Player Discussion McDavid

[Little Fury]

I don’t like it but if Mcdavid isnt signing an extension he should be traded before training camp. Def prefer he stays but you need his return to build around Drai for the next 8 years

I don't think Drai is a guy you build around.

 

[McJadeddog]

To play devil's advocate a bit here, McDavid did say the Oilers have no cap space and no prospects, no assets basically.

So it does sound like he'll want some kind of reassurances on how the heck we're gonna get over the hump.

The whole post-game comment about doing the same thing over and over could also be more than just a dig at the coach, but also at things like running it back with S tu etc.

Friedman said the same thing about hos the "dong the same thing over and over again" could easily be a swipe at management for running back the worst playoff starting goalie in history for 3 years in a row.

 

[Roderek]

He probably would've signed July 1st midnight eastern if we finished the story properly this time.

I'm sure he'll still re-sign, he needs mental break though. The back-to-back losses blend together as one giant, ugly feeling. All the pressure to deliver just multiplied now. Last year's Cup loss was all over the past season, you could see it in their play through the season. We had an excellent 3 rounds this year, but the only thing that's going to stick again is the repeat missed opportunity. As much as the words/mantra will be put it behind and focus ahead, the next regular season will be more of the same. Nights they'll take off, 70/80% efforts until playoffs. It's a lot for him to take on in his head. Truly thought we'd see another level from him in the Finals after all the posturing building up to that moment again, but hey Florida played us hard and the deployment frankly put even more pressure on him to do it himself. His head must be hell thinking about waiting another year for just a potential shot at it again. Making the Finals isn't easy, let alone getting the last prize.

Dude needs a real break and reset. He'll sign in September, but he needs to truly work on letting some things go this summer to free him to play the way he can.

I am not sure how anyone could have listened to McDavid's media availability yesterday and think he is going to sign before the playoffs next year. Management will have to do something significant that he thinks is going to be a massive impact for multiple years. If he does sign earlier it will be for a max of 2-3 years. I agree if the Oilers win the cup while he is here, he will stay in Edmonton for a longer term.

He basically came out and said it yesterday that the Oilers have no major prospects coming up, Savoie, O'reilly and that's about it. Might be too early to say, but both of those guys probably top out at Middle 6 guys, there is no true High end prospects in the organization currently. Oilers have 3 late round picks this year and likely will trade more picks to all in again next year. So unlikely to get some high end talent unless the Oilers hit homeruns on late picks. Losing Broberg and Holloway to offer sheets has really effected the longevity of the window for this team.

The Oilers are in their current window, and that window will remain open for as long as McDavid decides to stay, This team has been a contender for the last couple of years, but that has been on the backs of McDavid and Draisitle. If either one of them were missing not sure the Oil would have made it past round 1. The Oilers only finished 5 points ahead of the Flames and if McDavid and Drai were not cheat codes for 3 on 3 it could have very easily been the Oilers that missed the playoffs. Management brought Drai back early from injury as we needed to win that game.

You also have to consider how weak our division is and the current playoff format has helped the road to the finals for the Oilers in my opinion. There has been lots of players coming out and saying they want 1v8 Presumably it is an ask in the CBA but who knows. If it was the 1v8 format this year the road to the finals for Edmonton would have been
Dallas Round 1
Vegas or Minny round 2
Winnipeg or Colorado most likely St Louis or LA least likely.

I am not sure the Oil get past Dallas in round 1 if they play the way they played against LA. This is all hypothetical, but could be a factor depending on the CBA and what is agreed on.

They kicked the shit out of every single team in the Western Conference. They made the top end teams in the Western Conference look like childs play. They dictated pretty much the entirety of play throughout 3 straight series. To actually think they're just playing the game the way the other team wants to is ridiculous.

Why is everyone acting like the Oilers are some team lost in the abyss or something?

They lost to a dynasty-level team that routinely gets players on large discounts because of the tax haven, and played $10M+ above the cap due to their LTIR situation.

