If he had scored a couple goals he'd still be a defensive liability with no compete and zero hockey IQ.
It's hilarious that people think he played well because he hit a couple posts. Despite his overall game being incredibly disappointing except for one game where he actually chose to engage, then he followed that up with two disappointing follow up efforts but people said he played great because he hit a couple posts.
Oilers fans love making excuses for this player for some reason.
What's the point of a talented player when the player refuses to utilize his own talent?
I never said he played great. Haven't seen enough of him to make excuses one way or the other in my opinion. I guess that's my point. After 12 games with a new team and then a four and a half month layoff, it looked like he was starting to come around at the end of the play-ins.
Someone else said it earlier and that the Oilers and their fans always seem to want to run players out of town because they were stuck in a bad situation they couldn't fix then wind up being role players on other teams and finding success. AA seems to be that kind of player and even a miniscule amount of patience could prove to finally have Edmonton on the other end of the deal this time. If by the halfway mark of the next season he hasn't done anything of note, sure, I'll concede that it didn't work out. But I think there's a player there and he's worth more than a few weeks look.
But last year even with all the new acquisitions, people didn't want to give the team or its new players a reasonable amount of time to get acclimated to the systems and the organization before hollering that they were all worthless, and Holland HAD to do something to help a team that ended up gunning for the division. AA was the kind of TDL move people have been bitching about the Oilers not making for years, then when the move is made people bitch because he wasn't an instant success.
"He should have went and got Toffoli instead" like that suddenly means any GM can just go out and get any player regardless of the situation.
Team scores a goal. "Yay everything is awesome"
Team wins a game. "Yay everything is awesome"
New player has a good start. "This guy is the solution"
Team gets scored on. "Team is trash players suck"
Team loses a game. "Tire fire trade everyone"
New player has a rough start. "This guy is shit and the GM sucks for getting him instead of <insert player I like here>".
I've been along for this shitty ride that is Oilers fandom for the last 25 years too. But good god the fickle nature of this fanbase astounds me.