Mactavish appreciation thread

[shoop]

I'd also like to add in
Hired and stuck by the worst coach in the NHL
Grebeshkov (everyone knew it was bad from day 1)
Big contract to Gagner

He took a flyer on Grebs and Belov. Neither worked out, no major damage.

Gagner was a mistake that was corrected within a year.

Eakins needs this year to be judged fairly. Second year with the players in his system and first year with his own coaching staff. If Eakins is bad again this year than the hiring was a mistake. For now, wait and see.

Smid trade was ok.

MacT has made his bold moves this year. 7M between Petry and Schultz should be enough to get both of them signed now. That leaves 5M for a 2C. Pretty decent cap management.

Overall thumbs up to MacT. This season will tell the tale. If the team isn't in the mix come March than he deserves scorn, for now he's done pretty well IMO.

 

[Beerfish]

lol wut

go back and look, I know all the happy happy joy joy club has a short memory but people loved pretty well each and every tambo fa move feeling we had filled wholes. MacT is filling the holes the same way tambo did, 3-4 liners and bottom end dmen.

 

[McShogun99]

Fasth - backup goalie
Scrivens - backup goalie
Nikitin - over paid hopeful, bottom pairing on majority of teams
Ferrence - over paid + long term, bottom pairing
Fayne - good signing
Purcell - over paid hopeful
Pouliot - way over paid + way to long term for career 3rd liner at best
Gordon - over paid 4rth line center but solid
Perron - steal of a trade
Draisaitl - anyone could of drafted him

+ no center yet, if we start with Arco and Lander my as well call it a season.
+ over payed Gagner making is value an all time low
+ offered the worst contract to Clarskon, lucky he didn't accept
+ signed Anton belov, Jesse Joensuu, will acton, Denis Grebeshkov, Jason Labarbera.
+ got a 5th and 3rd for Hemsky
+ gave away smid for nothing
+ hired a rookie coach in the middle of a rebuild
+ tried keeping the worst assistant coaches

Scrivens- still young enough to become a starter, was backup to one of the best goalies in the NHL

Fasth- Success at every level he's played but has groin problems, having him and Scrivens as a 1A and 1B combo is better then overpaying for a Miller or injury prone Hiller.

Nikitin- He is overpaid, we probably could have got him on July 1 for 3-3.5 and not had to give up a draft pick.

Ference- Overpaid but we need his leadership and experience. Fine with him on the bottom pairing.

Fayne- Really excited for him, great signing for cheap.

Purcell- It's better then getting a 6th round pick for Gagner, plus he's a lock for 40+ points.

Pouliot- Would have been a great signing if the cap hit was 3 million. Will probably get bought out after his third year.

Gordon- Great signing. He's not a 4th line C, he's a defensive C.

Perron- Don't have to say anything about him.

 

[CupofOil]

Eh. I'd like to see how the team competes before I give him credit.

Exactly this.

And they still have no #2C, no top pairing Dman although that will have to come from within, questionable goaltending and are still painfully soft so i'll hold off on the praise until we start to see some results.
The team is improved though but so is most of the west so it's going to be another painful year coming up IMO.

 

[McDeepika]

go back and look, I know all the happy happy joy joy club has a short memory but people loved pretty well each and every tambo fa move feeling we had filled wholes. MacT is filling the holes the same way tambo did, 3-4 liners and bottom end dmen.

I recall the board being pretty happy about the Belanger signing. Where there any other moves we liked?

 

[Bangers]

I'm going to wait to see what he does with the #2C position before I give MacT any appreciation. I am adopting a wait and see approach with all of the players acquired; I think Nikitin is overpaid (and I don't think the team should have given up a pick to get him), Pouliot got too long of a contract, Aulie is filler, and Purcell for Gagner is a lateral move. That being said, I like the Fayne pick up, all of the players the team acquired fill holes that needed to be filled and I'm hopeful that the moves pan out.

 

[MrOiler]

MacT has done a good job. He's identified weakness, removed it, and replaced it with better fitting and more seasoned players - without swinging for the fences. It took some time to unravel older contracts. He's not done. I expect a 2/3C in place before October if it doesn't handcuff the team in terms of cap space for Petry/Schultz/Yak.

It feels like there's a strategy in place, instead of a bunch of flailing around in past years.

p.s. - It's nice to see a mostly positive thread on this board for a change. The last few years have made this place (HFB) a masochist's dream.

 

[Cloned]

A big improvement from Tambellini, who would have signed Engelland to a 3M contract and called it a day, all the while grinning ear to ear about how that signing indicated players were seeing Edmonton as a "place to play."

