Biggest Disappointment This Season

[PitkanensGitch]

The glaring, most obvious one is not having Holloway and Broberg in our lineup. Run down the comparisons of who we brought in to replace them and it is a truly tragic, near franchise altering failure. Broberg would've been hard to stomach initially at that cap, but Holloway was a no brainer to every single person here.

Holloway having basically as many points as Skinner, Podkolzin, and Arvidsson combined is a back breaker.

Re-signing Henrique at 3 mil was a blunder.

Significant regressions from Hyman, RNH, Bouchard, etc as most people expected.

 

[LTIR]

Oh my god stop with this "Broberg would be behind Kulak" cope. He's a vastly superior player to Kulak and showed that when he finally played in the playoffs last year. The only reason he was behind Kulak was because this organization has a crippling, terminal diagnosis bias towards veterans. It's the same reason we were playing useless bums over Holloway and costed ourselves a young, top 6, all situations, two-way forward with speed and physicality.


Or maybe Holloway's parents/siblings wanted him to go to a place that would actually respect his abilities and give him the playtime/linemate opportunities that he deserved? Calgary's greatest player in franchise history is from Edmonton and the best Oiler of the early 2010s is from Edmonton. They would've been perfectly happy to have him play his entire career in Edmonton if we weren't scratching/demoting him for bums like Henrique, Brown, and Ryan, and we didn't give his money to Jeff Skinner.

F*** Ken Holland and F*** Jeff Jackson.

Broberg wasn't and still isn't superior to Kulak when it comes to defending and reliability. More offensive for sure but he would've been in the dog house here especially at 4M per.
We had to give up McLeod and Foegele because they were making 500k too much and had to sign Brown, Janmark, Henrique etc for cheap begging them to give us discounts. All 3 could've made more if signed elsewhere after their playoffs performances.

Holloway looked at Kane, Hyman and newly signed J.Skinner at LW and didn't feel like working for a top 6 spot for himself. Broberg had Ekholm and Nurse ahead of him and didn't feel like battling Kulak for a spot at LD.

f*** Jackson, Bowman, Broberg and Holloway!

 

[LTIR]

I would want a fresh start too if my team kept yoyoing me between the pressbox and the AHL with inferior players playing over me.

It's pretty standard treatment for prospects on their ELC that are waiver exempt. I guess Savoie wants out too by this logic.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Who cares about the standings lol

With Walman, Frederic, Jeff Skinner, Pods, Arvid, Kapanen give us a better chance at the cup than Holloway and Broberg

Who cares about the standings? Do you think if we had home ice in the Cup Finals last year we would've lost?

Most of the players you mentioned are junk. You need young talent in the lineup instead of vets. Did you notice that our bottom six can't produce a lick of offense yet again? That's going to cost us in the big games ahead.

 

[Slats432]

I think you need to find a burning bush.

I don't get the reference, assuming it is biblical, but I hope the things that haven't been great this season turn out great in the playoffs. If you want to have faith in a process that decided Henrique, Arvidsson and Skinner were going to be better than McLeod, Foegele and Holloway, fill yer boots.

 

[Canovin]

Who cares about the standings? Do you think if we had home ice in the Cup Finals last year we would've lost?

Most of the players you mentioned are junk. You need young talent in the lineup instead of vets. Did you notice that our bottom six can't produce a lick of offense yet again? That's going to cost us in the big games ahead.

The Oilers win the cup if your boy Stuart wasn't so sub par most of the playoffs tiring out most of our guys.

The standings matters to some degree but if it's truly important, the President trophy winner would be hoisting every year.

Did you even watch last game? They looked good without McDrai

 

[AM]

I don't get the reference, assuming it is biblical, but I hope the things that haven't been great this season turn out great in the playoffs. If you want to have faith in a process that decided Henrique, Arvidsson and Skinner were going to be better than McLeod, Foegele and Holloway, fill yer boots.

