She’s been a busy weekend here in Taipei and I haven’t had the chance to comment on the Strome/Spooner trade. So I’d like to do that right now and also address some possibility of future moves being made by the team.
The Trade
I like the trade but how much longer will Peter Chiarelli put up with Todd McLellan’s BS? More on that in a second.
Ryan Strome was spinning his wheels in Edmonton on the third line and the PK. Funny, this was the second season in a row where the elder Strome started the year horribly. Remember when Nick Kypreos went on Hockey Night in Canada early last year and let it be known that the Oilers weren’t happy with Strome’s performances and might be looking to move on from him?
Well, I guess Chiarelli didn’t want to wait for Kyper to get his meathooks stuck in again this year and pulled the trigger on a deal to bring in a former 2nd round pick of his.
Full disclosure, I have never really paid close attention (or any attention at all really) to the career of Ryan Spooner so I had nothing to really go on until I watched him vs. Calgary last night and what I saw didn’t disappoint me. Although, he’s got to tie his man up a bit better than that in front of the net.
He’s quick and he looks like he doesn’t mind taking a shot which is good. I think the Oilers could use a few more shoot-first players.
Getting back to Strome a bit here. I never really minded his game but one of my pet peeves regarding how he played was that he spent far too much time on the perimeter. He can skate and he can stickhandle and shoot but he really had no time for the interior of the ice and that’s not how you’re going impress the coach. I thought he could’ve done more to become a more dominant defensive player though.
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More Deals Coming?
Maybe. What I was told was that if the Oilers keep up with the sub-par performances, changes will come. They still want that PP QB and possibly another centre.
The way I interpret that is the coach will be replaced. We can talk about how the Oilers could move Zack Kassian or Milan Lucic but trades are difficult to make I feel. Axing the coach and bringing in a new one is just a matter of getting the owners approval because it’s going to hit him in the wallet.
Now, I can’t say one way or another if the Oilers would hire Joel Quenneville but I will say with certainty, if the Oilers do go out and get him, they’ll be paying a very dear price to hire him on.
My question would be, do you think he’d only come in on the interim basis? The reason I ask that is that Pittsburgh is absolutely floundering right now. Would they axe their coach and bring Quenneville in? Which sort of team would Coach Q prefer?
Before I end this, I just want to float a few names your way and you tell me if you think they’re too far-fetched, ok?
Nikita Zadorov (COL) – LHD – The hard-hitting Russian is in Bednar’s doghouse.
Phil Kessel (PIT) – RW – How long will Rutherford keep Phil the Thrill during this slump?
Jeff Carter (LA) – C – How far will LA go in dismantling things?
Lots of questions to be asked and so… We wait.
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Last week was an interesting yet boring one in the land of the Edmonton Oilers. We sat through 3 excruciating press conferences which provided very little new information other than “still evaluating” and the promise of unveiling “a plan”.
Let’s take a look at things…
In 2016-17 the heavily favoured Chicago Blackhawks lost to the Nashville Predators in the first round of the NHL playoffs. Pekka Rinne shutout the Hawks twice in a row en route to a 4-0 sweep. Questions were asked. Are the Hawks done? What can they do to change this and get back to Cup contenders who can go deep in the playoffs?
They did a few things. The Panarin trade was a disaster and made the Columbus Blue Jackets a serious threat in the east. Another thing they did (and what I’ll focus on) was fire assistant coach Mike Kitchen. Kitchen had worked with head coach Joel Quenneville for about 10 years total. From 1998-2003 with St. Louis (Pronger and MacInnis years), and from 2012-2017 with the Blackhawks. Reportedly Quenneville was PISSED that they fired his top assistant coach and good friend. Kitchen primarily coached the defence and helped on the penalty kill. The Hawks proceeded to have their worst season in over 10 years and missed the playoffs by nearly 20 points.
Now how does this relate to our Oilers? This organization is a mess, and a lot of what will follow is a reflection of said mess.
Last Thursday night, TSN 1260 host Dean Millard broke some “news?” that a “former NHL executive” direct messaged him on twitter saying that Oilers head coach Todd McLellan is staying but was told he has to fire one assistant coach and Todd said Jim Johnson would be the one to go.
Received a DM from a former NHL executive today who told me McLellan has already made his choice and the guy who runs the PK is the sacrificial lamb, so that would be Jim Johnson. We'll have to wait and see. We'll chat about this tonight on #SportsNight on @TSN1260#Oilers.
