I've always wondered what the Oilers saw that year as most people had Draisaitl lower than Bennett but a team that up to that point had always gone for the bigger name went with Draisaitl. That draft saved the Oilers and set us back. I understand why we picked Bennett but is lack of production is something that will haunt Treliving.
They moved on because they decided that Phil wasn't good enough to be the primary player to take them to a championship and they didn't want his character around the rebuild because its contagious. Impressionable kids, looking up to and learning how to play at the NHL level from the likes of Johnny or Kessel creates terrible bad habits, that left unchecked can be uncorrectable.
I guess not to you, if you only want to look at his point production. I myself, prefer to look at his entire game and the way it impacts the team. While his skill is undeniable, there's also only a handful of players, in the entire league, that turn the puck over more than him, leading to a multitude of odd man rushes.....every year.
You're welcome to look up the numbers but Johnny is among the league leaders every year. If you read though the posts leading up to this, I'm actually suggesting that Johnny and Monahan are actually the first 2 players to go.
What's your excuse this year then? If we are bad because of giveaways and they stop and we do worse how can you conclude you were right?
My excuse? The only thing you've been able to come up with is that Johnny scores the most points and its someone else's fault. Perhaps if spent more time evaluating the root of this teams problems, not only this season but past ones and the playoffs, instead of just pointing fingers at the easy targets, you may come to the same conclusions.
Instead of pointing fingers at the easy targets like the problems on the team we should find a way to blame one of the few guys year in year out to show up.
Yea but he missed every shot he didn't take
I don't know, teams have gotten pretty good at crash and burn rebuilds now a days. The way I see it, you keep Lindy, Mangi, Dube and Backlund. You have Pelletier/Zary coming, plus the returns for Johnny, Monahan and possibly even Tkachuk. You do what you can but more like than not come into a strong 2022 draft on our nose.
This is a rewrite of history...There was no luck in Draisatl being available and the only thing the Oilers had to do to get him was to suck at playing hockey.
It was Draisatl's size. He projected to be a large bodied skilled 1st line center. Which at the time was what teams needed to compete. At the time of the draft Anaheim, San Jose and the Kings ruled the division and they were large and played a heavy game.
