[browna]

Great post by Major Major.
To add on to each of the points:

10) Pronger had asked for a trade because Lowe told him all sorts of free agents were coming that offseason. He tried (Niedermeyer among others) but landed none besides Pronger. So there is Pronger lining up with Cory Cross come October. Pronger asked for a trade around Christmas.

This situation and the Comrie thing have been the biggest reason the Oilers repuatation has been in the players and agents toilet for the past decade and lead as a result to the other issues the team and organization has had...and has looked good on them.
Also that Stanley cup year, McTavish had to be renewed at a club option before the end of the regular season as coach. He wasn't, so he doubled or tripled his salary and got a long term contract.
Speaking of long term deals,whereas the Flames parted with main cog Conroy after 2004 when he became a UFA Lowe thought he was inches away and signed plugs like Pisani and Moreau and other slugs to 4-6 year overpaid contracts.
The Stanley Cup run got an already disillusioned Lowe even more onto he crazy train and more dangerously,made them a cap team.

9)Nylander and his wife didn't want to move there, likely got a call from the Prongers that Kevin Lowe and his sell job were a bag of magic beans.
Also recall the Oilers scribes and fans scanning the incoming flights as someone said that Jäger was arriving from Russia to play with the Oilers.

8)I think Lowe and Tambellini drove to Kelowna in the last hours of that situation to see Heatley and he wasn't home.

7)Darcy Regier caught wind and told Lowe a few days in advance not to bother going through the charade for the offer sheet on Vanek. Lowe ignored and did anyway to satisfy his ego and Buffalo matched within minutes.
Lowe many times said to and via the press the Oilers were open for business (our previous GM in his wisdom said they too in his last desperate attempt to keep a job here too) and got the sounds of crickets and tumble weeds.

6)Oiler buried Souray in the minors too. This was after an infection that resulted from the complications of Sourays injury had him in in the hospital longer. The Oilers thought he was faking and didn't even check up on him after a while. And then buried him in the minors the next year.

Brings up the Smidt hing which I've documented a few times, where he played with a neck growth and th Oilers doctors telling him to suck it up. Only when he started dropping his stick randomly as no sensation in his arm did he finally stop playing, at his own discretion, not the Oilers.

And, he Oilers trying to do a trade about 3 times a few years ago with the Kings, the players (Purcell and others) each failing physicals with the Kings.

5) Katz did what he said he was going to do when he bought the team, as far as it needing a new arena and help in getting a new arena or else...but the fans and press up there ignored that message and just saw the money bags he was bringing. When he came to call in his promise on a new arena, they thought help in building the arena was an outrage. The fans and press were as enabling to the junk that went on up there for all these situations, having their head stuck in 1985, which made it worse. Mind you,Katz and his candlelight dinner sweet talk to McDavid on national TV was ultra creepy, and why would any network agree to show it is just as weird.

4)The MacTavish face that has made its rounds was just perfect. Lowe always made sure he had layers between him and blame and MacT being a GM means that he wouldn't have a pesky competent GM with their own ideas to get in his way of NHL domination. Felt bad for MacT from what I've heard from buddies who had met him years ago, is a good guy but had Lowe's claws attached to him and did Lowes dirty work as far as being an unconvincing mouthpiece.
And remember when he was the bench chaperone for the interim coach for 6 games after they fired Eakins?

3)The water bottle thing, and firing Krueger in Europe,while working for the Oilers scouting, via Skype because Lowe caught wind from those in the media the Eakins was a popular choice that other teams wanted (as asssitant) so Lowe thought that landed the so called prized fish would look good and feed Lowes ego some more.

In general, so many moves Lowe made were for attention,hubris, his ego, and to be thought of as some sort of maverick and innovator, all in the same way he thought that Sather was regarded back in the 80s. He never even got close to that, just looking foolish,petty,incompetent,and a snake oil salesman.

2) His unhappiness with Comrie started from the second contract. He figured Comrie should actually take less then his entry level contract, claiming the Oilers signed him and got him into the league at the end of whatever season,was goodwill on the Oilers part and the player should pay that back by taking less, and knowing Owe, probably pressured Bill Comrie to have his son take a home town discount like a crappy couch goes on sale at the Brick. Clearly that went over like a lead balloon and started the bad blood. Comrie got a proper second contract but had a lot of bonuses to try and make up for the less money the Oilers were giving as guaranteed. The Oilers as a team sucked but Comrie hit all those bonuses triggers to the disgust of Lowe, and then that offseason is where the trade talk happened and occurred.

Lowe,as mentioned,thought he was being the white knight,standing up to players on behalf of all other GMs ...but other gms thought he was out to lunch and players and agents didn't want to go to Edmonton if this is how they are going to treat decent player. A teend that more or less lasted up until last year,at best...so 15 seasons.

1) Bang on from Major Major.

Other things not mentioned.

-The two headed coach thing with Quinn and Renney. Again,Lowe boasting that it's never been done but he did it and pats himself on the back.
Quinn was done after a year and Renney was miserable and (surprise) left on bad terms as soon as he could.
-The desperate lengths Lowe went to for Justin Schultz, Lowe pleading with Gretzky and Coffey to call him up.
-Khabibhulin had well documented back issues and couldn't get a contract with anyone, until Lowe drives a dump truck of money and long term deal,probably as he was known as a Flames killer up to that point.
-Players that left as soon as they could after signing and realizing how bad it was, not heeding the Souray and Pronger warnings, such as Erik Cole and Eric Perron.
-Lowe caught on camera still grinning that the Flames got picked out in the Crosby lottery,but the Oilers were right behind. Again,ego.
-Ruining promising junior talent due to the politics, backstabbing and betrayal behind the scenes a Lowe tried to have his hand in everything, enabled by Patrick Laforge as president. It was too late for Hall,Yakuopov,and really for Eberle and RNH, only Draisital and McDavid escaped out of that cesspool in time.

Nicholson was a Lowe hire and has fallen ass backwards into getting even bits of credit for the current success,as his being a figurehead with Hockey Canada had no way in preparing him to run a day to day NHL franchise that was in the toilet.
McLellan a good hire but again without winning the lottery and getting McDavid, you can see the results last year.