 

[Del Preston]

A big improvement from Tambellini, who would have signed Engelland to a 3M contract and called it a day, all the while grinning ear to ear about how that signing indicated players were seeing Edmonton as a "place to play."

I'm laughing at how sad and accurate this is.

"Damn it feels good to be a gangster."

 

[Mr Positive]

MacT has addressed the general needs of the team, but the core needs have always been 2C and 1D, both of which are still not filled.

I'm still very positive on MacT's performance since he beef up the lineup considerably and even if we don't have a 1D, we are much better off than we were before. We can do D by committee.

We could also still get that 2C

 

[Starbuds]

^^ I don't think we call fill the hole of a 1D without opening new holes.

 

[BoldNewLettuce]

I'm laughing at how sad and accurate this is.

"Damn it feels good to be a gangster."

Tambo on Eric Belanger;

"He said he likes us and he wants to be friends with us and that he thinks we're really, really, really coooooool!!!"

 

[thadd]

I'm not quite certain if I'm ready to appreciate him.

He's not doing a bad job.

Should I appreciate him for not doing a bad job?

If these signings he's made turn out well and he doesn't hand out gross contracts to Petry or Schultz, he'll be close to having my appreciation.

 

[shoop]

I'm not quite certain if I'm ready to appreciate him.

He's not doing a bad job.

Should I appreciate him for not doing a bad job?

If these signings he's made turn out well and he doesn't hand out gross contracts to Petry or Schultz, he'll be close to having my appreciation.

Probably should appreciate him.

Been a good eight years since an Oilers GM hasn't done a bad job by my recollection. (Seven if you give MacT a pass for last season.)

Schultz and Petry's qualifying offers are $2.9M and $1.75M respectively.

Any offersheet with an aav $3.4M to $5M for either means a 1st and a 3rd to the Oilers.

Can't see anyone giving up that for Schultz or Petry. If they do, so be it.

So there's your price range. Worst case assume $3.4M for both. That still leaves a touch over $5M for a 2C.

MacT gets a thumbs up unless he goes over the $3.4M number for either, give him $6.8M total for both. He's gotta address a #2 centre somewhere.

 

[ponokanocker]

The only thing McT has done for us under a full season is get us to the 3rd worst record in the league. Sorry if I'm not willing to plan the parade until I see some results.

 

[taunting canadian]

Nikitin- He is overpaid, we probably could have got him on July 1 for 3-3.5 and not had to give up a draft pick.

3-3.5 is Robidas/Engelland/Quincey money. Let him go to July 1 and try to get him for 3M, you can pretty much guarantee that there will be similar competing offers, so I don't know that you can conclude that he "probably" would have signed with Edmonton instead of somewhere else.

 

[oilers_guy_eddie]

I recall the board being pretty happy about the Belanger signing. Where there any other moves we liked?

Yeah, I remember thinking that Belanger was a quality defensive center that would help our team defense. haha.

I also remember being excited when we got Cam Barker because I thought he could turn into a low-risk, high-reward kind of signing. oh well.


But aside from that, I don't recall being excited about much that Tambellini did. He never did get around to addressing things that I thought were the real problems with this team. Too small, too soft, too inexperienced, too weak down the middle, too one dimensional...


Now... the makeover that MacTavish has done on the team in the past year has yet to pay any dividends on the ice, but I have a good feeling about where things are headed. We're bigger and stronger. We've added veterans... and not just guys who've been around the league a while and played 40 games a year or 6 minutes a night, but actual proven NHLers who play regular minutes on teams that are a lot better than the Oilers. He has cleared out a number of guys who are small, weak, and/or soft. We drafted the 213 pound center instead of the 178 pound center. He has brought in NHLers to support our kids instead of depending on more kids to step in. To me, the things MacTavish is doing feel like the right things.

In past years, if things didn't turn around, I wouldn't have been surprised. This year, if things don't start improving, I can't second-guess MacTavish because he's doing the things I have been hoping for. If MacTavish is wrong, I'm wrong too.

Obviously the #2C position is a gaping hole right now, but MacTavish has said it's a priority and I think he means it. And obviously we still don't have that stud defenseman we need, but I don't think any such player was available on the free agent market. And there probably aren't any available in trades either. We're obviously not where we need to be yet, and we are going to need some of our young players to develop to get there, because that kind of a hole is very difficult to fill by trade or signing.

 

[McShogun99]

I recall the board being pretty happy about the Belanger signing. Where there any other moves we liked?

