Are MacT/Eakins trying to tank for McDavid?

[McDrai]

Rookie Coach and a rookie GM. They're not tanking, they are just WAY over their heads right now

 

[s7ark]

Either Eakins is even stupider than he seemed last season, or yes, yes they are.

 

[Tyrolean]

As long as the team is making money for Katz, it doesn't have to be accountable to the fans.

 

[Horseradish]

MacT has been very astute in some moves and mind-numbingly stupid in others.

As a coach? He always got more out of his teams than he theoretically should have.

So he's a very smart guy, as I see it. He is also the most articulate man in hockey (I think Tippett and Jon Cooper could give him a run for his money, but I can't think of any other GM or coach who is as pleasantly articulate and thoughtful).

So where is the disconnect?

I think it's 4 major things:

1) too many talking heads and yes-men. I don't understand how the whole organization can undervalue Marincin and Petry SO much. This spans generations of GMs and two of the past 3 coaches (in Petry's case, but the same thing was an issue with a similar player in Gilbert). There is no explaining it other than too much head-nodding and not enough dissidence. It shouldn't be that easy to undervalue a useful player(s). Add that to Kevin Lowe's clear involvement over the past few years, Katz's alleged involvement in the Yak pick, and the intense focus on Howson's former hire in Nikitin. Seems to me there are too many cooks in the kitchen and not enough disagreement among them.

2) Edmonton's fishbowl. I guarantee the major core of young players wouldn't have been this immune to trade if there weren't such a love-in among Oilers faithful. Fans have a way of keeping guys around (see Jones, Ryan) well past their days as useful players and running guys out of town in their prime, on the other side of the ledger (pick any big, lesser physical dman of the past 15-20 years).

3) An attitude that there is likely a tipping point that we're approaching where all the young players will collectively take a big step forward together. I can't explain the Schultz rhetoric and failure to secure a centre in any other way.

4) good old fashioned pride and stubbornness. Lowe being Lowe. Eakins and his stupid fitness *****. MacT and his unfounded love-in with Schultz, Klefbom, and Draisaitl.

 

[Playa Hejda]

Yet we're already worst in the league with a goal differential of -9. -9. After 3 games.

Would you believe small sample size? #OilersPositives

 

[doulos]

I know the thread title sounds ridiculous seeing as how its three games in, but hear me out. First of all, I'm not a conspiracy theorist in any definition of the word, but some of the decisions made in the last few months have been incredibly dumb and incredibly baffling.

1) Signing Nikitin for 2 years, 4.5 mill. Nikitin was a healthy scratch in Columbus quite a few times last year, yet the Oilers signed him to 2nd pairing money and thrust him on the top pair.

2) trading Gagner WITHOUT having a centre lined up. We were already paper thin at centre. Gagner needed to go, I don't think anyone disputes that. But trading one of your top two centres without having another centre is beyond idiotic. Our centre depth for tonight is Arco-Leon-Gordon-Acton. Gagner has a ton of deficiencies in his game, but is still a much better NHL centre than any of those guys.

3) having 35 guys up till the end of preseason. All teams are down to 22-25 players in their final preseason games, and use those games to prep for the season. The sad thing is, we don't even have 35 NHL level players, we barely have 20. Whats the point of having a guy like Khaira in the final preseason game when everyone knows those guys won't make team? Thst just ensured the team had no preparation to start the team.

4) sending Marincin down. This guy was one of our best dmen last year, and nobody who watched the Oilers would dispute that. His preseason wasn't flashy, it was efficient. By all statistical and analytical measures, he also vastly outplayed all our left side Dmen. And even if he didn't outplayed Ference/Nikitin/klefbom- are you telling me the Oilers thought that Brad Freaking Hunt was a better NHL option?

