting time for sure

I think some injuries--they lost Sekera, who was their best defenseman, for a year. Klefbom missed a lot of games too. And the general lack of depth because of the overreliance on declining (Lucic, Camalleri), unproven (Jay-Poo), or inconsistent players (Talbot, Nurse, Kassian, Strome, Maroon).

 

[MessierII]

Mostly injuries. Chiarelli made big moves to get the D to a passable level in 2016-17. Klefbom Larsson Sekera and Russell were juuuust good enough if everyone was healthy. Sekera went down for the year and that was a massive blow. Klef struggled with injuries too and that put a lot of presssure on Talbot who had a lot going on in his personal life already and he started to falter. Guys like Jesse Puljujarvi, Anton Slepyshev and Drake Caguilla didn’t progress at all either which they were banking on.

 

[Fishy McScales]

Injuries to Klefbom and Sekera, partially making an over-played Talbot more vulnerable leading to his regression and Chiarelli reading the league's direction wrong with his Lucic signing and "heavy hockey" when the paradigm was shifting more toward speed and skill, a style that would have made more sense for a team built around Connor McDavid.

 

[Coffey]

Chiarelli reading the league's direction wrong

lol Yea, he f***en had no idea what the meta was shifting too.
No more slow ass grinding big body hockey that existed for the last 7 years.

Should have tried to get Dustin Brown or David Backes too in that case.

 

[Porkleaker]

lol Yea, he f***en had no idea what the meta was shifting too.
No more slow ass grinding big body hockey that existed for the last 7 years.

Should have tried to get Dustin Brown or David Backes too in that case.

Yes, zero foresight at all, like it was apparent to everyone here that Lucic wasn't going to age well with the game speeding up. But no, let's give him 42mil for 7 years. Chia was such an idiot! Even just seeing his name again angers me lol

 

[Old Boys Club]

Along with the myriad of things others have posted.

Lucic's game dropped off a cliff that season. Went from a serviceable top 6 winger in 16-17 to a guy that went 30 games without scoring and had 5 assists during that time.

 

[belair]

Ryan Getzlaf's knee on Sekera. The beginning of the downfall.

 

[Not Canada Drai]

Good ol' 1718 team I tell you. Hard working bunch of men who put it all on the line for a penny.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

So I wasn't following the team as closely back then but I recall this edition being cup favourites before that season started only to not only miss the playoffs but finish in the bottom 10 of the League

It's interesting because the year prior the Oilers had finished with over 100 points and nearly/almost should have beat the Ducks in the semi's

What caused the drop off? Goaltending? Coaching? Did the 16-17 team just overachieve?

The team ended up back in the playoffs 2 years later but it was an interesting time for sure

Chiarelli happened.

 

[NotAVacuumSalesman]

 

[rboomercat90]

I think some injuries--they lost Sekera, who was their best defenseman, for a year. Klefbom missed a lot of games too. And the general lack of depth because of the overreliance on declining (Lucic, Camalleri), unproven (Jay-Poo), or inconsistent players (Talbot, Nurse, Kassian, Strome, Maroon).

Damn. I had completely forgotten that Mike Cammalleri played for the Oilers that season. I had to google that thinking you were wrong. Such an exciting player at one point in his career but not by the time he got here. So much went wrong that year. Just one of those seasons you want to forget about and never think of again.

 

[PositiveCashFlow]

They’re playing for the Kraken now

 

[Perfect_Drug]

We let in the first shot at least 20 times.

 

[HockeyGuy1964]

Wasn't that the year our goalies gave up a goal on the very first shot of the games15 times in the first 50 games or something silly like that?

 

[flashy]

We let in the first shot at least 20 times.

lol yep. a record that will never be challenged.

 

[Canovin]

McDavid no longer on ELC

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

- losing Sekera for half the season and replacing him with NOBODY during the summer
- downgrading from Eberle to Strome
- Cam Talbot was all-world in 2016-17 and was shadow of himself in 2017-18
- Milan Lucic was washed by Christmas...didn't score a goal in the 2nd half of the season

Chia's big summer UFA acquisition was Jussi Jokinen, who was washed at that point...just a ton of small downgrades to the roster