EDM fired head amateur scout Stu MacGregor tonight as well as two other amateur scouts and one pro scout.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) June 21, 2015
The final final lists are no doubt complete and with that changes for next season can begin. New GM Peter Chiarelli was expected to make changes to the scouting department and that began today.
MacGregor was named head scout in 2007 and was in place in time for the selection of Jordan Eberle in 2008. His first round picks included Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Nail Yakupov, Darnell Nurse and Leon Draisaitl, but the reason for his release had more to do with what happened outside the first round.
Edmonton`s second-round selections during MacGregor`s term—Anton Lander, Tyler Pitlick, Martin Marincin, Curtis Hamilton, David Musil, Mitch Moroz, others—didn`t have much impact at the NHL level.
EDM changes involve both head amateur scout Stu MacGregor and head pro scout Morey Gare. Both had been with organization for over a decade.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) June 21, 2015
Bob Green is the de facto head scout and it`s possible MacGregor will not be replaced. The identity of the amateur scouts is not known at this time. More to come.
This is a public service reminder to not feed trolls (#105).
Oiler Domination To Follow
Amateur Scouting has been brutal over the years.
Pro Scouting has been even worse.
Barker, Khabibulan, O’Sullivan, Sutton, Whitney, Grebeshkov, Fasth, Nikitin, etc…
This was a must needed change, these “scouts” were horrible at judging talent.
Don’t forget Belanger.
Ziggy seems to forget Hall is one season removed from going 27g-53a-80p over 75 games. As a 22 year old. Now imagine what he can do playing on McDavid’s wing, and try not to pee a bit.
Chiarelli’s list of draftees with Boston after 2007 first round , looks even worse than ours . Sweeny wants to continue the Boston way of drafting in the past , by taking the best ones that can contribute now , not later . A little insight perhaps into how Chiarelli might operate this draft perhaps , and how quickly he likes them to transition onto main club ? Makes one expect Draisaitl and Nurse to be on main squad this year with McDavid or be used in trade scenario .
Boston has been far worse at drafting and developing than Edmonton over the last 8 years, no doubt.
I can’t stop watching this:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kd0HweWJlac
The Oiler organization is like that t.v. show the apprentice, every week someone is getting fired
It’s difficult to truly judge MacGregor’s performance because ultimately it’s the GM that makes the pick. The scouts provide the info but really the buck stops with the GM. If your scouting staff sucks and gives you bad advice, then get better staff. If you ignore you scouts and you suck at spotting talent that’s on you (applies to owners too). Either way, the GM is to blame for consistent below average scouting.
Good. Fire them all! #lowemustgo #fleefrommact #howson?
They should keep Howsen. Just to do the opposite of whatever he says. That way you avoid a Nitkin situation.
I’m sure Stu MacGregor did his best but I feel this move was long overdue. The Oilers record since 2008 has been better, but it still hasn’t been good with a few particularly egregious boo boos.
Mostly though, I don’t think you keep the old boss around when you want to move in a new direction.
Only a few days to go before the draft so here is my draft order for our Oilers . 1-Mcdavid , 16- B.Carlo RD 6Ft.5In., 33 (G) – Mackenzie Blackwood -6Ft.4In. , 57- Filip Ahl – 6ft.3In.LW (211 lbs.) ,77- Denis Gurianov-6Ft.3In.RW , 86- Erik Cernak -6ft.4In. RD , 117-Jacob Jaremko – 5Ft.11In. C , 124 – Christopher Wilkie -6Ft.0In. 199lbs. R.W. ,154- Artem Artemov – 5Ft.10In -200lbs. R.W. , 184 – V.Tkachev (LW) . If any have a better list show us .
YES IT WAS TIME FOR A CHANGE IN THE SCOUTING DEPARTMENT
Quotes from a March 12/15 Jonathan Willis article (Cult of Hockey)
“A lack of homegrown talent forces other measures. It’s part of the reason the Oilers have had to resort to taking on castoffs from other teams (Derek Roy, Matt Fraser, Keith Aulie, Ryan Hamilton) or take on depth guys with big-money contracts (Andrew Ference, Boyd Gordon, Matt Hendricks). These things don’t just happen; they’re the result of long-term inadequacy on the amateur procurement side”
“The 2007-09 Drafts should have been the backbone of the 2011-12 Oklahoma City Barons, but only two players drafted in the top-100 by the Oilers in those three years show up playing 25-plus on this roster. The fault for that lies primarily with the scouting group and management”
Read article here: http://blogs.edmontonjournal.com/2015/03/12/theres-a-good-reason-the-edmonton-oilers-dont-have-an-abundance-of-real-nhl-players/
Note that Willis hasn’t put all the blame on scouting, but has also laid blame at management’s feet.
“But hanging this solely on the scouts is unfair, too. The heart of the 2008 Draft was ripped out by the Dustin Penner offer sheet; it’s hard to blame a scouting group that collected three guys who would play NHL games outside the top-100. It wasn’t the scouts who put Magnus Paajarvi in the NHL in his first season in North America and had to backtrack on the decision. It wasn’t the scouts who did the exact same thing with Anton Lander a year later. It wasn’t the scouts who sent Riley Nash to Carolina before he’d even played a professional game, getting a draft pick in exchange which reset the clock to zero.”
(Willis rightly points out the foley of asking too much from rookies, putting them in the NHL too soon and not developing our assets the right way, the “Red Wing” way. AND WHY? because our scouting hasn’t been good enough to supply our pipeline . . . and because of a (possibly) foolish offer sheet on a player with size, fantastic skill, but a little short of the heart, desire, and drive of a Hall or a Lander.)
