Why is EIG getting free ride? EIG are the ones that destroyed the team by being too cheap.
Sure, we can blame them for hiring Lowe if you want
Why is EIG getting free ride? EIG are the ones that destroyed the team by being too cheap.
Why are you guys wasting your words and time with this topic? It does nothing except it shows your hatred for Lowe and MacT.
Everybody is at fault......the entire organization from Katz on down.
Let it go and concentrate on the immediate future plan of the Oiler organization.
EIG ran Slats out of town and decided an AHL team is useless because they were too cheap.Sure, we can blame them for hiring Lowe if you want
EIG ran Slats out of town and decided an AHL team is useless because they were to cheap.
The 'rebuild' was a failure before it even started. The staff of the team that was one win away from the cup should have been canned the year Ryan Smyth was traded. Any idiot could lose for 10 straight years and collect high draft picks.
The leniency given to Edmonton Oilers' alumni cast a dark cloud over this organization for many years. You knew it, I knew it, the media knew it and the organization refused to accept it.
I think firing Tom Renney was honestly the big mistake.
The team was trending upwards improving by 12 points in his first season to second, Eberle, Hall, and even RNH all had fantastic starts to their NHL careers under him. I think RNH and Eberle played their best hockey under his guidance.
After that it started to go sideways a bit.
to add my ideas on why things went bad
1) all of Gagner, Yak and Nuge should have went back to Junioir--Hall had proved everything he needed and McDavid is the chosen ne
2) Oilers should have been more hands on earlier to get the Raiders to trade Leon earlier and return him to junior---I am not a Raider's fan when it comes to development--some junior teams just are better at developing players
3) The Moment the Oilers traded Smyth they should have put their hands up and called it a rebuild--
4) Stoll and Greene to LA Lubo and yes--I know when Stoll got nailed in vegas last year many of us where not shocked--but that deal hurt us more then some realise
5) hung on to Hemsky and Horcoff to long and Horcoff's final contracts was 2 years too long
6) The cogliano trade--I have always been a fan of his-he is small does he does everything the coaches ask
7) Both Cogs and Gagner should have been moved to the wing earlier
8) The Kyle Brodziuk deal---he is and was the prefect third line center---but with 5 other centers projected to be top 2 guys--tradiing brods made sense--the word projected is a word I know hat--who were the Project top centers with the oilers that lead to the trade? Brule, MAP, Nilson, Horcoff, Cogs, Gagner, and Schremp(gotta add him or BBO might go nuts) and who ended up being the best center of the bunch? Yes--Brods--he knew is job--a 6-2 center who was hard to play against
9) Everything involved with Erik Cole being an oilers--he never wanted to be in Edmonton--before you jump all over me--unlike nearly every other player who the oilers trade for--Cole lived in the hotel across the street from Northlands--that sent of my radar when he did not even try to look for a house
will add more later---but nearly nothing has gone right for the oilers
to add my ideas on why things went bad
1) all of Gagner, Yak and Nuge should have went back to Junioir--Hall had proved everything he needed and McDavid is the chosen ne
2) Oilers should have been more hands on earlier to get the Raiders to trade Leon earlier and return him to junior---I am not a Raider's fan when it comes to development--some junior teams just are better at developing players
3) The Moment the Oilers traded Smyth they should have put their hands up and called it a rebuild--
4) Stoll and Greene to LA Lubo and yes--I know when Stoll got nailed in vegas last year many of us where not shocked--but that deal hurt us more then some realise
5) hung on to Hemsky and Horcoff to long and Horcoff's final contracts was 2 years too long
6) The cogliano trade--I have always been a fan of his-he is small does he does everything the coaches ask
7) Both Cogs and Gagner should have been moved to the wing earlier
8) The Kyle Brodziuk deal---he is and was the prefect third line center---but with 5 other centers projected to be top 2 guys--tradiing brods made sense--the word projected is a word I know hat--who were the Project top centers with the oilers that lead to the trade? Brule, MAP, Nilson, Horcoff, Cogs, Gagner, and Schremp(gotta add him or BBO might go nuts) and who ended up being the best center of the bunch? Yes--Brods--he knew is job--a 6-2 center who was hard to play against
9) Everything involved with Erik Cole being an oilers--he never wanted to be in Edmonton--before you jump all over me--unlike nearly every other player who the oilers trade for--Cole lived in the hotel across the street from Northlands--that sent of my radar when he did not even try to look for a house
will add more later---but nearly nothing has gone right for the oilers
Agree with most of what you wrote, but Gagner was horrible on the wing and Cogs has said himself that the coaches tried to move him to the wing and he fought it because it wasn't until after he got traded that he realized he needed to reinvent his game.
Two things in your list stand out to me (as well as the failed Heatley and Nylander signings) - going after players that didn't want to play for the team: Lubo went to Edmonton kicking and screaming and it was pretty clear that Cole never wanted to be an Oiler. Surprise, surprise - both players ended up returning pennies on the dollar in trade value.
The worst thing about the Heatley fiasco is that he couldn't have made it any clearer, even before the deal was announced, that he didn't want to play here. For them to proceed with the trade, have him reject the team again, and then chase him all summer was embarrassing for the organization. The Oilers looked bush league over that and it never should have happened. I'm sure they knew he didn't want to come here even before it was made public. That's when the pursuit should have stopped. To continue from that point was another black mark on the team's reputation.
2009 souray had 50 something. We actually had promising D at that point. Souray, Vis young Gilbert and Grebby and Smid. Petry in the pipeline. Somehow Tambelini butchered it all.The Ryan Whitney injury really killed us too. We haven't had a d-man crack 35 points since ... I can't even remember. 2008?
Though Visnovsky was on pace to do so a few times.
2009 souray had 50 something. We actually had promising D at that point. Souray, Vis young Gilbert and Grebby and Smid. Petry in the pipeline. Somehow Tambelini butchered it all.
Letting Souray just rot in the minors to punish him was one of the dumber things any NHL organization has done in a while.
There were a lot of red flags with the way this team was being run going back years. Shame on Katz for doing nothing about it for as long as he did.
When Slats left, every move the Oilers made was bashed.
and the funny thing is it was the first thing he did on the job. not one month in and he cooked his goose. (course, with this organization, when Chia eventually gets fired, would any of us be surprised if Mact is the one that steps in? Even if its 10 years from now?)
When Slats left, every move the Oilers made was bashed.
The Ryan Whitney injury really killed us too. We haven't had a d-man crack 35 points since ... I can't even remember. 2008?
Though Visnovsky was on pace to do so a few times.