Oilers call press conference for Friday 9am

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Cleveland Steam Whistle

Retro-actively evaluating a trade is never the right thing to do when talking about a players who's value or play declined since the trade. It's ok to say, hey GM X actually must have seen the potential in player Y he got in that trade making it look better today.

But when you are looking back on a trade and saying it's not as bad because Player X ended up not being as good as we thought, that means nothing because the deal at the time should have been reflected the players perceived value at that time. The Flames got fleeced because Phaneuf should have had a high perceived value, and the Flames failed to maximise it.

I'm going to agree and disagree with you. There is always going to be some manner of revisionist history when analyzing trades because things happen in the mean time.

I mean, what happens if tomorrow Dion is walking around Toronto and steps in front of a bus but the driver sees him and hits the brakes and as a result the bus just barely taps him but the whole thing gives Dion this moment of epiphany and from that moment forward he becomes the greatest NHL defenceman of all time?

"I cant believe hes only getting paid $7M a year until the end of time!! What a steal!! I cant believe the Flames traded him!!"

It goes back to my previous comment about balls. Sometimes you just have to roll the dice, do your best and let come what may.

As of today the Phaneuf trade is working out swimmingly. Could it have been better? Maybe. Could it have been worse? Probably. But it is what it is at the moment.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan

Well, to be fair, he did inherit a big mess. He's also not helping matters during the past year, either. MacT did say 3 things I agree with:

- their drafting and development has been abysmal

- firing Eakins right now doesn't accomplish anything (he didn't clue in the core players are the problem, but whatever)

- he won't trade draft picks.

Other than that, he sounded like a crazy man.

If he thinks the drafting and development are awful, shouldn't be be held accountable? He made no changes and declared it "the best in the world" earlier in the year....

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

If he thinks the drafting and development are awful, shouldn't be be held accountable? He made no changes and declared it "the best in the world" earlier in the year....

This truth is inconvenient and as such, will be ignored.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

If he thinks the drafting and development are awful, shouldn't be be held accountable? He made no changes and declared it "the best in the world" earlier in the year....

Yeah, no kidding. That press conference was just the ramblings of a lunatic.

[sureLoss]

Spector's reaction to the press conference:

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/o...a-new-outlook/

t was with a raised voice and perfect clarity that MacTavish distanced himself from the current Oilers management team, new President Bob Nicholson excluded, which leaves him right in step with whatever fans this team has left. They don’t want any part of these guys either. That admission — basically ‘Hey, don’t lump me in with that lot,” — tells you all you need to know about this organization.

MacTavish doesn’t have Lowe’s back, or Howson’s. Nicholson, we suspect, is not fully behind his GM or his coach at this point, though that is speculation on my part. On the ice, as we saw last month, an opposing player can drill Edmonton’s 19-year-old centre from behind as hard as he likes without a single Oiler coming to Leon Draisaitl’s defence.

We are in “Every Man For Himself” territory now in Edmonton. Next stop, Pink Slip City.

MacTavish did admit an amateur scouting staff that, since 2005, has produced but one decent player (Jeff Petry) who is not a first round pick is a big problem.

“It undermines the performance of everything we do, on and off the ice,” MacTavish said. “You’re right: There were two players in our lineup the other night in Winnipeg that we drafted outside the first round. We are acutely aware of our former inadequacies of our drafting.”

“Former inadequacies.” Don’t worry folks, we are aware of how bad it is here in Oil Country, but it’s going to get better. That, once again, was the theme of what has become the annual State of the Union address by a beleaguered MacTavish, who truly had nothing to gain by holding Friday’s 9 a.m. availability, and undoubtedly fell further into arrears with the fan base by doing it anyhow.

Or this: “The Winnipeg game (a 3-2 OT loss) was a real positive for us. We did a lot of things right. We played a smarter, more mature game than we do normally. We’re in the game, ready to win the game. Nashville (1-0 loss in OT) was the same thing. We managed the puck better. We went to the hard areas of the ice better. We finished our checks…”

Imagine, for a moment, Darryl Sutter at that same podium, his team on an 11-game losing streak, applauding his players for finishing a few checks. What would Darryl have said, in this situation, I found myself wondering.

