Agreed. I hope some major changes happen.
We need a new identity and belief that the team can win night in and night out. With McDavid entering his second season and the new arena we need a winning attitude and desire to become champions. The end goal has to be to win Stanley Cups. Period. That has to be what we are striving for.
The time for waiting is over, we need to start winning now and putting a team on the ice that other teams hate playing. I hope the new barn becomes as intimidating as the old barn was during its prime.
It just feels like we're at the point where it's like what are we waiting for? I have faith that Chia will make the necessary moves and we can start a new chapter in the Oilers story.
I'll admit: Do I have complete faith in Chiarelli? Of course not. With a million opinions about the direction of where the team should go, it's always going to be a bit difficult to trust the call of one man.
However, like every offseason, it's innocence until proven guilty. Since MacT's first summer in 2013, there's always a date where I tend to lose hope on the season ahead:
2013: July 5, Oilers overpay Ference and Gordon on longer-ish deals. This was after we magically shedded Horcoff, a great move. To be fair to Gordon, he actually wasn't so bad.
2014: June 25, Oilers blow their brains out on Nikitin early.
2015: June 26, Oilers overpay hard for Griffin Reinhart. This is when I knew the D wouldn't be good enough yet.
Now, that's just my opinion every year...people liked all of those moves and some still have hope to turn out (like Reinhart), just those were the moves that made me see reality.
Since December, Chiarelli has acquired Maroon and Kassian for little to nothing. He's also made some nice moves like Talbot and Sekera that have proven to be key. Even MacT brought in Pouliot and I think he's important here for at least one more season. At least even though we see those brain-numbing dumb moves every year, there's been some positive changes over time inch-by-inch.
Last summer, many fans said this was the summer to go big or go home...they said to hold onto Scrivens, Nikitin and Purcell because we'd be able to spend their UFA money later on some real nice pieces to add to the roster. Well, let's see what we can do with some money...and hopefully, let's try to free up some more.
Until that day of losing hope comes...if it does (fingers crossed it doesn't), then I am very optimistic that the offseason of change and smart decision-making is arriving soon.