Monday Mailbag – Who is your choice to be the next Oilers GM?

Welcome, friends, to yet another edition of the Monday Mailbag! Whether you’re at work, at school, or at home, we both know you’re not doing anything even remotely productive and I salute you for your commitment to retired living. And since you’re not doing anything work-related anyway, why not enjoy a few thousand words worth of free wisdom — sound good? As always, this feature depends on all of you and I need questions for next week so if you’ve got one you email me at baggedmilk@oilersnation.com or hit me up on Twitter at @jsbmbaggedmilk. Until then, let’s all gather round to enjoy this here mailbag.

Bill Guerin is someone I’d interview. He has worked in management for a few years, and is a very good communicator, and also a strong enough personality to handle the pressure of a Canadian market.

They aren’t going to get one of the guys I prefer. Of the candidates in the running, my preference is McCrimmon, followed closely by Bill Guerin.

I think it’s ideal for the Oilers to go outside the organization when making this hire. They need to bring in somebody with new-school ideas and a modern plan for how to work through the mess left ahead of them. With that in mind, Kelly McCrimmon seems like the best bet.

I think it’s really hard to have a preference when we don’t know very much about the candidates. I think McCrimmon and Hunter would both be solid choices. Based off of track record, I would lean towards McCrimmon but either one would be good with me. I’m very curious about Sean Burke as well. He’s a young candidate who has impressed a lot of people.

It’s so hard to know what each assistant general manager was responsible and how they think and operate. Between Mark Hunter and Kelly McCrimmon, I’d lean McCrimmon. I like what Vegas does and they make some shrewd moves and valued skills the Oilers need to. Hunter was part of an interesting group in Toronto, but left after Dubas got promoted. The Oilers need someone more like Dubas who thinks differently.

I have been convinced by Dusty Nielson to look at Pat Verbeek. His work with the best team in recent history (even with the early exit this year) has me believing he would be great for the job. But at the end of the day and I said it on this week’s ON Radio episode, I just want someone to come in and demand control over the organizational chart of the whole team’s executive.

I don’t know much about all of the candidates on a personal level. But the fact that McCrimmon has worked in the environment of an analytical, successful team like the Golden Knights over the past two seasons that went through the process of the expansion draft is a good enough reason for me to want to hire him.

Right now, I feel like Kelly McCrimmon or Bill Guerin would be my choices for the gig. I like that McCrimmon has been involved in an expansion draft, has an openness to analytics, and would likely bring fresh ideas to the job that this organization has been missing for years. I like Bill Guerin because he’s one of those guys that have worked their way up, been around a successful franchise, and also has the career to back up what he wants to do. Either of those guys would be a win imo.

The Oilers needs a right shot D in their top-four. Ellis makes $6.25 mill and Subban over $9. In order to make a deal happen the Oilers would likely have to part with RNH and his contract. I wonder about Winnipeg and Jacob Trouba. I’d reach out to them. If the Oilers could shed salary in another deal, then they could look at Trouba and the Jets, who have to pay Laine, Connor and others, might be willing to take some young cheaper players in return.

All teams knocked out of the playoffs in the first round fall into that category, even Tampa Bay to a lesser extent. The target — say a right side defenceman — matters more than the team. Who is willing to give up what you want and need for something you have?

I think Toronto and Edmonton line up nicely as trade partners. The Oilers have a few solid and cost-controlled defencemen, which the Leafs need, and the Leafs have a few good forwards they can’t afford. Connor Brown would be an interesting buy-low option, Kasperi Kapanen and Andreas Johnsson have the wheels to thrive with Connor McDavid, and you might despise Nazem Kadri, but you’d love him on your team.

I agree with the Nashville idea as well. Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay might have some forwards they’re willing to move. Winnipeg and Toronto are in straight up cap hell as well. They both have some young forwards that are pending RFA’s. I would be looking at those two, but to make a deal with them you’d probably have to free up some cap space. That might be an issue. I do think there will be lots of teams looking to shake up their rosters this offseason.

I like Nashville as a trade partner too. Tampa Bay has a few forwards they might move to clear salary for Brayden Point. If PK Subban’s available, I do everything to make room for him. I’d talk to Toronto about their skilled wingers too.

