More Oilers Autopsy 2014-15 stories:
EDMONTON — If those who took the
Journal’s annual Oilers reader survey this year owned Edmonton’s National
Hockey League club, general manager Craig MacTavish would have reason to worry.
In an about-face from last season,
when the Oilers finished 28th in the 30-team league — they’ll end the current
campaign in the same position — 58 per cent of the 7,318 who took our survey
said MacTavish should be fired. That is up from last year, when 22 per cent
said MacT should lose his job.
Frustration among Oilers fans is
understandable.
The team will miss the playoffs for
the ninth straight season and will remain entrenched near the bottom of the NHL
standings for the second consecutive year under MacTavish.
Perhaps correspondingly,
expectations of watching the Oilers in the playoffs have also withered, the
survey found. Ten per cent believe the Oilers will make the NHL post-season
next year, down from 16 per cent last April.
And fewer readers surveyed believe
the team will reach the playoffs in two seasons — 30 per cent voted that way in
2015, compared to 42 per cent in 2014.
More of you said it will take the
Oilers four or more seasons to hit the post-season dance — 34 per cent this
year compared to 20 per cent last year. The three-seasons crowd weighed in at
26 per cent, up from 21 per cent.
Other observations from this year’s
survey:
Taylor Hall is the young core
forward you would more likely trade to acquire other assets. Eighteen per cent
said Hall would be the one they would shop, up from four per cent last year.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is firmly entrenched among the readers surveyed. One per
cent say they would peddle him for other players, down from four per cent. Both
Nail Yakupov and Jordan Eberle garnered more love from the fans. Overall,
though, 30 per cent of readers said all of the young core players should be
kept, up from 20 per cent a year ago.
The question about trading core
forwards can be related to the question about the most-popular player.
Nugent-Hopkins is No. 1 on the list, with 28 per cent of the votes, up from
seven per cent last year. Hall, last year’s favourite with 37 per cent support,
dropped to 10 per cent. Could it be related to scoring? Nugent-Hopkins is
second in team scoring this season with a team-high 24 goals (also a personal
best) and 56 points. Hall, who has missed 29 games due to injury this season
and has scored 13 goals and 36 points, led the team in scoring in 2013-14 with
80 points.
Almost two-thirds of respondents
said the Oilers should remove the interim tag and keep Todd Nelson as head
coach, with 21 per cent saying they were unsure. Last season, we asked if
then-head coach Dallas Eakins should be fired, with 36 per cent saying yes and
52 per cent saying no’
Oilers president of hockey
operations Kevin Lowe continued to be an unpopular figure in the survey — 78
per cent said he should be fired from his post, up from 74 per cent last year.
In the fan spending department, the
number of those who say they spent from $101-$500 on Oilers tickets and
merchandise is down five per cent from last year to 19 per cent. The number of
those who said they spent nothing on Oilers “stuff” rose to 36 per cent from
31.Details of the results are below.
Following is a compendium of some
selected moves, trades, draft picks, hires, fires made on the watch of Oilers
general manager Craig MacTavish. They’re divided into Hits and Misses:
HITS:
1. Darnell Nurse, chosen seventh
overall in 2013 NHL draft. The 2015
World Junior Hockey Championship was the coming-out party for this prospect,
who projects as the stud, top-two defenceman MacTavish believes him to be.
2. Leon Draisaitl, chosen third
overall in the 2014 NHL draft.
Played 37 NHL games and impressed with his composure and upbeat attitude. Sent
back to the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets, Draisaitl lit it up, producing 53 points (19
goals) in 32 games.
3. David Perron. MacTavish traded Magnus Paajarvi for Perron in July 2013 and
the gritty winger scored a career high 28 goals. The GM traded Perron to
Pittsburgh this season for useful banger Rob Klinkhammer and the Penguins’
first-round draft pick. A good deal, coming and going.
4. Benoit Pouliot. Free-agent signing has responded with a career-high 18 goal
season, despite missing 24 games, most with a foot injury.
5. Derek Roy. Acquired from Nashville in a trade for Mark Arcobello, the
veteran Roy stabilized the centre ice position and unlocked winger Nail Yakupov
in the bargain.
6. Boyd Gordon and Matt Hendricks. Two gritty, two-way energy forwards, Gordon signed as a
free-agent, Hendricks acquired by trading goalie Devan Dubnyk. The pair, with
Klinkhammer, form the spine of the developing Oilers.
7. Andrew Ference and Mark Fayne. Two veteran, free-agent defenceman, Ference signed in 2013,
Fayne in 2014, have added stability to the Oilers’ dicey defence.
8. Teddy Purcell. Free-agent forward hasn’t been as prolific as Pouliot, but
has obvious skill and ability.
9. Laurent Brossoit. Acquired in trade that sent veteran defenceman Ladislav Smid
to Calgary, Brossoit is a bona fide elite prospect in an Oilers organization
whose goaltending cupboard has been bare for years.
10. Not trading any of Taylor Hall,
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Yakupov, Jordan Eberle and Justin Schultz. MacTavish is dead-on that trading any of these core pieces
to plug a hole would be, at this point in the team’s development, robbing Peter
to pay Paul.
MISSES:
1. Dallas Eakins/Ralph Krueger. Rookie GM mistake and a beauty. MacTavish went looking for
an associate coach for Ralph Krueger, changed his mind midstream, fired Krueger
and signed Eakins as head man. Less than a season-and-a-half later, out went
Eakins. This set the rebuild back badly.
2. Todd Nelson. He has proven to be a revelation, a solid, on-task,
small-ego communicator. The miss here was MacTavish passing over Nelson last
off-season when the GM was shopping for Krueger’s associate. Oops.
3. Nikita Nikitin. Highest-paid Oilers defenceman at $4.5 million for this
season and next. That contract couldn’t have helped when it came to signing
Jeff Petry. Nikitin has battled injuries, but apart from MacTavish, his play
has wowed few in Oilers nation.
4. Jeff Petry. Nuanced situation, but this defenceman, a second-round pick,
was a mismanaged asset. That’s not all on MacTavish. But the GM, with no choice
but to trade an impending unrestricted free agent, fetched two draft picks for
a guy who could command a sizable contract. Montreal is hustling to try to sign
him.
5. Devan Dubnyk. Another nuanced situation. But Dubnyk, like Petry,
personifies developmental failure for the Oilers. His brilliant play in
Minnesota is an embarrassing demonstration of a development system that itself
needs work.
6. Viktor Fasth. MacTavish gave up two draft picks to acquire this goalie.
Injuries have bedevilled Fasth, whose play has ranged from superb to erratic.
7. Philip Larsen, Anton Belov, Denis
Grebeshkov, Mark Fraser. Would-be
depth defenceman who wound up on the Oilers catch-and-release program.
8. Martin Marincin. Played 44 games with the Oilers in 2013-14, showing promise.
Regressed in ‘14-15, starting season in Oklahoma City. Pointedly not mentioned
by MacTavish after trade deadline as key organizational defence prospect.
9. Centre ice. On first day of training camp, Eakins accurately proclaimed
he had two bona fide NHL centres (Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Gordon) on hand. He
had “no idea” who the other two would be. That lack of organizational depth at
centre is on the GM. Took half a season until Anton Lander, for one, and Roy
, for another, arrived to plug that
hole.
10. Marc-Olivier Roy. This centre, chosen in the second round of the 2013 draft,
may yet develop into a fine NHL player. But that round, that draft year, featured
goalies Tristan Jarry, Zachary Fucale and Eric Comrie. The goaltending-poor
Oilers found a way not to take any of them.
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