Where exactly did the rebuild go wrong?

[KneeOnKnee]

This question has been bothering me, seeing as how teams like Calgary and Florida seem to be heading in the right direction. I fear even Toronto may be well ahead of us in a couple years as well. Perhaps someone buried a flames jersey in the concrete the year they did those renos to rexall place, or perhaps the 2 hockey buddies McTavish and Lowe just did not really know how to run a organization. I realize that we built from the wings down, which is the total opposite of the usual blueprint of rebuilding a team from the net outwards. Calgary already had a pretty strong defence when they began to rebuild and Florida picked the perfect year to tank when they lucked out on stud d-man Ekblad so this is one of the most compelling reasons. Living in the shadow of the old oiler team and the building they played could have also played a part, or last but not least, marquee players just dont want to come here because they prefer playing their ice hockey in tropical climates. I am just trying to get a solid handle on what is going on here because it would be a shame to have McDavid playing here 6 yrs down the road and we are still not in the playoffs.

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[Aerchon]

One word.

Yakupov.

When he came everything went to crap. :-P

 

[gordonhught]

One word.

Yakupov.

When he came everything went to crap. :-P

No defense and low character young forwards

 

[BoldNewLettuce]

One word.

Yakupov.

When he came everything went to crap. :-P

It was before that.

Going with the young core of Hall-RNH-Ebs-Schultz as the new run and gun team while the league was actually reverting back to clutch and grab hockey. Even in the best of circumstances it was foolish to just assume these scorers were going to automatically score enough to win games without any support.

 

[Mr Positive]

I would say it was when Krueger left.

It's not just that it meant that Eakins came in as direct result. That summer, Tambellini was let go and MacT took over, and that was also when we decided to go all-in with the youth movement. We traded out Horcoff and walked away from Whitney. In the next year we removed Smid and Hemsky as well. As diminished as these players were, they were still a veteran presence that took heat off the young players. From that point on, the team was truly handed over to the young players, and it was like starting over.

It's not that we should have kept and re-signed these players, but rather that we needed to replace these players at least as quickly as they were leaving.

 

[Bangers]

MacTavish

 

[BarDownBobo]

This might be a little bit of an odd answer, but to me things started going south for this version of the rebuild on deadline day of 2013. On that day we were sitting in a playoff spot and to me there was an opportunity there. I wanted the team to trade for Jagr so bad that day, not only because of the impact he'd have on the games themselves but the impact it would have on the morale of the rest of the team. If you have a guy like that come into the room that late in the year it's a sign that management believes that this group can make a run. Instead management decided to bring in Jerred ****ing Smithson, and the rest is history.

 

[belair]

The 'rebuild' was a failure before it even started. The staff of the team that was one win away from the cup should have been canned the year Ryan Smyth was traded. Any idiot could lose for 10 straight years and collect high draft picks.

The leniency given to Edmonton Oilers' alumni cast a dark cloud over this organization for many years. You knew it, I knew it, the media knew it and the organization refused to accept it.

At the end of it all we have Connor McDavid, so it's a non-issue.

 

[lakai17]

Which version?

 

[Hynh]

When the team built around wingers and couldn't draft more than one player per year outside the first round.

 

[Sniper99]

Drafting BPA all the time and not always what you actually needed.

 

[Gone]

KLowe - MacT and the Ole boys club.

Oilers won't make the playoffs next year, while both Calgary and Toronto will jump several spots. Its an absolute joke they are still around, and a testament to the fact this rebuild will continue to flail.

 

[Gone]

Drafting BPA all the time and not always what you actually needed.

Really, that strategy works for other teams that can find players outside the first pick. But you're right if all you really add is one player per draft, a la Oilers.

 

[Jumptheshark]

In no Order

Feb 28th 2007

Oilers trade Ryan Smyth for 2 players and 1 first round draft pick and refused to admit that they were in need of a rebuild

Signing Penner and Souray

not figuring out how to develop D-men

not figuring out how to draft players outside of the first round

Rushing kids into the NHL--Besides Hall and Mcdavid--all other first rounders should have been tossed back into junior for atleast one year. Hopkins was a very young 18 year old when he got tossed to the wolves

 

[McDoused]

I love all the different responses. However anyone trying to pinpoint the teams failure to a single moment is wrong.

The truth is that the organization failed on a variety of different levels and had numerous reasons for its failure.

 

[Jumptheshark]

oh and of course--hiring a guy named Steve (no i do not know how to communicate) tambolini

 

[Jumptheshark]

we will go around in circles on this--but the fact they refused to admit it was a rebuild and kept trying to get short fix solutions to rather large problems

 

[djdub]

Drafting BPA all the time and not always what you actually needed.

You always draft BPA in the early first round, heck even second round...

 

[nabob]

MacTavish

Yep. When Tambellini was canned the entire front office should have been sent packing. Lowe was allowed to appoint another failure, who hired more failures.

 

[AM]

Currently the re-build is on schedule. What, did you think it would be a fast process?

 

[BarDownBobo]

You always draft BPA in the early first round, heck even second round...

Agreed. Drafting for need in the 2nd round is another reason we are where we are.

 

[OilTastic]

Drafting BPA all the time and not always what you actually needed.

^that and the fact that the old boys club couldn't build around the core to make us win. overpaying for such mediocre players as Fayne, Nikitin, Ference didn't help, neither did taking Yak #1 overall and having him produce like a 3rd liner, as already mentioned poor drafting by a bad amateur scouting staff didn't help either....all these were major factors.

 

[Gord]

This question has been bothering me, seeing as how teams like Calgary and Florida seem to be heading in the right direction. I fear even Toronto may be well ahead of us in a couple years as well. Perhaps someone buried a flames jersey in the concrete the year they did those renos to rexall place, or perhaps the 2 hockey buddies McTavish and Lowe just did not really know how to run a organization. I realize that we built from the wings down, which is the total opposite of the usual blueprint of rebuilding a team from the net outwards. Calgary already had a pretty strong defence when they began to rebuild and Florida picked the perfect year to tank when they lucked out on stud d-man Ekblad so this is one of the most compelling reasons. Living in the shadow of the old oiler team and the building they played could have also played a part, or last but not least, marquee players just dont want to come here because they prefer playing their ice hockey in tropical climates. I am just trying to get a solid handle on what is going on here because it would be a shame to have McDavid playing here 6 yrs down the road and we are still not in the playoffs.

my first thought was to ask which rebuild you were referring to. we've had so many.

 

[Tarus]

The rebuild went wrong in 2009, when they decided they had to rebuild the on ice product with the management group that created the mess in the first place.

Every successful rebuild tends to have one thing in common; a change in management/ownership to new people who want to win instead of employing their buddies.

 

[StoveTopStauffer]

Krueger firing was the move that caused the biggest spiral downward in my opinion. So I guess hiring MacT. But that starts with Lowe then. So basically when old management was left in charge.