**POLL** What are the top 3 problems with the Oilers

[bellagiobob]

In the last 15 years we’ve changed our roster over completely 4+ times, hired a plethora of GM’s and coaches, and are seemingly back to square one. The one constant has been ownership. So start there. From there go to awful drafting and development. And then basically everything else on your list. You really need an ‘all of the above’ choice. But it starts with the guy signing the cheques. Tried too hard to win with his childhood hero’s in charge and never recovered from it.

 

[joestevens29]

Surprised lack of nhl depth has any votes. We have a loaded team in that regard compared to most.

The reason our bottom 6 isn't producing has more to do with systems than talent.

I don't like our d depth. Yes we have a lot of guys that can play in the NHL, but without true top pairing we don't have enough top 4 depth.

IMO Nurse, Bear and Barrie are probably the only guys that should be NHL everyday top 4. Koekkoek as well as he's looking is only averaging 16 minutes a night. Russell looked good last night, but he can't play 20 minutes a night. Larsson can fill in at times, but not a guy you want in the top 4 too many nights.

Forwards I'm fine with what we have on paper. When you have LD, McDavid and RNH you simply aren't going to have a lot of room for high end wingers. The real issue for me is given the number of guys we have is that no one is really standing out in a good way all that much.

 

[Lacaar]

I think this team is just an emotional train wreck.
They're scared right now.

It's not that they aren't trying.. they just play scared.
Scared players lose a ton of 1 on 1 battles and cough up the puck.
They lack the leadership (and I'm talking team unity/leadership.. not some guy or even a few guys.)

As a collective I don't see a team that thinks they can win.

My only hope is that it's just some early season jitters.

But realistically this team has never shown the ability to recover from poor starts to the season. the only time they've made the playoffs or were on track to(last year). They had good starts. I guess 2 times in the last 14 years isn't much of a sample haha.

If they lose two in a row before they win two in a row.. I think they're toast unfortunately.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

The Oilers have not made a good hire since Katz took over ownership.

Anyone else remember when Nicholson was going to do a thorough job search for our next GM. Turnover ever stone, interview them all and pick the best candidate?

Then Ken Holland got pushed out of his job in Detroit and Nicholson dropped all that “work” and gave Holland the job on the spot.

The amount of organizational turnover we’ve had over the last 10 years or so is astonishing. We never seem to hire the right people lol.

"The most respected man in hockey" we were fed when he was hired. What a bunch of baloney.

 

[joestevens29]

In the last 15 years we’ve changed our roster over completely 4+ times, hired a plethora of GM’s and coaches, and are seemingly back to square one. The one constant has been ownership. So start there. From there go to awful drafting and development. And then basically everything else on your list. You really need an ‘all of the above’ choice. But it starts with the guy signing the cheques. Tried too hard to win with his childhood hero’s in charge and never recovered from it.

I don't even know how much we can bash drafting and development as of late.

From the last 4 years what more can we expect at this point? KY is doing better than a lot of guys drafted ahead of him. Bouchard and McLeod seem to be on the cusp of getting a cup of coffee. Broberg seems to be trending right. Bear, Jones and Lagesson all seem to be developed fine, not sure what the ceiling is though for Jones and Lagesson though.

 

[Soundwave]

This team has serious, serious problems getting back to game speed after any kind of break with no warm up games:

Oilers record in the first game after the Christmas break: 0-3 (last 3 seasons)

Oilers record in the first game after their Bye Week: 1-2-1

Oilers record in Play In Round after COVID break: 1-3

Oilers record current this season with no pre-season: 1-3

 

[bellagiobob]

I don't even know how much we can bash drafting and development as of late.

From the last 4 years what more can we expect at this point? KY is doing better than a lot of guys drafted ahead of him. Bouchard and McLeod seem to be on the cusp of getting a cup of coffee. Broberg seems to be trending right. Bear, Jones and Lagesson all seem to be developed fine, not sure what the ceiling is though for Jones and Lagesson though.

