Craig MacTavish To-Do List
By Kurt Leavins
Craig MacTavish has a lot of work to do in rebuilding the Edmonton Oilers franchise, here is a to-do list for the Oilers general manager.
There is a lot of talk around Edmonton right now, about what the Oilers need to do the rest of the reason. Opinions are varied. Playoffs are not even a distant hope, a possible #1 over-all pick is more likely, at this point. Some think the Edmonton Oilers should do whatever is required to ensure that Connor McDavid gets a 1st-Class ticket to the Alberta capital.
Others, like me, believe that Craig MacTavish should do all in his power to achieve the owner’s goal: To have a playoff game in Rogers Place in 2016. If we use this as the franchise’s target achievement, then what do Craig MacTavish & staff need to do over the last 30+ games of the regular season, in order to attain that? 9 Things:
9. Play Nikita Nikitin, and lots. That will no doubt make a lot of you squirm, based on what the Oilers have seen of the Russian so far. But think about it: This team desperately needs “real” NHL Defencemen, of which Nikitin used to be one. He would be a very expensive buy-out, at season’s end. Now healthy, Craig MacTavish needs to determine what he has.
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8. Call up Martin Marincin. You need to give the kid another 20 games, so that you have more information before deciding what to do with him. If Craig MacTavish is trading him, it should increase Marincin’s value. But if he steps up and plays well,
perhaps that’s one less piece MacT needs to spend an asset on. Waive Keith Aulie, to do it. If he gets claimed, reclaiming Marincin was worth the pricetag.
7. Lean heavily on Ben Scrivens, probably 3-1 over Viktor Fasth over the rest of the way. There is no way this franchise can take a chance on Fasth again next season. But if Scrivens shows that he could, at worst, be a good NHL back-up, it means Craig MacTavish only needs to bring in one goalie in the off-season, and can give Laurent Brossoit another season in the AHL.
6. Give Nail Yakupov 2nd line minutes and substantial Power Play time, the former with a “real” NHL center like Derek Roy. If he lights it up and costs Craig MacTavish a little more come contract time? Good. If he does not get this kid going now, he may never, and that would be a very, very expensive failure. Yakupov has shown flashes, lately. Now is the time.
5. Give Bogdan Yakimov a look. This won’t be a popular suggestion, but a good test now helps decide what MacT needs to spend on a 2C in free agency, but more to the point…what kind of term you would need to agree to. Don’t get me wrong, Big Yak needs another full season in the AHL. But I see Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Leon Draisaitl and Yakimov down the middle in 2 years from now.
4. Keep Boyd Gordon in an Oilers jersey. When you are as shallow at center as the Oilers are, Craig MacTavish should only part with quality players like Gordon if the return is substantial. Pivots like Gordon do not grow on trees. Does MacT miss risk missing out being able to sell high, this late in Gordon’s career? Sure. But it’s a gamble the GM should make.
3. Keep the core together. Go ahead and accuse me of wanting my cake and eating it, too. But when your organization has sacrificed so much in order to have 3 young players the quality of Taylor Hall, Nugent-Hopkins and Jordan Eberle, to give up on any one of them now (selling low) without a major piece coming back (unlikely) is to be short-sighted.
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2. Decide on Jeff Petry. My preference, stated many times before, would be to retain your club’s best defenceman. But if Craig MacTavish is convinced that he cannot or will not, then, then the G.M. must maximize what you can get, between now and the deadline. I think that means moving him sooner rather than later. Sooner probably means a slightly higher return. A shame, but…
1. If the Oilers gave Todd Nelson the interim job with no real intention of letting earn the full-time position, then shame on them. It would have been way better to let Craig Ramsay coach the rest of the season, and then hunt for your full time guy, if that’s the case. You have already churned through how many coaches with this young lot? That comes at a price.
No, this is an important 30+ games. Yes, it is too late for the playoffs. But it is not too late for these young players to go on a good, strong run, to remember how much fun it is to win, and get their confidence back. It is not too late to determine if Nelson is the Oiler-whisperer who finally figures this bunch out.
Because if you don’t give him that opportunity, then you have wasted another half-season of hope. And hope is a precious, non-renewable resource in the hearts of young players.
If they lose that…then the Craig MacTavish rebuild gets longer, and more painful still.