Back in 2010 when Steve Tambellini came at the podium at the Staples Center calling for Taylor Hall to be the 2010 1st overall choice, it set the tone for the future of the franchise. The goal was simple, to rebuild through the draft. In fact the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Chicago Blackhawks were perfect examples of that method, the former with the likes of Marc-Andre Fleury, Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby, and the latter with Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane or Brent Seabrook. Both have been hitting bottom before coming back from the dead to be NHL powerhouses and part of the most prolific teams the NHL has ever produced. The Chicago Blackhawks are considered to be a new generation of Hockey Dynasty with two Stanley Cups and being contenders year-in and year-out. Something interesting about these teams also is that it was not about drafting 1st overall picks after 1st overall, but just drafting « well ».
The Edmonton Oilers had that unique chance to draft 3 straight 1st overall picks (happened once before with the Quebec Nordiques from 1989 to 1991), with Taylor Hall in 2010, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in 2011 and Nail Yakupov in 2012. With that amount of supposedly talent the team should be pretty good and seeing result for drafting that high for so long, but unfortunately we are still far away from seeing any results and the draft choices made by the team since 2005 have not been able to reach their full potential or have not been good enough to make it to the NHL. Since then coaches have been fired, Craig MacTavish after 8 seasons behind the bench, our recently defunct Pat Quinn, Tom Renney, and Ralph Krueger and I should mention that Dallas Eakins, the actual coach has been considered to be on the hot-seat since the beginning of the season.
The Edmonton Oilers are in a middle of one of their worst streak ever with 7 straight losses and only one win to count since beginning of November. Many insiders have been reporting that a trade or trades are about to come and except Taylor Hall, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins everyone else is expandable. Some of the names advanced are David Perron and surprisingly Jordan Eberle. For a long long time I thought Jordan Eberle was the soul of this team more than Taylor Hall, and that he should have been named the captain instead of Ference who just has just come in. But now with everything happening in Edmonton I have doubt that he will be part of the futur or will step on the ice of the new Rogers Place. He has still high value in the market and many teams have to be interested in the quality of hockey he could bring. But the truth is this team has disappointed their fans and the hockey community and I dare say their heritage for way too long. It is time that a real change comes to Oilers nation and if it means that they should put into motion a trade involving Eberle they should do it. Obviously at the condition that there is a good deal on the table and a great return. But when I talk about real change I am not only referring to players or coaches, but front office and especially scouting staffs.
I was asking myself a couple of questions concerning that hockey department within the hockey club, and how can the scouting team have been so bad in so many years, and do you know what is really interesting? Despite coaches fired, General Managers fired and Executive fired, the scouting team has hardly changed since 2007. Stu MacGregor has been the Director of Amateur Scouting since 2007 and Morey Gare has been scouting for the Oilers since 2001 and became Director of Professional Scouting in 2008. I am not sure on what I am going to advance but it seems like nothing has changed in that department since a couple of years and especially the years when the Oilers needed to draft well in any rounds to reproduce the model of the Blackhawks and Penguins. Another guess I am going to throw like that is the success of the team on late rounds. It seems like the Oilers are part of these few teams which are incapable of finding these late draft picks who surprise everyone. and I am going to link to one article, an interview from MacTavish on the Edmonton Sun from February 2014 talking about the next entry draft. It is laughable and at the same time horrifying.
So the scouting staff is the problem in this team and actually MacTavish and Kevin Lowe could be good but the fact that they have not been able to recognize the weakness of the team on its core foundation, where everything starts should be enough to firing them without any notice. I have been looking at the Oilers since 2008 expecting them to do better year after year; 6 years after we are almost on the verge of a revolution and the Oilers might be looking at the Connor McDavid sweepstakes even more than teams like the Buffalo Sabres or Florida Panthers.
Like Nickelback sing “What do we want? We want the change and how're we gonna get there? Revolution”
PS: Out 23 active players on their roster only 7 have been drafted by them and on the Oklahoma City Barons, out of 23 players only 10 are results of their choice. I have not count the ones signed through free agency out of the NCAA or CHL but still it gives an idea of the poor results the team has had.
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