It’s more the long history of failure to draft and develop. The current crop may turn out fine, but still too early to tell. The current group should be the minimum we should expect. But our long term results have been so piss poor that we are elated that this group might actually have potential.

 

[Stoneman89]

Ownership has been a problem for longer than a decade. IEG gutted the minor league system to save money and also installed Kevin "the Original OBC member" Lowe because they didn't want to pay Sather.

Sather was never going to stay here with the bright lights of New York beckoning.

 

[Stoneman89]

Drafting and indentifying some "home run" picks. Seems most successful teams have at least a couple guys picked in later rounds that turn out to be fantastic. I think of Kucherov in Tampa, for example.

 

[Snipes45]

We know the Oilers 5 versus 5 play is abysmal. We know the depth scoring is non-existent. We know the goaltending is inconsistent leaning to poor. We know the powerplay has gone ice cold.

But to drill down, why are these problems happening? Honestly you could point to everything in the poll and it be valid but what are the top 3 issues you think that can be identified to fix and move this thing forward?

It's simple to me. Not good enough players overall.

If these players played Dave Tippett's system to a 100% tee and executed it flawlessly, they still wouldn't be that good. So fo me, it is a team devoid of talent.

 

[BoldNewLettuce]

Its still Kevin lowe and Darrell Katz isn't it?

 

[RandomGuy79]

Only 3? It's a hard choice. But one thing I don't think gets brought up enough is leadership. We have no good veteran leadership.

 

[McDNicks17]

Surprised lack of nhl depth has any votes. We have a loaded team in that regard compared to most.

The reason our bottom 6 isn't producing has more to do with systems than talent.

A team playing Alex Chiasson regular minutes and on special teams is far from a team with "loaded" depth.

 

[Smartguy]

A team playing Alex Chiasson regular minutes and on special teams is far from a team with "loaded" depth.

I wouldn’t say they have “loaded” depth. But I don’t think that’s the issue. Kahun I thought has looked good this far, just hasn’t had a bounce. Puljujarvi has looked good in flashes which is just fine for a 3rd liner, again nothing going his way though.

Chiasson/Khaira/Nygaard/Shore are competent fourth liners. Kassian is probably the only guy really playing out of his element in the lineup. Even then every team has a banger that they try to play in their top 6.

To me

1. Lack of confident puck moving D to break the puck out. It’s insane how bad the team is at getting out of the zone. Because you have the likes of Larsson, Nurse, KK, Russell with limited ability to stop and make a play. Even Barrie looks like he has no confidence here, even when I watched TO games he was solid at moving the puck up, haven’t seen that yet. IMO Bouchard is the best D they have to do that in the system and he’s shelved, he should draw in soon I would hope.

2. Leadership, missing Neal and Smith in the locker room because their vocal, I think. I’m not in their locker room so tough to say but Debrusk was just saying on last nights broadcast that it’s a very quiet locker room right now. Mcdavid is a driver on the ice but more guys rely on him then follow him.

3. Poor work ethic, guys have gotten complacent with just waiting for Mcdavid/Draisaitl to win the game. If we had a team of Yamamoto’s giving it their all every shift this lineup would be much different. RNH has been invisible at 5V5, same goes with Turris. Even Mcdavid and Draisaitl look like they haven’t really cared this year for 3 out of the 4 games. It’s still early though so it could be fatigue also. Tough to go form not playing to 4 games in 7 nights.

 

[McJesusSaves97]

Too many areas to even narrow down to a top 3 unfortunately

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

the more I look at this roster, the more blame I lay at Kenny Holland
yes he hasn't had the cap space to do much but his failure to address the goaltending and defense situation really bugs me...Klefbom was replaced by no one and Barrie ain't the answer (despite a role on this team)
him "circling" back to old-man Smith is a giant F
overpays to Kassian and Chiasson
bringing Pulju sounded like a great plan....until you watch him play hockey

it's no wonder the Red Wings told him to retire...

