The Edmonton Oilers???? Crash and burn??

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kingshockey

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Well the game against the kings last night was.....well......wow. Ya know I kinda always like rooting for the underdogs but when they play against my favorite team I like them to lose but at least put up a good fight.

Im sure this subject has been talked about plenty of times, but what is going on with the Oilers? I mean, what 3 years of top draft picks? 2 years?
I thought when they got scrivens they had a solid goaltender that could really give them a chance. Is it just really bad coaching system? are they not helping the young players reach their potential? If you look on paper without stats you would think they have a semi decent team, as far as scoring power is concerned.

I think I heard on tv they are going on like 9 seasons without making the playoffs.....

anyone have any ideas on where this team needs to start? Im sure getting some more experienced players and leaders would be a great start...
 
3 top picks does not a team make.

Scrivens is serviceable, but not anything near a REALLY good # 1, I prefer Fasth. And the defense? Ha. Darnell Nurse will help but he isn't God on skates.

Here we go, I'll say it, Yakupov is awful, utterly terrible for all the hype. I don't care what anyone says, that guy, for being the first overall pick, is a relative B U S T.

RNH is definitely highly skilled and solid, as is Eberle, and Taylor Hall is the franchise IMO.

They need more D, a better goalie as a starter, and more depth on the bottom two lines.
 
nice perspective. I was really rooting for yak to do well but I agree, maybe if he was on a better team maybe, with some veterans to guide him. I thought scrivens was a good bet seeing how he was pretty good with the kings, but, he hasn't looked good at all. maybe a good back up goalie. I agree with eberle/RNH/hall.

just last night, I swear I felt sorry for them. I really did. even their goalie bunz. what a bad bad time to get thrown into a game.....against a very hungry kings team.
 
Not sure what the Oilers are doing in this rebuild. Draft similar style and position players and don't build around them. Their #1 goalie couldn't make it on the other 2 NHL teams and this is who they use in a rebuild, yikes. Even though Eakins had some success with young players in the AHL he was in over his head in the NHL. An experienced coach, some good vets to help the young talent and some solid goaltending and this team could have been a success. IMO the management should be all replaced. They still have the young talent but they are burning through their restricted contracts and wasting the chance for a winner.
 
What Are you guys talking about....Yakupov has been playing very well under the new interim coach.
Based on the previous coaching staff, one can't really call a player a bust when he was only given 5 mins a night in ice time playing on the second line...Give me a break!

The real problem, besides having multiple coaching changes, is the entire management team. Replace them with a real, playoff experienced, NHL management team, and the team goes in the complete opposite direction.
The Oil will get a new goaltender in the offseason, and hopefully they do the right thing and keep Todd Nelson behind the bench.
 
OilersRule said:
What Are you guys talking about....Yakupov has been playing very well under the new interim coach.
Based on the previous coaching staff, one can't really call a player a bust when he was only given 5 mins a night in ice time playing on the second line...Give me a break!

The real problem, besides having multiple coaching changes, is the entire management team. Replace them with a real, playoff experienced, NHL management team, and the team goes in the complete opposite direction.
The Oil will get a new goaltender in the offseason, and hopefully they do the right thing and keep Todd Nelson behind the bench.
Click to expand...

While I see some validity to your point, I for one don't think yak has matured into the player we thought he would. As of late, yes, Yak and Eberle have been the prime offence to the oilers, I just think that everyone had him pegged as a super scorer and he just hasn't lived up to the stero-type. Yak shows signs of promise still, but I think the oilers are more then just 1 player. Griceyboys said it best as the problem is more then just 3 players.
 
IMO, Yakupov has been playing better b/c he has a legit NHL calibre centre (Derek Roy) to play with. With that said, he is still given a lot of favourable situations (ie. offensive zone starts, PP time). The defensive part of his game still needs a lot of work. It's not just what you do with the puck, it's what you do without it too.

The 2 1/2 years without a legit C, IMO, has hurt his development a bit. Plus there aren't any vet mentors to show him the ropes. It's one thing for the coach to tell him what he should do, it's another when he actually sees it being done on the ice by a vet who understands the game well.

