Originally Posted by drewtastic
A couple thoughts have been bouncing around in my head, and your comments (particularly the above bolded part) helped me formulate them better...
First, though, I should mention that, while perusing this thread, I decided to try and research the overall 'rebuild' from its inception (analysts vary on their accepted start-date, but generally accept that at least some form of 'retooling' has been happening since 2006-2007). Being reminded of both the Nylander and Heatley debacles, I had to stop--it was just so overwhelmingly ridiculous. And that only took me to 2009! Revisiting the Oilers' ongoing circus is fun, yes, but also awkwardly painful; the same schadenfreude-like feeling I get when I watch the David Brent character in The Office...but I digress...
With respect to your bolded comments above, I think the more damaging decision during this whole process has been to continually rush their top prospects into the NHL. This is even more damning when you consider that they haven't eased them in to a roster structured with vets in key positions (much like Cali said in his Game Day overview post about the NYIs).
The Oilers have taken young, inexperienced--but legitimate--NHL prospects and not only asked them to learn the NHL game without a meaningful veteran presence, but have also shoved them into leadership roles and expected them to carry the weight of that as well.
The key difference between the Flames and Oilers to me is that the Flames have done a better job making use of their AHL affiliate over the past few years. Instead of letting some of the young guys develop together in the minors, where they could learn the game, learn to play with each other, and maybe have some success from which they could develop a "winning culture", the Oilers kept each of their top prospects in the NHL (even Draisaitl!) and forced them to stumble their ways into becoming NHL players. Conversely, the Flames have sent players like Byron, Bouma, Granlund, Reinhart, Ferland and even Brodie, Backlund and Baertschi back and forth, in order to have them get their NHL work ethics and overall games in order.
One might argue that the Flames have had a better ability to do this with their young guys because they had a better veteran structure at both the NHL and AHL levels. In response to this, I'd say that's also Oiler management's fault. But more importantly, since they've been losing anyway, why not have had the young guys play in the AHL, bringing them in more gradually, while icing a scrub NHL roster meant to bide time for the infusion of youth? Instead of doing this, they've iced a team that not only loses, but hurts their young players' development. And because their prospects have only lost, they've learned only losing. And because they have been forced to be the leaders on the team, they have no professional experience of winning from which to draw to guide their teammates. And because they're the leaders, it's almost impossible at this point for coaches to reprimand or bench them, because they're pretty much all the Oilers have. This is the foundation of the team and is why they keep losing.
To address today's trade, Perron was a guy who was supposed to fill one of those Hudler-like skilled veteran roles when he was acquired. The team continues to suck, and now he's traded. And like you said, it would be silly for a GM in MacT's situation to not begin the "next year" process. But I think that the frustration expressed here is that this seems to be the only strategy the Oilers know. It goes like this: rush young players into the league, don't help them learn, don't hold them accountable, act shocked when things don't go well, pretend to not be giving up on the season, give up on the season, trade away serviceable players for draft picks, rely on high first round drafting, repeat.
I think it's a legitimate question for posters here and NHL fans in general to ask what level of mismanagement is required before the NHL steps in and at least addresses the continual rewards such mismanagement seems to accrue.
Ultimately, I don't think anything changes until one or more of Hall, Eberle or Yakupov are traded (I think N-H is the only true "untouchable" at this point). The necessary "culture change" will only occur when this happens. And the Oilers have only themselves to blame for ruining prospects that should be helping the team compete for a playoff spot by now.
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