The Next Step(s) For The Edmonton Oilers.

McDraekke

5-14-6-1
Jan 19, 2006
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Edmonton
Thanksgiving offers snapshot of Stanley Cup teams


You're being too literal. It's a general benchmark that teams that are in a playoff spot by that point usually stay there. The Oilers were when they made the playoffs in 2016-17 and weren't in 2017-18. And the Oilers aren't a veteran team by any means. If they aren't in the playoffs by Thanksgiving this year it's a pretty safe bet they won't be when the season ends. I remember many times last year we would say "If we just pull off a lengthy win streak we're right back in it!" and it never materialized. Hockey isn't an easy game to win, and it's difficult to play catch up because in order to reach new heights, someone has to fall and the veteran teams don't usually do that. The Oilers absolutely must have a good October this year.

The bolded is why I don't expect winning and nothing less.
 

KeithIsActuallyBad

You thrust your pelvis, huh!
Apr 12, 2010
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Calgary
Because I am not entitled to expect my team to always win? This is a sport. There are 31 teams vying for 16 spots, so roughly half won't make the playoffs. My expectations are a hell of a lot more in line with reality than some people who seem to expect winning and nothing less.
Why bother then? There's nothing to be gained from being a fan if you don't care if they win or lose.

I don't expect the team to win but I do expect them to not be an embarrassment to hockey. Perhaps my expectations aren't as in line with reality as I'd like.
 

McDraekke

5-14-6-1
Jan 19, 2006
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Edmonton
Why bother then? There's nothing to be gained from being a fan if you don't care if they win or lose.

I don't expect the team to win but I do expect them to not be an embarrassment to hockey. Perhaps my expectations aren't as in line with reality as I'd like.

Not expecting the team to win /= not caring if they win. I'm as big of a fan of this team as anybody on this board. I've had to go through the same ten years that everyone else has. I've had to sit through the mid-late 90's of us just missing the playoffs, or just getting in and then getting booted right quick, thus keeping us in a cycle of never improving through the draft. I watched as Roloson got injured in Game 1. I had to sit through Pronger-gate. Just like everyone else. I did not get the extreme benefit of watching this team in their glory years. So if you think just because I'm not acting like an entitled snot, that I'm not a fan of this team, then you deserve less respect on here than I thought.
 

KeithIsActuallyBad

You thrust your pelvis, huh!
Apr 12, 2010
71,823
30,733
Calgary
Not expecting the team to win /= not caring if they win. I'm as big of a fan of this team as anybody on this board. I've had to go through the same ten years that everyone else has. I've had to sit through the mid-late 90's of us just missing the playoffs, or just getting in and then getting booted right quick, thus keeping us in a cycle of never improving through the draft. I watched as Roloson got injured in Game 1. I had to sit through Pronger-gate. Just like everyone else. I did not get the extreme benefit of watching this team in their glory years. So if you think just because I'm not acting like an entitled snot, that I'm not a fan of this team, then you deserve less respect on here than I thought.
I never said you weren't a fan, so please don't put words in my mouth. Calling everyone else entitled is a good way to look like an "entitled snot".

Missing the playoffs year after year isn't fun. It's not enjoyable. There's no pride or joy to be had in watching this team flounder. Many times my greatest joys came from watching other teams fail because misery loves company. And this isn't like the decade of darkness where we didn't have the talent necessary to succeed. We do. We have the best center depth in the entire league. We have the best player on the planet. Finishing 17 points out of a playoff spot is simply not acceptable, not after the season we had previously.

This is a new era of Oilers hockey, but it'll quickly become exactly like the old ones unless things improve. McDavid wants to win and I have nothing but respect for that. I want to win too. If that makes me an entitled snot, then by all means.
 
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McDraekke

5-14-6-1
Jan 19, 2006
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Edmonton
I don't like getting into discussions that tell people how to fan. To each their own.
Apparently my expectations of not sucking mean I should not watch sports according to you.
Not a statement I'm going to acknowledge much further

you're right, my apologies. Getting frustrated with other posters shouldn't incline me to be snippy with anyone else.
 
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bone

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Jun 24, 2003
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I haven't digested the entire thread, but my opinion is probably pretty common.

