On Monday afternoon, the Edmonton Oilers made a pretty large announcement, naming Bob Nicholson the CEO of the Oilers Entertainment Group. Nicholson was hired last summer as the Vice Chairman of the group, and was tasked with leading the “forensic audit” starting in November.
Now, Nicholson will have full control over the Hockey Operations department, as everyone will report directly to him. That includes GM Craig MacTavish and yes, President of Hockey Operations Kevin Lowe. The official description of Nicholson’s new job was stated by the Oilers, via their twitter page:
@EdmontonOilers: Nicholson will take over an expanded set of responsibilities, including authority over all aspects of
#Oilers business and hockey ops.
The Oilers followed that up with a quote from Nicholson, which gives the impression that he has the all clear from ownership to do what he feels is right in order to turn the Oilers around.
@EdmontonOilers: “Daryl hired me to build a winning organization. We have a lot of work to do, but we know what we need to do to get there.” – Bob Nicholson
To me, this signifies that Nicholson has a direction, a plan for this organization. Will that include moving around pieces in the management group? Will that include shifting out picks and prospects for players ready to move this team towards the playoffs right now? We’ll have to wait and see on that.
Jonathan Willis has a pretty good piece over at OilersNation where he gives his thoughts on the press conference. In that piece, Willis includes two quotes, which I’m going to borrow for the purpose of this piece. (I recommend reading Jon’s take, because it really makes you think about what could go on here)
As of today, everyone in the organization reports to myself. As I said, my main focus was looking at all parts of the organization and coming back to Daryl and giving him a recommendation on how OEG should work in the future and we’ll be rolling that out. I’m certainly not going to put a timeline on it; the quicker we can do it the better but I want to make sure we’re doing it right.
The timelines, I’d like to do it right away but I’m certainly not going to state that. We’re going to do it when the time is right; there are a lot of playoff games going on and we’re going to look at the hockey [side].
My take? Nicholson, who told Terry Jones he wasn’t done with his audit, has come to some conclusions regarding this organization. I believe Nicholson feels that he needs control to do what he feels is needed, and he now has that control.
On top of that, Nicholson and Katz believe the time is now to turn this organization north. Not once was the phrase “We need more patience” used Monday, rather phrases that talked about building the Oilers into a Stanley Cup Contender were used. Is winning now a priority again in Edmonton?
It also feels like, to me, that Nicholson has made some decisions regarding people in the organization, and is simply just waiting to announce them. Nicholson has given Katz his recommendations, and mentioned that the sooner they can get it done, the better.
Personally, I think these statements are directed right at three people, Kevin Lowe, Craig MacTavish, and Stu MacGregor. The last quote, where Nicholson says he will wait until the time is right and mentions there are playoff games going on, has to be implying something.
To me, Nicholson has his sights set on someone or a group of people to come in and help the management team, but their teams are currently in the playoffs.
What exactly does that mean? It could mean an assistant GM coming in and taking the reigns from MacTavish the second his team is eliminated from the playoffs. It could mean a change in leadership in Edmonton.
That, or it could mean nothing. If Edmonton was going to make sweeping changes, wouldn’t they have started already? Why wait until two or three weeks after the season to fire people? It doesn’t really add up.
Nicholson didn’t say a lot on Monday, but he’s an experienced hockey guy who knows that giving away the plan isn’t a smart move. What we learned from this was that Nicholson has a plan for this organization, and that he plans on executing it over a period of time. Apparently, this plan involves some decisions, some tough ones.
What we also learned is that Bob Nicholson is now officially in charge. We had speculated it before, but now we know it as a fact, Bob Nicholson is the head of the Hockey Operations department in Edmonton.
We’ll learn more as the off-season wears on, but it is clear that changes are beginning to take place in Edmonton. Will they be the right ones? We’ll just have to wait and see I guess. Buckle up friends, it’s going to be a fun summer in Edmonton.
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