The Oilers are in a hole they can't get out of. they need to play nearly .700 hockey to get to 96 points which seems to be a playoff barrier. I think they need to play .550 hockey to come close to matching their extrapolated points totals from last year. That figure is unlikely
So signing a one year guy who was an absolute disaster in Philly, who couldn't stop a wrist shot from the face off circle to save his life, who quit on his team, fell apart in the face of media pressure, and was pretty much hated in his dressing room and equivalent to Mike Vaderjandt the idiot kicker in Indy is a high risk low reward.
At this point the Oilers need to readjust their goals for this year. They're pretty much out of the playoff race. trading assets at shots in the dark so they can say to the fans that they're trying is idiotic, especially for a team with a putrid blue line, still putrid goaltending, a top 6 that looks like it doesn't give a crap behind their blueline and a bottom 6 that's subpar. On top of that they're in cap hell with a bad team, and trading Smid to grab Bryz doesn't address it.
Now on top of that their number 1 draft pick in Nail seems to be regressing rapidly and his manager is on the way to Edmonton to punch Mac-T in the sack and maybe demand a trade.
so lets summarize
Presidency - Kevin Lowe, utter disaster in setting the direction of the club, utter disaster on the public relations side of things. Pissed off season ticket owners, is the laughing stock of the league
Mac-T - Got completely fleeced, didn't address the teams greatest weakness in the off season. paid to much in my opinion for Boyd Gordon. Over paid and overtermed on Ferrence who is a great guy but he's 34 and isn't much more then a bottom pairing guy.
Scott Howson - Bought back even though he's regarded as a huge failure in Columbus, but he's friends with Katz and Lowe.
Dallas Eakins - A utter disaster as a coach. He doesn't know how to line match. His defensive system looks to be borderline ######ed, Nail looks utterly confused and is getting massively punished and looks to have given up. Even when he does something good, ie his goal in the last game, never see's the ice again.
The big 4 Hall, Eberle, RNH Yakupov. While they score pretty goals they are pretty much a disaster in every other aspect of the game. Hall has some nice skills but beyond his incredible string of sloppy hockey continually tried to junior up the NHL. Eberle has scored some nice goals but he's terrible without the puck as in RNH, Yakupov is well documented.
Hemsky and Gagner - Suppossed to be the next level of Oiler hockey, but neither have been good. Hemsky while he tries is regressing and no team seems all that interested in him. Gagner should have been traded over the summer, he puts up some nice numbers but he's not a great skater, he's small and he sucks defensively but the Oilers rewarded him with a big contract and a ntc.
David Perron has been good but not great, but he wasn't a bad move.
The rest of the forward group is just bad.
On the blueline. I would argue that Smid is a 5th defenseman in Eakins system, which is brutal and terrible. But if you look at that blueline. Justin Schultz is utterly brutal, he's MAB not coffey. He might put up numbers offensively but he destroy your team defensively. Petry is decent but I think he's heavily over rated and a 2nd pairing guy at best. Belov has done a decent job but he's limited. Ference looks old, Larson looks like garbage, Schultz is what he is, a bottom pairing guy.
In goal we've covered it, but its terrible.
For all of the high draft picks. The Oilers are talent shallow and badly designed and that is utterly the fault of the guy with the vision who keeps hiring and firing GM's. Mac-T did nothing to really address the weaknesses of the club and made them weaker on the blueline.
I would argue that even if Lowe and Mac-T and Howson and Eakns were shown the door that this Oilers club is probably 5 years from competing due to cap and due to a terrible organizational design.
I would expect that the Oilers are either going to continue to panic and move someone like Yak for little significant help now, or deal Eberle or RNH reducing skill in favor of grit and size.
For all of the gong show comments about the Flames. The Oilers are literally India in the path of a Hurricane. The whole flimsy building is going to come down soon.
I would be very surprised if the Oilers passed 20 wins this year with that lineup.
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