Reality is that they've burned up the cheap years of Leon and McDavid so the early cup ala Chicago and Pittsburgh is likely out of the question. So they now need to prep themselves for that next wave of contention which relies on unappreciated players excelling with smaller contracts, which probably means aiming for a cup contention window starting at least 2 years if not 3 out. With their cap situation, there is no short term solution that makes this happen, so they need to make cheap short term gambles over the next couple years to try and at least get the players playing meaningful hockey in at least March, while filling the prospect cupboards.

They do have a good start on that right now.
  • they have culled the leftorium, and now have 9 RHDs in the system, and 5 LHDs. This tells me it isn't time to throw away young quality lefties to fill up the right side as reinforcements are coming, particularly as 2 of their current LHDs (Russell/Sekera) are likely out of town in two years.
  • they have 5 goalies in the system, which is about as much depth as you can realistically procure before risking guys dying on the vine due to lack of available playing time.
  • they are a little lean on scoring forwards in the system, but fortunately forward prospects tend to peak earlier than defense so this may be the better play to load up the slow developing areas (Defense and Goalie) and build up your scoring depth by either trading from these areas of depth or start stocking later on. This is also supported by having at least 2 aces in Drai and Connor meaning you don't need to find a slam dunk but rather decent complementary scoring.
So simply put, they need to hold on with Nurse and Klefbom and wait for the developing RHDs unless you can find short term solutions on the cheap to help out there. Invest a lot into goalie development for your existing guys and work towards having a strong pipeline of prospect talent to sustain a 5+ year run of contention in the 2020s before the McDavid/Draisaitl contracts run out.

To keep the locals happy and prevent trade demands, look only at short term cheaper gambles to at least keep the team in contention for playoffs until the younger talent arrives or existing bad contracts can be replaced. Anything that tries to fast track this likely only damages the potential contention window from 2020-2026.
 

McFlash97

Registered User
Oct 10, 2017
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When you miss the playoffs for 11 out of 12 years, and 2 out of 3 years with the best player on the planet, you tend to expect the worst.

I don't expect every player to have a bad year, but it's naïve to expect everyone to bounce back and have a good year. The scary thing for Oiler fans is that McDavid had an even better season than his MVP season and the Oilers still finished 17 points out of a playoff spot. He needs help and a lot of it.

Adding to that is the very difficult October schedule the Oilers have. A bad October will again doom the team to another wasted season. Chiarelli and co got way too complacent last year. Hopefully they learned their lesson.
Chiarelli hasn't done much this year too...yet. he keeps stating the sentence, " stay the course" .... then we hear Chimera....lol. He has cornered himself with the contracts he has handed out. Theres no real way to improve the team externally. We are stuck with hoping our contingent of sad sack secondary players all come out next year with career years and Bear/Bouchard come out firing on the PP.
 

The Panther

Registered User
Mar 25, 2014
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I don't get this constant debbie-downer-ism people have. The franchise powers-that-be have obviously decided to take a "Stay the Course" type of approach, for the time being. Mistakes they made aside, I think that is the correct approach to take.

So, just sit back, watch, and enjoy.
 

Satire

Registered User
Nov 20, 2016
2,892
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Next step?

Pray.

Pray that Klef and Sekera return to form after their injuries.

Pray that Talbot bounces back to what we all know he can be and is.

Pray that one of Pulju or Yamamoto step into being a 1st line winger this year.

Pray that our young defenders can take another step forward.

Pray that Mcdavid doesn't get hurt.


That's not to be negative... it's just that is the nature of the beast right now. Wait and see approach isn't a bad thing with our cup windows with Mcdavid and Drai but there's a lot of banking on improvement to happen to this year.

I think we sneak in as a bubble team. I think we're not as good as 2 years ago but not as bad as last year... likely somewhere in between.
 

Mr Positive

Cap Crunch Incoming
Nov 20, 2013
35,799
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I'd say that trading our 1st for Faulk would be a smart move even if we don't plan on re-signing him.

1- winning for this upcoming season will have tremendous value to our team's morale, and for the development of our young players. The value of this is hard to measure.

2- it would assuredly keep Bouchard off the team. I can imagine a future where we kept him in the NHL and wished we didn't. A 10th overall Dman should not be rushed, especially one that might need work in his own zone.
 

Beerfish

Registered User
Apr 14, 2007
19,513
5,665
Because I am not entitled to expect my team to always win? This is a sport. There are 31 teams vying for 16 spots, so roughly half won't make the playoffs. My expectations are a hell of a lot more in line with reality than some people who seem to expect winning and nothing less.

