10 Years ago today...

[CantHaveTkachev]

The Oilers traded Tony Salmelainen to Chicago for Jaro Spacek..also Jani Rita and Cory Cross for Dick Tarnstrom

http://espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=2307714

"We just saw a need to upgrade our defense, and this was an opportunity to do it," Edmonton assistant GM Scott Howson said Thursday night before the Oilers played the Los Angeles Kings. "There's an old saying: You can never have enough defensemen. To be strong at that position is very important, and we think we're
well-equipped going into the stretch drive."

the question becomes...how in the world did Lowe looks so smart and ahead of the curve in 2006 by getting pucking moving defencemen yet completely forget about this philosophy in the summer?

did Pronger break his brain??

Here's the Oilers defense after the trades

Pronger-Smith
Staios-Spacek
Greene-Bergeron
Tarnstrom

Stanley Cup caliber defence

Click to read more...

 

[BoldNewLettuce]

Prongers wife buried old Indian bones under the rink?

 

[Tarus]

The Oilers traded Tony Salmelainen to Chicago for Jaro Spacek..also Jani Rita and Cory Cross for Dick Tarnstrom

http://espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=2307714




the question becomes...how in the world did Lowe looks so smart and ahead of the curve in 2006 by getting pucking moving defencemen yet completely forget about this philosophy in the summer?

did Pronger break his brain??

Here's the Oilers defense after the trades

Pronger-Smith
Staios-Spacek
Greene-Bergeron
Tarnstrom

Stanley Cup caliber defence

Edmonton had a large exodus, and it was pretty clear that none of the UFAs wanted to sign in Edmonton and try to fill Pronger's shoes after all the drama.

To Lowe's credit, he acquired Pitkanen the next year, and two years later had Souray/Visnovsky on the top pairing. So it's not like he didn't address it over time.

 

[Perfect_Drug]

Players don't want to play here.

No Trade Clauses are written up to prevent being traded to Edmonton.
Every UFA walks.


Despite a salary cap, the league is not an even playing field.

 

[Beerfish]

One of about 3 really good moves the oilers made under lowe, I think it was more howson than lowe. (To go along with the dozens and dozens of bad moves.)

 

[oilwave]

Edmonton had a large exodus, and it was pretty clear that none of the UFAs wanted to sign in Edmonton and try to fill Pronger's shoes after all the drama.

To Lowe's credit, he acquired Pitkanen the next year, and two years later had Souray/Visnovsky on the top pairing. So it's not like he didn't address it over time.

I agree with this. Lowe never had an issue acquiring quality D. It is everyone since then who can't seem to figure it out.

 

[Lacaar]

The Oilers traded Tony Salmelainen to Chicago for Jaro Spacek..also Jani Rita and Cory Cross for Dick Tarnstrom

http://espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=2307714




the question becomes...how in the world did Lowe looks so smart and ahead of the curve in 2006 by getting pucking moving defencemen yet completely forget about this philosophy in the summer?

did Pronger break his brain??

Here's the Oilers defense after the trades

Pronger-Smith
Staios-Spacek
Greene-Bergeron
Tarnstrom

Stanley Cup caliber defence

Lowe was actually pretty good at acquiring defencemen.

Didn't he get Staios, and Smith? Traded for Visnovsky. Signed Souray.
The pro scouting did a pretty good job back then.
Then everything just went south.

We've never been able to draft high end defencemen. I've complain about it here all the time. Hell we've probably only drafted 2-3 decent d-men in the last 20 years.

We used to be able to get by with trades in the late 90's and near the end of the 2000's.

When that stopped. The team sunk like a rock to the bottom of the standings.

And here we are today.

 

[Tarus]

I agree with this. Lowe never had an issue acquiring quality D. It is everyone since then who can't seem to figure it out.

Even in the year after Pronger left, he still managed to dip into Europe and find a future NHLer in Hedja. Only coaching idiocy and injury prevented that guy from providing more of an impact than he did, not to mention it likely impacted his willingness to resign with the team.

