Confirmed with Link: Ference retires.

[rboomercat90]

Horcoff was the king of the bad post game interview. He may not have thrown guys under the bus like Moreau did, but he sure as hell never took much responsibility himself. Just a bunch of nose stroking platitudes with that guy. I got the impression he was more concerned with his role as NHLPA big shot than his duty to mentor a bunch of high draft pick kids. imo Horcoff is a huge reason why some of the younger players learned to get by doing the minimum. Stay healthy and cash those checks. Totally agree with the bold as well. .

I always got the impression he cared more about the union than the team too. I remember being at a game early in the season probably around 2009 or so. He was horrible that game, the team lost and afterwards Stauffer or Tencer (can't remember which) were making excuses for him saying he was on a six hour conference call that day with the union. Players association business was more important than the game that night. That was probably around the time I really started to sour on him. His involvement with the union was way too public. It hasn't been with other players, I couldn't tell you who any of the other Oiler NHLPA reps have been over the years.

 

[Supermassive]

Harpoon, buddy - some of us are just biting our tongues in this thread, haha. If someone starts a Ference criticism thread, it'll hit 1000 quick. Great post though, not kidding.

 

[harpoon]

Harpoon, buddy - some of us are just biting our tongues in this thread, haha. If someone starts a Ference criticism thread, it'll hit 1000 quick. Great post though, not kidding.

Appreciate the feedback. Like BBO said in the improved or not thread, I'd really rather not dump on Ference, but in ten years on this site I've never seen a player get this many bouquets for doing so little. Its a little hard to take.

 

[ujju2]

Appreciate the feedback. Like BBO said in the improved or not thread, I'd really rather not dump on Ference, but in ten years on this site I've never seen a player get this many bouquets for doing so little. Its a little hard to take.

Really... I'm the other way around. I think Ference gets a LOT more hate than he deserves. But I've always liked the guy, both as a player and a person.

 

[shoop]

Yup. Assuming the bold was meant to be job, but you're right, that would be a joke.

Interesting to see all the love for Ference for being a 'good guy'. Like that matters in hockey. I wonder if any of the guys fans have run out of town for not playing to their potential were 'good guys' off the ice. I bet Gryba and Russell are 'good guys' too ... lets see how much love they get on the board this season. Maybe they should start making some pc tweets to proactively get the fans on their side.

I can respect that Ference has a long career and some years when he was a good defenseman. Unfortunately we never saw more than a dozen or so games of that player in Edmonton. While playing for the Oil he was borderline useless on most nights, never came close to living up to his contract, and was in no way deserving of the C.

Surely a lot of that is on management, but Ference was a big Eakins man so that's another strike against him imo. I'm delighted to see the tail end of this player.

Excellent post.

The signing of Ference was terrible. Four years was far too long. One of MacT's first signings as GM and one of the bigger mistakes in the laundry list of errors MacT made.

You are dead on about the politically correct stuff Ference did counting for far too much in people's opinion of him. The Spider Mable thing was cute, but any player could and would have done that.

The job of a captain is to help mentor players with the end goal of winning. Ference did neither. In his first season was a serviceable third pairing defenceman making second pairing money and playing too high in the lineup. He was barely an NHL caliber 7 D by the end of the second season of his contract.

Then he made $7 million playing six games over the final two seasons of his contract. He was indeed a favourite of Eakins which just illustrates what a terrible period 2013-15 was in Oilers history.

 

[K1984]

One more remnant of the decade of darkness washed away.

Second worst captain in team history.

I thought that was Kelly Buchburger?

 

[Shibumi]

I thought that was Kelly Buchburger?

Shayne Corson without a doubt was the worst.

 

[shoop]

I thought that was Kelly Buchburger?

I'd say Buchy was slightly better than Ference. Neither were good.

 

[DethOfDragnz]

It's always sad when a pro athlete retires. My best wishes to Andrew Ference and his family.