Biggest Disappointment This Season

[McShogun99]

I know its too early but man, Old Sam Gagner was making more plays than I saw Savoie making and he was withstanding contact a lot better too. I know Savoie is young still at age 21 but Sam Gagner was showing way more game at age 18. Just saying the views that Savoie is some kind of future star are half baked. We gave up the future star, Dylan Holloway. Could sure use that guy.

There's a reason Buffalo was willing to move on from him but I'd take gambling on his future over Mcleod. Usually the smaller players take a few years longer to be ready and he already has NHL speed, hands and IQ. Don't get me started on losing Holloway over a slight over pay offer sheet.

 

[McShogun99]

This became Jackson's team the moment he was hired. Within weeks Jackson was stepping into Holland's domain and responsibilities to fire Tyler Wright and when another season went pear shape intervened to hire his guy Knoblauch as head coach. He describes himself as an active CEO involved in the day-to-day operations. It is his responsibility to plan and execute a succession plan which he had a full season runway to do.

While other teams leave some money on the table to blunt real or imagined RFA offer sheets, Jackson did not choosing to overspend. Instead of prioritizing internal young drafted and developed guys off proving points in a deep Cup run, he reshaped this roster with old veterans including no trade contract provisions which weren't even publicly known until recent trade deadline when speculation his failed summer work with Skinner and Arvidsson might need to be moved in order to plug the secondary scoring issues largely because of their underperformance. The new GM's first job is a fire drill to try to salvage this team's only two young NHL players walking out the door through a precision, precedent setting double offer sheet with pennies on the dollar compensation.

Knoblauch is coaching the underperforming smaller, slower, and less talented team that Jackson assembled. Adding the oldest team in the league's regression of core guys, it's a two men and a pack of mules group back to the systemic issues of annual highly volatile play of deep lows and extreme highs. Only this year the white hot second half of team schizophrenia hasn't arrived on schedule. Oiler coaches always arrive as geniuses and then the luster fades away as the usual patterns of indifferent work rate, terrible puck management and decision making primarily in their own end goal suppression work. Difference this year is that they can't outscore their issues and erratic team defending isn't bailed out by the coveted goal for 'just give us' league average goaltending behind it.

Jackson's the architect here.

I shit on Tyler Wright quite a bit but his drafting with us was actually decent. It just took years for his picks to develop with us.

 

[Drivesaitl]

There's a reason Buffalo was willing to move on from him but I'd take gambling on his future over Mcleod. Usually the smaller players take a few years longer to be ready and he already has NHL speed, hands and IQ. Don't get me started on losing Holloway over a slight over pay offer sheet.

But this isn't really the case. Small forwards that are much of anything, like Gagner, like Eberle, they hit the ground running. They don't take several years to find some nuts at this level. My take is always different on this. If you're years after draft age and haven't made the show yet its no solid bet you will as a winger. For Centers and D its much different. For having a winger role you should be able to do it around Savoies age.

 

[Gnome17]

"McDavid is not generational" is crazy, buddy had 5 Art ross trophys at 26 years old.
That aside I think the overall decline of the teams offense is what im most dissapointed and worried about.
We knew their goaltending is medicore at best, and that their offensive is whats carried them to be a top contender the last couple of years.
Pretty much every forward except Draisaitl and Perry have performed worse than expected this year, the team is old and there is really no reason to assume that all these early/mid 30s guys are going to improve going forward.

 

[Gnome17]

Interesting poll. Its odd how many posters here were all in on that Jackson wild ride and all saying Holloway, McLeod, Foegele, Broberg were nothing and that the new "guns" were going to take our scoring to another level. Yet here we are.

Everybody gets how bad the offseason was now. Its pathetic for an org to lose so many players in an offseason while replacing them with old players with no futures. We mortgaged future AND got worse and older.

Those deals looked great at the time, it made sense that players like Skinner and Arvidsson would elevate their play playing with Draisaitl and McDavid. its interesting that offensive support players, top 9 players, seem to always underperform here. McLeod, Foegele, Skinner, Arvidsson, Holloway, all performing better when not with the Oilers.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Those deals looked great at the time, it made sense that players like Skinner and Arvidsson would elevate their play playing with Draisaitl and McDavid. its interesting that offensive support players, top 9 players, seem to always underperform here. McLeod, Foegele, Skinner, Arvidsson, Holloway, all performing better when not with the Oilers.

