Dallas Eakins fired, Nelson named HC, MacTavish named interim

[Cbbq3]

The Oilers have talent, more talent than a lot of teams that are doing better and putting out a better effort. You can say the roster is flawed, but all they really needed coming in to the season was a center, not even a top-six center but just a center who could play solid two-way hockey and not be a defensive liability, a center and a veteran defenceman. And a coach who wasn't freaking terrible. Anybody could see it, his body-language, his decision-making, his team's body language, it was terrible, he was terrible, he should have been fired this time last season.

So, here's my fix for the Oilers that I had worked out as of about a month ago...

1. Fire Eakins
2. Trade Eberle for a center (Mike Richards maybe? or similar) who is defensively responsible (no longer applicable since Gordon is hurt thus they are completely boned anyway)
3. Trade a low pick for a veteran defenceman (no longer as applicable since targets like Gonchar, Allen, Brewer are already moved)
4. Put Nicholson in charge

The fact they did nothing before the season and nothing now tells me, 1. the front office is incompetent (see: they hired Eakins in the first place) and/or, 2. they were tanking right from the start and it probably came down from the top, ie ownership told them not to add anything and to blow the season so that they would move into their new arena with more high draft picks ie Eichel/McDavid. Frankly that is an embarrassment to the entire league.

I like your post except for one thing... I highly doubt tanking was ever part of the equation. If it was, there would be no reason to fire Eakins now. By making this move MacTavish has opened himself up to full scrutiny and there's still more than half a season to go. If there is not the slightest bit of improvement now, there will be nowhere for MacT to run to dodge the responsibility of that. There is no way MacT would put himself into that position unless he truly believed he was making a change for the better. The Oilers have nowehere near secured last place, nor are they even guaranteed to finish 29th. Considering the relatively low odds of winning the lottery in the first place, there is actually a very, very good chance that the Oilers will land neither McDavid nor Eichel.

Edit: And another thing, the first game under MacT's hand is now the Phoenix game, the 28th placed team. If tanking's the game than this is virtually a must lose... again, why would MacT put himself into this position? Couldn't he then have waited at least one more game to fire Eakins? No my man, the Oilers are not tanking. The concept of tanking is appealing in a sort of perverse way and always crops up, but in practice I can't imagine any situation where tanking would actually bring more long term good than harm. I hope with the new draft lottery changes all this talk of tanking will cease, I find it rather annoying.

 

[Del Preston]

Great injustice that Eakins was fired before trading some useless player(s).

Most of those players became useless under Eakins.

 

[WingedWheel1987]

Horrible GM who built horrible team will now also coach horrible team he built.

The Edmonton Oilers are absolutely hilarious.

 

[scud9]

Eakins had to go. The results were horrid and the game Edm played was clueless and not developing. Edm was counterattacking one at a time, they lost a puck in a key areas and was at receiving end with tons of oddman rushes. They relied too heavily on key players, like Hall, Eberle and RHN. 4th line started season well, they corsi numbers were great and still they were playing less than 10 minutes per game. And top of that Draisatl hasn't been ready and everybody who saw the WC last spring would have known. And Edm should have.

I think Edm needs to have a veteran coach, a C for Draisatl, keep the core and use as a sellbait some of the younger D's and Yak. It's hard to believe that guys like Ference, Nikitin, Petry, Marincin cannot play defence under right coaching system. Have to say for me Scrivens isn't number 1 in NHL and maybe Edm needs also guy like Niemi(?) as a free agent.

 

[Nsjohnson]

This is like some Game of Thrones stuff.

Just last week he said he was behind Eakins. Now he's basically beheading him in public and taking the position for himself. He also investigated himself and found himself clear of any charges.

Amazing thought.

 

[Kimota]

Mac quickly made sure that he would not stay long as coach and he had a back-up guy just in case he had to fire himself.

 

[Jesus Christ Horburn]

Just when you thought the Oilers were taking a step in the right direction firing Eakins, MacT hires an unknown coach and then there's talk of trading Hall...

Honestly, the entire front office needs to go. I don't know what Katz is thinking keeping them around. Imagine if MacT and Eakins had been replaced with actual experienced and proven management, like Rick Dudley as GM and Paul MacLean as coach (just examples).

 

[SLarmer28*]

Mac quickly made sure that he would not stay long as coach and he had a back-up guy just in case he had to fire himself.

I always thought the captain goes down with the ship.

 

[phrenssoa]

Just when you thought the Oilers were taking a step in the right direction firing Eakins, MacT hires an unknown coach and then there's talk of trading Hall...

Honestly, the entire front office needs to go. I don't know what Katz is thinking keeping them around. Imagine if MacT and Eakins had been replaced with actual experienced and proven management, like Rick Dudley as GM and Paul MacLean as coach (just examples).

That's pure speculation though... I highly, highly doubt that Hall gets traded.