This is exactly why a front office clean-out is required in Edmonton. Because with new bosses would arrive a new level of expectation.

Worse yet, the new GM keeps bringing in players like Anton Belov, Nikita Nikitin, Teddy Purcell, Denis Grebeshkov, Jesse Joensuu, Justin Schultz… None of whom make this team any more difficult to defeat, all of whom perpetuate the same, tissue-soft game that anchors this franchise to the bottom of the standings.

“We’re behind in our time line,” MacTavish admitted on Friday. “We understand the frustration of our fans. But the plan does not change for us.”

Had the carefully orchestrated queue for questions allowed it, we’d have asked one more thing of MacTavish:

“Can you explain Calgary…?”

[Flames Fan, Ph.D.]

Originally Posted by Locke

Yeah, no kidding. That press conference was just the ramblings of a lunatic.

That may be the most bewildering part of today's theatre.

This was one of the worst public presentations I've ever seen. MacT makes undergrad presenters I've had look like Bill Clinton on the podium.

It's unbelievable to me that he did not rehearse or put together a reasonable outline of points to present. He started by basically saying the press conference was going to suck! Are you kidding me? It was embarrassing from a professional standpoint, regardless of the lack of answers from a hockey standpoint. For the love of god, throw in a "no comment" or something in there instead of taking every question as an opportunity to ramble and blame someone else.

At this point, this horror show is on Katz. He's the owner and babbling MacT just became the public face of his multi-million dollar asset. Katz can't be that dumb a businessman not to be scared to death right now.

[Daradon]

It's truly the new Ballard organization. We've joked about it for about 2 years now, but it's a very fair comparison now.

[monkeyman]

Originally Posted by albertGQ

Was there any mention as to why Lowe wasn't there?

Did he make Mac T face the music on his own?

It was pretty low(no pun intended) to make him go in there alone. Goes again to the character make up of the team.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by bigtmac19

Hopefully Edmonton doesn't win the draw for first pick. I can't imagine how McDavid would feel, being that talented and close to your dream, and having to worry about ending up in that black hole. It's awful.

I am surprised the NHLPA isn't screaming about this. How is a rookie going to develop in a bottom team? How many players is Edmonton going to be allowed to screw over? Maybe the crappy teams should only get proven, veteran players while only top teams can draft.

The Edmonton presser reminded me of the Santa Claus thread, where all of this non-committal language is used to answer the "is Santa real?" question. "is Santa real? Yes or no. Not 'he is really an abstract embodiment of love and generosity, yadda yadda'".

In this case, the question McTavish needs to answer is, did Edmonton's purposeful tanking for the last few years utterly and completely destroy their team beyond repair?

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Flames Fan, Ph.D.

At this point, this horrorshow is on Katz.

You do know, don’t you, that ‘horrorshow’ does not come from horror + show, but from the Russian word for good?

Эдмонтон не хорошо! (‘Edmonton nyeh horrorshow!’)

Now you know how to warn ‘Vladdy Hockey’ in case the Oilers make another play for him.

[Dagger]

Does a McDavid or Eichel even want to play in Edmonton? What's to stop either from pulling a Lindros?

[bigtmac19]

Originally Posted by Dagger

Does a McDavid or Eichel even want to play in Edmonton? What's to stop either from pulling a Lindros?

No player in their right mind would want that. I wouldn't blame them for refusing to go

[landshark]

You guys are having altogether too much fun this year. I'm so jealous!!

(sharks fan)

[edit] hoping Tyler Dellow gets fired before the end of the year and writes the best kiss and tell book of all time.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Dagger

Does a McDavid or Eichel even want to play in Edmonton? What's to stop either from pulling a Lindros?

If the Oilers were to be obstinate and try to hold them for the full two years before making a deal, it would cost them two years of unrestricted free agency and probably $10+ million.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

If he thinks the drafting and development are awful, shouldn't be be held accountable? He made no changes and declared it "the best in the world" earlier in the year....

