So I’m sure you’ve all come to the conclusion that the meeting between Katz and the brass resulted in a big fat pile of nothing and a hat tip to those of you who said they thought nothing would happen. Me? I was near 100% convinced because the media was ridiculously quiet after the game and not only that but Todd McLellan sounded like a defeated man during his post-game presser.
If you’re interested in the more abbreviated version of this blog, watch TSN’s Insider Trading from last night and you’ll have a good idea of what I’m going to write about today but if you’re gung ho and ready to go, scroll down and let’s get it on!
**Obligatory disclaimer: Take what you’re about to read with a grain of salt. Things change all of the time at the NHL level. At the very least, this will be a great pub or water cooler banter but by no means am I an insider. I just happen to be friends with people who are close to the club and have been given permission to relay their words online. – BLH**
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I woke up this morning to this message in my inbox,
Everyone on the roster except for RNH, Connor, Leon, Klef, and Lucic (at Chiarelli’s discretion) is available.
I guess the owner is happy to blow things up? He certainly has a lot of trust in Chiarelli to make a trade when the previous blockbusters have had him feeling less than pleased.
I’d have Adam Larsson in that group too if I was the owner. He’s been very solid this year.
Katz said behind closed doors that he’s f*cking tired of the inconsistencies and he’s giving the organization, that includes Nicholson, Chiarelli, Gretzky (Keith), and McLellan, the California trip to turn this around or he’s making changes.
See, now this is where I get a little bit confused. The owner has given his GM permission to go out and alter the make-up of the roster but in the same meeting has told his management team that if they don’t turn things around in 7 days, changes will be made.
So does that mean as fans, we should expect some big trades to come down the wire in the upcoming 10 days?
The Oilers like Klef but the don’t feel he’s back to what he was in 2016/17. They figure he’d be further along than he is. Klefbom himself is too inconsistent. The major issue with the defense right now is that their not transitioning the puck.
Katz said the biggest issue he sees himself is the inconsistency of the goaltending, doesn’t sound like their bringing Talbot back; it sounds like they’ll try to move him for a prospect or a pick or a younger back-up goalie and Katz wants Chiarelli to try and look at fixing the D from a transitioning standpoint because when you have a player like Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on your team and you can’t get them the puck with that defense, it’s a BIG BIG issue.
I thought Klefbom had been playing very well this year. He’s taken some big hits this year and not fallen apart. I’d have thought he’d be the last guy to get shat on this year. I mean Klef and Larsson have been the best defenders on the squad this year.
Now the goaltending is another story and I imagine when Katz said “goaltending” that he meant Talbot because Koskinen has been nothing short of amazing this year and Cam has been nothing short of disappointing.
As for the poor-puck moving defenders, I don’t really know what to do there apart from cutting bait on them. Can they be trained to move it better? Would any other team be interested in them even?
Personally, I’d have no issues with the team moving away from Matt Benning and I wonder if it’d be possible to maybe bring in a Tony DeAngelo for Benning?
Nicholson tried to sugar coat things with Katz and Katz told him to cut it out (in so many words) and reminded everyone at the meeting that 18 months ago they were a playoff team and now the team is under .500. Something is going on and fix what needs to be fixed and let’s get things going here or else it’s your jobs.
I wonder how Nicholson took that? These kinds of men are rarely told to shut up but Katz isn’t wrong. These guys need to get off of their asses and do something for those massive paychecks they’re earning.
I asked why the GM and coach couldn’t be fired if their replacements were readily available in-house with Keith Gretzky and Glen Gulutzan and I was told this,
Katz is giving them a chance to turn it around. Quenneville doesn’t want to coach for a while, so he’s off the market for the time being. Katz isn’t paying Gulutzan to he head coach, he was brought in to he an assistant and Keith doesn’t have any GM experience, he’s a tremendous scout.
Katz believes in Chiarelli. He’s built a Cup winner before and Katz has faith in him that he can build another.
So we’re back to having Katz in Chiarelli’s corner again. Which is fine but must be confusing to everyone at the meeting including Chiarelli himself.
Something that occurred to me earlier is that the Bakersfield Condors are playing well and so are the Edmonton Oil Kings. Two teams that fall under the OEG umbrella and two teams that Peter Chiarelli has a hand in how they’re run. Chiarelli hired the Oil Kings new GM this year and he also placed Jay Woodcraft in Bakersfield to run that team.
Do you think that Katz looks at that and thinks perhaps that Peter Chiarelli is maybe better suited in the POHO (president of hockey operations) position than the GM’s role?
We’re in year 4 now and there are no excuses this season like there were in years 1-3. This is a team that I believe has the talent to produce better results than they’re doing but they’ve got these mental blocks that they go behind when adversity strikes.
Inconsistency seems to be the buzzword of the day here. You know what kind of players generally don’t have inconsistencies in their game? Veterans.
Had the team just acquired the right veterans, we wouldn’t be hearing about how inconsistent the 2nd youngest team in the NHL is…
So what happens if the team goes 1-1-1 on this trip? Everyone safe? Would 1-2-0 be the final straw? What about 2-1-0? Is THAT enough to save jobs? I mean if they go 3-0-0 and then 2-5-1 right after that, what’s the bloody point?
If the Oilers are out of it and then Chiarelli decides to drop the hammer on McLellan, how does that help?
So in a sense, a decision was made yesterday and the decision was that the brass and coaching will get another 7-10 days. (scroll down, there’s more)
Here’s the thing with deciding who to fire. You have to ask yourself, would you be prepared to go through another 2-3 years while the new GM builds the team in his vision or would you be happy with the possibility of a performance bump in the short-term if the coach was let go?
Is there a rush to get out from under that Lucic contract? Would you be willing to part with a Jesse Puljujarvi, Tyler Benson, or Kailer Yamamoto to do so? That’s what we’d be looking at if a new GM came in.
Now, conversely, a new coach could come in and say, “Get that Pulju kid back up here. I can use him and I know how to get the best out of him!”
All I’m saying is that we’ve gone through a few fresh voices in the playing personnel, how bad would it be to hear a new voice at head coach?
Darryl Katz should man up and do what needs to be done or be prepared to feel the wrath of not only the Oilers fans but the dozens of articles that will be written by major outlets shaming the club in a very public manner.
It’s getting to the point to where we’ll start seeing billboards rented out and parked in front of the Oilers offices again. Darryl Katz doesn’t want his team to be a national news headline again for the wrong reasons. So he should take action instead of giving the men responsible an earfull.
St.Louis, LA, and Chicago have all done it this year. When will the Oilers hold their coach accountable?
There’s a changing of the guard going on in the coaching ranks, maybe it’s time the Oilers got in touch with the times.