As for Nelson, I definitely don't mind the hire. He knows our players and prospects well already, and has done a very good job with underwhelming rosters in the AHL. He knows how to get the best out of everyone.

 

[DeYarmond Edison]

Oil will win tonight. Big. Watch.

 

[General Fanager]

MacT and Lowe have pics of Katz doing something really really bad....

 

[General Fanager]

Just when you thought the Oilers were taking a step in the right direction firing Eakins, MacT hires an unknown coach and then there's talk of trading Hall...

Honestly, the entire front office needs to go. I don't know what Katz is thinking keeping them around. Imagine if MacT and Eakins had been replaced with actual experienced and proven management, like Rick Dudley as GM and Paul MacLean as coach (just examples).

I know Katz is a moron but he wouldnt allow that would he??

 

[glovesave_35]

MacTavish has been named interim what?

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

Congrats to Todd Nelson, though, for working his way up into the NHL as a coach, and leading OKC through everything that's gone on above them, some of you might not know who he is, but our fanbase here is definitely thrilled to see this, despite the circumstances it came under.

 

[Bill Waters*]

Was he fired via Skype?

 

[Helistin]

Just last week he said he was behind Eakins. Now he's basically beheading him in public and taking the position for himself. He also investigated himself and found himself clear of any charges.

So basically like O.J Simpson investigating who is the real killer.

 

[Slot]

I always thought the captain goes down with the ship.

These days they get into the first life boat available to direct the evacuation.

 

[Nihiliste]

Nothing will ever change in Edmonton as long as the old boy's club is calling the shots in Edmonton, and they're not remotely interested in relinquishing power. They're back to the same place they were a decade ago, with Lowe/Howson holding management position above MacT who's now temporarily behind the bench again. The only difference is, these guys have actually all found a way to occupy a correspondingly higher position than they previously held.

Buchburger being reshuffled to the AHL squad so soon after being let go, after years of being forced upon HC after HC as an associate coach is another symptom of the disease. The cancer needs to be excised if this organization is going to go anywhere. Katz is the only one in the position to do that, but to protect his golf buddies he's willing to let it fester instead.

It's a sad situation to see a very passionate fanbase being taken for granted like this, year after year.

 

[The Nuge]

Nothing will ever change in Edmonton as long as the old boy's club is calling the shots in Edmonton, and they're not remotely interested in relinquishing power. They're back to the same place they were a decade ago, with Lowe/Howson holding management position above MacT who's now temporarily behind the bench again. The only difference is, these guys have actually all found a way to occupy a correspondingly higher position than they previously held.

Buchburger being reshuffled to the AHL squad so soon after being let go, after years of being forced upon HC after HC as an associate coach is another symptom of the disease. The cancer needs to be excised if this organization is going to go anywhere. Katz is the only one in the position to do that, but to protect his golf buddies he's willing to let it fester instead.

It's a sad situation to see a very passionate fanbase being taken for granted like this, year after year.

We were already paying Buchberger, so it makes sense to have him go to OKC. No sense in wasting extra money when we're already paying Krueger and Eakins to not be here

 

[613Leafer]

Eakins press conference right now said the Oil are close, and have been on the wrong side of a ton of one goal games.

If theyre consistently losing by a close score, why do they have the worst goal differential in the league at -39? Gotta love the spinster abilities of GMs/coaches.

 

[UsernameWasTaken]

"If anyone can get it done, it's Craig MacTavish"

 

[Freudian]

Oilers fans can stop worrying. "Craig's on it".

 

[missinthejets]

Eakins press conference right now said the Oil are close, and have been on the wrong side of a ton of one goal games.

If theyre consistently losing by a close score, why do they have the worst goal differential in the league at -39? Gotta love the spinster abilities of GMs/coaches.

because they have the worst record in the league? When you don't win many games you don't get many +s in the goal differential. Then you can throw in a couple more -s from empty net goals or what not.

It's not spin it's just logic.

 

[ManofSteel55]

Eakins press conference right now said the Oil are close, and have been on the wrong side of a ton of one goal games.

If theyre consistently losing by a close score, why do they have the worst goal differential in the league at -39? Gotta love the spinster abilities of GMs/coaches.

Look at the scores. We've had a few games where we were utterly destroyed (6-1 vs LA, 7-4 vs AZ, 7-1 vs CH, puts us at -14 in three games), but we have lost 14 games by one goal, or one goal plus an empty netter. That is a lot of one goal games no matter how you slice it.

 

[Spawn]

Eakins press conference right now said the Oil are close, and have been on the wrong side of a ton of one goal games.

If theyre consistently losing by a close score, why do they have the worst goal differential in the league at -39? Gotta love the spinster abilities of GMs/coaches.

On this horrible stretch. 15 losses in 16 games. 11 were one goal games (2 of which had an empty netter at the end of the game). The Oilers did have a tonne of 1-goal game losses. That doesn't mean they were playing well though. The team was playing awful, unmotivated, sloppy hockey.