How To Fix The Edmonton Oilers: The Wrap Up

Over the course of the last few weeks, I’ve been looking at almost every facet of the Edmonton Oilers organization to try and figure out how we fix this hockey club. Although the team has been playing better as of late, they are still going to come up short of the playoffs for the 12th time in 13 tries. The efforts are better and there are things to build on, but overall there is still a lot of work to do.

Today I wrap up my series looking at how to fix the Edmonton Oilers by taking a look back at each level of the organization and looking at what we decided to do with the management team, coaching staff and finally the roster.

Management: 

The Oil are still, nearly a month after firing President of Hockey Operations and GM Peter Chiarelli, in the infancy of their GM search. Bob Nicholson is reportedly moving onto stage three this week at the GM Meetings in Boca Raton, but we are still likely at least a month away from finding out the next GM of the Edmonton Oilers.

This was the first part of the organization I looked at, mainly because this hire will be the most important one. The person selected to run Hockey Operations will chart the course for this organization, selecting what direction this club will take and what style they will play. Basically, the Connor McDavid era’s success will be placed on that person’s shoulders. It’s a big damned deal.

I selected Mike Gillis, a veteran hockey man that likely scratches the itch of both the ‘Hockey men’ and analytics crowds, as the new POHO. For GM, I selected a former partner of Gillis’, Toronto AGM Laurence Gilman. I believe both of these men are in touch with today’s NHL and bring the much needed outsiders’ view to the organization. It’s not perfect, but based on available front office talent I think it is the best solution.

I don’t think that is the road Edmonton will travel, however. As I noted in my piece touching on management, I believe Keith Gretzky will win the day as GM, with long time ‘hockey man’ and Hockey Canada friend Ken Holland taking the role of President later in the summer.

Lastly on management, I touched on how the Oil should navigate the deadline, essentially pleading with the organization to sell. They swapped out Ryan Spooner for Sam Gagner in a deal that looks pretty good right now, and dumped Cam Talbot’s salary, but that’s about it.

Coaching:

This was a tough one because we don’t know who takes over as GM, but I went about my business as if the Gillis/Gilman tandem was running the show. Reading the tea leaves, I think we can successfully figure out who will eventually be in position to win this job. I think there will be one or two young names on the list, but overall the Oilers will be looking for another veteran coach with pedigree.

I selected a veteran coach with an offensive mind and a connection to both Gillis and Gilman in Alain Vigneault. Your thoughts may vary here, but I thought he checked off all the necessary boxes and that his style would be a very good fit for what the Oil are looking to do.

What I think Keith Gretzky will do? There’s already smoke surrounding former OHL Erie head coach and current Philadelphia assistant Kris Knoblauch. I anticipated him getting the job this summer.

The Roster:

This one took me two parts, first looking at the holes we need to fill and then actually filling them. If this team is going to be good next season, this summer is going to have to be busy. Naturally, with a new GM running the show, we should expect a substantial amount of movement. After another season outside of the playoffs, I expect there will be ample pressure to fix things fast.

I highly recommend you read part two of my roster look, which I will link again here. It outlines all of the re-signings, trades and free agent signings that I did to come up with my mock roster for next spring. Tip of the cap to Cap Friendly for helping me put pen to paper and stay under the projected cap of $83 million.

Nikolaj Ehlers – Connor McDavid – Kailer Yamamoto
Leon Draisaitl – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Jesse Puljujarvi
Connor Brown – JG Pageau – Sam Gagner
Jujhar Khaira – Kyle Brodziak – Zack Kassian
Colby Cave, Alex Chiasson

Oscar Klefbom – Adam Larsson
Andrej Sekera – Kris Russell
Caleb Jones – Dan Girardi
Kevin Gravel

Mikko Koskinen
Anthony Stolarz

Final Thoughts:

I decided to do this series out of frustration. Although the Oil are showing signs of life right now, this season has been exhausting and filled with anger, negativity and frustration. I needed to get my thoughts out about how this once proud franchise can get turned around in a hurry.

I’m very confident that the management team and coaching staff assembled above could get my projected roster into the playoffs, and I think they have the ability to win a round if some of those depth players turn out. It’s not a Cup winning group, that is going to take some time, but it is a team that has potential moving forward and should be able to make a playoff run next season.

Thanks for reading throughout the series and I hope I got your gears turning about what you think it will take to fix the Oilers.