Exodus 3:1-14

If you look for the bush maybe you can lead us to the promised land?

Doing the same thing and expecting different results is insanity.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

The Oilers win the cup if your boy Stuart wasn't so sub par most of the playoffs tiring out most of our guys.

The standings matters to some degree but if it's truly important, the President trophy winner would be hoisting every year.

Did you even watch last game? They looked good without McDrai

The Oilers win the Cup if they could score a lick of offense in games 1, 2, and 7. Coincidentally those games were all in Florida.

Did they win without McDrai? Did their bottom six produce any offense? No.

I can't even believe you mentioned waiver fodder Kapanen as some sort of positive. Constantly pulling from the waiver wire wouldn't even be necessary if we had some of the players we let go last year.

 

[alphahelix]

Broberg wasn't and still isn't superior to Kulak when it comes to defending and reliability. More offensive for sure but he would've been in the dog house here especially at 4M per.
We had to give up McLeod and Foegele because they were making 500k too much and had to sign Brown, Janmark, Henrique etc for cheap begging them to give us discounts. All 3 could've made more if signed elsewhere after their playoffs performances.

Holloway looked at Kane, Hyman and newly signed J.Skinner at LW and didn't feel like working for a top 6 spot for himself. Broberg had Ekholm and Nurse ahead of him and didn't feel like battling Kulak for a spot at LD.

f*** Jackson, Bowman, Broberg and Holloway!

Broberg is +13 on the much-worse Blues, which leads all Blues defencemen and is tied with our own Mattias Ekholm. He was one of the most consistent D-men we had in the 7 game cup finals against Florida and he is basically a top pairing D-man in the NHL right now. We pay Nurse double to lock down our 2nd pair while Broberg carries the Blues into a playoff berth.

Sure, we pissed off Broberg by slow-rolling him so long and Knoblauch cutting him from the team when he arrived and sending him down, and he wasn’t going to be easy to negotiate with. But Bowman/Jackson hardballed and ignored Holloway even when they knew he had offers on the table. He would have happily taken less to stay but we wouldn’t budge from our ~1M dollar offer and went no-contact with him; Meanwhile he is a point per game player in the NHL that loves living in Alberta. It’s a joke. We drafted these guys in the top of the 1st round and slow rolled their development and couldn’t even be bothered to sign them. Literally the worst mismanagement we’ve had in … f***ing forever.

Holloway has a heart of gold by the way, f*** you more than f*** Holloway. Theres no reason to smear anybody but Bowman, who has earned it so substantially, and Jackson , who …. Is starting to look like he is figuring out that there are 31 other GM’s trying to improve their teams and everything isn’t as simple as it seems looking in from the outside.

 

[AM]

The Oilers win the cup if your boy Stuart wasn't so sub par most of the playoffs tiring out most of our guys.

The standings matters to some degree but if it's truly important, the President trophy winner would be hoisting every year.

Did you even watch last game? They looked good without McDrai

Depth is good.

 

[Trafalgar Sadge Law]

Broberg wasn't and still isn't superior to Kulak when it comes to defending and reliability. More offensive for sure but he would've been in the dog house here especially at 4M per.
We had to give up McLeod and Foegele because they were making 500k too much and had to sign Brown, Janmark, Henrique etc for cheap begging them to give us discounts. All 3 could've made more if signed elsewhere after their playoffs performances.

Holloway looked at Kane, Hyman and newly signed J.Skinner at LW and didn't feel like working for a top 6 spot for himself. Broberg had Ekholm and Nurse ahead of him and didn't feel like battling Kulak for a spot at LD.

f*** Jackson, Bowman, Broberg and Holloway!

Yeah man, Brett Kulak is such a reliable defender man. I'm really happy he was on the ice for the biggest shift for the 21st Century Oilers!

