Official 2024-2025 Fire Bowman thread

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1) If they shit the bed in the playoffs and don’t get out of round 1 or 2, both he & Jackson should be gone.

2) If he went to the players and the players vouched for Skinner, it’s on them for putting friendship ahead of winning.

3) If he listened to the players in 2) above he still deserves to be fired for listening to the players instead of addressing the biggest, glaring weakness.
 
As an actual oilers fan I invite you all to go cheer for the flames.... I lived in Calgary for a couple years and it's about the same mentality. Your negativity is embarrassing. Guess I'm lucky to have things that actually matter .
 
Yeah the decade of darkness was actually way brighter on here. Very entitled segment of the fan base on here.

I mean people are saying Bowman had a terrible deadline. I'd like to remind everyone of 2018/19:

4 trades occurred between Christmas and the deadline on 02/16.

12/30/18
Trade 1:

To CHI: Caggiula and Garrison

To EDM: Manning and Norell.

Trade 2:

To FLA: Wideman and a 2019 3rd

To EDM: Alex Petrovic (we paid a 3rd for this guy)


02/15/19

To PHI: Talbot

To EDM: Stolarz (UFA, signed by ANA in July)


02/16/19

To VAN: Gagner

To EDM: Spooner (completes the Eberle-Strome-Spooner debacle)



That is several factors of 10 worse than any deadline we've had since, 2020 included.
 
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It's an annual tradition for me to start one of these threads.

Was hoping I wouldn't have to once that clown Holland left. But Bowman is clearly no better.

Yet another year of McDrai wasted on a defense with a glaring hole in the top 4, a starting goaltender that is anti-clutch and zero depth scoring.

Spot the difference:
images


image


edmonton-oilers-gm-stan-bowman-1-2152712-1721849775037.jpeg


Spoiler alert. They're the same image
Well they are all old and bombastic names. The Oilers probably buy their milk after the best before date too.
 
I can’t honestly point the finger at Bowman just yet. The worst moves weren’t his and he does have a built in excuse with cap restraints. Maybe he has a plan but he needs the off season.

If he actually is a dipshit that sucks for us because he’s going to get more time.

I think he’s going to need to retool a little bit, that’s a tough job for any GM but he’ll have had plenty of time to evaluate.
 
Meh, it's not like he completely destroyed the team. We are a better team after the trade deadline than before it, considering we got 3 players without moving a single roster player. Frederic and Jones will be useful in the playoffs, making the team tough to play against, additionally getting EK back. And Walman is a legitimate top 4 d-man for a late 1st round pick that has a much lower upside potential than an early first round pick. A lot of the guys taken after 15 don't even make the NHL or are 3rd or 4th line players, so that's actually a really good trade.

Goaltending is an issue, but it's clear there weren't many options out there. The only goalie who actually got traded was Mrazek, not much of an upgrade over Skinner. Plus, any goalie would demand a high asking price, and we have too many ntcs on this team.

I mean think about it let's say we trade Jeff Skinner for cap space. Dude still has 11 goals this year, and he'd be a cap dump, but there's nothing really out there to trade for that's better, so what's the point in trading him for the sake of trading him? Same with Arvidsson, he sucks, but he'd be another cap dump so it's pointless cause we wouldn't be able to use the cap til the off-season. No point screwing with the depth for the playoffs, that's when we actually need it.

So, cut Bowman some slack in my opinion. The ntcs aren't his fault and there's no point cap dumping players when you need depth.
 
Meh, it's not like he completely destroyed the team. We are a better team after the trade deadline than before it, considering we got 3 players without moving a single roster player. Frederic and Jones will be useful in the playoffs, making the team tough to play against, additionally getting EK back. And Walman is a legitimate top 4 d-man for a late 1st round pick that has a much lower upside potential than an early first round pick. A lot of the guys taken after 15 don't even make the NHL or are 3rd or 4th line players, so that's actually a really good trade.

Goaltending is an issue, but it's clear there weren't many options out there. The only goalie who actually got traded was Mrazek, not much of an upgrade over Skinner. Plus, any goalie would demand a high asking price, and we have too many ntcs on this team.

I mean think about it let's say we trade Jeff Skinner for cap space. Dude still has 11 goals this year, and he'd be a cap dump, but there's nothing really out there to trade for that's better, so what's the point in trading him for the sake of trading him? Same with Arvidsson, he sucks, but he'd be another cap dump so it's pointless cause we wouldn't be able to use the cap til the off-season. No point screwing with the depth for the playoffs, that's when we actually need it.

So, cut Bowman some slack in my opinion. The ntcs aren't his fault and there's no point cap dumping players when you need depth.

The bar isn’t “not destroying the team”. The bar is winning a Stanley cup. Anything less than that is a failure. The moves that the Oilers have made do not feel like they come close to putting this current edition of the Oilers over the top.

And the Oilers didn’t need to dump anyone to make an addition at the deadline. He said himself that wasn’t an issue that people were making it out to be. They could have quite easily added a player worth $6m with 50% retention today. Bowman just couldn’t get it done.
 
