Here’s what the Oilers should do. Hire 5 more pro scouts. Have them dedicate themselves to watching the worst teams in the League. Teams that will actually be sellers and teams where the trade target player actually wants to find a better situation and would consider Edmonton, that. Have them find the next Petry or the next Ullmark just toiling away on a bad team. That’s how you win trades, that’s how you build a contender. We can’t be going for known quantities anymore, we already blew our load with Hyman, Kane, Campbell in UFA. There’s only so much money to go around, at this point you NEED to find some bargains. Of course all of this would have been nice before Archie wasted years of the McD era with his old and tired eyes.
This strategy could have included our PTOs in a small sense too. Instead of retreads and injury recovery hopefuls we could have targeted younger, higher potential guys and just hopes something sticks.
Last year, Kostin stuck, he was a 1st rounder with high potential, toiling away on a bad team in a bad situation. It worked cause he had the necessary talent to make something happen and it worked cause he appreciated the oppurtunity to be here.