Is Blowing Up The Oilers The Play?

Everyone, myself included, has an opinion about what Peter Chiarelli should do this summer. The goal for all of us writers/bloggers/fans/armchair GM’s is to guide the Oilers back to the NHL’s playoffs. I would imagine that Chiarelli will be under some pressure to at least get close during the 2016-17 season.

Everyone has their list, I’m still working on mine and will post it in the off-season, of what needs to get accomplished. I think most of us would assume that Edmonton moves a major piece or two to shape their core a little differently. What about completely blowing it up, however?

NHL Scout “Edmonton is considering totally blowing up team over the offseason, only untouchables are top 2 centers (McDavid/Draisaitl)”

— Michael Pityk (@MPityk_PHI) March 15, 2016

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsI’m not overly familiar with the source, but I’ll take the quote at it’s word. Why? Well, because this isn’t the first time we have heard something like this and I highly doubt it will be the last time we hear about the Oilers potentially blowing up the core they started with in the fall of 2010.

Pierre LeBrun wrote about the possibility of Edmonton making a splash this summer, writing the following after the NHL’s Trade Deadline:

Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli isn’t even hiding his intentions. He has openly talked about entertaining trade offers for some of his core players come June. I think he’s quite serious.

A culture of losing during a miserable decade in Edmonton won’t be allowed to continue under the first-year GM. He’s seen enough. Which means for the right offer, preferably for a top defenseman, the likes of Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, maybe even Taylor Hall, might be moved this offseason.

LeBrun’s take makes much more sense. The Oilers are open to moving their core pieces, but only in return for something that can help them right now in another area, aka the blue line. Considering the Oilers have talents like Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid, Oscar Klefbom and Darnell Nurse on value deals currently, it’s probably wise to try and build a team to compete both now and later.

That’s why the NHL scout’s statement is interesting to me. Blowing it all up suggests to me that the Oilers would sell off pieces like Hall, Nugent-Hopkins, Eberle, Andrej Sekera, Benoit Pouliot and possibly even more. Blowing it up sure sounds like, to me at least, like the Oilers would move big assets for numerous lesser ones.

Starting from square one AGAIN? No, they can’t, can they?

I think what will happen is a combination of the two points above. I think the NHL scout has a very valid point in that McDavid/Draisaitl are two untouchable players in Edmonton. I also think the Oilers will ‘blow it up’ to a degree, but more along the lines of what LeBrun was talking about in his piece.

Peter Chiarelli and Todd McLellan were brought to Edmonton to win hockey games and turn this team around, they were not brought in to strip the Oilers down again and try to rebuild this organization for a fourth time in eleven years. The Oilers won’t blow it completely up, they simply can’t.

That said, trading a player like Eberle, Nugent-Hopkins or even Hall is certainly not out of the question. If you can get a guy like Travis Hamonic this off-season, then you move Jordan Eberle to make the deal go. Balance is what we are looking for, folks. The loss of Eberle will sting but the Oilers are much better off with Hamonic in the picture.

There will be changes in Edmonton this summer. I know that, you know that, the Oilers know that and the rest of the NHL knows it too. I also think this is the summer where one of the young guys gets moved and the Oilers get serious about winning hockey games and turning this ship around.

Blowing this thing up and starting from square one simply is not an option. The Oilers don’t have four more years of goodwill with fans to do that, they can’t lay stinker after stinker in the new barn and expect people to keep flocking back. The pressure gets turned up this fall and you best believe that Daryl Katz knows this. Blowing it up is not an option, not again.

What we see this off-season is probably a combination of what this anonymous NHL scout and Pierre LeBrun have said. There is just no way the Oilers tear it all down and even a lesser chance they stay the course with this full group.

Last thought: I’d be weary of what “NHL scouts” are saying. You’d best believe they want to turn the heat up on the Oilers and pressure them into a deal.