Are the oilers just a poorly built team?

[AveryStar4Eva]

Yes they are.

• The team has constantly gotten bent over in trades (Hall/Larsson, Reinhardt/1st & 2nd, Eberle/Strome)

• They have had poor drafting outside of the first round. Check their draft history, Edmonton Oilers Draft History at hockeydb.com

• They have had many disappointing top 5 picks (Yak, Puljuarvi). Top five picks are supposed to be sure shot top 6/top 4 players.

• They have overpaid for players in free agency; Lucic (6.000/5), Sekera (5.500/3), Russell (4.000/3). They have nearly 20% of their cap tied up in these three players.

You can’t make this many mistakes and expect McDavid to drag you to a cup. They aren’t the worst team in the league, but they are constantly screwing themselves by trying to do to much.

If they didn’t make those trades and didn’t make those signings the team would look much better right now. Chia can’t build a successful team in the modern NHL.

 

[CupofOil]

I know everyone loves to blame the coach, but Chiarelli is just awful. He literally hasn’t made a good move as a GM yet and it is totally his fault, he should be gone long before McLellan

Mclellan is horrendous too. Don't let the poorly built roster fool you, coaching is just as much an issue as the roster is.
Everybody regresses under Mclellan, not one young player has developed properly, they have no identity, there's no cohesion and the Special Teams are an embarrassment (just look at his absurd PP configurations, not one change from a unit that was last in the league last season).

Really though, the GM and coach are small potatoes compared to the real culprit up top. Until Katz sells the team or finally realizes that he needs to hire qualified individuals and not cronies, nothing is going to change.

 

[Captain Mountain]

Chiarelli sucks definitely. No argument from me there. But to put the state of the team all on him and McLellan to me is just lazy. It goes deeper than that. They're incompetent boobs following a long line of incompetent boobs, most of which are somehow still getting paid to sip red wine in the owner's box of an 800 million dollar new arena.

To me it all started with one idea, "Let's lose on purpose."

Not really the most honorable notion, and personally I detest that this attitude is so prevalent in pro sports, but they're not the first or the last to adopt this strategy under the guise of "rebuilding". Just seems like they never had a step 2 and didn't fully appreciate the ramifications of what this idea might mean to an organization, how accepting failure is not a good environment for young players to brought into.
Step 1 - Lose a lot and draft high to acquire talent
Step 2- Throw that talent into the lineup with little to no quality veteran support around them
Step 3- ???????????????
Step 4- Profit anyways because the fans love their team religiously

Entering a rebuild is fine, but at some point you need to have a viable plan on how you're going to get out of it. This idea that a dynasty is just going to appear before your eyes because "Well, but, we've SUFFERED!! WE DESERVE IT!!" is wishful thinking at it's finest. The Penguins did largely the same thing but look at the roster Crosby won his first cup with. Tons of quality vets. Look at the roster McDavid is working with, over half is replacement level filler.

I'm not sure I buy the no good veterans reason. For one, looking at Pittsburgh's first cup team, I'm not sure how hard I'd push their quality vets. The vets they had were Gill (good vet, but not a difference maker), Orpik (the game kind of moved passed him since, but he was a Pen lifer at the time, he didn't really have winning experience), Sykora and Satan. They also added Guerin at the deadline.

Oilers have added a lot of vets over the years of their rebuild too. And its not like you need vets to rebuild effectively. Winnipeg has one of the youngest teams in the entire NHL and they're pretty good.

The problem is the "good" part. And Edmonton's issue is that they've had trouble adding good players of any age or experience.

 

[Thelegend81]

This tweet came out of Edmonton today. What is going on with the oilers?

Is it just a losing culture? Seems like everyone who leaves Edmonton has a nice little career, such as Dubnyk, Petry, Hall and Eberle. Yakupov is the exception

They draft the worst in the league, make the most lopsided trades and sign the worst contracts. How do you get mcdavid in the draft and trade Taylor Hall, the only winger fast enough to keep up with him on your roster???

 

[Esq]

Haven't we all noticed since forever that their defense isn't good enough?

 

[Angry Little Elf]

Other than Taylor Hall (and to a lesser extent, Justin Schultz), what have the other guys done to have 'nice little careers'? They left and got paid. Were the Oilers supposed to keep all of these guys? You're aware there's a salary cap, right?

