On the Fan this afternoon Elliott Friedman mentioned again about the Oilers and how everyone in the organization is on edge, no one feels safe, and the only one who wouldn't be punted might be Gretzky.
He's mentioned this a few times in the past, so there is probably something to it.
1. We've heard that before, and they do some house cleaning that they sell as whole scale changes, but still, they refuse to gut the management and purge the rotting nepotism and groupthink at its root.
2. If they actually did this and left Gretz in charge in any capacity really... that would be great.
I remember when he was coaching the Coyotes and I heard him say that he always believed going offside was a selfish play. That has always stuck with me and proves how out of touch he is with respect to coaching, development, and player evaluation.
Yeah I guess going offside is selfish when you have elite hockey sense, are thinking 3 plays ahead, and YOU want to be the one to score... however not everyone is like that.
3. Even if they were to initiate an organizational enema, the earliest they can fire their scouts is after the 2019 draft (but they are that stupid to restart a scouting staff in January when anyone competent is already employed).
This essentially means the earliest they can have a scouting staff WITHOUT the 80's OilBoys stank on it is 2020, meaning that it is probably 2-3 years down the line before they have meaningful contributions from players that were drafted... IF they were to actually make stellar picks and develop them properly.
There are a lot of connections here that have to go right for these clowns. The draft is a crapshoot even if you don't select your scouts offspring or local kids.
The owner and the fans have no patience for any of that.
Hopefully, neither does McDavid and after 4 years of having his doors blown off and putting the team on his back to a 17th place finish... he finally asks for a trade.
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