 

[Frank the Tank]

Sather was never going to stay here with the bright lights of New York beckoning.

Fair point. Why then instantly promote Lowe to the GM position without interviewing anyone else? Anyways, the point remains that we continue to pay for mistakes made two decades ago.

 

[Beerfish]

Goaltending.

Last game was a typical one, 'Koskinen is great he kept it from being 7-1!'

this after him letting in a totally team deflating muffin goal early on for a team that wins when we get the lead and loses when we don;t.

We get out tended in 75% of the games we play.

 

[rboomercat90]

The correct answer is all of the above. You shouldn’t limit the choices to three. Change the poll to ask fans which of the above is a significant problem and determine your top 3 that way.

 

[Soundwave]

They want to play like Toronto does but they don't have the overall firepower Toronto does.

They had it going for a bit with Drai RNH and Yamo dominating on his line and McDavid was just doing his thing, but its not as consistent as Matthews-Marner-Tavares-Nylander.

There's too many low hockey IQ players like Larsson and Nurse to play some kind of defensive system, and far too few energy players to play some kind of 90s Oilers style.

Also the older players on the team like RNH, Kassian, Larsson, Chiasson bring f*** all for veteran leadership. These guys sit around waiting for younger players to carry the mail.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

the more I look at this roster, the more blame I lay at Kenny Holland
yes he hasn't had the cap space to do much but his failure to address the goaltending and defense situation really bugs me...Klefbom was replaced by no one and Barrie ain't the answer (despite a role on this team)
him "circling" back to old-man Smith is a giant F
overpays to Kassian and Chiasson
bringing Pulju sounded like a great plan....until you watch him play hockey

it's no wonder the Red Wings told him to retire...

The Oilers just seem to enjoy the castoffs of other teams at all levels.

 

[rboomercat90]

Ownership has been a problem for longer than a decade. IEG gutted the minor league system to save money and also installed Kevin "the Original OBC member" Lowe because they didn't want to pay Sather.

I agree with everything you’ve said here but the EIG’s role here is irrelevant now, especially when it comes to the minor league system. There has been more than enough time to rebuild it. None of the players who were the draft picks from those lost years are still playing. Referencing the EIG is just giving the Katz regime excuses. Not saying you do that but we’ve seen that a lot on this board over the years.

 

[RalphKing]

Fair point. Why then instantly promote Lowe to the GM position without interviewing anyone else? Anyways, the point remains that we continue to pay for mistakes made two decades ago.

Lowe wasn't even a bad GM. I think he's the second best GM we've had in the last 25 years and maybe he's top 3 in franchise history?

 

[ujju2]

• Poor execution, reads and decision making
• Lack of intensity and heart
• Over-reliance on special teams play to generate wins

Forward lines aren't perfect (re-unite DRY) but we're losing primarily because of the 3 factors above. The first one imo is largely down to not having a pre-season. I think it'll improve as the season progresses. The second one is the real killer, idk what to do about it. The third one was true last season and is more true this season because the PP sucks. Again, that's largely due to not having a pre-season (plus the Neal injury) so I expect the PP to improve, but we need to score more 5v5 and allow less so we don't need to rely on our PP again like last year. Again, re-unite DRY. We're still missing a top-6 winger, which would make the decision to reunite DRY that much easier. So yeah, that's that.

I'm not running around screaming that the sky is falling like some are. I still believe we'll make the playoffs this season. But it will be on the back of a PP that returns to form. There will be necessary upgrades at all 3 positions in the offseason.

 

[GOilers88]

I do find it amusing how many folks were going on about how we had all this defensive depth and how losing Klefbom wasn't really going to be that bad before the season started. How we had acquired some better NHL depth upfront than we started with the year before and that goaltending was the big concern.

Then you see the first and leading option on this poll and I have to ask..what happened there folks?

Turris, Kahun, Barrie, KK. I guess we just found more guys who aren't actual NHL players, hey? Seems like every player and coach who signs here isn't actual NHL calibre.