Staios mattered. As did Smid. Even Lucic mattered for a year or so.
Yep, it ain't great. Holland stinks at drafting and our AHL coach prefers to play Greg McKegg in the top 6 instead of give anyone under 25 a chance.
Neal scored 19 (not 20, 19) goals for us and we got Brossoit in the Smid trade, whose gone on to a nice career.
The Oilers poor drafting precedes Holland. They just had a lot of #1 and top 10 picks before him. Holland has undoubtedly been the Oilers best GM of the past 20 years. I'd say that's a pretty big problem.
Neal scored for like a month (11 goals in 14 games), then had a good game on NYE where he scored a hattrick and then he didn't score again that season... and 12 of the 14 goals were on the PP riding McDavid's coattails... is that really a hill you want to die on?
it does, but if we're talking prospect pools, then the current state of it is fully on Holland.
Yup, he's the one who kept the same guys who had missed so many times. I agree the accountability for it should be on him. It just won't change with him being gone unless the guys doing the work change.
We'll see moving forward, but if they keep the same guys Holland kept after that string of bad picks, then I think the same results are likely to follow. I'm a Flames fan, but our record in the 1st round is spotty at best. That's usually head scout territory. Our area guys have done well in the later rounds. That and D development have been our only organizational strengths.