5) Scratching Petry- scratching him last night when he was our best dman for two games was not only beyond stupid, it also put things in motion. Petry is on a one year deal. He is a good to 4 dman, and even those who don't like him know it was incredibly dumb to scratch him. Elliotte Friedman wrote in his 30 thoughts this morning that when you scratch a dman like that, its probably time to part ways. He listed Detroit or Anaheim as possible destinations. Not having Petry would destroy our already brutal back end, and I can't help but think that scratching him was a precursor to him bring traded in a few months time.

With all these decisions and more, I really cannot believe that a management and coaching staff soul be this stupid. Either we are stuck with the worst coaching and management combo in the history of sports, or they are intentionally trying to tank for McDavid. Either way, I'm pretty sure we are all sick of these guys, whatever they are trying to do with this team.

All of those moves could be justified at the time.

Nikitin - Need a D-man, and Nikitin has shown glimpses of being decent in the past. Willing to sign in Edmonton (at a premium, but that's typical)

Gagner - No problem, we can find a centerman - look at the guys available this summer! With Draisaitl and Arcobello we even have depth after we sign someone!

35 Players - The Oilers have a lot of guys competing for spots - other teams don't It's a testament to organizational depth!

Marincin - We take fitness and the 'Oiler way' seriously. Didn't come to camp in shape. Must be made an example of to build team culture!

Petry - Need to get Nurse in and Hunt has the Ultrabomb from the point that can destroy goalies. He was injured and probably has some injuries/fitness concerns.

Now, I'm not saying they are good decisions, or even make sense, but it doesn't have to be tanking. Just total incompetence.

 

[SometimesY]

MacT said he liked Brad Hunt since he was in the Chicago system or something (during that press conference explaining Marincin being sent down). I think MacT and Eakins just see something different in players than EVERYBODY. An A for Eberle? Really?

I don't think we are tanking, we are with managed/coached by thing one and thing two.

Besides what are the odds of us picking one of the superkids this year? Who would throw away a year and gamble that?

 

[doulos]

Besides what are the odds of us picking one of the superkids this year? Who would throw away a year and gamble that?

Not as good as they used to be since they changed the lottery rules.

 

[oobga]

Make no mistake, what we're watching now is the full realization of Kevin Lowe's ultimate vision. Intentional tanking for top talent in the draft. Pin the losing on Tambo and bring in MacT. Give MacT a blank cheque and here we are today. This is our salary cap team (could go over the cap and have a penalty next year if Drai and Yak get too many points) with all our top talent that we took the fans for granted intentionally icing bad teams to draft.

Enjoy folks.

 

[Canovin]

This is not purposeful, this is just insanity. If the Oilers draft McDavid, I doubt he could turn this ship around, and secondly, I suspect he would refuse to report and go back into the draft.

McDavid already said that he's proud and honoured to go to any team that drafts him. He just wants to go 1st overall.

And if Oilers do get him, you would see the Oilers package a massive deal for an elite Dman. The rebuild would be complete.

 

[BarDownBobo]

Besides what are the odds of us picking one of the superkids this year? Who would throw away a year and gamble that?

Last place still guarantees one of McDavid or Eichel.

 

[BarDownBobo]

This is not purposeful, this is just insanity. If the Oilers draft McDavid, I doubt he could turn this ship around, and secondly, I suspect he would refuse to report and go back into the draft.

McDavid no, but I worry that one of the American kids(Eichel/Hanifin) would just stay in school and exploit the loophole to get the hell out of Edmonton.

 

[Tarus]

Make no mistake, what we're watching now is the full realization of Kevin Lowe's ultimate vision. Intentional tanking for top talent in the draft. Pin the losing on Tambo and bring in MacT. Give MacT a blank cheque and here we are today. This is our salary cap team (could go over the cap and have a penalty next year if Drai and Yak get too many points) with all our top talent that we took the fans for granted intentionally icing bad teams to draft.

Enjoy folks.

It does look that way, doesn't it?

Unfortunately for Lowe, the reason why he's such good friends with Mact is that they have so much in common, like staggering levels of incompetence and massive egos.

