The Edmonton Oilers are what they are. Simply put, in year four of Connor McDavid, they are not good enough and will be missing the playoffs for the 12th time in 13 seasons unless they go on a miracle run. The reasons they are in this spot are well documented, and will likely continue to be brought up for a long time.
The Taylor Hall trade, the Griffin Reinhart trade, the Jordan Eberle trade, the Milan Lucic signing, the Kris Russell extension and the failure to replace Andrej Sekera are all among the reasons why the Oilers find themselves in a hole no one expected them to be in.
Peter Chiarelli is gone. Todd McLellan is gone. There will be, without a shred of doubt in my mind, other front office personnel (Hello, Duane Sutter) that get shown the door here in the next few months as well. There will be a new GM and a new head coach when we open the season next October.
The Edmonton Oilers are turning the page, now trying to dig themselves out of this hole and back into contention. So it is time we do too, finally. It’s time to let go of a past that makes us angry because of what could have been. It’s time to accept what is and try to find a solution for a better tomorrow.
Through all of the negativity, this is one thing I firmly believe to be true: The Edmonton Oilers still have a fantastic young core and are not that far off from competing for hockey’s ultimate prize. It might not happen next season, but it is coming.
The Plan:
With #PetersPlan now out the window, the first thing the Edmonton Oilers need to do is establish the plan and direction of this franchise. Louie DeBrusk and Bob Stauffer had a great conversation on ‘Oilers Now‘ Thursday and mentioned how the league has changed in the last two years.
It has absolutely changed, moving away from the power game and more towards speed and skill. Look at the Penguins, Capitals, Maple Leafs, Predators and even the Flames and Jets. All of those teams have stupid amounts of skill and they all play a fast brand. You have to play that way to succeed in the NHL today.
The Oilers have an advantage that no one else does, and that is the fastest player in hockey in the form of McDavid. He’s a weapon that no one else has access to, and allows you to build that speedy and skilled brand of hockey. The Oilers have to take advantage of that.
The plan must be to build a skilled team that plays a fast brand of hockey. It’ll be a helluva lot more entertaining, and it will also bring more wins to the table. You don’t have to fully abandon ‘heavy hockey’, look at Tom Wilson’s impact last playoffs, but it can no longer be the identity of this roster.
Get good players, keep good players. That must be the mantra for the Edmonton Oilers, who must change their organization plan and direction by shifting form big and tough to speedy and skilled. They could form a lethal attack by looking in the right places.
The Oilers need to put an emphasis on the draft, and must make developing players a priority. They have done that this season, but still have lots of work to do and must make it the norm, not the exception. Emphasize speed, skill and development in this organization moving forward.
How To Execute The Plan:
Over the next few weeks, we will be looking at ways the Oilers could execute a plan that gets them into the playoffs next season and puts them on the path to being a contender in short order. To do that, we will need to execute the plan listed above.
Of course, before executing the plan we need to find someone to run hockey operations. Tomorrow I’ll dive deep into the GM search, looking once again at the candidates we can classify as the favorites for the position, then look at my personal list of candidates for this job.
The Oilers will have to do a few things in order to achieve sustained success, and I’d recommend they look at other organizations. The Sharks, Penguins and Capitals have all had long runs competing for the Cup and two of those teams were able to take home the ultimate prize. They’ve all built around superstar players and have figured out ways to compliment them with strong depth. Personally, I think the Penguins are the best comp for Edmonton and that should be the team they study long and hard.
A new GM will need to be willing to make some painful decisions and potentially clear out some fan favorites. Guys like Russell, Lucic, Zack Kassian and even Darnell Nurse could be trade bait to turn this thing around. Some of those guys will be part of the solution, but some of them will need to be sent out to clear cap space and to use as currency to acquire difference pieces.
It’s going to be painful to some degree, but everyone is going to have to buy in on a plan them prioritizes speed and skill above all else.
What’s Next?:
So we aren’t going to go in-depth on anything today outside of the new direction for the club, which I outlined above. We’ll take a look at the GM candidates tomorrow, and then Sunday take a look at what Keith Gretzky will have to work with come deadline time.
Over the course of this series, we’ll take a look at specific roster moves that could help the Edmonton Oilers, who could take over Hockey Operations, who could take over as head coach, who could be coming and going and more. Enough bitching about the past, it’s time to look ahead and fix this old Rig.
Get good players, keep good players. Prioritize speed and skill above all else. Draft and develop complementary pieces. Play fast and play hard. THAT should be the new Edmonton Oilers’ way. Now, let’s put that plan in motion, shall we?
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