I'm not slagging on Edmonton. It's a fine city however in terms of attracting an affluent, young global and mobile talent pool it is a real disadvantage.
Macro View: The two hockey organizations are also significantly different. Vegas ascension was immediate as a start-up with a zero cap and finally favourable expansion draft terms. They've been backed by stable, elite management who have been able to navigate through their blunders and address issues in a number of ways. Oilers are mired at the back end of multiple failed management eras (4 including interim K. Gretzky) which bungled precious draft capital; eroded NHL level players; and bucked against the cap ceiling for much of it.
Micro View: The Oiler team is broken right now. As we heard from Draisaitl's broken media avail there's no answer, everything that can go wrong has gone wrong. They're shellshocked. As to the hard fixation of running out an ineffective Stack Line, I've long believed this is due to McDavid hiding a hand/wrist injury going back to before his 22% face-off game against Nashville. But regardless, nothing this team or its coach has done has mitigated the self-mistakes, poor decisions and bad habits, corrosively demoralizing bad goaltending that's gained snowball momentum running down hill.
Team accountability is lacking and now secondary on a shortened roster within an existential struggle.
I didnt think that you were slagging on Edmonton.
You were just highlighting the reality of Edmonton as an NHL destination.
That said the crux of your post was entirely on Vegas as a destination city and thats why I switched gears to focusing on the organization...not the city.
Its the organization and how its run that ultimately matters and thats were the focus should be.
So your Micro and Macro views are much more relevant than Vegas as a city.
Now in terms of the Macro view...Vegas did start off with a favorable roster but they didnt have the 2 best offensive players in the League to build around. The Oilers also (back in 2015) had plenty of cap space to start off with as well.
Its the stable and elite management in the Vegas organization that stands out to me. Thats were winning starts and the Oilers under Katz ownership failed right form his first day under his ownership. It could be argued that they have never recovered and have now wasted multiple years (possibly even their careers as Oilers) of the 2 best offensive players in the game.
So the micro view as you laid it out is really just an extension of the macro.
It represents a logical conclusion.
So all of this doesnt really take away from my initial point that winning organizations like Vegas just do things differently. You might even say that they are 180 degrees different form how the Oilers organization operates.
Accountability has been built in to their organization right from the start of their current ownership.
Katz has never done that with the Oilers and despite some moderate success this organization has been chasing his tail ever since.
