The Yakupov Trade:
As every fan in the NHL probably knows by now, The Edmonton Oilers traded former 1st overall pick Nail Yakupov to the St.Louis Blues yesterday for some Pinocchio guy and a conditional 3rd round pick. I was the last Oiler fan on the planet to hear of this, as I recently had my wisdom teeth removed and I happened to be sleeping when the trade went down, so I didn’t see the news until around midnight.
Like most Oiler fans, I had already come to terms with the fact that the Oilers were likely going to move Yakupov. It was my personal hope that they wouldn’t do so immediately, as his trade value was virtually nil. I was of the opinion that if the Oilers were set on trading Nail, the best course of action would be to play him through the season and put him in a position to succeed (on McDavid’s wing, for instance), and then move him at the trade deadline in the hopes that he could up his own value with a strong regular season performance.
Alas; it was not meant to be, and the Oilers decided to Oiler.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY0WxgSXdEE]
Fan Reaction
Looking over the reaction from Oilers fans on twitter, it seemed that many were disappointed to see Yakupov go, but didn’t seem too upset at the return. I can somewhat understand this point of view given Yakupov’s trade request, but I don’t necessarily agree with it. The other thing that became apparent is that many folks seem to think that Peter Chiarelli was simply cleaning up the mess of his predecessors. I take issue with these opinions for a number of reasons:
- While it’s true that Yakupov’s mismanagement was in no way the fault of Peter Chiarelli, Chiarelli is ultimately responsible for the return he gets on any asset as GM of the Oilers. If he was incapable of getting more for Yakupov over the summer, why not play him and move him at the deadline? There is of course the possibility that the Yakupov issue had become a locker room distraction, and Chiarelli’s hands were tied, but ultimately it’s up to the GM to get maximum return on his assets, and Zach Pochiro + a conditional 3rd round pick for Nail Yakupov is a substandard trade for the Oilers, no matter how you try to rationalize it.
- Mismanagement by the former brass does not excuse the organization as a whole. This boils down to asset management, and the Oilers have been comically horrible at it for years. You can blame whoever you want for the Yakupov situation (including Yakupov himself), but in the end this is an entire season flushed down the toilet for a conditional 3rd round pick and an ECHL player. That is inexcusable by NHL standards, yet for Oilers fans, it seems it’s just another day in paradise. Moves like this are why other teams (and their fans) consider the Oilers the laughingstock of the league. Taken with the return on the Hall trade, this is bush league asset management.
- While hindsight is always 20/20, the Oilers completely wasted a 1st overall pick that they easily could have parlayed into another player (either through the draft or by trading the pick itself). While this isn’t solely Peter Chiarelli’s fault, it’s the exact same sort of blunder the Oilers have grown notorious for. Draft good players, move them for weak returns. Over and over and over, ad nauseam, for decades. The excuse used to be that we were a small market team trying to make it in a pre-salary cap era. That excuse no longer holds any water, and hasn’t for well over a decade, yet the pattern remains the same.
- The other issue with the Yakupov trade is what it does to the Oilers right wing depth chart. It would seem (at least on the surface) that the Yakupov trade will either force the Oilers to play Puljujarvi in the NHL, or play Leon Draisaitl on the wing. It also significantly improves Versteeg’s chances of a contract with the Oilers without him having to actually earn it (although I do think he’s played well so far in the preseason).
As far as Yakupov’s time with the Oilers goes, I’ll refer readers to this excellent piece by Jim Roepcke, which you can read here (it really should be required reading for anyone weighing in on the Yakupov situation).
Goodbye Sweet Prince @Nail10_1993 pic.twitter.com/XG7C51Vxzk
— Oil In My Veins (@OilInMyVeins) October 8, 2016
It’s no secret I am a fan of Nail Yakupov, and in the end I wish him all the best in St.Louis. I hope he seizes this opportunity to revitalize his career (he’s certainly young enough to do so), and proves his most vociferous critics in the Edmonton media wrong. I understand to some extent why the return was so poor, but I refuse to excuse it, or to give the Oilers a pass on yet another blown asset.
What poor asset management like this does is devalue players as a whole. When an organization continually chooses to mismanage its players, it sends a message to the rest of the GMs in the league: You can fleece the Edmonton Oilers. It sets a precedent that all you have to do is play hardball and wait them out, and eventually they’ll cave to your demands, and you will make out like a bandit. That needs to stop, no matter who is wearing the suits.
I’m more than willing to give Chiarelli the accolades he is due for certain trades. At present, the Maroon deal appears to be a steal, but his track record with the Oilers is starting to worry me. I’m not on the “fire Chiarelli” bandwagon, but I feel confident in asserting that he will be under the microscope should the Oilers fail to make the postseason (which currently seems like the most likely outcome), and for good reason.
It’s unfortunate how the entire situation ended. While I’m critical of the way the Oilers handled Yakupov and his subsequent trade, I fully understand that it was time to move on for both parties. Yakupov himself is not innocent either, and he certainly shares some responsibility for how his time in Edmonton played out. Hopefully, the Oilers take a lesson from this as an organization and make a commitment not to repeat the mistakes of the past (again, and again, and again).
The counterargument is of course that Yakupov made his own bed, but that doesn’t absolve the Oilers of turning a 1st overall pick into a prospect that will likely never see an NHL game and a conditional 3rd. The Oilers could have traded Yakupov at almost any time over the previous 3 seasons and probably walked away with more. Is that Peter Chiarelli’s fault? No. Does that make the ultimate return acceptable? It certainly shouldn’t.
Well managed teams like the Blues trade for players like Yakupov for pennies on the dime. Poorly managed teams offer those trades.
In Other News
In other news, the Oilers basically traded Yakupov so they could sign Kris Russell and I’m mad about it. The Oilers already have a logjam of left handed defensemen that aren’t great options in the top 4, and I’m not sure what the point of adding another one is. Mostly, I’m just mad that my completely unrealistic hopes of landing Jacob Trouba from the Jets have been utterly dashed. RIP #TroubaWatch. We hardly knew ye.
As always, feel free to discuss in the comments or @ me on twitter here.
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