Lowe's issues were more in the realm of blind loyalty to his incompetent friends, and his crippling lack of ability to assess and build a forward group.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Lowe was actually pretty good at acquiring defencemen.

Didn't he get Staios, and Smith? Traded for Visnovsky. Signed Souray.
The pro scouting did a pretty good job back then.
Then everything just went south.

We've never been able to draft high end defencemen. I've complain about it here all the time. Hell we've probably only drafted 2-3 decent d-men in the last 20 years.

We used to be able to get by with trades in the late 90's and near the end of the 2000's.

When that stopped. The team sunk like a rock to the bottom of the standings.

And here we are today.

no doubt he used to be able to find good defencemen (add Jan Hedja to the list) but he was never able to KEEP good defencemen around...Vish was gone pretty quick, Hedja gone after a year, Pitkanen bolted after a year

why is this? I think not getting more for the Pronger trade was his fatal mistake IMO...Smid wasn't ready, Lupul busted and they lost a 1st rounder to the Penner signing

 

[oXo Cube]

I've actually come around a bit on the Pronger trade. The Oilers got quite a lot of value especially considering the very public trade request. No the return didn't replace his impact, but that was never going to be possible.

The Oilers pissed away a lot of those assets of course(full blame to KLowe) but that has nothing to do with the trade itself.

Also I would very easily do the Penner offersheet over again, that worked out very well for us especially considering the state of the scouting department at the time.

 

[SerbianEagle]

He traded for or signed dmen who could play...but it was Huddy who made them very good while in Edmonton. Loosing Huddy was never looked at as a big loss, but it was. Big time.

Even Daniel Tjarnqvist looked good before he got hurt. Tarnstrom played at least ok defensively after being a offensive dman strictly prior to coming to Edmonton.

 

[thadd]

Lowe was actually pretty good at acquiring defencemen.

Didn't he get Staios, and Smith? Traded for Visnovsky. Signed Souray.
The pro scouting did a pretty good job back then.
Then everything just went south.

We've never been able to draft high end defencemen. I've complain about it here all the time. Hell we've probably only drafted 2-3 decent d-men in the last 20 years.

We used to be able to get by with trades in the late 90's and near the end of the 2000's.

When that stopped. The team sunk like a rock to the bottom of the standings.

And here we are today.

I'm kinda drunk so I've read this a few times over and it looks like you've forgotten Pitkanin and Whitney. (we didn't know he was that of a lemon before he came)

May as well list all the top 4 guys. Sure we're missing another between two fo us.


-----

But man it's ten years now.
Tarnstrom... that name gives me headachs.
We overpaid for Tarnstrom. Guess that's what you do when you spend to go o n a deep run.

 

[TheRebuild]

I miss that squad. They really had a lot of "Not Suck" in them, not like the current team, which is just rife with "Suck."

 

[Jepprey]

I remember being on a computer that day while putting in my bets on my sportsbook and being distracted by reading up on the trades and being impressed. Can't believe it's been a decade. Also the last time we saw playoff hockey.

 

[Soundwave]

I remember being on a computer that day while putting in my bets on my sportsbook and being distracted by reading up on the trades and being impressed. Can't believe it's been a decade. Also the last time we saw playoff hockey.

For me the eerie thing about that year was the trade deadline, we were all *dying* for a goalie, and I remember staying up basically all night. I was looking at various goalies (think I was hoping for Martin Biron, lol!), but I took a look at Dwayne Roloson's player profile.

Right afterwards when I refreshed whatever message board I was on it said Dwayne Roloson had been traded to the Oilers and at the time I thought "I hope this is a good omen".

Fast forward a few months later and we're going to the Stanley Cup Finals.

 

[CornKicker]

we needed defenceman and a goalie and we got them all for trade deadline.........a lost concept these days

 

[Oilhawks]

we needed defenceman and a goalie and we got them all for trade deadline.........a lost concept these days

Yup, maybe if they were able to keep it going until the TDL, then we'd know.

Lowe became a pompous blowhard, but it seems like knew how to put together a decent D-corp (the best he could I guess). From what I can tell it sounds like he's doing okay in his new role too.

