3 Things That Need To Happen If The Edmonton Oilers Miss The Playoffs

Fire And Replace Edmonton Oilers General Manager

This isn’t a personal shot at Ken Holland, as he appears to be a nice enough person, but some of the decisions he has made as GM have put this team in a hard spot cap-wise and it will be tough to get out of it.

The Nurse Signing

The biggest one of these signings is the Darnell Nurse contract. I know this could also be blamed on Peter Chiarelli cause if he would have signed him long-term as he did Leon and Conner then this wouldn’t have been something Holland would have had to do.

I know when Nurse signed that the $9.25 million contract was the going rate or that calibre of player that season. That doesn’t mean that Nurse is worth that much and we can see that this season. Last season at his $5.6 million cap hit Nurse was playing above his salary, which is what you want.

That is the problem this season at $9.25 million it is tough to play to that level to make it so it is worth it. This is why at the time it was signed we all knew it was going to be bad. In the next couple of years, as the cap goes up, it may not seem as bad, but right now it does.

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Too Many Shots In The Dark Missed

Over the past few seasons, Holland has taken a lot of dice rolls on players that just haven’t panned out the way he thought they would. For Nygard his first season with Ryan Murray this season. There haven’t been many good depth signings by Holland since he became GM.

The best depth signings I can think of are Derek Ryan and Devin Shore. The fact that those two are the two best is the reason why I think we need a GM that is better and finding players that can fit a role.

It appears all that Holland wants is players that can kill penalties. Then when it comes to killing penalties they aren’t even being used. It seems like there is a disconnect between Holland and the coaching staff on how they want to utilize players.

The Edmonton Oilers need to be a team that can succeed in whatever scenario they are put in. If they play a fast team they need to be able to play quickly, if they play a big strong team they need to be able to play that way as well. Right now they just can’t seem to play in any particular way.

Trade Away A Top Player

The Edmonton Oilers have appeared to become a little bit stagnant on the offensive side of the game. This is even more evident without Evander Kane in the lineup. When the Oilers are forced to put a player in the top six and hope it works out that is bad news.

Recently these two players have been Kailer Yamamoto and Jesse Puljujarvi. Both of these players are having bad seasons compared to what they have done in the past. It is time for the Oilers to stop hoping and get a proven player in that role.

Will Need To Be More Than A One For One

If the Edmonton Oilers want to improve their team by trading away either Yamamoto or Puljujariv they will need to sweeten the pot. No team is going to give away a proven player for a younger player that is struggling.

The Edmonton Oilers in this scenario will need to add in a highly skilled prospect or an early-round draft pick. If the Oilers want a really good player it may even need to be a combo of all of the above.

As I mentioned in the previous slide the Edmonton Oilers are in a win-now mind frame. Keeping your first-round pick isn’t going to help this team win in the next few years, so they are better off trading it for something that can help them win now.

They need to find a team at the bottom of the standing with a highly skilled player and find a way to make a trade work. There were lots of talks early in the season about Patrick Kane or Toews from Chicago. This is the type of move I would like to see them make.

Sometimes these moves are easier to make in the offseason as you have more time to maneuver the cap to become compliant. If they miss the playoffs and don’t make a big move then the offseason will be a failure once again.

Change Up The Team Leadership

Over the past couple of seasons, the Edmonton Oilers have struggled with some of the same issues. They seem to struggle early in games, but pick it up once behind and seem to have a lack of effort in the defensive end.

These aren’t things that the coach can really get the players to do better. This comes from the player individually. It isn’t the coach’s job to tell you to start playing the game right when it starts. The players are professionals and should be ready at game time.

Same with play in their own end, the coach tells the players how to cover in their end, but it is up to the player to execute these plans. If the player knows what to do and doesn’t do it that is on the player, not the coach.

The Captian and Assistant Captians Need To Hold Players Responsible

The best way to get a player to buy in is from pressure from his peers. Getting yelled at by the coach may be bad, but letting down your teammates should affect a player more. When you are let down by your teammate it is like letting down your family.

I don’t sense that this is the feeling in the Edmonton Oilers locker room. If Bouchard makes a bad play does Nugent-Hopkins go talk to him and let him know that he let the team down? I don’t know, but it seems like year in and year out they have the same issues and the only thing that has stayed the same is the leaders.

Hopefully, They Can Turn It Around

If the Edmonton Oilers can turn things around then it would silence all of these potential changes. My concern is that they don’t turn it around and at the end of the season I am writing about potential draft picks and not about a deep playoff run.