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What's Next For The Oilers?
Posted on January 23, 2019 by alsonlee Standard	Reply
The most Stock photo representation of the Oilers I could find.
Photo by James Wheeler on Pexels.com
The inevitable has happened. Peter Chiarelli was fired as the GM of the Edmonton Oilers. Keith Gretzky has been named the interim GM while the brain trust finds a permanent replacement. Chiarelli is the first fired Edmonton Oilers' GM to not be retained in a limited fashion since Glen Sather left in 2000. In the past 19 years, Kevin Lowe, Steve Tambellini, and Craig MacTavish have all been re-assigned instead of being fired, with Kevin Lowe and Craig MacTavish still remaining with the team. This is significant, as Chiarelli will not have any influence on the team moving forward, unlike Lowe and MacTavish.
Edmonton Oilers' CEO Bob Nicholson has stated that he would like to change the organizational philosophy, and today's move has done so. Kailer Yamamoto has been sent down to gain more seasoning.
With the possible change in philosophy, what are the long term steps for the Oilers? We're here today to explore that, and we've come up with a few ideas.
Turn a new leaf, with new management and new philosophies. When it comes to the Oilers and the last ten years, they've become infamous for two main reasons; being terrible, and winning the first overall pick. Teams with winning records and backgrounds don't get known for these things; just ask the Detroit Red Wings. For this, the Oilers will have to tear it all down, and start from the beginning. How much appetite does the organization have for a teardown like this? This has to be initiated from the top at ownership, and there does not seem to be too interest from Katz. To do this, the Oilers have to hire externally for their next GM, and avoid hiring a former Oilers star to take his place. Their ideal GM would have a proven track record with a big market, and has a speciality in trading. The Oilers of the past have been alright when it comes to drafting, but if the Hall and Eberle sagas have said anything; they need help with player retention. For the prospective GM, the main selling point would have to be, Connor McDavid, and the thought that, "Hey, we've bottomed out, what can I do to make it worse?". It's an interesting proposition, and I would say there's a 30% chance of this happening.
The same old remains the same old. The Oilers hire someone within the organization to lead the organization. Why? Because why not. Stop making tasty wines Wayne Gretzky and come on down! Stop trying to fix the defense on the ice and come up to the front office Paul Coffey! Come down the hallway Craig MacTavish! I suppose it has something to do with the name recognition and the ability to excite fans, but your GM should not be what excites people! It should be the players! People pay hard-earned money to watch the players play on the ice, and not the GM make some phone calls. Besides, this has totally worked in the past, why can't it happen again? Right? In all honesty, this is the path I would not want to see. There comes a point where you just kind of feel bad for the team, and we're getting real close to there. It's never really worked before and we understand psychologically why. The organization needs a new direction, as the old one clearly hasn't gone so well. Unfortunately, past behaviour is usually the best indicator of future behaviour, and is the most likely scenario, I give this a 55% chance of happening.
So I'm going to preface this with this idea being a total long shot, but it would be the absolute greatest. I'm also going to preface this with I hope Eugene Melnyk is reading this, because he could save a whole bunch of money with this idea. Darryl Katz becomes the new GM of the Edmonton Oilers. Why? Because it's totally worked in other sports. Look at Jerry Jones and how successful the Dallas Cowboys are. They're America's Team, and with Darryl Katz at the helm of the Oilers they could become Canada's Team, oh, absolute shivers down my spine. (Editor's Note: How you interpret the shivers is up to you the readers). Ignore the fact that the owner of the Stanley Cup winning Capitals said that, "If you're making the decisions and you think what you know is more than your coach and general manager, then they can't work for you." Ignore that! You can do better than that! With the braintrust of Bob Nicholson, Wayne Gretzky, Kevin Lowe, Craig MacTavish, etc. You could definitely manage the team! It's like managing a large drug store right? I would like to say after my convincing and arguments, the likelihood of it happening is higher than 5%, but 5% is already pushing it and I am not going to push my luck much further.
So there you have it folks, the Oilers are at a crossroads, and need to do something. What can they do? I personally would say do number three. That's definitely the best option for the fans (of other teams), financially, and hockey wise. Do you have any ideas? Let us know in the comments below!
With the end of this post, I'm going to start a new segment with a completely outlandish trade rumor that Twitter users believe. I hope you like it, and hey maybe I'm the crazy one here.
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