Oilers 2015 Another tank year?

[McDNicks17]

Noah Hanifin - Aaron Ekblad looks go to me.

Sean Day or Jakob Chychrun in 2016 too.

Bonus points to Chychrun for being a former Oiler's son.

 

[Philly85*]

I don't even want to ****ing think about it

 

[Mr Forever]

watches as the Oilers finish 1st in the west next year.

Are you predicting some type of scenario where there's a global conflict and most of the players in the NHL go off to fight in a war, leaving the oilers and their nancy boys to dominate the rest of the barren wasteland?

 

[Broilers]

So I was looking ahead to next year... go figure... and I realize with Eakins at the helm and our current roster it is most likely that we will bottom 5 again.

This isn't a would of, could of, hopefully will happen thread about potential roster changes, this is a stark sad look at our situation next year without a miracle.

Is there any real indications that Eakins can turn this team around? No, there is no advanced stats, wins, or anything that would lead me to believe he could change the ways of this club.

Our roster next year with no new faces.

Hall RNH Eberle
Perron Arco Yak
Hendricks Gordon Gagner
Joensuu Smyth Gazdic

Marincin Petry
Ference Schultz
Klefbom Fraser

Scrivens
Fasth

The only place we will have improved on is goaltending. The most important, but I think we have proven that will not be enough to right the ship that Eakins is sinking.

I fully expect a few changes to tweak the line-up but really the places we need to improve will be very difficult to upgrade. #1/2 D-men, #2 center, Big effective players.

So the questions is. When the Oilers are out of playoff contention by the quarter mark again who will still go to live games or follow the Oilers at all? Basically what will you do if the Oilers continue to suck like they have?

I know I will follow them on PVR'd games just to keep tabs. I do think in 2-3 years when some of our young prospects grow we could be a playoff contending team then. But I firmly believe our team is going to be disaster next year as well.

You are way too negative. This group of players will take us pick between 6-10.
I have never thought to convert Gagner to winger. Good idea. Maybe he become difference maker here same way like Cogliano in Anaheim.

I think anyway that Gagner should be traded for the help in defense. We need one veteran top3 ideally number 1 defense man to mentor younger players. If we can get Erhoff or Campbell I think that we will have chance pick as late as 8-12.

What we truly need is 3rd line. Only Boyd is true 3rd liner. If we can acquire at least one gritty third line winger with scoring touch (35 points or more) we can start to match better with big western teams. Hendricks and Smyth can take care of 4 th line.

My shopping list is
Top 3 defense man
3rd line RW
3rd line LW
Big 2nd line center

I know that these holes can not be filled during the summer. WE can draft big center but he needs some education. Definitely MacT should his best and take care of the rest of the business next year. Tanking is not possible at this point we are in the upp swing already. It is time strenghten that swing not tanking.

 

[GMofOilers]

With Eakins coaching for sure we will finish at the bottom of the league. The sad thing is that im actually totally fine with it next year, as Mcdavid is going to be awesome

 

[Gone]

With Eakins coaching for sure we will finish at the bottom of the league. The sad thing is that im actually totally fine with it next year, as Mcdavid is going to be awesome

No, the Oilers will be 30th all year and win the last game moving them into 29th. Making McDavid a Flame.

 

[McJadeddog]

Without significant changes, this team is still bottom 5.

without question.... and i highly doubt that we're going to have any major changes, unless we steal from paul to pay peter... ie. trade eberle to get a legit top-2 dman back.... all that does is handcuff our already terrible offensive ability for a sleight improvement on defence

people keep saying that this team needs help on defence, and we do (oh god do we ever!), but our offence is almost as bad as our defence... outside of hall/eberle/RNH and the odd game where perron shows up, we don't have anybody who can put the puck in the net... maybe yakupov, but i don't think he'll ever become a good player under eakins

no, this team, barring some miracle of epic proportions, will be a bottom-5 team again next year

 

[GMofOilers]

No, the Oilers will be 30th all year and win the last game moving them into 29th. Making McDavid a Flame.

Still could win the lottery

 

[McJadeddog]

Are you predicting some type of scenario where there's a global conflict and most of the players in the NHL go off to fight in a war, leaving the oilers and their nancy boys to dominate the rest of the barren wasteland?

this is pretty much the only scenario in which i could actually see the oilers making the playoffs, and i'm not kidding

people are absolutely DELUSIONAL if they think we can make the playoffs next year with essentially the same team, or even a couple major moves.... we need an entire team overhaul

i don't want to tank next year, but i think we will anyhow... so might as well hope for the best and draft mcdavid

 

[Lewy]

I voted bottom 5 based on the current roster, could change depending on off-season moves. We should have this again just before the season so the optimism meter can shoot up.

 

[Beerfish]

The Oilers have never 'tanked' so the title is a bit misleading. Tanking infers being bad or losing on purpose to acheive a better pick. The oilers have never done this, they have legitimately been that bad. As for the question, it is a good draft year so they will not be top 5, if it is a good draft year they schelp out of the top 5, if it is a bad top end they will be top 3, it's what they do.