As for the question, the Oilers are seeing the effects of the prospect cabinet they inherited in 2015. Mind you, the Reinhart trade didn't help the cause, but the Oilers have routinely been forced to utilized the trade and free agency market to fill both key and depth roles within their organization over the past few seasons. This is the main reason why they're currently sitting at the cap ceiling with their current roster depth.

It's not great, but the roster as it is would be far more successful if it were being coached by someone in tune with how hockey is being played in 2018.

Dubnyk had a vezina nomination. Petry is a solid 3-4 defenceman. Furthermore, they didn’t leave in free agency, they were traded for scraps because the oilers gave up on them.

 

[Fig]

Essentially... Hold my beer happened at the management and coaching level?

 

[TheBeastCoast]

I feel like if someone is on the hot seat 2 games into the season that means you didn't make a decision that needed to be made in the off season....just maybe.

 

[Tampbear]

I think their issues are primarily in development, they can't seem to turn their various high picks into solid players and until they can figure out how to draft better or develop better or both it's hard to see this trend turning around. I do think they have enough talent where they should be somewhat competitive and for that I am going to blame the coach. I know they overachieved a bit in 2017 but the way they collapsed the following year shouldn't have happened and should have cost the coach his job.

 

[The Burdened]

Chiarelli is 100% absolutely up there with Millbury.

Unlike Milbury, Chiarelli inherited a bounty of talent and has always had the ability to spend as much as he was allowed to.
Chiarelli's claim to fame is inheriting a team that Mike O'Connel & Jeff Gorton built.

You look at that 2011 Bruins core, and the best players on the team that were his were Horton, Boychuk & Recchi.
Chara, Rask, Lucic & Marchand are all Gorton's credit
Bergeron, Thomas, Krejci are O'Connell's

and no, Chiarelli had nothing to do with the drafting of Kessel, Lucic & Marchand. He was still an Ottawa employee waiting for his contract to expire and Gorton was heading that draft.

 

[Soundwave]

Chiarelli is 100% absolutely up there with Millbury.

Unlike Milbury, Chiarelli inherited a bounty of talent and has always had the ability to spend as much as he was allowed to.
Chiarelli's claim to fame is inheriting a team that Mike O'Connel & Jeff Gorton built.

You look at that 2011 Bruins core, and the best players on the team that were his were Horton, Boychuk & Recchi.
Chara, Rask, Lucic & Marchand are all Gorton's credit
Bergeron, Thomas, Krejci are O'Connell's

and no, Chiarelli had nothing to do with the drafting of Kessel, Lucic & Marchand. He was still an Ottawa employee waiting for his contract to expire and Gorton was heading that draft.

Yup overrated big time.

 

[BoldNewLettuce]

Chiarelli is 100% absolutely up there with Millbury.

Unlike Milbury, Chiarelli inherited a bounty of talent and has always had the ability to spend as much as he was allowed to.
Chiarelli's claim to fame is inheriting a team that Mike O'Connel & Jeff Gorton built.

You look at that 2011 Bruins core, and the best players on the team that were his were Horton, Boychuk & Recchi.
Chara, Rask, Lucic & Marchand are all Gorton's credit
Bergeron, Thomas, Krejci are O'Connell's

and no, Chiarelli had nothing to do with the drafting of Kessel, Lucic & Marchand. He was still an Ottawa employee waiting for his contract to expire and Gorton was heading that draft.

that seems like cherry picking evidence.

if the onus is on the gm....the credit goes to him as well.

 

[TheBeastCoast]

Chiarelli is 100% absolutely up there with Millbury.

Unlike Milbury, Chiarelli inherited a bounty of talent and has always had the ability to spend as much as he was allowed to.
Chiarelli's claim to fame is inheriting a team that Mike O'Connel & Jeff Gorton built.

You look at that 2011 Bruins core, and the best players on the team that were his were Horton, Boychuk & Recchi.
Chara, Rask, Lucic & Marchand are all Gorton's credit
Bergeron, Thomas, Krejci are O'Connell's

and no, Chiarelli had nothing to do with the drafting of Kessel, Lucic & Marchand. He was still an Ottawa employee waiting for his contract to expire and Gorton was heading that draft.

He has built a long career off of impeccable timing and good job selection. Just kinda tumbled into it.