The cope virus is all over this thread. People who were begging for a new goalie yesterday are now trying to rationalize this mismanagement and claim that no options were available, even though it's clear that the team didn't even prioritize goaltending, as was told to us by their own media. I mean nobody even knew Spencer Knight was available and he was moved. It never hurts to ask...

We can hope and pray and cheer for the same luck and success we had last season, but this team is playing its worst hockey in four years and its biggest area of concern was not addressed. To say not enough was done would be a massive understatement.

There is also no guarantee that Walman will be a Top-4 D-man unless we sink to the level of a San Jose. People were expecting Emberson to fit like a glove on the second-pair with Nurse...didn't quite happen, did it? Not to knock him, glad Emberson is here and definitely glad Ceci isn't, but it remains to be seen if the Walman add is a slam-dunk move or a just a decent upgrade.

I will be positive and say that this team is much better on paper with Kane, Frederic, and Walman, possibly Jones if his first game was any indication and not just a one-off, but that "much better" is compared to a team that, since the break, looks far weaker than last season and can only win in regulation through fluke performances.
 
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Is it too late to start a don't hire him thread? He's done nothing, anyone on hf could do a better job even tod from leduc or whatever the hell his name is.
 
As an actual oilers fan I invite you all to go cheer for the flames.... I lived in Calgary for a couple years and it's about the same mentality. Your negativity is embarrassing. Guess I'm lucky to have things that actually matter .
You mean as an actual Oilers homer*

Oilers fan are free to vent and criticize misses and screwup if they happen and not blindly love all moves made (not made)

They will cheer for the team but will also point out glaring holes on the squad.
 
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It's an annual tradition for me to start one of these threads.

Was hoping I wouldn't have to once that clown Holland left. But Bowman is clearly no better.

Yet another year of McDrai wasted on a defense with a glaring hole in the top 4, a starting goaltender that is anti-clutch and zero depth scoring.

Spot the difference:
images


image


edmonton-oilers-gm-stan-bowman-1-2152712-1721849775037.jpeg


Spoiler alert. They're the same image
Feel free to take my opinion with a grain of salt.

The moment that Bowman was hired as our GM, I was very pessimistic of us having a chance to win a Stanley Cup with McDavid.

I can't blame Bowman for the moves he's made because as an organization, we've shown nothing but disdain towards the entire draft and development process. Regardless, my opinion of Bowman is that he's a man who had a Stanley Cup team handed to him. He did not build that team.

During some of our decade of despair, we didn't even have our own farm team. And when we finally got one, it took so long before we had a hockey player that actually developed in the AHL before coming into the NHL and playing significant minutes, I believe. Oscar Klefbom was the first relevant player in many years to be developed by the Oilers in the minors.

You can look at broberg and Holloway and sure they turned into really good players but we alienated the hell out of them to the point that they didn't want to have any future association with this.

We have three prospects in the system now and I'm pretty sure it would be a miracle if two of them turned into core players. I think we'd be really lucky if one of them turned out to be a relevant part of a core on a winning team.

When Leon won his first hart trophy, the Edmonton Oilers were the first team in NHL history to have two different hart trophy winners who win the trophy while on the same team together and that team didn't win a Stanley Cup.

There's a very strong possibility that Leon wins a heart this year and now we will have two players who've each won two heart trophies and we have no Stanley cups. One Stanley Cup final appearance.

Apologies if there's a nasty cloud hanging over my head, but I couldn't care less if we let Leon and McDavid walk to a good team so they could win some cups at this point because they're very deserving.

We are the oldest team in the league, we have three semi-relevant prospects in the system, we don't have a first round pick until 2027, and this year we have a third a sixth and a 7th round pick.

If our media had any integrity whatsoever, these would all be major talking points.
 
It's been long overdue and tragic that they've not relied on HFOil as their leading source of hockey ops information and decision making. Just slam up a bunch of polls and let us take over.
 
As an actual oilers fan I invite you all to go cheer for the flames.... I lived in Calgary for a couple years and it's about the same mentality. Your negativity is embarrassing. Guess I'm lucky to have things that actually matter .

Actual fans want this team to win. If they get upset because obvious upgrades to the roster don't happen, it's as clear a sign as any that they actually give a shit. How is that not being a real fan?

Being a blind, homer optimist who shuts off all critical thought doesn't make you a better fan, it just means you're either less passionate about the team and/or less intelligent.
 
Skinner must have naked pictures of Jackson with farm animals and is threatening to post them on social media, I can’t understand what they are seeing with this guy that they keep on going with him.

It's beyond belief. Unless it's a call from McDrai or Katz, I'm totally baffled. Bowman can't be that stupid, right?

Right?
 
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Actual fans want this team to win. If they get upset because obvious upgrades to the roster don't happen, it's as clear a sign as any that they actually give a shit. How is that not being a real fan?

Being a blind, homer optimist who shuts off all critical thought doesn't make you a better fan, it just means you're either less passionate about the team and/or less intelligent.
Go cry
 

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