At some point, you just need to acknowledge that the Oilers are good, arguably the 2nd best team in the National Hockey League, but the Panthers were just better, due to a lot of fortunate circumstances.

I mentioned this above but if playoff bracket were to change we may not cake walk through the west. In the past couple years, by the time we get Dallas they have played long hard series and are pretty beat up. Last year the Oil had LA and Van who was playing their 3rd string goalie and almost didn't get past them.

As for the tax haven that has some impact but in reality, it is more good management players were not chomping at the bit to sing in Florida/Tampa/Dallas, when the teams were bad. Maybe you can sign guys for a little less, but Florida doesn't have any bad contracts there worst is probably Bobrovsky but they have 2 cups so you can't even say that is bad, but it certainly looked atrocious the first couple of years.

The weather and tax definitely helps, but ultimately its the winning and the competitive team that really matters. So now guys that have won will likely stay there on a discount. The Tkatchuk deal is likely very close/similar to what the Flames would have paid him had he wanted to stay. Florida consistently makes moves to keep their window open. They know their situation and make decisions to keep it open. They know losing Ekblad is a possibility so they acquire Jones, that helped them in the current run, and help offset the lose in the future.

 

[BlackDogg]

Friedman said the same thing about hos the "dong the same thing over and over again" could easily be a swipe at management for running back the worst playoff starting goalie in history for 3 years in a row.

hope so, let's just say I doubt he's getting his wardrobe at California Closet

 

[BlackDogg]

His statement is more likely related to the tax rates he will pay in Canada versus in the USA. Could be millions and millions of dollars difference at stake.
Would say this would be the biggest factor in his decision. Does he want to continue to play with Drai and try once more, or just worry about finances now.

 

[Little Fury]

His statement is more likely related to the tax rates he will pay in Canada versus in the USA. Could be millions and millions of dollars difference at stake.
Would say this would be the biggest factor in his decision. Does he want to continue to play with Drai and try once more, or just worry about finances now.

wut

 

[redgrant]

The smart thing for Connor to do would be wait as long as possible. See what kind of team is being assembled by Bowman and co.

They do something stupid like not fix goaltending, nurse needs to be trouba'd, actual wingers besides Hyman. Don't address these things it's time mcdavid tells them you're not even a playoff team without me. Why don't I go to an actual playoff team and have a chance.

 

[McJadeddog]

The smart thing for Connor to do would be wait as long as possible. See what kind of team is being assembled by Bowman and co.

They do something stupid like not fix goaltending, nurse needs to be trouba'd, actual wingers besides Hyman. Don't address these things it's time mcdavid tells them you're not even a playoff team without me. Why don't I go to an actual playoff team and have a chance.

The team can't really do that though, as they need to know what their long term cap situation is going to be in order to make moves. McDavid is going to be the largest portion of that long term cap, so they can't make certain moves unless they have an idea of what McDavid's contract is going to be.

 

[redgrant]

The team can't really do that though, as they need to know what their long term cap situation is going to be in order to make moves. McDavid is going to be the largest portion of that long term cap, so they can't make certain moves unless they have an idea of what McDavid's contract is going to be.

They know perfectly well within a small range of what it will be.

 

[kevy9999]

If Mcdavid walks as a free agent like marner is now Drai should be traded immediately and start rebuild 3.0

The takes on this thread get dumber and dumber lol you're in first place so far

 

[McShogun99]

I'm pretty sure management will do whatever it takes to get a cup in the next 4 years. They owe it to Mcdavid because we'd be in an endless cycle of suck like Buffalo if we never got to draft him.

 

[harpoon]

MY support of players is conditional on them being good or great. How anybody doesn't figure McD or Drai are booch aren't great is blind.

Says the guy who wrote pages worth of posts explaining how great Puljujarvi was (and Yakupov) before him. And just this season suggested that Crosby and Marchand should both just retire already. lol.

