OT: Players that wanted to stay in Edmonton but got traded or wasn't signed.

MettleMcOiler

5-14-6-1
Mar 9, 2011
4,235
5,227
Edmonton

Spawn

Something in the water
Feb 20, 2006
43,587
14,944
Edmonton
I always felt a bit bad for Reasoner. Traded at the deadline, missed the magical cup run and then comes back in the summer only for the team to be garbage.
 

Soundwave

Registered User
Mar 1, 2007
72,141
27,826
Gretzky, Smyth, and Hall are legit guys who did or likely did shed tears for leaving here. Trading star players like that always comes back to bite you in the ass.
 

guymez

The Seldom Seen Kid
Mar 3, 2004
32,644
12,154
Not sure if this had been posted somewhere but this looked like a good spot.
Maroon shares his thoughts on playing in Edmonton, and the Oilers team.
Pretty honest interview....

Barstool Sports

The Maroon interview is about 24 minutes in.
 

redgrant

Registered User
Nov 2, 2013
6,306
3,688
Ryan Smyth wanted to stay. He was offended that he, the only genuine star on the team after pronger was getting hard negotiated while Rolston pisani and horcoff got sweetheart deals.
 

guymez

The Seldom Seen Kid
Mar 3, 2004
32,644
12,154
Cliff notes?

"It sucks": Patrick Maroon on losing in hockey-mad Edmonton

“I didn’t really want to get traded out of Edmonton,” Maroon said. “I actually loved it there. I actually liked it. The fans are great. I liked it. You know what the most important thing was? The guys were great. Unbelievable guys. You could not have found a better group of guys. But obviously I got traded for a reason. We weren’t winning.”
Maroon said Connor McDavid is a humble, nice kid and well respected by his teammates. Bissonnette then mentioned the video where McDavid and his parents were leaving an Edmonton restaurant and got heckled by some oafs. Bissonnette said he would beat up the hecklers himself, but praised McDavid for ignoring it and staying in his lane.
Bissonnette asked what it was like being in a Canadian city when expectations were so high but the team did so poorly.
“It sucks, to be honest with you,” Maroon said.

He then talked about how he’d been shopping with his fiance just before the trade deadline when an older fan came up to him and. “He said, ‘Yeah, you’re not having a good year like you did last year.’ I’m just like, ‘Yeah, you’re right, I’m not.’ And then he was just like, ‘I think the team needs to do this and that.’ And he’s just telling me about the team and what they need to do and my fiance finally looked at him and said, ‘All right, I think your time is up.’
“Even when you go out to dinner, people come up to you and they try to be like the GM, coach, player, and you’re just like, ‘Man I would love to see you on the ice. But they’re not out there. And I’m out there.” It’s a hard city to live in but it’s one of those things when you kind of chuckle and you laugh when you go to West Edmonton Mall and people are chirping you about how bad you are and walking around looking at the casino and the amusement park and you’re like, ‘Jesus, where am I right now? I’m playing hockey in the NHL.’”
Whitney said there’s an upside to hockey in Edmonton. “If you’re on a good team in Edmonton, it’s incredible. I would have loved to have played there because when you’re good, I’m sure that year it was buzzing. You go to Cactus Club, everything is free, but then when you’re bad you’re trying to park your car and you’re getting chirped for how you parallel park. You can’t even shut your door the right way. It’s like every little single thing you do just gets shit on your face. It’s like a complete disaster.”
Maroon said in 2016-17 he was indeed well loved in Edmonton and he was getting free meals everywhere. “The following year things are going bad and I’m just getting chirped everywhere I go…. People are just chirping you the entire time, and you’re just like, ‘What the hell is going on? What happened from the year before that I’m doing this year? Just cause our team sucks does that mean that I suck to?”
 
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rboomercat90

Registered User
Mar 24, 2013
14,589
8,763
Edmonton
Ryan Smyth wanted to stay. He was offended that he, the only genuine star on the team after pronger was getting hard negotiated while Rolston pisani and horcoff got sweetheart deals.
That 2006 off season was the first big clue how bad of an executive Lowe was. EIG finally opened the wallet after that long playoff run and Lowe decides to give massive salary bumps to everybody and then try to play hard ball with his best player, the guy that had been taking hometown discounts for a while. He created that entire mess by himself. He should have prioritized signing Smyth first. He likely could have gotten most of the rest cheaper as a result.
 