 

[moog35]

MacT has been very astute in some moves and mind-numbingly stupid in others.

As a coach? He always got more out of his teams than he theoretically should have.

So he's a very smart guy, as I see it. He is also the most articulate man in hockey (I think Tippett and Jon Cooper could give him a run for his money, but I can't think of any other GM or coach who is as pleasantly articulate and thoughtful).

So where is the disconnect?

I think it's 4 major things:

1) too many talking heads and yes-men. I don't understand how the whole organization can undervalue Marincin and Petry SO much. This spans generations of GMs and two of the past 3 coaches (in Petry's case, but the same thing was an issue with a similar player in Gilbert). There is no explaining it other than too much head-nodding and not enough dissidence. It shouldn't be that easy to undervalue a useful player(s). Add that to Kevin Lowe's clear involvement over the past few years, Katz's alleged involvement in the Yak pick, and the intense focus on Howson's former hire in Nikitin. Seems to me there are too many cooks in the kitchen and not enough disagreement among them.

2) Edmonton's fishbowl. I guarantee the major core of young players wouldn't have been this immune to trade if there weren't such a love-in among Oilers faithful. Fans have a way of keeping guys around (see Jones, Ryan) well past their days as useful players and running guys out of town in their prime, on the other side of the ledger (pick any big, lesser physical dman of the past 15-20 years).

3) An attitude that there is likely a tipping point that we're approaching where all the young players will collectively take a big step forward together. I can't explain the Schultz rhetoric and failure to secure a centre in any other way.

4) good old fashioned pride and stubbornness. Lowe being Lowe. Eakins and his stupid fitness *****. MacT and his unfounded love-in with Schultz, Klefbom, and Draisaitl.

I find it funny how much Tambellini gets ripped around here for being a terrible GM. He was just a yes man to Lowe and Katz, when the Oilers drafted Yakupov, the majority of the scouts and Tambellini wanted to draft Ryan Murray but Katz wanted Yakupov. Tambo was the General Manager with the first overall pick in the draft and he wasn't even allowed to draft who he and the majority of his scouting staff wanted. Its a joke, I could understand if the rest of the staff was against Tambo but the majority including him wanted Murray yet somehow Yakupov ends up being the player handed the jersey by Katz's son

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

McDavid already said that he's proud and honoured to go to any team that drafts him. He just wants to go 1st overall.

And if Oilers do get him, you would see the Oilers package a massive deal for an elite Dman. The rebuild would be complete.

What exactly would be in said package and what Dman would we get...

 

[Canovin]

What exactly would be in said package and what Dman would we get...

Hall-RNH-Perron
Pouliot-Draisaitl-Purcell
McDavid-Yakimov-Yakupov
Hendricks-Gordon-Joensuu

X-Fayne
Marincin-Nikitin
Nurse-Klefbom

Eberle, Schultz, 2016 1st, 2017 1st, etc would be in play for a top pairing Dman.

 

[McTedi]

Hall-RNH-Perron
Pouliot-Draisaitl-Purcell
McDavid-Yakimov-Yakupov
Hendricks-Gordon-Joensuu

X-Fayne
Marincin-Nikitin
Nurse-Klefbom

Eberle, Schultz, 2016 1st, 2017 1st, etc would be in play for a top pairing Dman.

Better be getting Webber back with that package or Eric Staal + Cam Ward.

 

[Canovin]

Better be getting Webber back with that package or Eric Staal + Cam Ward.

If Nashville craps the bed this year and pick as high as Eichel. I could see them moving Weber.

 

[CornKicker]

i think it goes deeper than that, Sean Day/Tyler Benson are coming, so maybe our rebuild will be done in 2017?

