Oilers can’t rest on old methods while new team flounders
Philadelphia, PA (SportsNetwork.com) – The Edmonton Oilers’ dynasty of the 1980s was fueled by some of the greatest luck any NHL club has ever encountered.
In a four year span from their inclusion from the defunct World Hockey Association, the league’s northernmost franchise accomplished the following: inherited Wayne Gretzky, Dave Semenko, Dave Hunter and Dave Lumley; selected Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson, Kevin Lowe (1979), Andy Moog, Jari Kurri, Paul Coffey (1980), Grant Fuhr, Steve Smith (1981), Jaroslav Pouzar (1982), Esa Tikkanen and Jeff Beukeboom (1983) through the entry draft; acquired Willy Lindstrom, Pat Hughes, Ken Linseman and signed unheralded players like Don Jackson, Charlie Huddy and Randy Gregg.
The end result of those shrewd moves and the resulting future transactions from Larry Gordon and then GM/head coach Glen Sather was five Stanley Cups, six straight Smythe Division titles, six appearances in the league’s championship round and rewriting the NHL’s record books regarding offense.
Flash forward to 2014, where the Oilers have held top-10 picks in six consecutive drafts that have yielded the following crop of talent: Magnus Paajarvi, Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Nail Yakupov, Darnell Nurse and Leon Draisaitl.
The end result of those moves from general managers Steve Tambellini and Craig MacTavish along with former GM and now team president of hockey operations Lowe have been zero playoff berths, four last-place division finishes and a million itchy trigger fingers from northern Alberta and armchair wheelers and dealers across North America.
Heading into Wednesday’s home contest against Vancouver, the Oilers are just 6-10-2 — three points back of Arizona for last place in the Pacific — and carrying the third-lowest goal total in the Western Conference with 44. This, after winning only four of 21 games (4-15-2) at the outset of last season, and even non-natives are restless in attempts to figure out what the organization is after.
It’s a wonder that the perpetually-floundering Oilers haven’t taken a leap and bitten on a trade proposal that will ship at least one of their shining young talents elsewhere to ensure a better present. Then again, for a front office which has endured several different eras of promise and disappointment since the club reached the Campbell Conference finals for the eighth and final time in 1992, patience seems to be the ultimate virtue.
Current GM MacTavish, who ended up winning three Cups with the franchise after Sather took a chance on him in 1985 following a one-year stint in prison for vehicular homicide, has been accused by more than one compatriot of “overvaluing his talent.”
Add to that periodic missives from reclusive owner Darryl Katz, who wrote a much maligned letter to fans this past February. The thrust of the piece was contained in the following paragraph: “I can tell you that we are not going to sacrifice the future by doing something short-term. Those days are over and they’re not coming back. If we’re going to rebuild, we want to do it right and we only want to do it once.”
In the good old days of 21 teams, limited European and American talent pools with no Russian influence, and greater competition to snag NHL jobs, Sather could just sit back and watch the seeds grow and bloom with little interference. There was an overflow of talent which could not be denied, only harnessed.
MacTavish has apparently embraced a similar mindset. He’s only dealt away one of the above recently-drafted players, Paajarvi, to St. Louis for David Perron in July of 2013 but has otherwise elected to let the kids stay put while rearranging everything else on the roster.
Problem is, the other five haven’t come close to showing flashes of anything close to the guys whose numbers now hang from the rafters of Rexall Place. And yet, MacT still stands pat.
That inactivity has forced head coach Dallas Eakins to come up with the following chestnuts for the press: “We’ve shown that we can play with teams and outplay teams, now we need to turn the heat up and show we can get both points. We should be able to run side by side with most teams in this League. Good is not good enough. We have to be great.”
All apologies to Eakins, but his team is far from good. It isn’t even mediocre at six games below .500 with the season approaching the quarter pole. It isn’t his fault, though you’d expect he’ll be the one to take the fall when things don’t improve.
Katz continued: “I hear a lot from fans about accountability, so let’s be clear. We are all accountable. That includes me, Kevin, Craig, Dallas, every player who wears our jersey, and every member of our staff. I know Kevin is the target of a lot of personal attacks right now, and that’s really unfortunate.”
What’s unfortunate about Edmonton’s situation is the realization that hockey lifers who were champions as players aren’t guaranteed to transfer that success in hockey operations. But when you’re an organization constantly locked into nostalgia and banking on patience and development, the rest of the NHL is going to speed past like Coffey and Gretzky on the rush.
Categorized in: NHL