If the Oilers aren't able to re-sign Roy or find a decent playmaking C for Yakupov, his numbers are going to suffer.
 
I kind of laugh when I hear people say put Yakupov with such and such player and watch what happens. Wait until I put Jeff Carter with Jonathan Toews. Hypothesis are great, but let's stick to reality.

When you are the # 1 overall pick you are expected to come in and make a somewhat immediate impact on what is obviously a poor team because you went first overall to them!

I cannot argue that he has played better of late, or that a mentor type player may be helpful, but seriously, Yakupov is a huge underachiever.

Let him prove me wrong, until then......................? :corn:
 
Why is Yakupov the center of conversation, because he's Russian? Plenty of other high picks in that team to shoulder the blame. Yak can't help it that he was picked number 1 and dubbed the next great Oiler default pick. Pretty much everyone and their mother was telling the Oilers to take a defenseman, everyone told them to pass on Yak, but the Oilers in their usual brilliant fashion picked another forward instead. So whose fault is it that he's not Ovechkin? That's on the Oilers, not Yak.

I get that Hall is a solid player, but has he lived up to the hype and been the team savior? Nope, he's had injury problems, he's thrown his fair share of cheap shots (and received some) that most GM's don't want to see from their captain. Has RNH lived up to the hype? Is he the team savior? Not even close, and injury problems too. Whose fault is that? It's the Oilers fault, no one else's. They take these young kids first overall, put the pressure of a failing franchise on their shoulders, and expect them to deliver when they are not ready for the NHL. Most successful teams develope their talent, send them back to juniors or the AHL to develope, but not the Oilers. A couple more years of hockey before the NHL would have done wonders for the young kids, that's on the Oilers, not the kids.

Everyone reads the prospect reports, listens to the idiots in the media, believes the hype, and expects every top 3 pick to be the next Gretzky. The world doesn't work that way, for every Crosby, Ovechkin, Toews, Tavares, Stamkos, Kane, there are hundreds of Yashin's. It will always be that way, sometimes one of the top guys pans out and teams look like geniuses for picking them, but more often then not they end up as 3rd or 4th liners or in the AHL, ECHL, or Euro leagues.
 
We've discussed this a lot about how the Oilers have re-built this team wrong. We all know it stems from the top down, the old boys club mentality, building from the front back (80's Oilers style) instead of the back end out, and the "handing over the keys" to the young "potential" stars without them having to earn it or having any vets to show them how to be a pro, showing the door to the vets that wanted to stay, rewarding mediocrity with big guaranteed long term contracts, basically saying the players are more important than the coaches, and overpaying UFAs to sign instead of spending the money on a good scouting team and developing from within.

Basically, anything that you could screw up on, they've done it. Everything you need to do to build a winner, they've done the complete opposite.
 
TheGriceBoys said:
I kind of laugh when I hear people say put Yakupov with such and such player and watch what happens. Wait until I put Jeff Carter with Jonathan Toews.
Click to expand...

Except Jeff Carter has been in the league for years and doesn't need a veteran to show him the ropes. The Datsyuk comment was simply that it would do him a world of good to play with a veteran guy from his own country who he'd likely respect and listen to. Might even learn a thing or two about defense while he's at it. Ovechkin did the same when Fedorov showed up. Different skill levels between Yak and Ovi but sometimes just being around someone from your own neighborhood matters when you're a kid.
 
Don't know if this is completely true or not, but I heard that ownership wanted Yakupov, and vetoed the decision to take Ryan Murray. When you have ownership making hockey decisions, usually it doesn't work out well.

Just like when Aquillini insisted on Torts as a coach. That worked out well.

I watched Yaks during the subway series, and wasn't impressed. In fact, he was almost invisible. I thought he would dominate but maybe he just didn't care.

As mentioned, he should have been allowed to stay in the KHL to develop, then spend some time in the AHL to learn the NHL game from some good coaches. But the trend has been to anoint 1st overall picks (and high 1st round picks) as guaranteed starters, which is bad for the player's development and the team long term, since these players will become UFAs earlier. Sorry Edm, but face it, it's hard for the Oilers to attract UFAs, so why rush your draft picks in the NHL and burn contract years for no reason at all?

