Connor McDavid offers Oilers management another chance at redemption
Edmonton general manager Craig MacTavish was predictably pumped after his team won the NHL draft lottery and the chance to pick Connor McDavid at the 2015 selection process.
“Any team would have been over the moon about winning the lottery. We’re the same. It’s a game-changer,” he said.
Yes … it is perhaps. If there’s one organization that should caution success over drafting No. 1, it is Edmonton. Taylor Hall was a game-changer. Just like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was. And Nail Yakupov – though maybe less than the previous two.
NHL Network launched an entire series about the Oilers and their rebuild. It premiered during the 2010-11 season. It was called Oil Change. It eventually ran its course. They could probably do it again.
And such is the issue with the Oilers, a team that has made a science of messing up top prospects. Nugent-Hopkins hasn’t progressed. Hall’s name was listed in trade rumors this year. Yakupov has been all over the place, though he has finally started to show his prodigious goal scoring gifts under new coach Todd Nelson.
McDavid is supposedly not the same to a degree, just because of the hype and the extreme level of skill within his body. But really, will he play out any differently than the other three?
The talent is there. Is it in the right places? Not at the moment. Does McDavid suddenly make the Oilers a threat with its current group? This still looks like Frankenteam with all the No. 1 picks (all forwards) that have ever been used as trade assets.
“Offense wins hockey games and we’re going to be loaded with it,” MacTavish said, reverting to his 80s Oilers thinking “This is another piece along to that end. It’s so important for our franchise on so many fronts.”
Hey Craiggers, what did the 2011 Bruins, 2012 Kings, 2013 Blackhawks and 2014 Kings all have in common? They were all ranked in the top-2 defensively those years they won the Stanley Cup.
McDavid was asked which player he was looking forward to playing with the most, and he gave the typically political answer.
“They have such a good group there that it’s hard to pick anyone,” he said.
This is true. But if so, why can’t they win? The answer runs deep – back to the 80s and into this decade.
When MacTavish launched his ‘forensic’ investigation it didn’t appear to include a No. 1 draft pick in Edmonton’s future.
He said he had imagined what his team would look like should it draft McDavid, but it was more a hope-type situation than anything.
In many ways, the Oilers getting the chance to pick McDavid rewards this management team, led by team president Kevin Lowe, for mediocrity.
The draft system is meant to help balance out inequalities in the league. If you keep failing with the top selection, being rewarded again is almost a crime in itself. It punishes the rest of the league’s teams that know how to manage. And this group, that has shown little ability on how to put together a competitive hockey team, will have a shiny new part.
I’ve been critical of Tim Murray’s tank job in Buffalo, but he had a plan. He sold it to his owner, it was agreed upon and it was a two-year process that led to Buffalo getting the No. 2 pick in the 2015 draft and a chance to take Jack Eichel. He used the system to his advantage and the Sabres have some decent pieces for the next several years because of the tank, along with the Evander Kane trade.
And if Murray fails … he’ll probably get fired. In Edmonton there seems to be less accountability since owner Daryl Katz is such a fans of his 80s Oilers heroes running the team.
If McDavid can make Edmonton relevant again, it’ll be good for the league and Edmonton. It’ll make them relevant again and bring back the Wayne Gretzky-era nostalgia. If he can’t, we’ll be counting down until he hits unrestricted free agency at age 27 – when he can leave the city and go somewhere else as an unrestricted free agent.
The former would be nice. We need evidence the latter isn’t the stronger possibility. Right now we have none.
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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper
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