In January of 2010, Oilers owner Daryl Katz publicly stated that the team had entered a rebuild, that the team would restock the organization via the draft, and would gradually build back up into a real contender. The Oilers finished that season with 62 points and 27 victories.
The following February, in 2011, Oilers President of Hockey Operations Kevin Lowe told CBC’s Hockey Night In Canada that the timeline was that of a five year process, that after five rebuilding seasons Edmonton could be expected to compete deep into April and May. The Oilers finished that year with 62 points as well.
Five years after Daryl Katz opened up, the Edmonton Oilers completed yet another disappointing season. Five years ago, when the rebuild began, there was hope. Today, less than 24 hours after completing the season, we face a dark reality, Edmonton isn’t better. They won 24 games this year, the worst mark in franchise history, and finished with, you guessed it, 62 points. That’s the same mark as when the rebuild started.
I’ve said it countless times, and I will say it again, Edmonton’s rebuild is a colossal failure. The team has made little progress since it embarked on this journey, and has circled fully back to incompetent and, quite frankly, terrible. If we are going solely based off of wins, the measuring stick we should be using, it’s becomes clear that Edmonton is actually WORSE than five year ago. That’s flat out unacceptable.
Yes, the Oilers have amassed a lot of talent via the first round of the NHL draft, and some from the later rounds, but it hasn’t been enough. Edmonton traded off every useful veteran player, and failed to replace any of them.
Five years ago, Edmonton didn’t have a starting goalie, didn’t have a number one defender, and had little center depth. Fast forward to today, and those issues are exactly the same.
The Oilers made the right call two years ago firing GM Steve Tambellini, but they made a horribly wrong call replacing him with Craig MacTavish.
There is no more defense, Craig MacTavish needs to be relieved of his duties, and it needs to happen now. Don’t tell me I need patience, because this group has been given five years of it, and they’ve done nothing with it. You can’t debate that, it’s a cold, hard fact.
Another fact? The Oilers are worse under Craig MacTavish than they were under Steve Tambellini. In Tambi’s final season in Edmonton, the Oilers finished the 48 game season on a 77-point pace, a 15 point increase from this season. Since that year, Edmonton has assessed 67 points, and now 62 points. Clear-cut regression in both years under MacTavish.
MacT has attempted to fill holes, I’ll give him credit, but he has failed miserably in key areas. In net, MacTavish openly criticized a competent Devan Dubnyk, who collapsed for 40 some-odd games before being dealt to Nashville. Jason Labarbera was a mess, while Ilya Bryzgalov was, well, interesting.
This year, MacT went with Viktor Fasth and Ben Scrivens, who statistically were two of the worst goalies in the NHL, in fact they were both bottom five. There were back-ups who out performed these guys by miles this season. Neither is a starter at the NHL level, heck the AHL starter out performed them both this season!
On defense, MacT has swung and missed in a massive way. The team badly needed two top-four defenders when MacTavish arrived, but he’s only delivered one, Mark Fayne, who is a second-pairing option. It only evens things out, however, because MacT dealt away Jeff Petry, his best defender, this past season.
MacT gave big money deals to Andrew Ference and Nikita Nikitin, who both have been disappointments. Ference is nothing more than a third-pairing option, while Nikitin didn’t look like a player capable of playing in the NHL this year.
On top of that, MacTavish’s depth options all blew up in his face, as Denis Grebeshkov, Anton Belov, Philip Larsen and Mark Fraser all proved that they simply couldn’t play in this league. The holes on defense that MacTavish had to deal with when he arrived are still there, there has been zero improvement.
Up front, MacTavish has done some goods things, but still not enough. Both Boyd Gordon and Benoit Pouliot were clear wins from free agency, while Matt Hendricks and Rob Klinkhammer were solid adds via trades. Derek Roy was a good get, but MacTavish didn’t pull the trigger until the season was already dead, as he was too hellbent on force feeding Leon Draisaitl.
The Oilers still don’t have four full NHL lines, and that’s a fact. The forwards have gotten a little better under MacTavish, but the issues still remain. Edmonton isn’t close to good enough at the center position, and still lack six good wingers for their top-six unit. Sure, the Hall-RNH-Eberle trio is solid, but there is a lot of uncertainty after that.
Can Pouliot and Purcell replicate solid seasons? Is Nail Yakupov actually moving forward? Can Derek Roy be brought back and another center option be added? These are all legit questions that could go either way.
Lastly, the coaching debacle was stuff of nightmares. Todd Nelson isn’t a savior, but he’s clearly a cut above Dallas Eakins, who did more harm than anything in Edmonton. It was painfully obvious Eakins wasn’t the guy, something I was wrong on, but MacTavish wouldn’t budge until two seasons were completely wasted. That’s a huge problem.
On Sunday, the Toronto Maple Leafs fired a GM with two and a half full seasons under his belt, this because of “deep rooted problems” within the organization. The Oilers have those same problems, arguably worse actually, and yet they have been quiet since the end of the year.
The excuse for MacTavish is that he has not had enough time, but when you look at his two seasons at the helm, it’s clear the team isn’t getting better, it is getting worse. Sure, the players aren’t good enough, but this is the team MacT put together, not the players.
If the Oilers want to move this team forward and begin winning, a new philosophy is needed in Edmonton. Craig MacTavish has repeatedly failed at filling holes, and has helped bring Edmonton down to a completely new low. If the Maple Leafs can see this, I don’t understand how the Oilers can’t.
Stop preaching patience, you’ve lost that right after blowing five years of our time. If the Oilers want to turn this rig around, it’s time for meaningful change. Will the audit ran by Bob Nicholson give us that? I highly doubt it, but it’s quite clear it is completely necessary.
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