In realtime I was saying these wouldn't work out. Its a much different deal being a production player on a contending team than it is on a non starter terrible club. Top teams, the topsix players are heavily marked and closely checked.

We can see game to game that Skinner and Arvid don't survive this coverage well. Both are turning pucks over constantly on impact. Both getting hit and rubbed out on boards so many times.

All of Foegele, Holloway, McLeod were better options playing at least some of their time up with Drai. Last season even showed that.

A lot of people believe the bolded but doesn't always work out that way. It does if its a player that survives contact. Always said somebody like Tyler Toffoi would work out better here. He's somebody that gets better the more intense games are. Not every winger is like that. The reason Hyman worked out here is he survives contact well and asks for seconds and thirds. You have to have that kind of grit to play in topsix here. Remember Maroon?

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

I shit on Tyler Wright quite a bit but his drafting with us was actually decent. It just took years for his picks to develop with us.

Mixed bag for sure. Team did turn Shaefer into Ekholm. Late picks Wanner & Lachance rolled into Frederic/Jones cap retention deal (not saying that's a great use of prospect resources but rather late picks helped carve some cost savings in an NHL player deal). Maybe his regime finds a goalie with Samuel Jonnson and Akey maybe plays. Missing big on Bourgault is a huge hit. I still believe Sebastian Cossa was their target until Detroit jumped up to get him. Not going with Waldstadt when he fell to them is questionable.

Bottom line I think Wright was Kenny's guy and maybe cut from old, traditional 'saw him good' school of amateur scouting. Whereas Pracey in his interviews sounds aligned with Jackson's belief in imformation based decision making supported by analytics function. I did like the O'Reilly pick to get a prospective 3C who can maybe onboard in 2-3 years.

With continuing to hollow out their pedigree draft collateral plugging NHL roster holes, there will be a lot riding on this team's scouting staff to find free diamonds in the rough through amateur and pro scouting functions. A ton of work required in these areas especially after the exit of their young NHL talent. Organization is most likely going to have to buy its way out with inefficiency of buying replacement help through free agency with the high cap growth of the next three years.

 

[LTIR]

Once again a successful season is blown apart by a disastrous offseason.

Offseason looked good on paper but just didn't get what we hoped for or logically expected.

J.Skinner should've been on par with Hyman in scoring, Arvidsson maybe even better.

Bowman hiring was the worst for me.
STL offersheets 2nd set us back big time as well.

Skinner and Bouchard for me are about the same as last season. Expect dumb and costly mistakes from them at any point but both were 'good enough'

 

[Stoneman89]

McLeod and Foegele were nothings in the playoffs, Foegele showed up in the Florida series when he was bumped up to the top 6 but they were no shows the majority of the playoffs. Fine regular season players but the Oilers needed playoff performers so they brought in vets. The problem is that they thought they were getting the Arvidsson of 2-3 years ago (you were bang on about Arvy, I and many others were way wrong) and Skinner had never been to the playoffs and clearly didn't fit Knoblauch's system so I have no idea what JJ was thinking there. Then he re-signed the playoff 3rd line of guys past their primes that he thought could recreate the unsustainable magic of last years' playoffs.
Not matching the Holloway offer sheet is GM malpractice. Can you imagine having THAT player for the low low price of $2.2m/yr and a long term solution in the top 6 beyond that, a local guy who wanted to stay? Boom, there's your Drai winger for the next half decade. Huge huge miss by this organization. Such an obvious fit for this team that was let go because JJ/Bowman were butthurt by him signing an offer sheet? Nothing else makes sense.

The bottom line is that it was a lot of bets that have almost universally failed outside of the oldest man Perry. Ultimately it doesn't matter what they do in the regular season, if these vets can step their game up in the playoffs and help the Oilers advance, all of this angst about the signings will disappear. It doesn't look likely based on what we've seen thus far but it wouldn't be the first time vets cruised through the regular season and stepped up in the playoffs so lets pray to god that's the case here.

Regardless, I think there's 4 much bigger issues than the support wingers. McDavid has regressed hard from his usual standard, Ekholm as well and is he even going to be healthy for the playoffs, RNH is being paid to skate circles around the rink at $5.25m/yr for a lot of years and the ever present goaltending issue. The latter two issues can be mitigated if the former two were solved but if the Oilers aren't getting something resembling what McDavid and Ekholm used to be, their goose is cooked.

