What the Gagner situation leaves me with (yet again) is the ongoing pattern of the Oilers taking young players and, instead of developing them properly and putting them into positions to succeed, they throw them to the wolves, hoping things will magically get better.
When things don't get better, fans and the organization slowly but inevitably turn on them, and thus their confidence continues to wain. Inevitably, they are run out of town as garbage.
The organization never realizes that it is the environment that is the problem, not the players. So it happens over and over again.
Oiler fans will justify this trade by saying that Gagner was garbage.
What they should be saying is that the Oilers' system of (non) development, and their propensity to rush kids, is the problem and is what needs to change.
And of course, this situation perfectly tees up the next example as Draisaitl steps into vortex.
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