How many years out of the last oh say dozen have the oilers made the playoffs? If you can't see why people are miffed, skeptical resigned then I do not know what to tell you. Each 'new regime' that comes into place seems worse that the last one.

Oiler fans have been VERY VERY patient, the local media has given the team a free pass. When the bet player in the world falls into your lap you better be making the playoffs 9 out of 10 years.
 
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Soundwave

Registered User
Mar 1, 2007
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To me personally at this stage, I almost don't care about the playoffs next year. I'm so used to missing and looking forward to the draft so much so that it's basically become normal. March/April is time to start looking at the draft prospects more closely.

What hurts about it is knowing how bad it will hurt McDavid. He wants to make it bad and also he's pretty much locked out of the Hart trophy unless the Oilers make it.

That's what I feel bad about, not really even for me anymore, just McDavid mainly. I want playoffs more for him, if you could guarantee playoffs but it meant I couldn't watch or enjoy a single game of it, I'd be OK with that because I'd know at least McDavid got in.

Past that I've kinda resigned myself that this is probably going to be a 3-5 year process given how things have gone here, maybe more.

They don't have much cap room, and as much as I like Yamamoto, Bouchard, kinda iffy on Puljujarvi ... I think these kids are a few years off from really making the difference between wins and losses and our management can't trade for shit so that's out.
 

bobbythebrain

Registered User
Jul 30, 2016
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The next step...wait 2 more years till you can actually make a smart move via trade, cap and development
 

Burnt Biscuits

Registered User
May 2, 2010
9,164
3,179
I don't at all share the sentiment of the OP's post, we've had some prospects that have showed some positive signs or as Lowetide would say some up arrows, but I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch. So many times I've seen people stoked about how great our future was cause of all the prospects we had boiling under, only for significant disappointment after the fact. The fact of the matter is so far our drafting in the Chia era has only provided us one real legitimate NHL player and I've seen us have better prospect quality and depth in the past, that still didn't materialize into much quality NHL talent.

The next step to me isn't NHL success, but AHL success, while some may be able to skip that step we have some prospects who should require some AHL seasoning and they need to ply their craft there and dominate there, before I can muster any excitement about what there NHL future could potentially be. Last year we had scarcely anyone worthy of even a sideways glance at a chance at NHL employment, our AHL squad was absolutely terrible in terms of providing our NHL team with quality depth to draw from.

We have two primary driving forces in the Oiler's organization, McDavid the greatest player in the game today who uplifts the teammates around him and Chiarelli, whose incompetence borders on deliberate sabotage. To date I'd say Chia's capacity for sabotage has exceeded McDavid's ability to uplift those around him. I think Chia can make some good moves, I think he can restore some peoples faith in him, but ultimately this is a parasite or poison in our blood who will invariably make us weaker over the long term and I can't see us having any sustained success with him as the GM.
 
Oct 15, 2008
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they've addressed goaltending and addressed coaching

do you think this team will suck this year? and if so...why?
Half measures. You can all the assistants but keep the head coach? Sounds like something the Oilers would do. Another shot in the dark roll of the dice low percentage gamble on the goalie, who they also overpaid.....

If this team is better it will be in spite of those moves, not because of them. The rot starts at the top, with the owner and trickles down from there. As long as that stays the same, and there are no indications it will be changing anytime soon, then you can expect futility and frustration. Enjoy Connor while you can, because he will be moving on.
 
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Aerrol

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Sep 18, 2014
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Because I am not entitled to expect my team to always win? This is a sport. There are 31 teams vying for 16 spots, so roughly half won't make the playoffs. My expectations are a hell of a lot more in line with reality than some people who seem to expect winning and nothing less.

When you have the best player in the world expecting to be in the upper half of teams is a pretty f***ing low benchmark imo. The Pens haven't missed the playoffs for over a decade. The one time Ovies caps missed the playoffs it was considered a catastrophe. I have similar expectations with McDavid and Draisaitl to build around.
 

McDraekke

5-14-6-1
Jan 19, 2006
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When you have the best player in the world expecting to be in the upper half of teams is a pretty ****ing low benchmark imo. The Pens haven't missed the playoffs for over a decade. The one time Ovies caps missed the playoffs it was considered a catastrophe. I have similar expectations with McDavid and Draisaitl to build around.

