Revisiting the Smid trade

[KlimasLoveChild]

KLC, re: the q... was it the one about what I would do if I had the chance to blow up the mgmt?

If I could have the godlike powers of Katz for a month I would start with getting rid of KLo. He has a huge ego, a big mouth, and he doesn't put enough thought into his hiring process or know when it's a good time or a bad time to pull the plug on someone. KLo's replacement would be responsible for finding a new GM asap.

Buh bye KLo:
KLo bringing MacT back into the fold was lame and completely lacked imagination. Some random musings off the top of my head...

1) there were serious & obvious flaws in the development process when MacT was a coach, he was a poor choice for the gm of a prospect-laden organization.

2) did KLo hire MacT with no idea that he was going to axe another coach and just hire some dude from the ahl whose only claim to fame was "He out-coached me yuk yuk". The coaching change blindsided me, but it was KLo's responsibility to know if something stupid like that was going to happen b4 he hired MacT.

3) The obvious route to take from a coaching standpoint was to let Krueger have a training camp and a season, the improvements that the team experienced under him merited it. Keeping Krueger for another 40 games would have been a prerequisite.

Todd Nelson deserves serious consideration for an assistant coaching spot, I would have had him in Bucky's spot where he could continue to work with guys like Arco, Lander, RNH... I would give serious consideration to moving the defensive coach from OKC up to be the other assistant. Schultz, Marincin and Klefbom really benefited from their time in the ahl.

4) If the org was to give the new GM the green light to hire from another organization it wouldn't be Tarana. St Louis is a mecca for finding and developing d-men, I probably would have gone poaching there, or Chicago where they are developing centers like crazy, or Det. I think KLo's ego would prevent a StL hire for the reason I mentioned tho, he probably likes to be the go-to guy in the org for choosing d-men.

You may get your wish if they come out next year like they did this year. You would think Katz has some kind of breaking point. The optics of the MacT hire look terrible but it's not like they threw a noob in there cold turkey. They did cushion the blown by bringing back Howson to show him the ropes. I've always liked MacT and figured when they hired him I'd give it two years and see how it went. To be honest when he came in I was afraid he was going to start making deals for the hell of it and get caught in some really bad ones. He actually hasn't faired too bad in trades he has made.

Do you have any suggestions of names that are out there to replace current management? I really can't think of anybody out there worth bringing in to redo the organization. It seems no matter who you bring in to lead an organization they bring in their own buddies. Remember when Tambi came in he brought in a bunch of Vancouver retreads. I definitely wouldn't want to see another situation where we exchange Oilers old boys club members for another teams good old boys like before. They seem to have entrench the Vancouver tradition of losing and now it's sunken in really deep. KLowe basically invited an enemy to the party and was left wondering why the garbage can is empty and the dog is pregnant. That's what happened the last time the oilers felt pressured to hire outside the organization. For now I'm willing to ride the devil we know(MacT) for a while longer.

 

[Oi'll say!]

You may get your wish if they come out next year like they did this year. You would think Katz has some kind of breaking point. The optics of the MacT hire look terrible but it's not like they threw a noob in there cold turkey. They did cushion the blown by bringing back Howson to show him the ropes. I've always liked MacT and figured when they hired him I'd give it two years and see how it went. To be honest when he came in I was afraid he was going to start making deals for the hell of it and get caught in some really bad ones. He actually hasn't faired too bad in trades he has made.

Do you have any suggestions of names that are out there to replace current management? I really can't think of anybody out there worth bringing in to redo the organization. It seems no matter who you bring in to lead an organization they bring in their own buddies. Remember when Tambi came in he brought in a bunch of Vancouver retreads. I definitely wouldn't want to see another situation where we exchange Oilers old boys club members for another teams good old boys like before. They seem to have entrench the Vancouver tradition of losing and now it's sunken in really deep. KLowe basically invited an enemy to the party and was left wondering why the garbage can is empty and the dog is pregnant. That's what happened the last time the oilers felt pressured to hire outside the organization. For now I'm willing to ride the devil we know(MacT) for a while longer.

Bob Nicholson is available, I imagine a lot of current nhl gm's will breathe a sigh of relief when he finally lands somewhere.

I really don't know who to put forth, I don't work behind the scenes in the nhl and I wouldn't know who to hire. I would just hope that the Oilers did a bit more due diligence than to keep the dynamic duo of KLo and MacT together. The team has followed a pretty predictable path over the last 8 or 9 years they were here.

 

[joestevens29]

Oiler fans keep saying this. But it seems to me that Flames fans and management are very happy with Smid. Seems like a bunch of Oiler fans (and bloggers) just trying to justify the trade.

As for Brossoit... meh. Maybe it he does something at the AHL level I will start to get excited. His 10 game stretch was certainly nothing worth remembering. Olivier Roy who we gave up in the deal has elite ECHL numbers too. There is just as much a chance he'll work out as Brossoit will.

It was an awful trade at the time and still is.

So happy with him that there were rumors of them moving him at the trade deadline?

 

[joestevens29]

Not really a big loss, wish we would've had better depth at d before moving him but if your pro scouts really like Brossoit it's really a no brainer move.

 

[KCC]

Every team wishes they could have a blue collar defenseman like Smid, but the reality was he was overpaid and it was a smart move by MacT in doing a salary dump. He's replaceable and we have more than enough prospects waiting in the wing.

 

[sepHF]

Not really a big loss, wish we would've had better depth at d before moving him but if your pro scouts really like Brossoit it's really a no brainer move.

Yeah it's a no brainer to trade established NHL roster players off this garbage roster for more prospects at this stage of the rebuild

 

[thadd]

We didn't look any worse without Smid and we got a couple of younger guys in return. No big deal to me.

 

[joestevens29]

Yeah it's a no brainer to trade established NHL roster players off this garbage roster for more prospects at this stage of the rebuild

Trading 4th liners and bottom pairing d-men really shouldn't hurt the team, doesn't appear to have hurt us either. If anything it helped us by allowing Marincin getting a real good shot

 

[Aerchon]

So happy with him that there were rumors of them moving him at the trade deadline?

This was already covered a few pages back.

A few media sources speculated but the official word from Burke was they would not be moving him at the trade deadline no matter what. He is a warrior, gritty, does great work clearing the crease, experienced, valued member of the flames etc...

So if you want to speculate with some bloggers and writers over what the GM publicly said by all means go all in on that one.

 

[joestevens29]

This was already covered a few pages back.

A few media sources speculated but the official word from Burke was they would not be moving him at the trade deadline no matter what. He is a warrior, gritty, does great work clearing the crease, experienced, valued member of the flames etc...

So if you want to speculate with some bloggers and writers over what the GM publicly said by all means go all in on that one.

Ya because a GM isn't going to lie about his guys being on the block.

 

[ManofSteel55]

Ya because a GM isn't going to lie about his guys being on the block.

Especially Burkie. He's lied to the media for decades.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Especially Burkie. He's lied to the media for decades.

He had no interest in the Toronto job.

 

[Supermassive]

He had no interest in the Toronto job.

That's gold. I was going to laugh at the "warrior" label again but this got me. Awesome.