I know that you are a long time respected poster on HF Oil, but this narrative that you are creating is false. The oilers have actually been a top tier team the last two seasons. This season we started off strong. Tops in the west, recently we have hit a wall, due to covid, injuries and goaltending. Poor 5 on 5 play and a decline in special teams. I’m not saying we are a top team in the NHL like our record showed early on, but we are also not a bottom team like our record is showing in the last 11. I get your frustrations but your assessment is simply not true. Our window is just opening now, we have prospects stepping up, and rumours such as this shows that what you see is not what you get come playoff time.
Looking at the Oilers from the outside, I'd say the truth is somewhere in between. The Oilers window is neither open nor closed, and that's neither a catastrophe or a reason to panic.
Having McDavid and Draisaitl is a terrific foundation, but obviously puts a ton of pressure for a win now mentality. Feels like the Oilers have a bit of an NBA structure where you have a superstar cast and then a cast of guys who are in and out of a revolving door. Right now it doesn't work well because the combination of guys doesn't seem to compliment McDrai, but it doesn't mean the right combination can't be found.
I look at the Florida Panthers as a close example of what the Oilers could do. They were a team who had Huberdeau, Barkov and Ekblad. Nothing worked for the longest time, but then they put together a few solid support cast adding Duclair, Verhaeghe, Hornqvist, Reinhart and Bennett over the past 1.5 years, Weegar took a quantum leap and all of a sudden are in business.