This information is sketchy at best, personally, I don’t buy it, but its worth an analysis. It really does make sense in a way, though. If McLellan was given such an ultimatum, would he choose close confidante and friend Jay Woodcroft (who he’s been working with since 2005), or Johnson who was brought in by Doug Wilson to San Jose (along with NHL Hall of Famer Larry Robinson) in 2012?
Jim Johnson was a tough as nails stay-at-home defenceman when he played in the NHL. Notably for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Unfortunately, he was traded to the Minnesota North Stars the same year the Penguins beat the Stars to win their first Stanley Cup. Johnson’s coaching career started with stints under Rick Tocchet in Tampa Bay and Bruce Boudreau in Washington before being hired by San Jose in 2012.
When McLellan was hired by the Oilers he brought both assistants from his time in San Jose. The special teams there often struggled, especially in the last year when they missed the playoffs and all three were fired. Things weren’t much better here in 2015-16, but in 2016-17 the Oilers had a great powerplay at about 22% and a slightly below average penalty kill. But also in 2016-17, some great strides were made with our overall defensive play. Matt Benning became a name. Eric Gryba could shut things down sometimes. It just worked.
2017-18 was a different story. While Darnell Nurse took a huge step forward, Oscar Klefbom took a few steps backward. The penalty kill was historically bad. The question is can we pin this on one guy? Is Jim Johnson the scapegoat?
It’s important to remember the NHL isn’t the NFL. There’s 23 man rosters, not 53. There’s no such thing as an offensive coordinator or a defensive coordinator. The head coach controls the systems. The assistants assist. However, often times the “defence coach” will for all intents and purposes have major coaching control over defencemen and even (for some teams) choose matchups and send out defence pairings from the bench. (Not sure if Johnson does/did this with the Oilers).
McLellan appears to have a lot of power at this point in time. The fact he wasn’t fired after game 82 (or even during the season as some thought he should including yours truly), means he’s most likely staying as Oilers head coach for the beginning of the 2018-19 NHL season.
But… Will he get to choose his assistants? Someone needs to be fired for this disaster of a season. Jay Woodcroft and the 31st ranked NHL powerplay will be back, he’s been attached with super glue to McLellan since 2005. But what would happen with Jim Johnson and who would replace him? I mean who in the Oilers organization would be a good candidate to coach the Oilers young defenceman? It’s not like there’s a Hall of Famer top all-time NHL defenceman recently hired by the Oilers is there?…
BAH GAWD!!! IS THAT??.. IT IS!!!… THAT’S PAUL COFFEY’S MUSIC!!!!
All kidding aside, that most likely wouldn’t be McLellan’s choice as defensive assistant coach. And as much as I love Paul Coffey (one of my top 3 favourite all-time players), I don’t want anything forced upon McLellan if he stays on here. The Oilers are the definition of organizational dysfunction, and the last thing we need is it to be directly behind the bench (although we have it already, but I digress).
Is McLellan really willing or able to find the best and brightest to be an assistant coach at the most important position? One that might have a different vision and philosophy as he does? One that could possibly take over as head coach if we get off to another slow start next year? One that could take his job and get the team in a better direction, thus making him look more incompetent that he looks now? Yeah, I doubt it…
If we’re going to keep McLellan, we might as well keep the other underachievers too. There’s no assistant knight in shining armor to save the day. If Todd is the coach then it’s his team and his assistants. No more dysfunction, please. It’s brutal. Learn from Chicago.
It should be simple: Either fire the mall or keep the mall.
Plan A: Fire all of them (makes way too much sense)
Plan B: Fire an assistant coach (creates more problems)
Plan C: Stay the course (nobody wants it, but it’s better than plan B)
The Dirtbag
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Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman spoke about the Edmonton Oilers in their latest podcast (check it out here) from March 8th and it’s a nice 9-minute segment dedicated to the Oilers and their woes.
I want to transcribe some of it here for you today and comment on some of the things they say but if you’re the impatient type and simply want to hear the segment first, scroll down to the bottom and you can listen to it.
JM= Jeff Marek
EF= Elliotte Friedman
OSCAR KLEFBOM
JM: Elliotte, Oscar Klefbom and the idea that they may be playing him simply to showcase him despite him being a little bit banged up.
EF: I think a lot banged up. I’ve wrote a couple of times this year that Kesler is being held up by duct tape and a couple of guys reached out to me and said Klefbom is too.
