(Sarcastic Tone) Typical Oilers

1. Typical Oilers. Yes, by now you have all heard the big Oiler news. Edmonton moved a disgruntled underachieving former 1st overall pick for a conditional draft pick and ECHL prospect, then used the salary they moved to sign an analytically challenged left-shooting defenseman on a one year deal.

If you asked the Eastern media, they would tell the story like this; the Edmonton Oilers dealt a future superstar in Nail Yakupov before he had a chance to spread his wings in exchange for a bucket of pucks that has the potential to be formed into a tire. They then overpaid for yet another bottom-pairing defenseman. Typical Oilers.

It’s sad to see. I’ve discussed on The Oilers Rig podcast the fact that I despise the Eastern media’s take on the Oilers. Most of them are in their cozy beds drifting off to dream about a Leafs Stanley Cup before the Oilers even play a second period. Somehow that makes them experts.

I even recall someone on Twitter (I can’t recall who) lashing out on the Oilers organization for signing Oscar Klefbom to a seven year deal. The tweet stated something along the lines of; “well I guess the Oilers have learned their lesson about committing long-term to unproven players”, once again in a sarcastic tone.

And yet, the Oilers will be ridiculed by bloggers, writers, analytic lovers etc etc for every one of their moves this year, despite the fact that they are a much better team because of everything Chiarelli has done.

MY TAKE ON THE LATEST MOVES

#RIPYakCity

I tweeted my first thought on the Yak deal, and only using 140 characters or less I said:

It was time for Yak to move on. The fact that Chiarelli was able to potentially get a 2nd rounder out of him was magician like #RIPYakCity

— TJ (@PotratzHockey) October 8, 2016

Let me elaborate.

Nail Yakupov’s value was highest after his first season. In the lockout shortened season, Ralph Krueger used Yakupov as a shooter. He knew Yakupov wasn’t going to be a defensive stalwart and told him to find a spot to score from and wait for the puck to get there. Yakupov scored some HUGE goals. Remember his second ever goal against the Kings with almost no time on the clock? Watch it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0FCeKqfv7Q

Last minute. Emotional game. The rookie Nail Yakupov is one the ice to tie the game up. He goes to the net. Oilers win draw. Shot doesn’t get through. Hall gets the rebound and puts it on net. Puck flies up in the air and Yakupov swats it out of mid-air to tie the game. The cele is epic. The kid has a zest for the game. Oilers win game in overtime.

Nail Yakupov scored at a 29 goal pace in the shortened season and it looked like the Oilers had a future 40-goal scorer.

Then it happened.

Ralph Krueger was fired. Dallas Eakins was hired. Yakupov was forgotten. His confidence was blasted. Value immediately dropped.

Peter Chiarelli knew that Yakupov’s value wasn’t going to get better, and many reported that it was likely you wouldn’t even get a 3rd round pick out of Yakupov. Chiarelli was able to get a bit of a bidding war with Chicago in the mix as well. Instead of a 3rd round pick, Chiarelli got a potential 2nd round pick and a project player.

KRIS RUSSELL IS AN OILER

The interesting thing on Kris Russell is that he does do something really well: kill penalties. If he plays 13-15 tops I'm okay with this

— TJ (@PotratzHockey) October 8, 2016

I’m not a fan. I’m not a big fan of analytics but I do believe they have some merit. Kris Russell is likely the worst player in the league according to analytics but, I’ve heard from a lot of Flames fans that we will be surprised by Russell. They claim he was a fan favourite because he’ll get in front of any puck and he’s a hard-worker.

I don’t think he was the type of player we need, but he is experienced and although he’s a left hand shot, he is a good penalty killer and has some puck moving ability.

I’m willing to wait until I watch him more closely before I make my judgement on him. If he plays quiet bottom pairing minutes and becomes a shot blocking king on the penalty kill, I’ll be fine with him. I’d assume he was signed for insurance due to all the injury troubles we seem to get into every year.

TWO-FACED FANS

The most irritating thing from the latest transactions is how two-faced people in the realm of Oil Country can be. I won’t call anybody out in particular, but the negativity that comes immediately after any transaction happens is astounding.

Pump the brakes.

Yakupov is ridiculed and called out for his lack of production and everybody says let’s move on from this guy. Then, we move him, and BOOM, we made a bad trade. How could the Oilers trade Yakupov for nothing? The Oilers should have given Yakupov more of a chance to get better. Chiarelli should have waited it out for a better return.

Here are the facts:
-Yakupov had minimal trade value
-Yakupov hasn’t grown as a player since his rookie season
-Yakupov had wanted out of Edmonton frankly for just a change of scenery and a new opportunity
-Chiarelli knew he wasn’t going to get a big return on the player
-Chiarelli knew Yakupov had no future here
-It was time to move on

Fans of the Oilers all have their own opinion on how to make the team better. Apparently everybody is an expert in their own right. I’m sure if any of these twitter reading fans were in the GM chair they would do a much better job than Peter Chiarelli. NEWSFLASH Peter Chiarelli is an experienced GM who knows how the games are played. Would you hire a hospital intern to perform brain surgery on you because he tweeted that he knew how to perform brain surgery more accurately than the jackass Neurosurgeon he calls a boss? Nope, you’d take the Neurosurgeon who has done successful brain surgeries and saved lives. (My girlfriend has me watching a lot of Grey’s Anatomy lately, that’s why this analogy was used).

Kris Russell is not the amazing puck-moving power play quarterback we were all looking for, but he didn’t cost us anything but a little cap space. Russell is an experienced defenseman, and apparently a well-liked guy in the dressing room. We’re building a culture, and Russell must be a part of that.

So before we start making our minds up about everything from the Hall trade, to the Gustavsson signing, to the Yakupov trade, to the Russell signing, let’s see what this team looks like on the ice in the regular season before we start making judgement calls. Maybe even give it 20 games before we reach any conclusions.

Keep your heads on straight Oil Country. We made moves that we had to make. We have a much more balanced team. We have a great future.

Typical Oilers.