They had zero cap room when the offer sheets were presented. What was Bowman supposed to do ? Rip up the contracts of Skinner and Arvidsson? Ask the league for an advance on cap room? Trade Hyman and Nuge for prospects?

 

[KlimasLoveChild]

I blame Katz for installing Jackson and I blame Jackson for being a Dallas Eakins type used car sales man. You really have to wonder about this guy.

You come into the league and park your balls on the head of a long standing Gm and aren't aware you have a target on your back? Do you not assume a guy that has been around the league forever has a friend or two that wouldn't appreciate that? If you are smart, your actions moving forward would be very guarded. His actions left the organization with their pants down. In my view that is red flag right there.

You really have to wonder why Jackson didn't have a Gm in place in time for free agency and the way things line up I'm thinking he settled on Bowman long before the summer. As it turned out Bowman was announced within a few weeks of having his eligabiliy reinstated. I think a lot of people are wondering, why Bowman? Well, one thing Jackson mentioned is he wanted an experienced guy. How many experienced guys would be willing to be a puppet or at least share power with this guy. We got our answer as it turns out, he was the one guy that would do about anything to get back in the game.

I think the kicker as Mess would say is that interview mid way through the season. Jackson was asked about the offer sheet business and he laid the whole deal at the feet of Holland for souring the relationship. I think some blame goes there but Jackson was at the controls for a year and clearly messed up during free agency. It would have been nice it he had taken some responsibily for his part in that situation. That is another red flag in my view.

 

[Pass the Saitl Sauce]

Biggest disappointment this season is the lack of offence but I’m also not surprised because once again we pick up old declining players like Arvidsson and skinner and skinner barely even plays.
These were the players the team prioritized over Holloway and Broberg. Most of us here would have prioritized signing them to reasonable deals with some term, everyone with a brain could see Holloway was about to break out for 20+ goals.
As others have said mcloed and foegele had to go after the disappearing act in the playoffs.

Team desperately needs a new goalie in the offseason

 

[McDNicks17]

I shit on Tyler Wright quite a bit but his drafting with us was actually decent. It just took years for his picks to develop with us.

0 NHL games from anyone outside a 14th and 8th overall pick is horrendous.

 

[Jumptheshark]

The biggest disappointments or biggest f*** ups were

1)Not trading trading Broberg for better assets. We all know he wanted to be gone and his agent even said he never recinded his trade request. He is a top 4 D man who we lost for pennies on the buck. We traded our 2025 to the flyers for the 32 over all pick in 2024. Did they even think about offering Broberg instead. We ended up trading our 2026 for Welman to replace Broberg.
2) Signing Arvedsson and Skinner before Halloway to a contract.

Letting these two players go on the cheap will look bad for maybe 15 years before they retire?

Halloway 21 goals 28pts and 49pts

vs
Skinner 11-10-21
Arvedsson 8-12-20

Not trading Broberg and signing Halloway will go down as two of biggest f*** ups in Oilers history

 

[AM]

Jeff Jacksons summer pretty easily. To be somewhat fair to him, almost all the feedback I saw at the time was how good of acquisitions Skinner and Arvidsson were and how the Oilers uad the best top-9 in the NHL.
Has been an utter disaster to take a step backwards in the most crucial year of this generation's team.

Evan Bouchard is #2. Going from a star defenseman that fans around the league were prematurely putting into the Norris conversation pre-season, he barely looks like a top-pairing dman at times. I've read that the analytics still say he's elite, but it's hard to say he hasn't taken a giant step back from last year, which is a bit of a concern as he enters his prime.

RNH's decline has been expected and shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that didn't have their goldenboy-coloured glasses. I've been pointing out this decline for the past couple years and this fanbase has defended him relentlessly.

McDavid is certainly generational. I'm assuming you mean he's not playing at that level specifically this season? This one is an anomaly to me. He doesn't seem injured.

I don't think anyone expected Hyman to be a consistent 50 goal scorer. He's on lace for his 3rd-highest goal total of his career. I don't consider him a disappointment.

Jeff Skinner I suppose was more of a wildcard than has all thought. Part of me think that things could have gone differently of he was given more of a chance from the start. We were a good chunk into the season when he was a top-2 winger in terms of production relative to icetime, and by that point he was already demoted to the 4th line.
Stu I would put #3 on this list. He just had to be average. That was it.

