How do the Oilers always find themselves in this situation? The Edmonton Oilers are doing what they do best in being a complete, total, disappointing disaster as they are currently sitting as the 2nd worst team in the entire NHL.
The Oilers really do take the cake as the most consistent and baffling disappointing team in the NHL.
Despite having two of the Top-5 best players in hockey, the Edmonton Oilers are underperforming to an unfathomable extreme as they are currently 2nd to last in the NHL, 2nd to last in the West, and sit on a 2-8-1 record. And, to be honest, I think the Oilers need to make a HUGE change to break up this systemic inconsistency.
Well, I wrote an article about the Sharks being the absolute bottom feeders of the NHL a few days ago, and that article still holds up on twenty-five feet right now as they are still a dogshit team. But you know who’s not too far behind? Yes, that’s right, the Edmonton Oilers.
I really don’t know how (well, I do…but I’ll get to that in a second) the Oilers have turned into this crap team overnight, but I do know for certain that the Oilers look like a completely pathetic, useless, limp, and honestly dead team that has about as much of a chance making the playoffs now as Mr. Magoo does driving on the highway without getting into an 18-car pileup. It’s just not happening.
Sure, it’s only been a little under a month played and there is a good 70 games left for Edmonton to rebound from this disaster start, but A. the Oilers have no goaltending and defense to even compete at a high level if McDavid and Draisaitl aren’t scoring 150+ points in a season, and B. the Oilers are ALREADY 11 points adrift of the Top-3 in the Pacific division and 6 points behind the 8th and final wild card spot.
Now, 6 points isn’t too much of a hill to climb and especially not for a team with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on it, but as I said, the Oilers just don’t have anything going for them beyond those two forwards and Evan Bouchard on defense. And even McDavid this year has been very average (by his lofty standards, obviously) with him only scoring 10 points in 9 games.
Still, at least four of the six defensemen on this team are not good enough to be playing in their, respective, placements on the Top-6 (and, yes, that definitely includes Darnell Nurse), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Evander Kane, Zach Hyman, etc. have been mere stat padders this year and have not been involved nearly enough in meaningful games, the Bottom-6 might as well be an AHL lineup, and Jack Cambell (who got waived today) and Stuart Skinner look like they belong in the ECHL with their play.
The Oilers have gotten by with bad Bottom-6 and defensive depth, horrific goaltending and stat padder Top-6 players solely due to Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl’s excellence. Yet, as we know can see, the Oilers are one of the worst teams in the league when these two guys are just producing at a 1 point/game or even a 1.3 point/game ratio (which is fantastic for 99.9% of all players in the league).
That’s not winning hockey.
I wrote an article about a year ago now that the Oilers would most likely have to break-up the Draisaitl and McDavid duo sooner rather than later to actually get the necessary depth and cap space to compete at the highest level, and I feel that this year should be the year they do that.
I know Ken Holland is about as forward-thinking in the modern NHL as a damn T-Rex is on the effects of nuclear power plants in the environment, but the Oilers need to embrace this crap season for what it is, tank for a Top-5 pick (which is what they’re on pace of having), draft one of the best forward (or maybe even defensive) prospects, trade preferably Draisaitl, Nugent-Hopkins, Hyman, and one of those defenseman for a shit ton of assets in return, spend to the top of the cap on great depth pieces and players to build SOLELY around McDavid, fix the goaltending, and go from there.
The past seven years have shown that the Oilers CAN’T WIN with both McDavid and Draisaitl in the lineup and racking up 20%+ of the salary cap. I mean, maybe it’s possible if they had competent GMs and coaches over the last 5-7 years, but they haven’t and I fear the ship of them winning together has passed.
Is this a tall order to do all of these changes? Yes. Is it possible to achieve? I mean, I think so as Draisaitl is bound to bring the Oilers at least 6 TOP QUALITY assets in return given his status as one of the Top-5 players in the NHL, Hyman, Nugent-Hopkins, and one of the defensemen all have reasonable enough contracts and past stat lines to move on from and get quality assets in return, the cap is set to raise by $5M+ this upcoming offseason to help them bring in free agent talent for McDavid, and having one of the Top-5 players in the draft could hopefully help fill the superstar void left by Draisaitl.
But, since Ken Holland is still in charge, this is all a stupid pipe dream, and the Oilers are just going to trade their 1st round pick for some washed-up has-been and end up missing the playoffs regardless.
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