Do we really want to “rip the heart out of two draft years” by making an offer sheet to Dougie Hamilton?? Jason Gregor made a vey measured and intelligent argument against doing so, (on this site) arguing that Hamilton IS NOT a seven million dollar player (at least not yet)
Some things to think about.
It wasn’t entirely the scouting staff’s fault for our several years of agony. And I look forward to further changes in management.
One day there’s gonna be an article on oilersnation that reads “Kevin Lowe Fired”. The Internet will breakdown shortly after that, every street in the northern half of the province will be closed off from people celebrating. No one will go to work for a month causing the entire civilization to collapse.
Basically, Kevin Lowe will be responsible for the apocalypse
Ha! Ha!
I agree Beaner!! there would be REJOICING GALORE!!
BUT . . . it won’t happen.
Kevin Lowe and Daryl Katz have bee close friends since Lowe was a young hockey player and Daryl was a university student!
I think Kevin saw the writing on the wall at least a couple of years ago (realizing he couldn’t continue, seeing the “Lowe Must Go” billboards etc) and said to himself “I’d better get on the right side of this” (he was always a good defenseman, and kept of the right side of the play)
So he talked his best friend into hiring Bob Nicholson . . . it’s reported the hiring of Nicholson was his idea.
He picked his replacement, AND set himself up for some other lesser lifetime role in the organization.
I just hope he has no input into hockey operations decisions (especially player personnel decisions).
“Should we buy into a restaurant chain?” YES “Where do open restaurants?” YES “Should a Rexall store be located in New Sarepta?” YES “Should we buy into a movie making company?” YES “Should we have cream or Coffee-mate in the executive lounge” YES
BUT NO DECISIONS ON WHO TO DRAFT, AND HOW WE SHOULD DEVELOP YOUNG ASSETS, AND WHO WE SHOULD TRADE, AND WHO WE SHOULD TRADE FOR, AND WHO THE ASSISTANT COACHES SHOULD BE, AND WHO THE SCOUTS SHOULD BE !!!! (etc. etc.)
Please never use the words “Lowe” and “Lifetime” in the same sentence ever again.
OK!
I PROMISE!
I agree he should go . . . should have gone long ago! Just don’t think it will happen . . . (but there WILL BE REJOICING! if he does)
Here is some hope:
Will Yakimov and Slepyshev (3rd round picks in 2013) become solid impact players in the NHL?
Might Greg Chase prove to be a 7th round steal? (2013 draft as well)
Will Tyler Vessel be a 2014 6th round steal? (a smaller USHL Junior, likely headed to US College, had pretty good numbers in junior) 33G-38A-71PTS in 49 games played
TIME WILL TELL . . . and I hope all Oiler’s fans have hope . . . and other changes are coming.
After all, CONNOR MCDAVID IS COMING !!! (the hockey god’s had it EXACTLY RIGHT! . . . and rewarded us for being faithfully optimistic over this past nine years. Buffalo and Arizona were trying to lose . . . WE WEREN’T)
I’ve been audited by Revenue Canada and I can tell you, that seems like NOTHING compared to the forensic audit carried out by Bob Nicholson. That man is an executioner – gotta love him!
Yes, butt he’s just circling the wagon, hasn’t hit the spot yet, some hard moves still to come let’s hope he’s got the stamina to drive home the final climax to all this foreplay
Here’s some other things to consider (just looking at Chicago’s defence)
Johnny Oduya – CHI got him from WPG in 2011-12 for a 2nd round and a 3rd round pick. (We needed D three years ago – where were our pro scouts?) He was drafted in the 7th round, 221st overall (by WSH) – Now that’s finding quality in the later rounds for you!!
Michal Rozival (he’s old now, and probably close to retiring) was drafted in 1996 (by PIT)in the 4th round (105th overall) (Again, finding quality players in later rounds)
DUNCAN KEITH – drafted by CHI in 2002, 2nd round (54th overall) (That’s what Johnathan Willis was referring to when speaking about drafting and developing your own “homegrown” players)
Maybe our #57 pick this year is also very valuable! Maybe we can get a future Duncan Keith!? (It is a very deep draft, and there are a lot of highly rated defense?)
YES . . . IT WAS TIME FOR A CHANGE IN OUR SCOUTING DEPARTMENT (a change LONG OVERDUE)
You have to look at how they did in the earlier rounds before giving them credit for finding quality in the later rounds.
WSH had 5 picks before drafting Oduya. Only Nathan Paetsch had turned into an NHL player. WSH drafted him in 2nd round but didn’t sign him so he went back to the draft in 2003. The other 4 picks combined less than 10 NHL games. This is pure luck that they get a guy in the 6th picks that year that works out.
It is similar for the Pits in the 1996 draft, 3 players were drafted before Rozival and they combined less than 50 NHL games.
I can understand if you missed one or two picks, but all 5 for WSH and 3 for PIT? Why couldn’t they find quality in the earlier rounds?
One of the worst teams in the history of the NHL for a decade. I would hope even more firings are coming soon….
C’mon guys stop allowing yourself to be baited by this loser. Who cares what he says? I read five words of his first post and tuned him out. Because far too many of you can’t control yourself, can someone explain to me why he hasn’t been deactivated.
I just wanna say Happy McDavid Day everyone! Especially you Flames fans. You are welcome to come here anytime and witness the joy of us Oiler fans for the next 10-15 years!! 🙂
With Nuge, McDavid, and Draisatl, we could be looking at three first line centres in a couple years. If Leon’s great boardplay can be carried over into the NHL, I’d be interested in seeing what a 2nd line of Hall-McDavid-Draisaitl could do. You’ve got McDavid to fleece attackers in the D zone, Hall will do his thing, and Drai can battle it out in the corners. It’s a pretty young line, though. I wouldn’t want to throw them out there without a real first defense pairing to back them up.