Something I don't like about Knoblauch is his constant line shuffling. We're 60 games into Season 2 and we're still seeing multiple line combinations within each game. At no point has he given any of the forwards a chance to develop chemistry.

Has anything worked out this year or is it all bad?

 

[McShogun99]

The biggest disappointments or biggest f*** ups were

1)Not trading trading Broberg for better assets. We all know he wanted to be gone and his agent even said he never recinded his trade request. He is a top 4 D man who we lost for pennies on the buck. We traded our 2025 to the flyers for the 32 over all pick in 2024. Did they even think about offering Broberg instead. We ended up trading our 2026 for Welman to replace Broberg.
2) Signing Arvedsson and Skinner before Halloway to a contract.

Letting these two players go on the cheap will look bad for maybe 15 years before they retire?

Halloway 21 goals 28pts and 49pts

vs
Skinner 11-10-21
Arvedsson 8-12-20

Not trading Broberg and signing Halloway will go down as two of biggest f*** ups in Oilers history

If they traded Broberg there never would have been an offer sheet to Holloway.

 

[Jumptheshark]

If they traded Broberg there never would have been an offer sheet to Holloway.

Either way it is and was a giant f*** up and I hope I live long enough to learn what happened in the room the led to this screw up

 

[Tobias Kahun]

I'm in the mood for easy today! I'm pretty upset that the Oilers have pissed away the season. I really though this would be our year.

The only player that gets somewhat of an exemption is Zach Hyman. He hasn't been great, but I think that is mainly coming from Mcdavid regressing.

Are you that upset? you're a tampa fan.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

Interesting poll. Its odd how many posters here were all in on that Jackson wild ride and all saying Holloway, McLeod, Foegele, Broberg were nothing and that the new "guns" were going to take our scoring to another level. Yet here we are.

Everybody gets how bad the offseason was now. Its pathetic for an org to lose so many players in an offseason while replacing them with old players with no futures. We mortgaged future AND got worse and older.

Holloway is the only real loss.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

There's a reason Buffalo was willing to move on from him but I'd take gambling on his future over Mcleod. Usually the smaller players take a few years longer to be ready and he already has NHL speed, hands and IQ. Don't get me started on losing Holloway over a slight over pay offer sheet.

The same Buffalo team that gave Eichel away, are we really giving them the benefit of the doubt?

 

[Tobias Kahun]

In realtime I was saying these wouldn't work out. Its a much different deal being a production player on a contending team than it is on a non starter terrible club. Top teams, the topsix players are heavily marked and closely checked.

We can see game to game that Skinner and Arvid don't survive this coverage well. Both are turning pucks over constantly on impact. Both getting hit and rubbed out on boards so many times.

All of Foegele, Holloway, McLeod were better options playing at least some of their time up with Drai. Last season even showed that.

A lot of people believe the bolded but doesn't always work out that way. It does if its a player that survives contact. Always said somebody like Tyler Toffoi would work out better here. He's somebody that gets better the more intense games are. Not every winger is like that. The reason Hyman worked out here is he survives contact well and asks for seconds and thirds. You have to have that kind of grit to play in topsix here. Remember Maroon?

You also hated RNH for years cause he stole Gagner's spotlight, so there is that.

 

[Drivesaitl]

You also hated RNH for years cause he stole Gagner's spotlight, so there is that.

I disliked that from the outset Nuge was given Hall and Eberle to work with and Gagner, with more heart as a player was given whatever was left. Indeed it was one of the times Nuge was injured that Gagner had his amazing 8pt night. More of a highlite than Nuge ever had with that version of the club.

Its unfortunate that one of the things that held back Nuge too is the org never really made him work for anything. Got all the plum assignments and then handed longterm 6M contract. I'm afraid it ruined his Drive. Now forever we've had this version of Nuge who decides what he wants to bring and when.

 

[Took a pill in Sbisa]

Has anything worked out this year or is it all bad?

It certainly has been a pretty disappointing year on almost all fronts. What can we say is better or improved from last year?

PP? PK? Goaltending? Scoring? Secondary scoring? Defense? Team toughness? Team speed? Individual players?

Draisaitl is the only answer I have.

Luckily we still have time to get our shit together.