I’ve written a couple of times here too and I don’t understand why he’s playing. Like, I get guys want to play and you want to wait until someone is officially eliminated but he’s clearly hurting and there’s no logical reason for it. And finally someone said to me, you know what could be going on here?
They’re going to make a move here.
JM: How can it be a showcase if he’s injured? He’s not going to show well.
EF: Well I think people understand what he was
JM: So do you need to see him now? That’s the point I don’t get. If you’re running him out there hurt, what’s the value there for anybody? Certainly not for Klefbom, not for the Oilers.
EF: You know what? Honestly Jeff, there’s so many questions about this thing that I have. I can’t answer this question. But the fact is that I think that teams are scouting him, I think people were looking at him and I think they got to sign Darnell Nurse, who’s had a really good year and I think Klefbom has value. He had a great year last year, he scored 12 goals, he’s got a good contract. I do think people are looking at him.
Oh, Oscar is definitely on the block and I do expect him to be dealt this summer because Chiarelli likes Ryan Nugent-Hopkins more and sees more value there. Also, the depth on the left side defense is a helluva lot deeper than down the middle.
My theory on why other teams don’t care if he plays is that his shoulder injury has been disclosed and it can’t get any worse by playing with it. As Friedman said above, they know what they could be getting in Klefbom and are willing to roll the dice.
I think another thing that is starting to get out is there might be a disagreement between player and team as to whether or not to get the procedure done now.
Players want to play (Pat Maroon, Cam Talbot, and Adam Larsson all come to mind this season for playing hurt), they don’t want to abandon their teammates, and it’s my belief that Klefbom is probably feeling a tad guilty and playing through his injury because back in 2015 he was in and out of the lineup, unsure when he was going to be able to come back. He might’ve got some flack from teammates or other staff for not getting back into the lineup.
I just reckon he’d prefer to play the year out and get that respect from his teammates. Of course, they’d understand if he chose to go under the knife but it’s his call, right?
WHAT HAPPENS TO EDMONTON IN THE OFF-SEASON?
JM: What happens to Edmonton in the off-season?
EF: You know, that’s a great question. I watched, I didn’t see Saturday night because I was in Maryland, but I watched the interview (Bob Nicholson one) with David (Ambder) and Cassie (Campbell-Pascal)…
*cuts to interview*
EF: You know I thought Nicholson was dropping a lot of hints there and you got the sense he wanted to say a bit more but he was holding himself back.
He (Nicholson) has a long history with Cassie and I think he wanted to say some more stuff but the thing that struck me was that they’re going to make changes but they’re not going to make changes for the sake of doing it.
He said ‘we fire a lot of people here’ and I think he would prefer to keep Peter and Todd. That’s the sense I got but I think that may be decided by who else is available.
Like what if Barry Trotz (WAS) is available? What if Joel Quenneville (CHI) is available?
And the other thing too is, I don’t know who really is making the final call here?
JM: By way of title it should be Peter Chiarelli.
EF: Or Bob (Nicholson) or the owner (Daryl Katz).
JM: Didn’t the owner want a coaching move during the season? Wasn’t it after that Dallas game?
EF: There’s been some rumbling about that. This year you’re talking about?
JM: This year. Yeah. And Wayne Gretzky was on the road trip.
EF: There’s been a rumor about that. I don’t know if it’s true though. Daryl Katz doesn’t come out that much. It’s hard to check that kind of thing.
JM: Any time I talk to anyone there it’s ‘Katz is fuming. Katz is fuming about this season.’
EF: I agree with that. Someone told me last year they were the highest revenue team in the NHL and they’re not going to be that way this year. Because that arena is such a cash cow.
They’re not going to be there this year (no.1 in revenue) and I do believe that Daryl is upset but who’s making the call? Is it Katz? Is it Nicholson? Is it Chiarelli? Is it Wayne Gretzky? Is it somebody else? Like, nobody seems to have the answer to that.
Now, I’m not exactly sure which Dallas game that is but I’m going to go ahead and assume it was the one they lost 5-1. A matinee game back at the beginning of January.
Don’t you remember? That was the game where Stauffer didn’t do his customary post-game tweet and things got VERY quiet. I wrote herethat there was a meeting to discuss the futures of McLellan and Chiarelli and it wasn’t too long after that Chiarelli did a couple of media interviews to discuss the state of the franchise and that’s when Todd McLellan got his dreaded vote of confidence.
