Jets are my favorite team but when they left, i followed the Oilers closely. I'm a Jets fan first but would be happy if the Oilers were good also. But they aren't. Something is seriously wrong there, I watched a few of the recent Oiler games and what i saw was guys basically giving up, I watch the Jets last night for example and they are a roster that is absolutely decimated with injury and i see a team trying their hardest to win, they did win 2-1. They beat Minny the game prior 5-1, they are trying hard and that's without Little, Perreault, Enstrom,Myers... that's 2 top 6 guys and 2 top 4 d men. The younger guys are stepping up, the vet leaders like Wheeler and Buff are showing the kids like Scheifele, Ehlers, Armia even, Petan,Dano, etc etc the way... I don't see that with Edmonton. I see 1 player (McDavid) trying hard but i see a bunch of other guys who just don't give a crap if they win or lose, Losing has become acceptable for some of these players, they are used to it, they refuse to change their games or adapt to play a 2 way game. I see a team who has a ton of talent but perhaps what they lack is players that actually want to win? I dunno. The culture of losing is strong, you need to rid yourselves of several of the "older" core players, Eberle, Yakupov (not sure i consider him a core player tho), Hall even, You need to Build around McDavid.. he's a good player but if you keep the guys who have created this culture of losing around, and that includes the guys at the top of the totem pole like Lowe,MacT etc, then nothing changes.
Build around McDavid, he's a great player. You got a goalie now in Talbot.
You put Talbot on the Jets and the Jets are fighting for a playoff spot as the Jets main issues this year have been goaltending, the PP and the PK.
Oilers main issues seems to be what it's been for the last 5 6 years now, a team with a ton of skill but really no work ethic and a team that honestly, doesn't seem to care that they are losing. That's a problem. Once losing becomes acceptable, that's a problem and i think that's the biggest problem the Oilers have, 75 percent of that team is used to losing, it's acceptable, that needs to change and that changes only 1 way, you move some of these players out, Yeah you might not get what you think some of these guys are worth but... sometimes addition by subtraction works also.
As for trading for Hamonic.. Travis Hamonic is a good player but trading a top 5 pick for Hamonic is ridiculous, he's good but he's not that good. He has injury concerns and is not worth a top 5 pick. Travis Hamonic won't make you go from last to the playoffs, he might make you go from last to 5th last tho, there are bigger problems on this team, I'm not sure why some of the more hardcore oiler fans can't see it when the casuals like myself can. Perhaps i'm not bias and because the oilers are my 2nd favorite team, perhaps that is why I can see it and some can't? I dunno but 5 6 years of losing, it can't be cured, these guys aren't just gonna find the ON switch all of a sudden, how many different coaches now? Eventually you need to realize coaches coach and players play... The oilers have been bad for 5 6 years now... that's on the players cuz the coaches have changed many times now. Time to change up some of the players.