Crosby and the Pens missed the first year, so did McDavid. Ovechkin and the Caps missed the first two years of his contract, McDavid made his second. Mario Lemieux and his Pens missed the first 4 years of his career. Wayne Gretzky didn't miss the playoffs until the last few seasons of his career.

So unless you think McDavid is Gretzky level, expecting the Oilers to make the playoffs every year from the start of McDavid's contract is asinine. Was it disappointing? Yes. Should it be an expectation? No, because this isn't a game played on paper where you can say "well, we have the best player, so we should be winning."
 

Aerrol

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Sep 18, 2014
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Crosby and the Pens missed the first year, so did McDavid. Ovechkin and the Caps missed the first two years of his contract, McDavid made his second. Mario Lemieux and his Pens missed the first 4 years of his career. Wayne Gretzky didn't miss the playoffs until the last few seasons of his career.

So unless you think McDavid is Gretzky level, expecting the Oilers to make the playoffs every year from the start of McDavid's contract is asinine. Was it disappointing? Yes. Should it be an expectation? No, because this isn't a game played on paper where you can say "well, we have the best player, so we should be winning."

Of your own comparisons, Mario Lemieux's Pens are the only comparable at this point in terms of track record. We're already tied with Ovechkin's 2. If we don't make the playoffs consistently by years 3 and 4, we've then moved from "incredibly disappointing" to "historically bad", which I suppose is an Oilers specialty.
 

McDraekke

5-14-6-1
Jan 19, 2006
2,853
397
Edmonton
Of your own comparisons, Mario Lemieux's Pens are the only comparable at this point in terms of track record. We're already tied with Ovechkin's 2. If we don't make the playoffs consistently by years 3 and 4, we've then moved from "incredibly disappointing" to "historically bad", which I suppose is an Oilers specialty.

All I'm trying to say is that people saying they expect the team to win, maybe lower your expectations, because there are a lot of good players and good team out there, so there should be no "it's a given" when it comes to professional sports. High expectations leads to disappointment. And I mean, really... did you assume that since we had McDavid we were always going to be in the playoffs? This team? This management and owner? Apparently we are the biggest mismanaged team in the entire world, so why is your expectation so high in the first place?

I get frustrated by people making 100% absolute comments. It's silly to do that because then you're setting yourself up for your own disappointment, and when it comes to something as complex as professional sports, there is no absolute. Wayne f***ing Gretzky was traded for f*** sake. Nothing is absolute.
 

Aerrol

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Sep 18, 2014
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All I'm trying to say is that people saying they expect the team to win, maybe lower your expectations, because there are a lot of good players and good team out there, so there should be no "it's a given" when it comes to professional sports. High expectations leads to disappointment. And I mean, really... did you assume that since we had McDavid we were always going to be in the playoffs? This team? This management and owner? Apparently we are the biggest mismanaged team in the entire world, so why is your expectation so high in the first place?

I get frustrated by people making 100% absolute comments. It's silly to do that because then you're setting yourself up for your own disappointment, and when it comes to something as complex as professional sports, there is no absolute. Wayne ****ing Gretzky was traded for **** sake. Nothing is absolute.

It comes down to perspective. I cope with ridiculously bad management by calling a spade a spade and pointing out how hilariously bad the organization is doing considering the gifts they've been given. I agree that THIS team is definitely not a lock to make the playoffs as things stand, but personally I much more enjoy pointing out how laughably bad that is - gallows humour if you will - than lowering my expectations further and pretending to be happy about any gains that do happen.

And that isn't to say I don't celebrate little wins. I still luxuriate in McDavid's play, but I definitely don't enjoy pretending to be optimistic for no reason.
 

Tyrolean

Registered User
Feb 1, 2004
9,625
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Half measures. You can all the assistants but keep the head coach? Sounds like something the Oilers would do. Another shot in the dark roll of the dice low percentage gamble on the goalie, who they also overpaid.....

If this team is better it will be in spite of those moves, not because of them. The rot starts at the top, with the owner and trickles down from there. As long as that stays the same, and there are no indications it will be changing anytime soon, then you can expect futility and frustration. Enjoy Connor while you can, because he will be moving on.
Could be worst. Aren't we lucky we don't have Melnyk as the owner?
 

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