Drivesaitl

Time to Drive
Oct 8, 2017
45,289
54,812
Duck hunting
That 2006 off season was the first big clue how bad of an executive Lowe was. EIG finally opened the wallet after that long playoff run and Lowe decides to give massive salary bumps to everybody and then try to play hard ball with his best player, the guy that had been taking hometown discounts for a while. He created that entire mess by himself. He should have prioritized signing Smyth first. He likely could have gotten most of the rest cheaper as a result.

Lowe just seemed to despise players being popular. On a deep level this seemed to be something about himself. Whether that be Comrie, to Pronger to Smyth to Smith to Souray this org shit on the lot of them. Nichols sure didn't help. His comments were usually cringe worthy.

Part of the dynamic of past players running things is they end up being a little resentful of losing their youth and their best times and seeing others be the young studs instead. Add a feeling of superiority through "5 rings and knows something about winning" and its a deplorable narrative. Plus being a combover, my lord. What screams can't handle aging more than a combover? haha.

The players recognize it too. Knew what jokes McT and Lowe and company were being. I didn't like Penner but he came the closest to really calling it out and challenging it. Really ridiculed McT for years. Although it was axe to grind from Dustin as well.
 
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SK13

non torsii subligarium
Jul 23, 2007
32,758
6,367
Edmonton
That 2006 off season was the first big clue how bad of an executive Lowe was. EIG finally opened the wallet after that long playoff run and Lowe decides to give massive salary bumps to everybody and then try to play hard ball with his best player, the guy that had been taking hometown discounts for a while. He created that entire mess by himself. He should have prioritized signing Smyth first. He likely could have gotten most of the rest cheaper as a result.

Ryan Smyth was a hard-minutes 31 year old negotiating for a contract through 37 years old in the middle of a career year he was not even close to likely to repeat. He was asking for the modern day equivalent (in terms of cap percentage) of 9.6 million dollars per season. I do disagree that he was there best player overall (Ales Hemsky was better before, would go back to being better after 06-07). More importantly, he was not going to be the player you lean on as your best if you wanted to win.

Kevin Lowe drawing the arbitrary line at 250,000 per year IS dumb, but signing him to that money was... not the right decision to make any way IMO. He would be overpaid for literally every year of his career until his retirement; even his last year. The bigger criticism I have is the return. Robert Nilsson is a player I liked a lot in 07-08, but was a suspect at the time of his trade and would obviously not turn out super well. Had that pick been an actual NHL player, that would have helped too.
 
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guymez

The Seldom Seen Kid
Mar 3, 2004
32,644
12,154
For anyone that's interested I highly recommend the Spittin' Chiclets Maroon interview in its entirety.
Apparently its against the rules for me to post the link to the interview but if you do a web search it will come up.

The Maroon interview starts at the 24 minute mark.
 
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guymez

The Seldom Seen Kid
Mar 3, 2004
32,644
12,154
Terrible. Anyone who does that crap should turn in their fan card.

Completely agree. A few asshats ruin it for everybody.
Check out the interview...they expand on how bad the city is when the team is losing. Its pretty sad.

I actually think this board is a perfect example of that.
 

82Ninety42011

Registered User
Jul 2, 2011
7,526
5,456
Abbotsford BC
Yeah your right, I was little hazy in exactly what happened. But it seems that IF the Oilers had the money at that time, Wayne would of stayed an Oiler. It's still a good feeling knowing that Gretzky still loved Edmonton after everything that happened.

Dad convinced Gretzky to pick L.A. in historic 1988 trade | CBC Sports

"I was sold. Not Traded" - Wayne Gretzky

The Trade: 25 Years Since Gretzky Left
He might have been sold but his wife wanted LA to from what I remember at the time. Pocklington's money woes were a part of it though that guy ruined what could have been a few more Cups in Edmonton.
 

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