 

[CornKicker]

Hall-RNH-Perron
Pouliot-Draisaitl-Purcell
McDavid-Yakimov-Yakupov
Hendricks-Gordon-Joensuu

X-Fayne
Marincin-Nikitin
Nurse-Klefbom

Eberle, Schultz, 2016 1st, 2017 1st, etc would be in play for a top pairing Dman.

for weber i cant pull the trigger fast enough

 

[DJ EarWax]

They're going to keep tanking until the 1st line is all 1st overalls, the 2nd line is 2nd overalls and the 3rd line is all 3rd overalls.

 

[McJadeddog]

No, they're just incompetent.

ding ding ding.... we have a winner

 

[Playa Hejda]

They're going to keep tanking until the 1st line is all 1st overalls, the 2nd line is 2nd overalls and the 3rd line is all 3rd overalls.

If only that Cam Barker signing had worked out. That was almost a freebie, save for the fact he can't skate.

 

[Aerchon]

Responses in between

I know the thread title sounds ridiculous seeing as how its three games in, but hear me out. First of all, I'm not a conspiracy theorist in any definition of the word, but some of the decisions made in the last few months have been incredibly dumb and incredibly baffling.

1) Signing Nikitin for 2 years, 4.5 mill. Nikitin was a healthy scratch in Columbus quite a few times last year, yet the Oilers signed him to 2nd pairing money and thrust him on the top pair.

Overpaid yes but the best we could do. Not a conspiracy.

2) trading Gagner WITHOUT having a centre lined up. We were already paper thin at centre. Gagner needed to go, I don't think anyone disputes that. But trading one of your top two centres without having another centre is beyond idiotic. Our centre depth for tonight is Arco-Leon-Gordon-Acton. Gagner has a ton of deficiencies in his game, but is still a much better NHL centre than any of those guys.

Your on crack. Arcobello and Purcell have been 2 of our best and are much better than Gagner. See Gagner struggle as a third line winger in Ari says it all.

3) having 35 guys up till the end of preseason. All teams are down to 22-25 players in their final preseason games, and use those games to prep for the season. The sad thing is, we don't even have 35 NHL level players, we barely have 20. Whats the point of having a guy like Khaira in the final preseason game when everyone knows those guys won't make team? Thst just ensured the team had no preparation to start the team.

Agree. Not smart of them to miss the opportunity to get the final roster all on the same page.

4) sending Marincin down. This guy was one of our best dmen last year, and nobody who watched the Oilers would dispute that. His preseason wasn't flashy, it was efficient. By all statistical and analytical measures, he also vastly outplayed all our left side Dmen. And even if he didn't outplayed Ference/Nikitin/klefbom- are you telling me the Oilers thought that Brad Freaking Hunt was a better NHL option?

Agreed. Hunt is terrible. Marincin is great.

5) Scratching Petry- scratching him last night when he was our best dman for two games was not only beyond stupid, it also put things in motion. Petry is on a one year deal. He is a good to 4 dman, and even those who don't like him know it was incredibly dumb to scratch him. Elliotte Friedman wrote in his 30 thoughts this morning that when you scratch a dman like that, its probably time to part ways. He listed Detroit or Anaheim as possible destinations. Not having Petry would destroy our already brutal back end, and I can't help but think that scratching him was a precursor to him bring traded in a few months time.

I didn't think much of Petry in game one despite good advanced stats however in game 2 he looked solid and overall should not have been scratched.

With all these decisions and more, I really cannot believe that a management and coaching staff soul be this stupid. Either we are stuck with the worst coaching and management combo in the history of sports, or they are intentionally trying to tank for McDavid. Either way, I'm pretty sure we are all sick of these guys, whatever they are trying to do with this team.

Agreed. I have friends who are fans of other teams asking who the hell Hunt is and where is Marincin. Some seriously bad decisions to start the year.

Hope it means Eakins is gone at the very least and Cabot as well.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

"I think that Justin has Norris Trophy potential, and I don’t think there are too many people who disagree with me in that regard," said MacTavish

if this quote doesn't tell how incompetent our "braintrust" is, then nothing will...

they've literally convinced themselves Schultz has Norris trophy potential....unreal