 

[ReturnOfTheDrai]

I'm pretty sure management will do whatever it takes to get a cup in the next 4 years. They owe it to Mcdavid because we'd be in an endless cycle of suck like Buffalo if we never got to draft him.

If you were to ask them are you doing whatever it takes to get the cup in 2021, the management would’ve said a resounding yes. Signing Jeff Skinner without consulting Knob(who clearly didn’t like him from day 1) and letting Broberg and Holloway leave is not doing whatever it takes.

 

[guymez]

They know perfectly well within a small range of what it will be.

I agree with this.
It sounded to me like McDavid wants to send a message to management.
Like he is emphasizing that this team isnt good enough and he wants to see the template for filling the obvious holes to put the team over the top moving forward.

 

[benum]

The last two years (especially last year) the team was good enough. Less injuries to certain key players, some additional puck luck, and (arguably) more fair reffing…they could have won one. (And yes, goaltending). They got to the finals two years in a row! While this was an old team, the actual prime-mover core is not old (Mc/Drai/Bouch). It’s going to take some GM’ing to get back, let’s see if Bowman can manage it. His moves in-season had some bright spots (Kap/Walman/Russian). Honestly if you just swapped goalie Bob to the Oil these last 2 seasons the script could be flipped (scoring first was so huge in both series, particularly this most recent one)

 

[unicornBLOOD]

i'm a die hard Oiler fan, to the core, but if I was McDavid, I wouldn't resign anywhere until next summer and then I'd find the best spot in the league to win and sign there. Look at rosters, prospects, salary caps, everything. Find the best spot to win and sign there. Sadly, I don't think Edmonton is that spot, a few iffy, if not bad, contracts. lack of picks/prospects/assets/salary cap space, and a hole in the goaltending position. The Oilers aren't built like a team on the rise, they are more like a team heading down after their time at the top. They have basically nothing coming, and a bunch of $$$ locked up long term, and not a bunch of wiggle room. There are many teams that are in a better position to win now, than the Oilers are. I hope he stays, but I would not judge him or blame him if he chose another direction/team.

 

[Drivesaitl]

McDavid specifically stated Florida had 8 forwards with 20 or more pts in playoffs, a really good goalie( was interesting how he chuckled at that) and a big strong solid D core. (Note Connor slightly off on the 20pt thing but not my much)

These are some of the same comments I've made throughout that the Oilers, roster wise were up against it from the outset of this series. That Florida just completely outguns us and they can rest players and still get results. 3 of the Panthers forwards that were good in the game 6W had as little as a combined 45 minutes in game 5, which of course Panthers also won.

None of the the forwards except Barkov and Reinhart play big minutes. Even at that they only have to be on from a production stand point not even half the games. With Panthers they just have different big guns filling the net every night.

Connor clearly looking at relative depth production and goaltending as why we didn't win and couldn't compete. This from the horses mouth.

 

[redgrant]

McDavid specifically stated Florida had 8 forwards with 20 or more pts in playoffs, a really good goalie( was interesting how he chuckled at that) and a big strong solid D core. (Note Connor slightly off on the 20pt thing but not my much)

These are some of the same comments I've made throughout that the Oilers, roster wise were up against it from the outset of this series. That Florida just completely outguns us and they can rest players and still get results. 3 of the Panthers forwards that were good in the game 6W had as little as a combined 45 minutes in game 5, which of course Panthers also won.

None of the the forwards except Barkov and Reinhart play big minutes. Even at that they only have to be on from a production stand point not even half the games. With Panthers they just have different big guns filling the net every night.

Connor clearly looking at relative depth production and goaltending as why we didn't win and couldn't compete. This from the horses mouth.

Yeah Stan Bowman's "30 other teams would have killed to be where we were" incredibly tone deaf.

Mcdavid must be thinking yeah. Because of me and drai. You guys arnt a playoff team if we leave. Florida has a million guys that can help out and I have brown and Perry as my wingers