 

[Perfect_Drug]

As crazy as this sounds...


This team should be coached by Marc Crawford.

We are built like the firewagon style teams he likes to coach, and can drum up some really high value for some of our trade bait.


I understand everyone hates him, but nearly every offensive player thrives under him. He doesn't coach a 'winning' brand of hockey, but at least its exciting, emotionally charged, and gives players some confidence.

 

[Oi'll say!]

No real reason to expect a better result next year than we got this year.

If anything we can expect Scrivens to tail off somewhat from his unrealistic 2014 here. DD was only 3 games below .500 in the last 108 games he played b4 this year and Scrivens is already 2 games below .500 after only 19 gp. His .930+ is down to .916 now which took more than a few .905 games, and if he is a .905 goalie next year this team is definitely in the tank. Fasth is down to .896 now, just .002 ahead of Dubnyk. Our goaltending is coming back down to earth.

If the past means anything the Oilers will stick with MacT and his new hiree coach, unload a couple 23-25 yr olds for some rookies/prospects/picks and then have a high failure rate with their own draft picks.


Best reason for optimisim is that after all of MacT's off-season moves the Oilers will still start off with 6 wins in their first 20 games and we will finally get a new coach. It's just a question of how badly our team is broken by the time they get someone here to start fixing it. But we are only getting a coach, there won't be any moves re: MacT or Lowe.

 

[Slicknitty]

Bump

Seriously, we need a tank thread, we're 30th ffs.

 

[Lock]

Being genuinely awful and tanking arent the same thing.

I honestly believe that management thought that the team would be competing for a playoff spot last season.

They have absolutely no idea what they're doing.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

So proud of being right, I guess?

 

[Oilers Apologist]

After the 11 game losing streak, everyone was angry. It seemed like the fact that MacT at least addressed the media seemed to calm things down just a bit, but the fact we've won 1 of our last 16 games is pathetic. Coaches in house league would be fired over this. The argument that "It's not Eakins fault" is a lie. His system is obviously not working therefore it is his fault. Ya he has a crap team to work with, but so did Ted Nolan and even Hartley to an extent.

I've been flip flopping between blowing it up and not blowing it up, but it's so clear now that something needs to be done.

 

[The Human Torch]

I don't think the Oilers are "tanking," that implies a concerted, intentional effort to be bad in order to improve.

These guys just suck. Management, scouting, coaching, players. They're all just bad.

This is as good as it gets until this organization is purged from the face of the earth.

 

[Oilers Apologist]

I don't think the Oilers are "tanking," that implies a concerted, intentional effort to be bad in order to improve.

These guys just suck. Management, scouting, coaching, players. They're all just bad.

This is as good as it gets until this organization is purged from the face of the earth.

I think this is a modern day effort to tank. They went into the season knowing they had two NHL centers, and though they had hoped to be better, once the wheels fell off they did nothing to address it.

 

[Wafflewhipper]

After the 11 game losing streak, everyone was angry. It seemed like the fact that MacT at least addressed the media seemed to calm things down just a bit, but the fact we've won 1 of our last 16 games is pathetic. Coaches in house league would be fired over this. The argument that "It's not Eakins fault" is a lie. His system is obviously not working therefore it is his fault. Ya he has a crap team to work with, but so did Ted Nolan and even Hartley to an extent.

I've been flip flopping between blowing it up and not blowing it up, but it's so clear now that something needs to be done.

Eakins is a good coach bud. When he coached the Marlies the players would come up prepared and competitive. The oil are full of holes and frustration right now. They are young and make mistakes that hurt.

Mac is staying the course with young players and not quoting. There is something to be said for that. I obviously like that being a leaf fan that will never get the chance to see a ground up rebuild.

This will work out long term and the players will have to just forget it and move on. The cost on players confidence is really the thing that needs to be kept in check through the process.

Hang tight it will start coming together soon enough. Hell it must be tough though.

good luck and I hope you survive.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

Eakins is a good coach bud.

Maybe in the AHL in the most "desirable" market, in the NHL he's an awful coach. The team has holes, but all teams do, good coaches mitigate those, they don't ignore them.

 

[LTIR]

Maybe in the AHL in the most "desirable" market, in the NHL he's an awful coach. The team has holes, but all teams do, good coaches mitigate those, they don't ignore them.

Eakins is a good coach when he has carrots to dangle and get ppl buy into his craziness. In the AHL it works since NHL is the carrot.. In the NHL hes got nothing when players get sick of his ideas

 

[Bankerguy]

Oilers getting Mcdavid would be such an injustice ...

It would be so bad for hockey. Oilers get rewarded for sucking...and not just sucking one year..but ..its like a reward for being an embarrassment of an organization who cant get better year after year after year of accumulating high picks.

It would also be bad for Mcdavid... going into an atmosphere like that... It could really stunt his career.

 

[redgrant]

What we need is a system like European football where teams that tank get regulated. That way you have the Florida Columbus Oilers of the world in a separate division with an incentive to play their way up.

 

[Capslock17]

back off, mcdavid is ours