 

[Arselona]

They've looked completely confused and lost on the ice, out of sync. Give it ten games but if no improvement the coach needs to go. The roster might not be great but everyone is also underperforming, the Oilers are not this bad.

 

[CartographerNo611]

Building from the Offense back never works out, like ever. They can't draft and develop D or goalies worth a damn. I think Nurse is the only good one in the last 20 years and even now I think being on the Oilers is hampering his development. Put him with Trotz or someone who knows how to develop D and he would be in discussion with Seth Jones.

 

[Soundwave]

Building from the Offense back never works out, like ever. They can't draft and develop D or goalies worth a damn. I think Nurse is the only good one in the last 20 years and even now I think being on the Oilers is hampering his development. Put him with Trotz or someone who knows how to develop D and he would be in discussion with Seth Jones.

Except the Pens, Caps, Leafs, and Jets have all built offence back.

Trading away star players for the Adam Larssons of the world is what doesn't work.

 

[TDotMassive]

Yes they are.

• The team has constantly gotten bent over in trades (Hall/Larsson, Reinhardt/1st & 2nd, Eberle/Strome)

• They have had poor drafting outside of the first round. Check their draft history, Edmonton Oilers Draft History at hockeydb.com

• They have had many disappointing top 5 picks (Yak, Puljuarvi). Top five picks are supposed to be sure shot top 6/top 4 players.

• They have overpaid for players in free agency; Lucic (6.000/5), Sekera (5.500/3), Russell (4.000/3). They have nearly 20% of their cap tied up in these three players.

You can’t make this many mistakes and expect McDavid to drag you to a cup. They aren’t the worst team in the league, but they are constantly screwing themselves by trying to do to much.

If they didn’t make those trades and didn’t make those signings the team would look much better right now. Chia can’t build a successful team in the modern NHL.

McDavid will eventually get sick of this nonsense... he will want a winning culture. He will be looking to come home like JT in 7 years...

 

[Mr Positive]

Our team, ever since trading Schultz, has not had a real offensive Dman. Probably the closest we came to being a functioning team in our early rebuild phase was when we had Ryan Whitney with bad ankles, playing with Schultz, and that was the only year that Schultz looked great as an Oiler. We still lost games, because of his ankles, but the team at least looked normal. Hockey is a game that REQUIRES quick passing and quick point shots from the blue line. We simply do not have that. Imo this has cascading handicaps all over the team. It actually makes you worse in the Dzone becuase you spend less time in the offensive zone. No amount of talent up front can make up for it either.

In 2016-17 we had multiple non-OFD Dmen who had hot streaks at the same time. It was not sustainable. However, if we had even one top 4 OFD, this might entice the less offensively minded Dmen to gain confidence, and in general that's how any glaring flaw goes. Players get exposed, but fix the flaw and everyone slides into roles that suit them better.

 

[Tad Mikowsky]

McDavid will eventually get sick of this nonsense... he will want a winning culture. He will be looking to come home like JT in 7 years...

I hate these useless posts.

 

[Bounces R Way]

I'm not sure I buy the no good veterans reason. For one, looking at Pittsburgh's first cup team, I'm not sure how hard I'd push their quality vets. The vets they had were Gill (good vet, but not a difference maker), Orpik (the game kind of moved passed him since, but he was a Pen lifer at the time, he didn't really have winning experience), Sykora and Satan. They also added Guerin at the deadline.

Oilers have added a lot of vets over the years of their rebuild too. And its not like you need vets to rebuild effectively. Winnipeg has one of the youngest teams in the entire NHL and they're pretty good.

The problem is the "good" part. And Edmonton's issue is that they've had trouble adding good players of any age or experience.

Gonchar? Scuderi? Fedotenko? Also that he was living with one of the greatest ever in Mario Lemeiux. Plus Letang, Fleury, Staal, and a 113pt Malkin as some of the other young pieces around him.

Winnipeg had Byfuglien, Wheeler, Ladd, Enstrom, and Little. They have great youth but they didn't need to throw them into positions they weren't ready for.

McDavid gets Lucic, Sekera, and Russell.

 

[CartographerNo611]

Except the Pens, Caps, Leafs, and Jets have all built offence back.

Trading away star players for the Adam Larssons of the world is what doesn't work.