If the Capitals get booted in the first round this year, Trotz is out. If I’m not mistaken, he was on Oilers Now last week and he was saying there’s something off about that team and Trotz… So take that for what it is.
Is there a better coach than Joel Quenneville to take over the Oilers? He knows exactly how it is coaching a team with two teenage superstars and building a winning team around those players.
But I do get where Friedman is coming from. Nobody is really sure who’s at the wheel of this cheese wagon. I mean Coffey was brought in by Gretzky, right?
SPEAKING OF COFFEY
JM: And what’s Paul Coffey’s role here?
EF: My guess is that he ends up coaching but I don’t know if that’s head coach or assistant coach.
JM: He’s scouting in Ontario.
EF: I heard that, could he be a GM? I’ve been told he’s got no desire to be GM. I think he wants to coach.
GM! HA!
If Coffey wants to be a head coach, he’s got all the right people in place to make that happen in Edmonton but that idea, at best, is a terrible one. That said, IF he puts in the reps as an assistant coach and is promoted from there, I think most could get on board with that because he’s earned it.
Who is he scouting in Ontario? Ryan Merkley? They share some playing attributes.
I mean if he’s scouting kids for the upcoming draft, then there’s a good chance he’ll have an official title by the start of next season and watch where he’s sitting at the draft or possibly the draft lottery.
THE TURN AROUND
JM: How close do you think they are to turning it around? Knowing the composition of this team.
EF: They’re not as bad as they’re playing this year. I refuse to believe that.
JM: They need wingers.
EF: They need wingers but that should be, in theory, the easiest thing to find. Now, I will say this, I think one of the things they’re going to have to figure out is how to convince Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl that they shouldn’t play together.
JM: They want to play together. They want to be on the same line.
EF: Ya but I think that’s gotta change. You’ve got to show them Pittsburgh and say ‘Guys, why did they win two Stanley Cups back-to-back? Because they got Crosby on one and Malkin on another and you get someone like Kessel and he plays on a 3rd’.
JM: Yzerman, Federov. Keep going.
EF: You gotta. Those guys have to learn that they can’t play together. Maybe in certain situations. Crosby and Malkin play together on the PP. Maybe you put them together on a line here and there but generally, they got to play apart.
I 100% agree here. The Oilers are by no means this bad. Their 5×5 scoring tells us all we need to know not to mention IF they had some goaltending and special teams, they’d be a 100pt team again and that’s without Eberle or Hall or Pouliot or Mark Fayne.
I grew up being spoiled with the Jagr, Lemieux, Francis line in Pittsburgh but they didn’t always play together either but when they did, the Pens were almost guaranteed to score. A line like that today would be like having McDavid with Laine and Bergeron… Ridiculous, right?
WHAT ELSE?
JM: They need a save and you’re hoping this is just the outlier year for the netminder and he comes back like he did last season.
EF: Yeah but look, I agree with you. Talbot had a rough year but if you look at their team this year, you know, Larsson was worse than last year, Klefbom, because of the injury, was worse than last year, Sekera, who was a pretty big player for them was out for half of the year.
Sometimes you have to bet on our guys aren’t going to be that bad again. Things are going to be better next year.
JM: But you’re not going to go into next season with the same lineup.
EF: No no. That’s why I wonder about the Klefbom thing.
JM: Then again, the idea of we’re not going to make changes for the sake of making changes is- You’ve got a fanbase that’s torches at the castle gate right now. That volcano needs a virgin.
Two things here,
There will be sacrifice but how many, we don’t know.
How could you NOT call this year an outlier will all the f*cked up stats and EVERYBODY but 4 players regressing this year?
Is it possible to have two outlier seasons in a row? Obviously, last year was one and this year is another.
Since the Oilers went away from hiring within the OBC it’s been some sort of episode from Black Mirror or something.
yr 1 – everyone is hurt
yr 2 – nobody is hurt, 100+ pt season but season ended on a bad call
yr 3 – 75% of roster regresses plus injuries, plus players’ dads dying, plus worst home PK in NHL history, plus PP eating sh*t
I’m really on the fence with firing the main men and making a huge trade. Terry Jones said it before me, if you fire those men you take the onus off of the players and they need to be held responsible as well, no matter how noble their actions may be.
Book this though, Talbot, Montoya (IF he’s with the Oilers parent club and not in the minors), and Puljujarvi will have great years as they’ll be going into their contract years. I think it was Lowetide who said to keep Pulju away from McDavid so that the Oilers don’t run into another Leon Draisaitl situation and I’m not sure I agree with that. Good players are good players and should be paid as such.