You're using the term "reliable" incorrectly, because Kulak sure as hell is not reliable and frequently makes game losing plays like this due to bad reads, bad gap control, and bad pinches. If his first name was Darnell and he wasn't born in Edmonton he'd be one of the most hated player on the team. But he's the hometown boy and gets away with criminal plays like this. Broberg, on the other hand, was rock solid defensively in the playoffs and frequently got the puck out of dangerous areas and made smart reads. The guy somehow managed to settle down Darnell Nurse who was having a Jacob Trouba esque playoff run with Ceci and Kulak before we finally played Broberg with him. Not the best at winning puck battles and could get pushed around physically but lets not act as if Brett Kulak was Chris Pronger either.

As for Brown, Janmark, and Henrique, Brown sure as f*** did not give us a discount the previous season and if anything still hasn't earned that 4 million from last season, and Henrique is one of the worst players in the NHL. Should've let him sign with Calgary to put them even further behind. Janmark isn't great either but isn't the reason we couldn't sign Holloway. That 3 million on Henrique and that 3.25 million dead cap on Brown? Huge reasons.

 

[Zerotonine]

Kinda ironic Jackson is voted #1 disappointment considering how in July he was being hailed as the holy grail for all his moves he made. Sure on paper everything looked good but not everything pans out how they should

Hindsight is 20/20.......

For me the biggest disappointment is stu skinner and management not addressing goaltending. Thars followed up secondly by knoblach amd hos horroble decisions game after game. He has been exposed IMO amd last year was an anomaly due to Mcdrai going God node

 

[Canovin]

The Oilers win the Cup if they could score a lick of offense in games 1, 2, and 7. Coincidentally those games were all in Florida.

Did they win without McDrai? Did their bottom six produce any offense? No.

I can't even believe you mentioned waiver fodder Kapanen as some sort of positive. Constantly pulling from the waiver wire wouldn't even be necessary if we had some of the players we let go last year.

Game 1, 2 and 7 were 3 of 4 worst performance by Stuart in the finals

The Oilers took it to OT without McDrai, Frederic and Kane against healthy team in Winnipeg.

Kapanen has been looking good lately

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Game 1, 2 and 7 are 3 of 4 worst performance by Stuart in the finals

The Oilers took it to OT without McDrai, Frederic and Kane against healthy team in Winnipeg.

Kapanen has been looking good lately

They scored 0, 1, and 1 goals respectively. Could've used a goal from literally anyone.

I'm past the point of fake victories. Give me real ones. That's another point they lost in the standings and still remain behind Vegas, which they likely will for the rest of the season. This team sucks against the big boys of the league.

 

[Trafalgar Sadge Law]

It's pretty standard treatment for prospects on their ELC that are waiver exempt. I guess Savoie wants out too by this logic.

It's standard treatment for prospects on badly run franchises. The Vegas Golden Knights and the Florida Panthers are very happy to get rid of veterans and play young guys on cheap contracts, with Vegas probably going a bit overboard giving away guys like Pacioretty for future considerations. I don't think we need to go full Vegas mode, but you absolutely need to avoid polluting your roster with middle class veterans of the Arvidsson, Henrique, Kulak, Ceci variety. If you're getting a veteran, they'd better either be an impact player like Hyman or Ekholm or earning under 2 million, preferably under 1 million.

 

[Canovin]

They scored 0, 1, and 1 goals respectively. Could've used a goal from literally anyone.

I'm past the point of fake victories. Give me real ones. That's another point they lost in the standings and still remain behind Vegas, which they likely will for the rest of the season. This team sucks against the big boys of the league.

The Oilers came out of the finals with more goals than Florida did. 23 to 18.

The Oilers without Ekholm beat Dallas with Rantanen recently.

 

[Trafalgar Sadge Law]

The Oilers win the cup if your boy Stuart wasn't so sub par most of the playoffs tiring out most of our guys.

The standings matters to some degree but if it's truly important, the President trophy winner would be hoisting every year.

