Forbes Names Oilers Worst-Run NHL Team, Pocklington Pleads, I’d Take Hall

According to Forbes.com, the Edmonton Oilers are the most inefficiently run franchise in the NHL over the last five years.

What Forbes did was use a formula which calculated wins per dollars and combine that with post-season success. Oilers fans are familiar with the team’s lack of success, and given that Tyler Dellow pointed out how badly dollars have been spent back in April, this isn’t particularly surprising. The five seasons include three under old manager Kevin Lowe, and two under Steve Tambellini, although Tambellini’s 2008-09 roster was largely set before he took over the team.

Former Oilers owner Peter Pocklington is in the news again, this time pleading guilty to lying under oath when he filed for bankruptcy in August 2008. With the guilty plea, he may or may not avoid jail time, but he sees the maximum drop from 10 years imprisonment to five, and if he fulfills his obligations the prosecutor will recommend just six months of house arrest.

If the deal goes through, Pocklington could end up being deported back to Canada, where the Alberta government is still trying to recoup a loan made to Pocklington back in 1988.

Pocklington originally filed for bankruptcy after an ugly dispute over a golf equipment company that saw one of his former business partners sue him for breach of contract.  I’m still stunned Pocklington could find business partners given the amount of publicly available data on his personal history.

I’ve spent a lot of time fence-sitting, but I’ve decided that if I were to make the decision with the Oilers’ first overall pick, I’d take Taylor Hall. Part of that is from watching Hall at the World Juniors and in this year’s post-season, but it’s also based on his regular season, where Hall finished tied for the scoring lead despite playing six fewer games than Seguin.  I also like the fact that Hall is more of an established commodity than Seguin, who upped his draft position exponentially from where it would have been at the start of the season.

Again, there isn’t a bad pick to be made here, and I’m strictly an amateur, but Hall’s the guy I’d be taking.