Monday Mailbag – What is the Oilers biggest need?

My friends, it’s that wonderful time again. It’s that time when you have all the things you’ve always wanted to know about the NHL and about life in general. I like to think of us as a much cheaper alternative to a college education. As always, the mailbag depends on your questions so I need you to send me anything you want to know. If you have an Oilers or life question that needs answering you can always email me, or DM me on Twitter. Enjoy.

I didn’t always agree with the way McLellan deployed the personnel he had available, but I do think the make-up of the roster has been the biggest problem. We’re seeing the same shortcomings under Ken Hitchcock now. People have been talking about lack of blueline depth and scoring up front for a long time — even in the season the cards fell the right way for the Oilers and they made the playoffs.

I said it at the time. Coaching wasn’t the issue. You are only as good as the players you have and the GM hasn’t provided the coach with enough good players.

No. There’s room for both Todd McLellan being a stubborn ass and Peter Chiarelli building a trash roster. Frankly, I think that Todd, Pete, and Bobby all need to be fired immediately.

There’s legitimate complaints about Todd McLellan but the bigger issue is Peter Chiarelli and his roster construction/management.

Nah. I don’t regret the firing of Todd McLellan. I mean, it proves that our roster is garbage because if Ken Hitchcock can’t fix a team then no one can. Hopefully, this is a sign to Bob Nicholson and Darryl Katz.

I think even Todd would admit that he should take his fair share of the blame given how things went, but as we’re seeing right now with Ken Hitchcock, it’s hard to get wins out of a roster that can’t compete. That’s on Chiarelli. If one of the winningest coaches of all time can’t make it work then what does that tell you?

I don’t see his intensity as the problem, Nobody wants to engage Lucic. He throws plenty of hits and imposes himself physically, but very few players are going to push back very hard and let him be a factor. They’d rather let him sleep. His lack of productivity, given his contract, is the biggest issue. The best bangers who play with an edge, as you put it, aren’t worth $6 million a season. There has to be more.

Very few players in the league will fight him, so he isn’t going to have many fighting majors. I’d argue that because he has as many hits as he does and doesn’t take penalties that is a positive. You don’t need him taking stupid roughing penalties just to pad his penalty minutes. That helps no one.

I think it’s a sign he isn’t involved in the play at all. He’s not fast enough to be anywhere that matters. I don’t really want him taking penalties at all, but if he could actually get to the play then I think he would be taking some.

Lucic has also seen his minutes reduced. He’s clearly lost a step. I don’t think he skates at a level to make an impact anymore.

Totally. I wouldn’t be mad at all at Lucic if he takes the occasional penalty while playing hard because that’s what happens to guys like that. He’s not getting to the net, he’s not taking shots, he’s hitting a little bit, but that’s it.

He’s still tough but no one wants to fight him. Would you? The Oilers need to find a way to move on from this disaster as quickly as possible.

Leon Draisaitl, with or without McDavid, isn’t the problem.

Maybe two players in the NHL can run a line on their own, Crosby and McDavid. Stop expecting Draisaitl to run a line when the wingers aren’t good enough. Look around the league and see that the centres who produce play with a winger who is skilled. The most asinine comment in Edmonton is the believe Draisaitl can carry a line when they have no wingers who can produce. There is a reason both Hitchcock and McLellan have played one or RNH or Draisaitl with McDavid. It’s because they want their best offensive player to have someone with a pulse offensively beside him…Like every other top centre in the league.

Well, the best seasons of his career have been playing support roles for either McDavid or Hall. I think he should be in the position to do that if the Oil can’t find him a winger who is playing close to a point per game hockey.

I hope so. That’d be a lot for a player that relies on Conor McDavid otherwise. I think he can do it but they haven’t given him much support and they keep putting him with McDavid. I’d like to see what he does in a season playing mostly without McDavid.

Yes. Leon is a gem and can absolutely run his own line. He just needs some other forwards to help him out.

I don’t really understand why Leon takes so much heat considering he’s one of four guys that has consistently produced offence. Why are we not looking at the other 19 players on the team and asking when they’re going to score literally anything at all?

A better GM, then scoring depth on the wings and getting Oscar Klefbom back. This we already know.

An entire makeover of their management.

General Manager who understands the game of hockey, how the cap works, and how to make a trade without soiling himself.

A new front office. Until they have the people that will make the right decisions it won’t make a difference.

A new GM.

A clean sweep of the entire management team: CEO, GM, AGM, everyone… Wayne you’re still cool.

The Oilers don’t need to make big trades. They need a proven top-nine winger and a proven defenceman, which they addressed Sunday. I like the move to bring in Alex Petrovic for Chris Wideman. He’s had a tough season, but can play reliable third-pairing minutes. That’s a start. Wideman showed nothing here. What I don’t get is shipping out Drake Caggiula, one of the few forwards who could score a little bit (despite other faults) for another third-pairing guy in Manning.

For me, improvement doesn’t have to involve a big name or a big salary. If they opt to go bigger, it’s salary in and salary out, as always. The problem as I see it is Peter Chiarelli can’t be trusted to make that kind of deal.

Klefbom’s injury really hurt them and no team is going to trade them a top-three defender for anything less than RNH, and the Oilers, I’d hope, aren’t doing that. Unless they grossly overpay there is no realistic way I see them adding a top-three defender during the season.

It doesn’t really work but that doesn’t change the fact that the team needs to upgrade the blueline. They may be forced to wait for Jones, Bouchard, and Bear to force their way up. Chia blew all the best assets (Hall, Eberle, 2015 1st & 2nd) and the team only has Larsson and Ryan Spooner to show for it. He also committed $9.5M in cap space to Sekera and Russell, who will most likely limp out the year on the 3rd pairing assuming Sekera ever plays at all. This is a disaster and it’s shocking anyone involved still has a job in hockey.

They lack significant assets to trade. I’m becoming more and more skeptical there’s a quick way out of this. They need to shed bad contracts, but those contracts are really tough. I’d look what you could get for Jesse Puljujarvi or Darnell Nurse and hold onto first and second-round picks.

To acquire a top four d-man we would likely need to give up our first overall or a top six forward. I’m annoyed just talking about this because trading, in general, should be off the table while Chiarelli is in power.

Peter Chiarelli traded a 1st, a 2nd, and Taylor Hall to upgrade the defence and here we are. Do you really trust that he can do it right this time?

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