Did you even watch last game? They looked good without McDrai

There's more than one reason we lost the Cup. Stuart Skinner being unreliable is one, lack of depth is another, 5 million in dead cap because Ken Holland didn't wanna "disrespect good character veteran guys like Campbell" and send him to NHLPA Player Assistance program and Robidas Island him. Home Ice advantage is a small factor, but last line change can make a difference. Heck we've literally seen Knoblauch win us games with smart line matchups. Maybe home ice advantage isn't enough to swing the results alone, but being higher in the standings also implies we maybe have a homegrown guy like Michael Kesselring instead of a Cody Ceci, and maybe a true cheap contract vet like Evan Rodrigues instead of the Connor Brown poison pill contract, and maybe we get a proper top 6 forward at the deadline instead of Adam Henrique, or better yet, a goalie, with those cap savings. And that type of teambuilding that can result in a better regular season could absolutely swing a playoff series.

The Oilers came out of the finals with more goals than Florida did. 23 to 18.

The Oilers without Ekholm beat Dallas with Rantanen recently.

I'm actually of the opinion that Dallas without Heiskanen is exploitable. The game they played against us they ran Harley, Ceci, Lindell, Dumba, Lyubushkin, and Bischel. So one young stud top pairing dman, a rookie, and 4 awful defenders, two of them being some of the biggest memes in the NHL, one of whom we had a front row seat to.

 

[Canovin]

It's standard treatment for prospects on badly run franchises. The Vegas Golden Knights and the Florida Panthers are very happy to get rid of veterans and play young guys on cheap contracts, with Vegas probably going a bit overboard giving away guys like Pacioretty for future considerations. I don't think we need to go full Vegas mode, but you absolutely need to avoid polluting your roster with middle class veterans of the Arvidsson, Henrique, Kulak, Ceci variety. If you're getting a veteran, they'd better either be an impact player like Hyman or Ekholm or earning under 2 million, preferably under 1 million.

Vegas and Florida would trade anyone in order to win. Young or old. Guess how Vegas got Pacioretty? A well known choker at the time. They traded Suzuki for him lol

 

[LTIR]

Broberg is +13 on the much-worse Blues, which leads all Blues defencemen and is tied with our own Mattias Ekholm. He was one of the most consistent D-men we had in the 7 game cup finals against Florida and he is basically a top pairing D-man in the NHL right now. We pay Nurse double to lock down our 2nd pair while Broberg carries the Blues into a playoff berth.

Sure, we pissed off Broberg by slow-rolling him so long and Knoblauch cutting him from the team when he arrived and sending him down, and he wasn’t going to be easy to negotiate with. But Bowman/Jackson hardballed and ignored Holloway even when they knew he had offers on the table. He would have happily taken less to stay but we wouldn’t budge from our ~1M dollar offer and went no-contact with him; Meanwhile he is a point per game player in the NHL that loves living in Alberta. It’s a joke. We drafted these guys in the top of the 1st round and slow rolled their development and couldn’t even be bothered to sign them. Literally the worst mismanagement we’ve had in … f***ing forever.

Holloway has a heart of gold by the way, f*** you more than f*** Holloway. Theres no reason to smear anybody but Bowman, who has earned it so substantially, and Jackson , who …. Is starting to look like he is figuring out that there are 31 other GM’s trying to improve their teams and everything isn’t as simple as it seems looking in from the outside.

Looks like we have someone from Holloways family here. Heart of gold and would've taken less. You willing to make personal attacks and risk thread ban for this turd who fled to please his Flames loving buddies. f*** Holloway and wish him a pathetic career for leaving a contender while everyone else was willing to take discounts for another run.