I was pumped when we signed Belanger, a defensive/face off specialist that just had a 40 point season. I would have never guessed that he'd be more interested in modeling then playing hockey. I also had some excitement over Eager and Barker and for that I should never be allowed to post any opinions on this board.

 

[Cizin]

talk is cheap, all that matters is results on the ice.

He's had a few missteps but MacTavish seems to be learning from it and has made some decent acquisitions. Now it's up to the coaching staff to perform better and get the best from the players they've been given.

 

[PeakMcOil]

I was pumped when we signed Belanger, a defensive/face off specialist that just had a 40 point season. I would have never guessed that he'd be more interested in modeling then playing hockey. I also had some excitement over Eager and Barker and for that I should never be allowed to post any opinions on this board.

You're not alone, I thought we did great that year.

 

[MessierII]

I don't understand what he has done today that tambo didn't do before? Over paid bottom 6 forwards and bottom pairing defence.

To put it into perspective the highest scoring player Tambi ever brought in via trade or FA was Eric Belanger 16 pts

 

[mactforcoach]

This team today is a much improved group from this time last year. For the past few years teams simply had to lean on the Oilers a bit to beat them. Our smaller players just couldn't handle the big guy's out west. That's going to change this year and hopefully open up some ice for the 1st line to play their game.

 

[McQuixote]

Exactly. Even his mistakes aren't that bad. Guys like Grebeahkov were only signed to one year deals.

Yeah, but his "mistakes" blew our season last year. Adding a rookie head coach to the carousel was killer. Undermining Dubnyk with Cory Schneider trade pursuit... and then not getting a legit challenger for the starting job was another. And going basically zero on center depth and watching as the thin membrane down the middle was shattered in the preseason was a third.

Awful, awful awful decisions. And the season was over nanoseconds after it started.

I like these signings and the Oilers moves over the last few days. I like a lot of the things he's said in the media the last few months.

But cautious optimism, healthy skepticism, and maintaining cynicism about the old-boy network are still my votes for correct reaction here.

 

[DipsyMcDoodles]

Yeah, but his "mistakes" blew our season last year. Adding a rookie head coach to the carousel was killer. Undermining Dubnyk with Cory Schneider trade pursuit... and then not getting a legit challenger for the starting job was another. And going basically zero on center depth and watching as the thin membrane down the middle was shattered in the preseason was a third.

Awful, awful awful decisions. And the season was over nanoseconds after it started.

I like these signings and the Oilers moves over the last few days. I like a lot of the things he's said in the media the last few months.

But cautious optimism, healthy skepticism, and maintaining cynicism about the old-boy network are still my votes for correct reaction here.

These are all valid points, but for me publicly trying to get another goalie wasn't really undermining Dubnyk. I get that confidence is absolutely huge in hockey, especially for a goaltender, but the fact that Duby couldn't push those rumors aside and let it affect him was somewhat of a blessing in disguise.

I know he has yet to actually prove anything but based on mental toughness alone, give me Scrivy over Dubnyk any day. I'd rather have a guy who has had to fight his entire career to get where he's at rather than a first round pick who was basically groomed and given the job (although to be fair he did have a couple of decent seasons). After all, didn't MacT go out and acquire Fasth the day after Scrivens signed his new contract? That's not exactly a vote of confidence either, yet Scrivy didn't lose his composure or poise.

Sorry for the rant, I guess I can sum it up by saying that if you want to be a starter in this league you can't let anything get to you, which in a sense sunk the Duby boat

 

[McQuixote]

These are all valid points, but for me publicly trying to get another goalie wasn't really undermining Dubnyk. I get that confidence is absolutely huge in hockey, especially for a goaltender, but the fact that Duby couldn't push those rumors aside and let it affect him was somewhat of a blessing in disguise.

It wasn't publicly trying to get another goalie that struck me as a mistake, it was gunning for another starter, striking out, and then getting a backup that in no way could challenge for the starter's role OR replace the starter in the event of a problem.

I had zero problem with getting a 1A (or true #1) to tandem with and/or push Dubnyk. And I was a Dubnyk supporter (hey, this guy could be Kolzig good, I kept telling myself). But they acted like they were going to (hey, Dubby, we have no faith in you), and then went out and signed an aging career backup who would be lucky to play 12 good games in support, leaving lots of other options (like Khudobin, who signed for a bit more than 1/2 of what we gave Labarbera). It was a trainwreck waiting to happen.

It does appear that it's a mistake the team learned from, and I appreciate the aggressive mid-season attempts to fix the problem. But really, this was a clear and present danger in the summer.