Letter from Daryl Katz to Oilers Fans

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

An excellent response to the Katz letter posted at SBNation

He pretty well picked that letter apart for what it was. An owner telling his fans to keep buying tickets because nothing is going to change as long as the fans continue to support the team financially.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by playmaker

Not that I don't agree with you but ...
You wouldn't believe there is a team with the following history of 1st round picks:

<snip>

Please explain to me how that is even the slightest bit relevant to the Edmonton Oilers draft history.

[dirk diggler]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Please explain to me how that is even the slightest bit relevant to the Edmonton Oilers draft history.

Exactly, nobody here is going to say the Flames are a great drafting team, but this is an Oiler mocking thread....

[Timbo]

We've been saying "suck it" to Oiler fans forever, now even their owner is saying it to them!

I almost feel bad for Oilers fans...nevermind that feeling passed. I'm going back to the Edmonton is no good thread.

[The Swedish Flame]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

An excellent response to the Katz letter posted at SBNation

Love it.

Why even write this? You're not done? What does that even mean? You're the man in charge of the 29th team in a 30 team league and the worst team in the league for 8 years. Did you start yet?

Yes, it's unfortunate that Kevin is the target of personal attacks, but "...I know a little about winning," made the entire thing personal. If he didn't want his person questioned, he should have kept quiet on his expertise in winning while lording over a franchise with a .390 winning percentage since 2006-07. It would have been hard for anyone to question his person had he admitted he was out of his element and graciously stepped aside.

[CaptainCrunch]

Wow looking at that Oilers draft record is sobering. Its like that scene in Starship troopers where Rico is trying to read Carl's mind in card matching and couldn't get one and Carl finally throws up his cards and basically says.

Even Statistically you should have made a correct guess by now.

Even if you look at the blue line hopes Klefbom is really strggling this Marincin is probably going to be a decent bottom 3rd guy, Musil is nothing great. Nurse I think is a wildcard, I think he's going to be a top 4 guy, I'm not sure if he has the hockey IQ to be that top pairing guy that they really need. Their goaltending prospect is actually atrocious and Broissent has done well at the ECHL level but struggled when he's played AHL hockey.

Up front outside of MO Roy their cupboard is really empty.

This is a franchise that and I hate to use it the hockey news has ranked as the 20th best prospect depth. You can argue that their best prospects are in the NHL, but basically that means that they have since 2006 60 draft picks including 10 first rounders which featured 5 picks in the 10 ten three of which for firsts. And out of that they have Petry, Gagner, Hall, Hopkins, Eberle and Nail to show for it.

Is anyone else seeing the need for another rebuild that starts with gutting their scouting staff?

They are to the end of their rebuild (cap team) they have one guy that I would class as a franchise guy, they have three forwards that I would class as top 6 (Nail, Eberle and Hopkins) that I would define as good offensively but not guys I would trust if I was holding a league. They've got a guy in Gagner that is a second line guy on a bad team but a third line guy on any other team. And their propect cupboard is pretty much devoid of the help they need.

Anyone that placated by Katz letter is fooling themselves.

Lowe as president sets the direction and culture of that team, Mac-T as GM executes that vision. They're following Lowe's vision when he was a GM of soft one way forwards.

this is Lowe's team, its his bathwater and sadly the Oilers fanbase is going to have to soak in it because frankly if you read that letter, the Old boys club is not going to go away, and Lowe is never ever going to be removed from a position of influence with that management team.

The Oilers will end up being forced to move one of those big players and its probably going to be for futures because I wouldn't trade a number one defensemen for any of them. The Oilers will smoothly move into rebuild 3.0 which is to try to fix rebuild 2.0 which is to try to fix rebuild 1.0.

The new building will open and Oil fans will flock too it and there will be no need for Katz to evaluate or change anything.

I mean yeah it sucks to be a Flames fan right now, we have our own problems, but at least we do have a president with a sense of accountability.

and Truculance

[CaptainCrunch]

That whole response to the letter was really well done, but does anyone think that Katz cares what fans are saying, or that they're handing out stickers or talking about Facebook sites.