McDavid will continue to make him and broberg his bxxches rest of their careers

(Ps the B word doesn't get censored here)

 

[LTIR]

It's standard treatment for prospects on badly run franchises. The Vegas Golden Knights and the Florida Panthers are very happy to get rid of veterans and play young guys on cheap contracts, with Vegas probably going a bit overboard giving away guys like Pacioretty for future considerations. I don't think we need to go full Vegas mode, but you absolutely need to avoid polluting your roster with middle class veterans of the Arvidsson, Henrique, Kulak, Ceci variety. If you're getting a veteran, they'd better either be an impact player like Hyman or Ekholm or earning under 2 million, preferably under 1 million.

We don't really know what we are going to get all the time. Arvodsson and Skinner both could've been as good or better than Hyman. We didn't really know what we were getting in Hyman, Perry or Kane either .. you win some you lose some.

You just don't give 10 of your 12 forwards NMCs. That's the saddest part!

 

[Trafalgar Sadge Law]

Vegas and Florida would trade anyone in order to win. Young or old. Guess how Vegas got Pacioretty? A well known choker at the time. They traded Suzuki for him lol

That is correct. We should also be willing to trade anyone in order to win, including the young guys. I'd have no problem trading Holloway+Broberg for Marner or Rantanen, or trading Savoie or a 1st for a guy like Mackenzie Weegar. I have no issue with what we paid for Jake Walman for similar reasons, one of the few deadline moves I've been happy with during these McDrai era disasterclasses. The problem is we're not trading Holloway and Broberg for Rantanen. We lost them for a 2nd/3rd round pick so we could have dog shit, old as sin, overpaid check stealers like Arvidsson, Henrique, and Skinner: precisely the type of player teams like Vegas and Florida are trying to get rid of.

We don't really know what we are going to get all the time. Arvodsson and Skinner both could've been as good or better than Hyman. We didn't really know what we were getting in Hyman, Perry or Kane either .. you win some you lose some.

You just don't give 10 of your 12 forwards NMCs. That's the saddest part!

I actually was happy about the Arvidsson move admittedly and like many others thought it was "basically a trade of Foegele for Arvidsson and we're getting the better player". Hoo boy what an awful take. But the difference is that you and I are just fans, guys like Chiarelli, Holland, Jackson, and Bowman are being paid millions to make the right decision and make the wrong decision more often than not and that's not acceptable. 10 NMCs is an absolute joke and most of the guys we gave them to aren't needle movers.

 

[LTIR]

That is correct. We should also be willing to trade anyone in order to win, including the young guys. I'd have no problem trading Holloway+Broberg for Marner or Rantanen, or trading Savoie or a 1st for a guy like Mackenzie Weegar. I have no issue with what we paid for Jake Walman for similar reasons, one of the few deadline moves I've been happy with during these McDrai era disasterclasses. The problem is we're not trading Holloway and Broberg for Rantanen. We lost them for a 2nd/3rd round pick so we could have dog shit, old as sin, overpaid check stealers like Arvidsson, Henrique, and Skinner: precisely the type of player teams like Vegas and Florida are trying to get rid of.

We needed depth in middle 6 and these 3 'cheque stealers' on paper would have provided that. All 3 likely had better offers available but chose Edmonton for one reason or another. There were a lot of salty fans from other teams when we signed these 3 and we're able to keep Janmark and Brown for cheap. Let's see how they perform in the playoffs.. there is still hope with them.
There is no disagreement that we got shit value for Bro + Holloway

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Walman and Frederic?

Match and we won't have Frederic and Walman. It's also easy to say match when management had no indication of what Kane wanted to do with his injuries.

Fredric hasn't played yet and Walman is good I'd rather have the other 2 players

 

[Canovin]

Fredric hasn't played yet and Walman is good I'd rather have the other 2 players

Still not too late. Just head over to the Blues boards

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

The Oilers came out of the finals with more goals than Florida did. 23 to 18.

The Oilers without Ekholm beat Dallas with Rantanen recently.

so? that didn't translate to anything other than 2 goals in 3 games in Florida
had we had home ice in the Cup final, we win the series.