I never heard that. If true, yikes.

He definitely should be held accountable for pretty much everything, doesn't matter how many times he said 18 months or 20 months today. He's been around long enough to bring in such stars like Nikitin, Purcell, Pouliot, Fasth, etc. He decided to start a teenager this season as his #2 center. He's the one that kept saying today how tough it is to make trades, almost at the exact time a Penguins/Coyotes trade was announced.

The guy is clueless, he's the wrong guy for the job. You don't start off your 1st day on the job saying how impatient you are and how you need to make bold moves, then 20 months later tell fans they need to be patient.

I'm just saying he inherited a mess. He's also not doing much about it, he might be making it worse.

[GioforPM]

I bet MacT left that conference and said "that went pretty well I think". That's how wrongheaded they are.

I didn't expect them to admit it's a disaster. Or that they are in the wrong direction. But at a minimum I figured they'd throw a couple things out there that they were trying to address - defence depth, team defensive systems, etc. just as a sop the the masses.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by KootenayFlamesFan

I never heard that. If true, yikes.

He definitely should be held accountable for pretty much everything, doesn't matter how many times he said 18 months or 20 months today. He's been around long enough to bring in such stars like Nikitin, Purcell, Pouliot, Fasth, etc. He decided to start a teenager this season as his #2 center. He's the one that kept saying today how tough it is to make trades, almost at the exact time a Penguins/Coyotes trade was announced.

The guy is clueless, he's the wrong guy for the job. You don't start off your 1st day on the job saying how impatient you are and how you need to make bold moves, then 20 months later tell fans they need to be patient.

I'm just saying he inherited a mess. He's also not doing much about it, he might be making it worse.

https://twitter.com/dantencer/status...007391744?s=09

"@dantencer: MacTavish says the player development department and processes within the organization are "the best in the game"

April 15th, 2014

[Cleveland Steam Whistle]

Originally Posted by Locke

I'm going to agree and disagree with you. There is always going to be some manner of revisionist history when analyzing trades because things happen in the mean time.

I mean, what happens if tomorrow Dion is walking around Toronto and steps in front of a bus but the driver sees him and hits the brakes and as a result the bus just barely taps him but the whole thing gives Dion this moment of epiphany and from that moment forward he becomes the greatest NHL defenceman of all time?

"I cant believe hes only getting paid $7M a year until the end of time!! What a steal!! I cant believe the Flames traded him!!"

It goes back to my previous comment about balls. Sometimes you just have to roll the dice, do your best and let come what may.

As of today the Phaneuf trade is working out swimmingly. Could it have been better? Maybe. Could it have been worse? Probably. But it is what it is at the moment.

Having the balls to make a deal is a fair point, no issue there. But using revisionist history to justify not maximizing an asset has nothing to do with that. Phaneuf should have still been a desirable asset back then, and Sutter (who I'm a fan of in general) really screwed the pooch when dealing him. The fact that Phaneuf went on to not be that great in TO, doesn't justify the fact that Sutter got magic beans for an asset that was perceived to be a Captain and Franchise player by the team that traded for him.

The logic you are applying would suggest that if 8 years ago I sold Blackberry stock (or RIM stock) for 1/10th of their value back then, that would be ok because now today, turns out Blackberry sucks and has dropped in value? It's still a terrible deal by me, because I should have gotten more money for it, money that I would have and could be using today. Same for the Flames, sure, turns out the Leafs didn't help themselves as much as they should have, but still doesn't change the fact that the Flames don't have the assets now on the books that could be helping this team out that they should have had secured when dealing Phaneuf.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

I bet MacT left that conference and said "that went pretty well I think". That's how wrongheaded they are.

Dunning and Kruger would be so proud.

[Jacks]

Originally Posted by Wormius

I am surprised the NHLPA isn't screaming about this. How is a rookie going to develop in a bottom team? How many players is Edmonton going to be allowed to screw over? Maybe the crappy teams should only get proven, veteran players while only top teams can draft.

Edmonton is spending to the cap and inflating salaries for mediocre players, that's probably all the NHLPA cares about.