The Edmonton Oilers have had a very, very good off-season, maybe the best since the summer of 2005. If you recall, that summer the Oilers acquired Chris Pronger and Mike Peca, two vital pieces in their run to the Stanley Cup Finals the next spring.
That said, many Oiler fans seem hesitant to believe. I’m not saying that this team will make the Finals, hell they probably don’t make the playoffs next season, but you can believe again my friends. If there is one thing that is certain about this franchise it is this, they are no longer wandering the desert.
I’ve seen many Oiler fans temper expectations, say they won’t get excited until the results show up on the ice. That’s a fair statement, we’ve been excited before only to have our hearts completely broken by the team before American Thanksgiving hits.
That said, there are a number of things that make this year different. The Oilers are, for the first time in a long time, strong in many key areas both on and off the ice.
Proven Management:
With all due respect to Kevin Lowe, Steve Tambellini and Craig MacTavish, Peter Chiarelli is the best GM that the Oilers have had since Glen Sather packed his bags and went to New York to run the Rangers. Chiarelli is a proven winner, a guy who built a powerhouse Bruins team.
Chiarelli took over the Bruins in the summer of 2006. The team had missed the postseason the year before and had a roster that, quite frankly, was barren of talent. Within five years, in 2011, those same Bruins would win a Stanley Cup Championship. The team would return to the final in 2013 and be a powerhouse from 2007 until their playoff miss this past spring.
Chiarelli knows how to build a hockey team, he saw it happen in Ottawa during the early 2000’s and he executed it in Boston during the late 2000’s and early portion of this decade. He’s done it before and has an idea of what a team needs to succeed.
Steve Tambellini and Craig MacTavish simply were not as qualified for the job. Both of these men were learning the NHL job on the fly and it showed. They both made key mistakes with free agents and trades, and were both vastly inexperienced.
Those lessons have already been learned by Chiarelli, he’s a proven front office executive who knows the tricks of the trade. That’s an extremely valuable and underrated person. The Oilers are finally in good hands with their GM.
Proven Coaching:
Dallas Eakins was idealistic, but he was also learning the NHL on the fly. He made rookie coaching mistakes and as a result it cost him his job. You can make that same argument for Ralph Krueger and you can argue being inexperienced at this level led to Edmonton moving away from interim coach Todd Nelson this spring.
For the first time in franchise history, Edmonton has secured a successful head coach in his prime. Pat Quinn was hired after his best before date, while Tom Renney was solid but not to the level of Todd McLellan.
McLellan has led highly skilled teams to the playoffs before, has a stellar record, a proven system, and is still in the heart of his coaching career.
McLellan is a massive step forward for Edmonton in this department, he represents stability in a spot that has been a revolving door for the last six years.
A Franchise Player:
Taylor Hall is a tremendous NHL player, the same goes for Jordan Eberle and for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. That said, Connor McDavid is really the first franchise player that the organization has had since Chris Pronger was traded in the summer of 2006.
McDavid’s ability is on par with that of Sidney Crosby, the player many feel is the best in the world. A lot of Oiler fans are tempering their expectations with this player too, but folks, he’s the most talented Oilers forward since Mark Messier left town.
For those asking, yes, I know Doug Weight has been here since, but McDavid is going to be at another level. People know he’s going to be good, but I don’t think people realize just how good Connor McDavid is going to be.
Edmonton has simply not had a player of this caliber in long time. It won’t happen overnight, but the foundation is truly in place, this is the face of Edmonton hockey now.
A True Top-Pairing D:
He isn’t the number one defender that many fans (myself included) were clamoring for this summer, but Andrej Sekera is a very good NHL defender, one that qualifies as a top pairing option. He replaces the departed Jeff Petry while representing an upgrade for the Oilers, a clear win for the organization.
This isn’t a reclamation project like Cam Barker or Nikita Nikitin and this isn’t a player who is well after his best before date, this is a very good NHL’er in the middle of his prime years. He won’t change the defense all by himself, but Andrej Sekera is Edmonton’s best defender in about five or six years.
The Supporting Cast:
If you add Hall, RNH, Eberle, Nail Yakupov, Benoit Pouliot, Anton Lander, Leon Draisaitl, Darnell Nurse, Griffin Reinhart, Mark Fayne, Oscar Klefbom and Justin Schultz to Connor McDavid and Andrej Sekera, you get a pretty sound roster.
The players labelled as the supporting cast are all under club control for multiple years and are either approaching their prime or are in it currently. Edmonton has a window with this group that simply has not opened yet, which is a great sign.
This group is a far cry from the supporting cast from the fall of 2010 or 2011, where players were either too old or simply not good enough to make a meaningful contribution. That just isn’t the case anymore.
Believe:
I know Edmonton isn’t going to repeat the success of 2006 this season, and I’m also aware that this team likely is not going to the postseason this year, there is just too big of a gap to make up. That said, Oiler fans, you can believe again in this franchise.
The foundation is there, proven hockey people are in place to run the show, and a supporting cast is emerging to support the young hero of this script.
It won’t happen overnight, but it’s okay to believe in the Oilers and their future again. It’ll be exciting to be a fan of this team again, and the journey begins immediately.
Believe again my friends, it’s okay.
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