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I received a message from one of my sources a couple days ago telling me that the Oilers will be going with a different head coach and GM in 2018/19. Whatever power struggle is going on between McLellan and Chiarelli has come to a head and Nicholson/Gretzky have had enough.
So those of you that have criticized the Oilers in the past for not doing an “exhaustive search” can rest easy because they’ve been talking to potential candidates for over a month now.
Now you can take that info to the bank or you can laugh it off. No skin off my back. I just share what I’ve been passed along BUT keep in mind anything can happen between now and this summer including the Oilers going on a ridiculous run that would save the jobs of everyone involved.
First off, I’m not part of the fanbase who believe the Oilers should let either the coach or the GM go but I do think it’s inevitable that one of them is axed this summer.
If I had to pick a reason though for each of Chiarelli and McLellan to be let go, they’d be the following:
Chiarelli – His inability to make changes to the coaching staff this season has been staggering. I know he’s loyal to his head coaches but the special teams this season has murdered the Oilers in the standings. You can argue all you want about leaving the team shorthanded but the Oilers have beat really good teams this year with this roster.
McLellan: We come back to special teams. They’ve been atrocious. His selective stubbornness with roster selections and line combos baffles me to this day. If the reports of his staff not changing anything up at the practices are true, then he’s lost the plot and doesn’t have the creativity to work with this group.
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With that said, who do you think would make a good coach for the Oilers and likewise, who’d be a hire at the GM’s position that you’d support. Here are a few candidates I thought of:
Head Coach: Dave Tippet, Darryl Sutter, Joel Quenneville, Ken Hitchcock, Derek Laxdal, Rocky Thompson, Sheldon Keefe, and Todd Nelson.
Tippet did wonders with not very much in Arizona for many years. Sutter turned the Kings into Cup contenders AND winners but is his style of hockey conducive to winning in today’s NHL? I don’t think you can argue with the credentials that multiple Stanley Cup-winning coach Joel Quenneville would bring to the table IF Chicago decides to move in a different direction next season.
OR should the Oilers go shopping in the AHL? Laxdal (Former Edmonton Oil Kings head coach who won 2 WHL championships with the Oilers current director of player personnel, Bob Greene) and Keefe’s teams are at the top of their divisions in the AHL. Rocky Thompson seems like the new Dallas Eakins, and Todd Nelson had a marginally successful experience when he worked in the Oilers’ organization previously.
Would hiring a Laxdal, Thompson, or Nelson be too nepotistic though?
Or maybe Paul Coffey is the guy coming into run the show? That’s what Glenn Healy said recently…
GM: Julien Brisbois, Paul Fenton, Dean Lombardi, Bill Guerin, Ken Holland, Keith Gretzky
Brisbois is surely being courted by the Montreal Canadiens and Fenton will be GM-ing with one of the teams who haven’t offered their current GM a new deal for next season. Please forgive me but I can’t seem to find the current GMs that are going into next season without a contract though. I want to say Vancouver and Detroit are two of them.
I’ve tossed Dean Lombardi’s name out there on Twitter but it seems a lot of people would be against that because of the loyalty-contracts he handed out to guys like Mike Richards and Marian Gaborik. He’s a champ though but would the Oilers just be following the same recipe used to hire the current regime if they hired Lombardi and Sutter?
Another name that has been tossed out is Bill Guerin but he’s a former Oiler… So maybe cross his name off of the list despite him running the show for Pittsburgh’s farm team which is currently in 2nd place in its division and Guerin actually being considered for the GM’s position in Buffalo. He’s actually got a very well known reputation for being an extremely hard worker and for having an outstanding eye for talent. But he’s an old Oiler, so no thanks, right?
Then there’s Ken Holland. He hasn’t had much to write home about in recent years but he IS the guy that built those great Detroit Red Wings teams in the late 90s and well into the 2000s. Lots of experience and connections with Holland. He DID train Steve Yzerman afterall…
It’s such a hard decision, right?
I’m not sure if the next coach should be one that coddles the players though. I wouldn’t mind one that placed an emphasis on defense either. I reckon Ken Hitchcock could walk in and turn these boys around in record time though.
As for GM, I like either Ken Holland or Bill Guerin. I believe a Holland/Hitchcock duo would work well together given their history with Hockey Canada. OR perhaps a Guerin/Quenneville duo?
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