Mixed Messages From MacTavish

Since Sunday, Oilers GM Craig MacTavish has made the rounds with the Edmonton media, talking to Terry Jones, Bob Stauffer, the Oilers Website, and on Wednesday Jason Gregor on TSN 1260. Most of the interviews, including the ones with Jones and Gregor, talked about adding players and being patient with the younger guys, while the one with the Oilers website talked about otherwise.

What is it going to be? Will the Oilers go young again, risking another lost season for the battle cry of development and high picks, or will the team do as MacT said Sunday and add four to five new faces, pushing this thing forward?

There Will Be New Faces:

There is no doubt there will be new players in Edmonton, and I suspect we see about four to seven new players this coming fall. Who those players will be we have no clue, but we can reasonably expect a fair amount of addition this summer, whether through trades, free agency, or the draft.

After the season that just happened, there really isn’t a choice, inactivity is the kiss of death. Steve Tambellini’s last off-season was arguably his most inactive, and it cost him his job. MacT can’t sit still and throw another year away, and he knows it too.

The only question will be, who are those new faces, and what roles will they be able to fill?

Message Number One:

The first message, and the one that we have heard more of, is about additions, mainly through trade and free agency. This is exactly what Oilers fans want to hear, and to be perfectly honest, exactly what this needs. The time for winning is now, because sooner or later, the window with Taylor Hall is going to close. Yes, it’s getting to that point, it’s dangerously close right now.

When MacTavish talked to Terry Jones about player additions, he had some interesting quotes (Link to the piece down low, I highly recommend you read it, if you are an Oilers fan, this is great stuff).

MacT: “I’d like to add four or five players — one or two through trades and two or three unrestricted free agents,”

MacT: “We need help on defense. We’re looking for a puck-moving defenceman, a guy who can carry the puck north and continue into open ice. We also need a defending defenceman. We’re not going to compromise our young prospects on defense,”

These quotes are really nice to hear. The Oilers have multiple holes, and will be looking to fill them. I could easily find eight holes on this team, but five is a lot for one off-season and would be a really great start. The trade market, with teams in cap trouble, will likely be at it’s most active in a long time this year, so this could be a good time to snag a useful player there too.

Free agency also has a number of candidates for the lesser holes in the Oilers lineup, and could be a very useful tool if the team tries to fill the right holes through it.

Edmonton has two big holes in my mind, and MacT is looking for a trade or two. To me, it sounds like he is looking to fill the major holes (top-pairing D, 2C) through trade, and the other spots through free agency, like depth wingers and a shut-down defender.

It’s nice to see defense acknowledged too, especially the puck-mover part. I’d think the Oilers are looking for a top-pairing puck-mover to really complement this group of young forwards, maybe even a game breaker. The Oilers badly need this.

It’s also VERY refreshing to see MacT mention how he wants to use patience with his young defenders, who are extremely raw and have little to no NHL experience. Handing them the roles that need to be filled could be a big mistake.

The Other Message:

The message in Jones’ piece is very straight forward and simple. MacT wants to add four or five players to this team, and wants certain things, two defenders and a couple of forwards to push this thing forward. It’s not a surprise, and it’s exactly what we all figured was needed. Then on Wednesday, MacT talked to the Oilers panel on their website, and said something interesting.

@EdmontonOilers: “Our pick will be right in the mix to stay here… I’ll include Darnell Nurse in that as well.” – MacT on top prospects playing w/ #Oilers“

This is a totally different message, and one that more closely looks like what we heard at the post-season press conference. The Oilers are going to give the third overall pick (I’ll say Draisaitl) a good chance to make the team, as well as young Darnell Nurse, who just had a great junior season.

This comes just three days after saying he does not want to rush these guys, and that he would rather them play in junior or the AHL. This is a mixed message, and it’s a pretty big one too. At the post-season presser, MacT said he will go young if he must, and again he mentioned that this week.

So what is it? What is Craig MacTavish’s plan? Is it to add the right veteran pieces to augment this rebuild, or is it letting more young guys develop, risking another season or two, and staying the course with a rebuild? Heck, is it somewhere in the middle? I’m not sure to be honest, and the next two weeks should answer that.

We are getting into crunch time now. The draft is eight days from today, and free agency less than two weeks away. The Oilers have cap space and a lot of needs, with some assets to move too. They also have the option of staying young and developing from within.

What they will do no one knows, and while MacT has thrown out signals of doing one thing, he’s thrown out just as many about doing the other. The mixed messages have the speculation rising.

This is going to be fun, and likely highly frustrating too. Enjoy.

(Jones piece from earlier this week with MacT talking additions can be read here: http://www.edmontonsun.com/2014/06/16/edmonton-oilers-offseason-begins-for-gm-craig-mactavish)