No, he cares about his provincial funding for his rink and the real estate opportunities outside of it.

Katz isn't stupid, he didn't buy this team out of the goodness of his heart, he bought a team at a discount that he could leverage into more money. I would expect that the Oilers will embark on another rebuild, that Katz will demand a decrease in the dollars spent on payroll because of it and will be perfectly content to wait for his new building.

The fact is if you watch Edmonton home games there are a lot of empty seats, a friend who goes to games describes it as a few thousand. But those seats are paid for. Even if next year the renewals start dropping off the Oilers will do another hope and special marketing plan and farm their waiting list and everyone will show up for games 1-20 and fill the seats and buy the beer and the jersey's because they get sucked in each and everytime.

All he has to do is limp through to the new rink because he knows that no fan can resist a new rink and it will fill up no matter how bad things are on the ice.

On top of that because he's such a big fan of former 80's glory Oilers he will continue to be a employment firm for them until the day that he decides to sell the team for a steep profit, which could happen with the new building, however he will maintain the ownership of the building and soak any new owner as a tenant.

Oiler fans need to start realizing that Katz isn't their friend. He's not the saving grace for their franchise, he's going to suck the city of Edmonton for every dime no matter what the cost is and continue to rack up the profits after words.

And Lowe will continue to receive a paycheck with the ability to gas a canary like Mac-T once every couple of years to deflect attention from him.

This insanity is so logical

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

An excellent response to the Katz letter posted at SBNation

That was excellent. I especially like the fact that he called them out on their blatant lies about '4th year into the rebuild' BS.

This is the 3rd rebuild and they're now a cap team and they're worse now than when they started. Bang on.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Locke

That was excellent. I especially like the fact that he called them out on their blatant lies about '4th year into the rebuild' BS.

This is the 3rd rebuild and they're now a cap team and they're worse now than when they started. Bang on.

This was probably my favourite part:

Originally Posted by SBNation

That's not a vision. You didn't write anything meaningful anywhere in this letter. This letter says "we've done stuff, we're ignoring how bad we've been, we're committed to the long term, which I'm not going to specify, but long-term is more than four years and we will compete." Nothing here defines any sort of vision...

More hand-waving. Wait? How long? What pieces? Why should the fans trust the management team in their third rebuild to fix it before 4th general manager, 6th coach and 4th rebuild?

Is there a plan? What is it, even in generalities? Or is it more hope? Draft Ekblad, keep Nurse on the big club next season, overpay Halak, and Iginla or Moulson and continue operations as normal, flailing around like a Timbits goalie?

Nothing the Oilers have done this season, and nothing in this letter suggests otherwise.

[CaptainYooh]

Man, oh, man... I read all this stuff about troubles in the Oilers' land with a grin on my face, because misery loves company and they are worse than Flames, at least for now. The dark thought in the back of my head is: are we gonna have to read a similar letter in two–three years from now? As much as we ridicule Katz and Lowe for lack of any credible plan, do we have one? I can't say we do...

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by CaptainYooh

Man, oh, man... I read all this stuff about troubles in the Oilers' land with a grin on my face, because misery loves company and they are worse than Flames, at least for now. The dark thought in the back of my head is: are we gonna have to read a similar letter in two–three years from now? As much as we ridicule Katz and Lowe for lack of any credible plan, do we have one? I can't say we do...

What the hell?!

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

Response letter

That was outstanding, thanks Textcritic!

Really well done, and absolutely spot-on. Hard not to feel bad for the Oiler fans that actually get it.

(and yet, I still don't! )

[Split98]

Originally Posted by Red Slinger

^ Sorry, but Gaudreau is a NHL player now?

The Oilers have sucked for a long time, they suck really badly now and will probably continue to suck for the foreseable future. But I don't think the Flames drafting is any measure for comparison.

Lol, I thought I'd throw him in there pre-maturely. Pretty fair though that with his size, he could amount to nothing at the NHL level.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Here's a letter that Lowe gave to season ticket holders in 2007. Pure comedy looking back at it

Hi, this is Kevin Lowe.