LMAO you crazy brah

Penguins
Drafted Letang, almost a Norris winner
Drafted Maata, decent depth
Developed Dumo, an underrated shut down d-man
Drafted Orpik Instrumental in the Pens and Caps runs
Drafted Flower Cups and made the Knights D look good during their run
Drafted Murray got a couple of cups with him

Capitals
Orlov probably the best d-man during the caps caps run drafted by Caps
Carlson, drafted and developed by Caps, solid top pairing D-man
Holtby, Vezina trophy winner, stole games for the Caps during their Cup run
Signed Niskanen who was amazing during the cup runs

I mean seriously brah, do you really want me to continue? Cup teams dont hinge their futures on a 3rd pairing Klefbom and the Rangers trash in Talbot...

 

[Soundwave]

LMAO you crazy brah

Penguins
Drafted Letang, almost a Norris winner
Drafted Maata, decent depth
Developed Dumo, an underrated shut down d-man
Drafted Orpik Instrumental in the Pens and Caps runs
Drafted Flower Cups and made the Knights D look good during their run
Drafted Murray got a couple of cups with him

Capitals
Orlov probably the best d-man during the caps caps run drafted by Caps
Carlson, drafted and developed by Caps, solid top pairing D-man
Holtby, Vezina trophy winner, stole games for the Caps during their Cup run
Signed Niskanen who was amazing during the cup runs

I mean seriously brah, do you really want me to continue? Cup teams dont hinge their futures on a 3rd pairing Klefbom and the Rangers trash in Talbot...

Penguins never spent any of their top picks on a D except Whitney who they then promptly traded away.

The Oilers have spend basically a no.1 overall (Hall for Larsson, who was no.4 overall anyway), no. 7 overall (Nurse), no. 10 overall (Bouchard), and a mid 1st for Klefbom. Not only that they gifted away the no.16 overall (could have been Barzal) for Griffin Reinhart, another D.

So don't tell me this team hasn't invested in D. That's 5 1st rounders spent on D (a position that's only 6 deep to begin with) including giving away a 1st overall and two more top 10 picks.

If anything the Barzal-Reinhart situation just shows the stupidity of the blind "well you gotta draft some D!" ... that's where that line of logic leads you to. No, you take the best player available and figure the rest out later.

Having to build any specific way is stupid, take the best talent possible first. There's no gauruntee you're getting a Letang, that is a product of development not the Penguins spending a top 10 pick on him.

I believe the two top 10 picks the Pens made on D were Whitney and Pouliot and they bailed out on both.

 

[Mr Positive]

McDavid will eventually get sick of this nonsense... he will want a winning culture. He will be looking to come home like JT in 7 years...

if the Oilers are still this bad in 7 years I don't think any Oiler fan would disagree with you, or care. I'd guess he'd be traded away before then actually. He is signed, and committed to the Oilers, but there is a limit to everything and he has power in this situation.

 

[Tad Mikowsky]

LMAO you crazy brah

Penguins
Drafted Letang, almost a Norris winner
Drafted Maata, decent depth
Developed Dumo, an underrated shut down d-man
Drafted Orpik Instrumental in the Pens and Caps runs
Drafted Flower Cups and made the Knights D look good during their run
Drafted Murray got a couple of cups with him

Capitals
Orlov probably the best d-man during the caps caps run drafted by Caps
Carlson, drafted and developed by Caps, solid top pairing D-man
Holtby, Vezina trophy winner, stole games for the Caps during their Cup run
Signed Niskanen who was amazing during the cup runs

I mean seriously brah, do you really want me to continue? Cup teams dont hinge their futures on a 3rd pairing Klefbom and the Rangers trash in Talbot...

Hard to take this seriously when you call Klefbom a third pairing dman, Talbot Ranger Trash, but calling an overpaid Brooks Orpik Essential to the Caps and calling Orlov the best drafted Dman....even though they have Carlson.

I get what you’re going with, but hyperbole makes it look a bit dumb.

 

[Bleedred]

Will lol once McLellan is fired and Gully takes over. It will be the same thing if not worse.

Haha. I was joking about Gulutzan, but it would be a Chiarelli move to fire McLellan and promote Gulutzan.

McLellan is a FRAUD. And he certainly doesn't deserve the ''Best head coach in Sharks history'' title either.

f*** him, he's a mediocre head coach at best, that inherits strong rosters and falls short. Not that the Oilers are a strong roster, but he deserves no credit for them getting to the playoffs 2 years ago.