 

[bucks_oil]

no doubt he used to be able to find good defencemen (add Jan Hedja to the list) but he was never able to KEEP good defencemen around...Vish was gone pretty quick, Hedja gone after a year, Pitkanen bolted after a year

why is this? I think not getting more for the Pronger trade was his fatal mistake IMO...Smid wasn't ready, Lupul busted and they lost a 1st rounder to the Penner signing

We recovered that "lost 1st" when we flipped Penner at the deadline. That pick became Klefbom and all is right with the world again (when he gets healthy).

The issue really is that our alpha D went steadily downhill and we were bleeding assets (like Cole, Greene, Stoll, etc) to pull them in.

Pronger --> Pitkanen --> Souray --> Viz --> Whitney --> Gilbert/Smid if you can believe it was widely regarded as our best for a season --> Jultz

Pretty sad really, but... many of our slow downgrades in these assets (POS anyone?) were due to Tambo.

 

[bucks_oil]

Even in the year after Pronger left, he still managed to dip into Europe and find a future NHLer in Hedja. Only coaching idiocy and injury prevented that guy from providing more of an impact than he did, not to mention it likely impacted his willingness to resign with the team.

Lowe's issues were more in the realm of blind loyalty to his incompetent friends, and his crippling lack of ability to assess and build a forward group.

Haha... this Lowe guy sounds alright!

But seriously though...

I think Lowe just did not emotionally recover from the 2006 loss and the Pronger trade. After that his moves became a desperate attempt to hold a team together and plug holes with lesser pieces instead of acknowledge it was time to move on from that core.

And I can't blame him for that. I think we can all look back on that 2006 and remind ourselves what a real team of winners looked like (even without Pronger they were pretty solid).

My biggest complaint was with Tambo. Lowe had articulated a 5 year plan that would have ended in 2007. He was ahead of schedule and then when he realized a new rebuild was required, he checked out and replaced himself.

It was Tambo that was not bold enough in gutting the core and acquiring long term assets. People often blame Lowe for this (and they can, as the PoHO... but not as GM). Tambo was too timid to pull the plug and that's what he was really hired to do. Why he thought he could rebuild on the fly around an aging Horcoff, Smith and Roloson defies logic.

 

[oobga]

Haha... this Lowe guy sounds alright!

But seriously though...

I think Lowe just did not emotionally recover from the 2006 loss and the Pronger trade. After that his moves became a desperate attempt to hold a team together and plug holes with lesser pieces instead of acknowledge it was time to move on from that core.

And I can't blame him for that. I think we can all look back on that 2006 and remind ourselves what a real team of winners looked like (even without Pronger they were pretty solid).

My biggest complaint was with Tambo. Lowe had articulated a 5 year plan that would have ended in 2007. He was ahead of schedule and then when he realized a new rebuild was required, he checked out and replaced himself.

It was Tambo that was not bold enough in gutting the core and acquiring long term assets. People often blame Lowe for this (and they can, as the PoHO... but not as GM). Tambo was too timid to pull the plug and that's what he was really hired to do. Why he thought he could rebuild on the fly around an aging Horcoff, Smith and Roloson defies logic.

Agree with most of this. Lowe became desperate and careless with his moves. And then his carelessness turned into complacency when Katz took over and he didn't really have to answer to anyone that could challenge him any more. He sat back, let Tambo be terrible and figured the team could fit itself by drafting high picks. When he figured maybe the tide had finally turned he threw Tambo away and brought in his buddy and acted like everything would be golden in the infamous presser. All downhill from there.

 

[Tarus]

Haha... this Lowe guy sounds alright!

But seriously though...

I think Lowe just did not emotionally recover from the 2006 loss and the Pronger trade. After that his moves became a desperate attempt to hold a team together and plug holes with lesser pieces instead of acknowledge it was time to move on from that core.

And I can't blame him for that. I think we can all look back on that 2006 and remind ourselves what a real team of winners looked like (even without Pronger they were pretty solid).

I differ quite a bit on what went wrong there.