Now there's trade rumours with Eberle, who is UFA in 4 years, but will need to get signed to an extension after 2 years otherwise run the risk of just getting some late 1st round pick as compensation or losing him for nothing.

Then there's the mishandling of Draisaitl. The list goes on and on...it's just really sad and pathetic.
 
MMarch said:
Why is Yakupov the center of conversation, because he's Russian?
Click to expand...

It's funny seeing this become a reason to defend a player now. No, it's because he's a first overall pick whose career high in points is lower than the most recent first overall pick's points this season (Ekblad, a defenceman)
 
Kyle said:
it would do him a world of good to play with a veteran guy from his own country who he'd likely respect and listen to. Might even learn a thing or two about defense while he's at it.
Click to expand...

Got any suggestions on who would want to sign as a UFA in Edmonton for this role? Aren't many.

http://www.quanthockey.com/nhl/nationality/active-russian-nhl-forwards-career-stats.html

The list of UFA centres is pretty short too. Vermette and Brad Richards only off the top of my head that would even be worth a look. There's Ribeiro, but I don't think he's the mentoring type (or you wouldn't want him to be a mentor to young players). Otherwise, Derek Roy looks like he could get a big raise. It'd be foolish to think that Draisaitl will be ready next year to take on #2C duties.
 
I don't think it is a big mystery that you have to build a team down the middle - meaning centers, defenseman and goalers.

How many NHL caliber players do the Oilers have playing those positions right now? Not very many.

Right now you have RNH who should become a solid NHL centerman but is certainly not the guy you want carrying the mail for your team as the #1 guy. Derek Roy has been a suitcase for the last couple of years and can't make the roster of a playoff team. None of their goalies are starters anywhere else in the league. And the blueline is a complete mess - Schultz might be able to make another roster but it would be as a third pairing, second PP guy.

You could have six hall of fame wingers on this team and it wouldn't matter.
 
totally agree. What I didn't understand is when the Oilers anointed RNH as #1C as a 19 yr old rookie and weighed 165 lbs soaking wet. How is he supposed to win face offs or contain opposing C's like Joe Thornton?? Sure the kid is talented offensively, but there's more to being a #1C than just running the PP and playing 20+ min a game.

Schultz was anointed the #1D too. Promises made to him probably to lure him to sign there. But as everyone can see, he's not top pairing material and really really needs to work on his defense. Hmmm...a defenseman that can't play d...might be an issue. And let's get Andrew Ference to mentor him!! What??!!
 
My Thoughts on the Oil

As an Oilers fan, I am NOT quick to drink the Kool-Aid often offered by the management. Everything is CLEARLY not OK.

Yak= not playing to his potential, though he is doing better this year in his all round game. It's too early to call him a bust- next year will be an important year IMO.

4th line is NOT the problem, the 4th line does what it's supposed to do. The problem is that the 4th line is being expected to do MORE than it's supposed to.

Defense is a huge problem. Nurse will help, but we need more NHL quality defencemen.

Center is another big problem. Nuge is great, but the drop off after that kills us.

Goaltending is the third big issue- Scrivens has the skill(?) to be a solid backup, but I don't see him as a starter- same with Fasth. IF we can get a legit #1 goalie- that would help a lot. Still would need to take care of the Defence problem.

Finally, coaching WAS a problem. Eakins was a TERRIBLE fit here in Edmonton. Nelson has already gotten much better results out of the same players than Eakins did. I'd be open to having him back for next year.

In conclusion- I don't see the Oilers making the playoffs next year either, unless some drastic "bold" moves are made (Oilers inside joke) Perhaps in 2 years we might see some good results. IF next year were to end up like this year, then the Oil would, IMO, NEED to clean house with management. (it probably wouldn't be a bad idea now.)

Regardless, I'll always be an Oilers fan. Gotta love my team, even when they suck.
 

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