Quote:
Originally Posted by New Era
The problem is I believe Edmonton's rebuild began when they traded away Smyth, not three years later. This is when Edmonton threw in the towel for the first time and traded known players for promise. The fact they continued to try and compete is irrelevant. They were trying to win, selling it to the fans as a playoff contender, and they sucked their way into three first overall picks.
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That's when it should have happened, but not when it did. The Oilers were still looking at their run in 06 and thought they were close, choosing to ignore the red flags of that season (backing into the playoffs, MacT on the verge of being fired). Even after trading Smyth they were still making "now" moves (rebuilding teams don't get rid of first round picks). And though they traded Smyth they had just signed other guys to long and/or overpriced deals (Horcoff, Moreau, Pisani). They were still bringing guys like Visnovsky, Souray in while chasing other big fish.
Their first year of picking first wasn't even a rebuild either. Major injuries (Hemsky, Khabibulin, Souray and many more) took a bubble roster (at best) and pushed it down (the Oilers were a cap team that year, although with injuries they spent most of it with almost 25% of their salary out of the line up). That was probably the best thing for the Oilers as who knows how long Lowe would have kept trying with that roster instead of starting to dismantle it.
I think what the Flames have going for them is that they had better pieces to start the re-build (Iginla, Bouwmeester, etc.). The Oilers had nothing similar to trade for rebuilding assets. Whether Calgary used that effectively won't be known for a couple of years yet.