After a very eventful week around the hockey club, I wanted to take a moment and communicate to you, our most valued customers, our continued commitment to success.

As I stated last week, our hockey club will always do what we feel is in the best interest of our fans, and in the best interest of building a Stanley Cup championship team here in Oil Country.

Right now, we have a core group of veteran players and a wealth of emerging young talent. Last week’s trade brought us two more young players in Robert Nilsson and Ryan O’Marra, and another first round draft choice in this year’s NHL draft. They will join players like Pouliot, Jacques, Stortini, Brodziak, and Schremp, just to name a few, as potential members of a championship Oilers club. Certainly, along the way, we will add to our roster through trades and free agency when the right opportunities are there, now that we have the resources to do so. Make no mistake; our plan is to return the Stanley Cup to Edmonton.

We have an exciting future ahead of us all, and we look forward to sharing it with you.

Thanks again for your ongoing support of Oilers Hockey.

http://hfboards.hockeysfuture.com/sh...d.php?t=354867

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by CaptainYooh

Man, oh, man... I read all this stuff about troubles in the Oilers' land with a grin on my face, because misery loves company and they are worse than Flames, at least for now. The dark thought in the back of my head is: are we gonna have to read a similar letter in two–three years from now? As much as we ridicule Katz and Lowe for lack of any credible plan, do we have one? I can't say we do...

As long as they have that management team they will always be worse than the Flames. People have been trotting out that line about the Oilers for a long time now. Just you watch, sure their bad now, but just give Hall and Eberle a few years. Wait till the pieces have been put in place. That's what makes it so funny. It has been a few years! And they're worse than ever! They are actually in the running for having their worst season ever point wise. Even worse than the two previous 30th place finishes. Hall and Eberle are already in their second contracts. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins will be next year That's what makes it so funny! They're still worse than us. They're still horrible. And yet people still parrot that phrase. They've had one year they were better than us, last year, and just barely. That was well into their rebuild in a year we got rid of all our stars. This year we are bare bones and we're better than them again. They've got three players they think are worth 6 mill plus the top pick from 2 years ago!

Lighten up and have some fun. There's a lot of things going on up there that aren't just part of a natural teams cycle. There's a level of incompetence and arrogance that you just don't see even with teams on the downswing. There's 100 reasons why their story isn't our story. That's not to say we're going to be awesome in a few years, I'm fully aware we are in for some pain. But the Oil? Wow. They are redefining the word suck. Management isn't just unaware of how to fix the team, but they are unaware there is a problem and are unaware they are causing it. At least in Calgary people lose their jobs over bad performance. Up there? They get promoted!

We've just started our first year in the rebuild. They are in year four by the organizations own admission, year five by most Edmonton fans admission, and year six by most other hockey observers. They have had consecutive finishes of 30, 30, 29, 24, and are looking at locking down another 30th place finish in five short years. On a year where they were supposed to compete for a playoff spot, if not make it to the second round or better. They've surpassed our shame filled 7 year streak without playoffs that we used to get mocked about and are looking like they may pass the league record of 10! Their #1 picks seem to either have been ruined by their development and coaching system, or completely fed up with it and tuning it out. And, through all of it, they are getting close to the cap, and still have nothing to show for it. Even though we are bad, and have some tough years ahead of us, there is no reason why we should be that bad.

As for not having a plan, well like I said, it's year one of a rebuild. There isn't going to be much of a plan, and isn't going to be much going on. But there has been accountability, and outside their #1 picks, which really shouldn't be called prospects except for maybe Yak, our prospect pool looks as good as theirs if not better.

There are many signs that their story will not be ours. Like I said, this doesn't mean I'm expecting what they were, a Chicago type turn around here in Cowtown. Heck, I'm not expecting very much. I'd like to get to the playoffs before our streak hits eight, which isn't that far away, cause we wasted those few years before the rebuild. But I do know we won't be nearly as bad as they have been, and I'm getting close to thinking we might make the playoffs before they do, even though they are many years ahead of us in rebuilding.

Cause they ain't going anywhere.