Declining A Gift?

An interesting bit came out on CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday night, as Elliotte Friedman reported that a major change nearly took place in Edmonton this past week. That major change would have been the one the fans have been calling for, the head of Kevin Lowe.

According to Friedman, Lowe offered to “Take a Sabbatical” from the Oilers if it would help relieve the tension in the city right now. As you might know, the ‘Kevin Lowe Must Go’ facebook group has a lot of likes, and there have been signs, including a billboard, popping up in the city calling for the President of Hockey Ops head.

After putting that out there, Friedman went on to say that owner Daryl Katz rejected this proposal, going in line with the letter which he put out last week, saying that Lowe will not be fired.

To me, this is a major mistake on the part of Katz, and it could be a mistake which keeps the Oilers in this awful situation that they currently find themselves in.

First thing I’ll say is this, there is no debating how much Kevin Lowe cares about the Edmonton Oilers. There is absolutely no questioning that. He’s was the franchise’s first draft pick, scored their first goal, and was a key cog in all five Stanley Cup victories. He came back in the 1990’s when things were a mess, and stepped into a coaching role with the team.

In addition to that, he stepped up when Glen Sather left for New York and took the Oilers GM role. He always has, and will continue to, bleed orange and blue. That can’t be understated.

Lowe also is a character guy, and being willing to step down shows that in spades. I’ll always appreciate that about him. He’s done some good things too, including putting together a pretty good team on a tight budget in the early 2000’s, and putting the 2005-06 team together.

Can’t forget Lowe stealing Mike Peca and Chris Pronger in separate trades as well in the summer of 2005, those were the best two moves of his tenure in my mind (with Dwayne Roloson being a close third).

With all that above being said, I have a hard time thinking that this decision by Katz wasn’t a big mistake. Lowe is the one common during this eight year stretch of hell, and has a terrible track record in terms of reaching the playoffs during his tenure in the front office. It’s arguably the worst in pro sports right now.

This isn’t targeted at Lowe the person, it’s targeted at Lowe the hockey guy. It’s quite clear his plan of action and his thoughts on how to build a team simply are not good enough anymore. He can no longer be trusted to build the Oilers into a playoff team. He and Steve Tambellini ran this thing into the ground, and have not been able to get it near turned around.

Even though Katz said this is Craig MacTavish’s team and he is the decision maker, it’s kind of clear that this isn’t the case. Kevin Lowe even said as much on the Jason Gregor show a few weeks back, pretty much admitting that the Oilers have an inner circle that makes the decisions, and that MacT relies on Lowe with most of his moves.

It sure sounds like Lowe still has a lot of say into the player decisions, and that is a huge issue. The record doesn’t lie, over the last decade, Kevin Lowe’s player decisions have taken a Stanley Cup finalist and made them the laughing stock of the NHL and the butt end of sports jokes everywhere. Its rough.

Kevin Lowe’s dismissal won’t magically turn the Oilers into a playoff team, but it certainly will go a long way into changing a culture that has been around far too long. Getting rid of a guy who has constantly proven he can’t do the job and bringing in a guy with a better front office record will only help this team in the long run.

Kevin Lowe offered the Edmonton Oilers a gift, his resignation from the hockey club. What did the Oilers do with this? They declined a gift that would have helped them move in the right direction in terms of player decisions and roster building. That, in my mind and the mind of many, is a major mistake by Daryl Katz.

Katz firmly believes Lowe is one of the guys that can build this into a playoff team. Is that really the case? It’s highly doubtful friends. The Oilers declined a major gift within the last week.