Monday Mailbag – How concerned are you about McDavid’s comments?

Can you believe it’s been already been a week since the last mailbag? I guess time flies when you’re banging your head against the wall, trying to figure out how the regular season finished with the Oilers outside of the playoffs again. Fortunately, we’re back with another edition of the Mailbag to try and make sense of it all. As always, you’ve submitted your questions and I’ve sent them off to our panel of mental warlords for their thoughts and ideas. If you have a question for the Mailbag, you can always hit me up through email or on Twitter. Until then, enjoy the free learning opportunity.

I have seen many players improve later in their careers. I don’t think Koskinen will be a top-10 goalie, but I’d like to think he can alter his stance, like Markstrom did this season, and make small improvements. If he can be a .915 goalie then he will be a reliable netminder.

I think he can improve his glove hand somewhat, but that’s going to take changes to his positioning, stance and staying square to the puck. These aspects can be tweaked, but I wouldn’t expect a major overhaul. What he has to do is narrow the difference between his best games and his worst games. Consistency. That’s the challenge.

I wouldn’t bank on a massive improvement. That said, I’m not going to pretend to be some kind of goalie expert given the fact they’re so wildly unpredictable and so many of them randomly get good into their 30s. It could happen as he spends more time with better North American coaches than he had in Russia, but, again, it’s something I would hope for rather than expect.

Yeah, I do. I’ll never forget the way he was playing when he went 6-0 in Rogers Place and had the second-best GAA of the league. Sure it was only for like 10 games, but he’s proved he has the ability to play well, he’s just gotta find the confidence.

Let me answer your question with one of my own: Do players normally improve a whole lot in their 30s?

A one. Of course he is frustrated. If the Captain of the team wasn’t frustrated that would concern me much more. In two years, if the Oilers are still struggling, and he said it then it would rank an eight out of ten.

Not concerned at all, McDavid reiterated his desire to stay in Edmonton and be part of the solution when he met with reporters Sunday. Of course he’s frustrated. Winners don’t accept the kind of failure we’ve seen around here for years.

I don’t think this is really anything new. We all know he’s frustrated and if he wasn’t then, well, that would be much more worrying than anything.

I don’t think Connor’s going anywhere. He wants to bring a cup back to this city and be the hero. Ask me again at the end of next season, and maybe my views will be different. For now, I’m not concerned.

I’m not overly concerned about it but the people in management should be. I’m not one of the people that think Connor is going to ask for a trade, but I can definitely see his comments costing some people their jobs.

Schwartz sees it and they are working on it, but as Kevin Woodley said it isn’t a quick fix, and unlikely something that happens during the season. Outside of Dubnyk, the Oilers haven’t drafted a goalie who looked like he could play. Maybe that changes with Skinner, Wells or Rodrique, but a goalie coach can’t make a C goalie an A goalie. I find it difficult to know if Schwartz is good or not to be honest. Talbot had solid few seasons, was coach suddenly problem when he struggled? Hard to know for sure.

Might it be worth changing goaltender coaches? Sure. The team has been a perennial loser. You have to look at it. In the end, though, coaches can’t play the game for him and Koskinen has moments when he looks like a Vezina candidate and other games where he’s awful Why does it come and go like that? I don’t have the answer.

I don’t think it’s fair to expect a goalie coach to be a miracle worker. It’s like in baseball when everyone always wants to fire the hitting coach. Koskinen is what he is. A big guy who takes up a lot of the net but lacks in some high-skill areas of the game. I think his struggles later into the year might be a mix of burnout and the team letting him down in front of him.

To answer your last question, YES goaltending is still important and it will always be. To answer your first question, I don’t know. I’ve heard nothing but great things about Dustin Schwartz and what he does. He obviously doesn’t have a great track record with our recent stretch of goalies, but I am curious how much of that relies on the goaltending coach.

Same goalie coach that Talbot had when the Oilers went on their playoff run a couple of years ago. Seems to me, he was fine then. To me, Koskinen is more of a pro-scout issue than a goalie coach issue.

Hire his management team. I expect the Oilers will clean much of the management before he comes in. At least they should. It shouldn’t be his responsibility. He has nothing to do with the last decade.

Naming his head coach. I’d say firing the hockey-ops people who have been part of all the failure around here, but Bob Nicholson should do that before the new guy comes in (even though I doubt he will).

Find good pro and amateur scouts. Put together an edvanced analytics department.

It has to be the coach first. Whatever it is, I hope he addresses the fans and is up front with us about his plan moving forward. My guess is he takes a close look at our contract situation and whether or not we need to start buying out guys. I think the positional area they need to be most focussed with is their bottom six forwards.

I imagine finding a new coach would be near the top. I’d guess that he’d want to get in early to avoid missing out on a quality candidate.

Time to change the defence. Insanity to keep the same group and expect different results. Let me bring in my pro scouts and director of Player Personnel. I will want to talk to every player before making moves. I convince Jesse Puljujarvi to train in Edmonton and work with a skills coach. Nothing can do about current dead cap space, but I won’t add more. I tell Lucic to get a skills coach. I will sign two UFA forward vets on short-term, value contracts. Benson and Marody will compete for jobs. Same with Jones and Bear. I will deal one of Sekera or Russell, and look for a bigger deal to acquire a right shot, puck moving defender. Get a solid backup. I will not be trading the first round pick for a proven player, because I likely have to add in another prospect and organizational depth isn’t deep enough to give up two good, young assets.

That sounds like 10 paragraphs, so I’m glad I wasn’t interviewed. I’d bring Ken Hitchcock back because I respect his work and know him better than any other coach at the pro level of the game.  I fire the pro scouts because they’ve been terrible. I talk to the core players — McDavid, Draisaitl, RNH — to get their honest takes about where the team is and where they see it going and I actually listen to what they have to say. I make working with Mikko Koskinen a priority and I make sure I secure an experienced back-up as a fall-back plan if he struggles. The defence needs at least one more puck-mover and the forward group needs a winger who can score at least a little. I sign Alex Chiasson and try to find another veteran who can deliver like he did at a decent price.

The key is patience. There’s enough here right now for the team to make the playoffs with some minor tweaks. The key, though, is putting together a strong, new-age front office, coaching, and developmental staff that can ensure the organization can find new advantages in different market inefficiencies. You can’t work your way out of a cap bind in one summer and you’ll make it even worse if you look for quick fixes. It might be frustrating, but you need to take it slow.

This question stresses me out as I wouldn’t know the first thing about being a General Manager. I think buyouts are our only option as Lucic and Koskinen probably wouldn’t have any trade takers. Any guy would have to take the summer to get to know the organization by meeting with everyone, asking lots of questions, and having lenghty discussions with upper management.

For the coach, I’d see if Joel Quenneville would want to be the guy. For the cap issues, I’m adding sweeteners to some deals to move money out. Would you trade a guy like Puljujarvi if it meant also getting rid of Milan Lucic? Maybe.

Tired of going through the usual hassle of dealing with plans and booking hotels for your next trip? We don’t blame you. That’s why we have put together a ton of winter getaways to change the way you approach the winter. Let us do all the work, so you can have all the fun. Check out Backside Tours for more details.