2016 is a new year, a chance for all of us to start with a clean slate and to reinvent ourselves. No one should take that advise more than the Edmonton Oilers, who badly need to reinvent themselves. As of tonight, the Oilers sit 29th in the NHL with just 33 points. They sit only two points ahead of last place Columbus, each team has played 39 games so far this season.
Once again, the Oilers are a basement team with many of the same issues. Their team is far too soft, they are easy to play against. When teams play physical against Edmonton, they simply dominate the contest. As currently built, the Edmonton Oilers will never be a successful team in the NHL’s Western Conference.
As currently constructed, the Oilers are a very easy team to play and to game-plan for. If they want to have success moving forward, and I suspect Peter Chiarelli and Todd McLellan came here to achieve success, then this roster needs to be changed.
I’m not talking about adding guys like Ben Eager and Andy Sutton for “sandpaper” purposes, I’m talking about actually changing the mix of this hockey club. I’m talking about making the top-six forwards and the top-four defenders tougher to play against.
The Oilers can no longer have a lineup filled with small and skilled players, it does not work. Oiler fans always seem to have a panic attack at the thought of trading Jordan Eberle or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Fact of the matter is, that core group has yet to win a single thing, the only thing they have achieved is finishing in the bottom ten EVERY single season of their careers. Is that all on them? Absolutely not, but they play a role in that and it’s not even debatable.
Untouchables:
The Oilers should only have a handful of players that are deemed untouchable in my mind. At forward, Connor McDavid is an obvious choice, the kid is a franchise level talent, you build everything around him. Taylor Hall makes the cut as an elite offensive producer on the top-line, while Leon Draisaitl is the big and skilled player Edmonton badly needs.
On the back-end? Oscar Klefbom is young and has already emerged as a legit top-four defender in the NHL, while Darnell Nurse isn’t far behind him. Both Klefbom and Nurse will be pillars for this franchise on defense for at least a decade and should absolutely be untouchable.
I’d also be reluctant to deal off Andrej Sekera at this point too, he’s easily Edmonton’s best veteran defender. Brandon Davidson is a nice player at a great price point as well.
What This Team Needs:
The Oilers need quite a bit to be a strong team. They need another legit top-four defender, preferably a right shot option. Travis Hamonic really stands out as the ideal guy, but the Islanders aren’t looking for forwards in return. Seth Jones is another much talked about option, but he has not yet emerged as a real top-four guy and is a project still. Dustin Byfuglien is another ideal option, but as a UFA I’m not certain Edmonton would be at the top of his list.
Edmonton also needs a consistent goaltender, Cam Talbot and Anders Nilsson simply haven’t gotten the job done, but more on that another time.
A power-forward in the top-six is also needed, think pending UFA Milan Lucic or a guy like St. Louis’ Troy Brouwer.
How Do You Change The Mix?:
The Oilers are not going to run three scoring lines moving forward, that’s something that Todd McLellan has mentioned to many in the Edmonton media. That means one of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins or Leon Draisaitl becomes expendable or moves to the wing. It’s not a popular opinion, but I vote Nugent-Hopkins.
I know what many people are thinking, you would create a massive hole and get worse with that trade. I understand that, and I know that RNH is one helluva hockey player. Ideally, you don’t move him, but let’s face it, Edmonton needs to address other holes before they actually start to win hockey games. The value that RNH possesses is big time.
If you put the Nuge on the market, I can almost guarantee you that a top-pairing defensive option would be coming back to Edmonton in return. You have to give to get.
Same with Jordan Eberle, a player who is a great goal scorer when he is on. The problem with Eberle? When he isn’t putting the puck in the net he is more of a passenger. The other parts of Eberle’s game are not strong enough to make him a key player when he isn’t scoring. For an Oiler team with so much firepower in Hall, McDavid, Draisaitl and others, Eberle could be viewed as expendable for help in other areas.
Final Thoughts:
Just like you, I’ve watched just about every Oilers game the last ten plus years. The roster has been built in the same manner for about seven years now and the results have stayed the same, constant losing. In a conference where bigger players are the norm, Edmonton tries to get by on simply speed and skill. Predictably, it has not worked.
If the Oilers ever want to get back to being a respectable organization, then they need to look in the mirror long and hard and change the way they build their hockey teams. That means making tough decisions and changing the mix. You simply cannot have an entire roster made up of smaller, skilled guys. It’s too easy to play against, that’t just a fact, folks.
If it means trading guys like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle to address issues on defense and to add a power forward component to this roster, then so be it.
What the Edmonton Oilers currently are is not working. It’s time to make some significant changes to this roster, and not just on the third pairing and in the bottom-six. It’s time to look at the impact players on this roster.
Luckily, Peter Chiarelli and Todd McLellan aren’t shy when it comes to tough decisions.
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