When the lockout ended, the entire organization's mentality towards team building changed. It went from "we can't compete financially, so we're just going to survive with as many competitive players we can find", to "we can compete with the big teams now, we're going acquire star players and compete for the cup". It was a type of "go for the homerun" type management that worked in the Pronger deal when they caught lightning in a bottle on a once in a generation type acquisition, but it also seriously undermined the depth and talent of the team when Lowe kept expending assets in the subsequent years for available name players in an attempt to try and recapture that success.

There was also a lot of offseason drama every year. The biggest shift during that time was probably the year when Lowe was originally going to do a rebuild(Gagner's draft year after Smyth was traded and the team bombed down the stretch), but shifted gears back into "win now" mode to float EIG's efforts to deny the allegations Katz made about the ownership group being cheap in his initial attempt to buy the team(Souray signing, the offer sheets, the attempted Nylander signing etc).

My biggest complaint was with Tambo. Lowe had articulated a 5 year plan that would have ended in 2007. He was ahead of schedule and then when he realized a new rebuild was required, he checked out and replaced himself.

It was Tambo that was not bold enough in gutting the core and acquiring long term assets. People often blame Lowe for this (and they can, as the PoHO... but not as GM). Tambo was too timid to pull the plug and that's what he was really hired to do. Why he thought he could rebuild on the fly around an aging Horcoff, Smith and Roloson defies logic.

Tambo was pretty clearly not brought in to rebuild. His first offseason(after nearly a year of evaluating); he signed "stanley cup winner" Khabibulin to deliver them to the promised land, brought in Pat Quinn to kick the player's *****, and spearheaded the embarrassing attempt to woo Heatley under the belief that they were one star player away from competing for the cup. Given the scuttlebutt from around the time Katz was taking over the franchise, along with the failed attempt to sign Hossa where there were many discussions that Lowe didn't get along with players and agents(Most of it coming from Hossa's agent Winters); it's more likely Tambo was brought aboard to provide a less hostile face towards the NHLPA.

I do agree that Tambo didn't do enough in the rebuild to pull the chute on the old core in the rebuild though. Decimating the values of guys like Hemsky, and getting only one extra first round pick in 3/4 years of a scorched earth rebuild under the plan to rebuild exclusively through the draft was just terrible management.

 

[Hippasus]

Cory Cross used to be everyone's punching bag. Sort of like Andrew Ference today. Spacek was a good pick-up for 05-06 and especially the playoffs.

 

[Philly85*]

they made a big mistake playing Bergeron over Tarnstrom though

 

[I am the Liquor]

We recovered that "lost 1st" when we flipped Penner at the deadline. That pick became Klefbom and all is right with the world again (when he gets healthy).

The issue really is that our alpha D went steadily downhill and we were bleeding assets (like Cole, Greene, Stoll, etc) to pull them in.

Pronger --> Pitkanen --> Souray --> Viz --> Whitney --> Gilbert/Smid if you can believe it was widely regarded as our best for a season --> Jultz

Pretty sad really, but... many of our slow downgrades in these assets (POS anyone?) were due to Tambo.

Tambo was given an AMC Pacer and told to race at Indianapolis.

Lowe went all in on pending UFA's and almost missed the playoffs. Then we all stood around and wondered why half the team walked out the door and never came back setting the table for ten years of futility.

Strangely credit is given to Lowe for making these "great" deals that ended up pushing the franchise off a cliff. Lowe ruined this franchise. Not Tambo, Mact, or Eakins. Those guys were symptoms and side men.

Lowe was the disease/conductor.

 

[Up the Irons]

A poster in another thread demonstrated how, for years, Lowe was able to acquire decent dmen (Smith, Staois), setting the table for a misguided belief that it would always be thus.

However, at some point the environment changed. 2nd pairing Dmen became very valuable and were locked up be teams, as well as their top pairing guys. Suddenly, the organization's neglect of Dcorp has come back to haunt them. It sunk the first rebuild and stands to sink the second if they don't start taking it seriously.

If you can't get 2 great dmen, you need 4 good dmen. A quality 2nd pairing dman is more valuable and needed than a 2 line winger, that gets u 20-25goals, but not much else.

Until the Oilers come to grips with this, we are hooped.