I have the Jets squarely in my trade target sights. Nikolai Ehlers would be a fantastic winger to have on this team going forward and I think right now you strike after his 0 points in six games before the Jets bowed out. The secondary target from them would be Jacob Trouba, but I’m not sure how that trade would work for us.

Nashville is at the top of my list for a trade target team for sure. Other teams who might want to shake some things up could be Winnipeg, or even Washington due to cap issues.

Nashville has all kinds of defencemen that would help the Oilers right now so I like that idea a lot. I also think Winnipeg could be an option based on who they have to sign this summer and the limited cap space they’ll have available to get it all done.

I expect the new GM will have discussions with Bob Nicholson and make it clear to him who he wants to bring in and who needs to go. If Nicholson can’t offer the GM freedom to make changes to management then it will be more difficult to attract a GM, but I don’t believe will be a big issue this time around. Now more than ever, Katz realizes changes are necessary.

Of course it’s a hurdle. Why would a top-end candidate come to a team where they don’t have final say and control of how they do their job? No GM acts completely alone, but there’s a difference between consulting with your people in hockey-ops and interference from above.

Yes. I imagine it’s probably the biggest concern any potential GM has with coming here for the gig. As much as media here tries to push that they aren’t involved, they’re in the mix at HQ and voices carry.

I think that could 100% be an issue. If a high-end candidate with McCrimmon or Holland or Hunter wants complete control and Nicholson says that certain people need to keep their jobs then it could be a major turn off. I think that’s a major part of the reason why Mike Gillis isn’t in the conversation for the job.

Absolutely. I felt Bob Nicholson didn’t make the best situation possible for an incoming general manager and it was a weak point of leadership from him. It was an easy PR softball too. Come into the press conference saying this wasn’t acceptable, the wrong thing were emphasized, and that you’ve let go of a number of management people. You don’t have to name names or shame them, they’ll get out anyways via the media, but leaving that to the new GM is pretty cowardly. It shows either they’re not serious about meaningful change or that Nicholson doesn’t want to do it himself. Whatever management structure they’ve had hasn’t worked. Thank them for their time and move on.

When the Oilers hired Pete and Todd I thought it was going to be the easiest way for both those guys to show how much the Bruins/Sharks missed out. Now, I am wondering if people view working with the Oilers as career suicide. There are always going to be voices surrounding you as a GM that you didn’t bring in, but right now that group from our (the fans) vantage point is OBC heavy.

Part of me agrees with you. I think that could also motivate someone to come in and fire all their asses as well.

Absolutely. I can’t imagine that the highest quality candidates would be pumped on dealing with a bunch of old boys and having them go over his head to the owner.

Tampa Bay didn’t win a game after 62 wins in the regular season. How can it be anyone but them?

Tampa Bay. It’s not close. One-and-done after a 128-point season. Calgary was a 107-point team.

Toronto for not capitalizing on being up 3-2 in the series heading home.

It should 100% be Tampa Bay. The Flames had some holes in their roster and I actually thought their first-round matchup was going to be tough. The Lightning appeared to be a perfect hockey team and rolled through everyone in the regular season. For them to go out and get swept was flat out embarrassing.

Toronto. Winning gets tougher with all these contracts kicking in, but that was a winnable series and they likely lost it because one of their veteran centers wasn’t disciplined enough. They could have easily been the favourite in round two against Columbus and the winner of Islanders-Hurricanes. Instead, they lose to the same team again and don’t make it out of the first round after adding John Tavares and Jake Muzzin.

Tampa Bay is the for sure one here. I don’t know about embarrassed because they did make the playoffs, but I have to imagine the Penguins are sweating things now. Sidney isn’t getting any younger as their window is closing.

Tampa no question. The Flames should also be embarrassed with their outcome, but the Lightning were much bigger favourites to win the cup in my opinion.

Calgary. Mostly because of all the shit we took from Flames fans before the playoffs started. I hope they enjoyed those extra five games.

I wrote my full thoughts here. In short, the call was incorrect, no question, and it presented San Jose with a good opportunity, but it was still up to the Sharks to take advantage of it, and Vegas PK didn’t have to completely collapse because of one erroneous call.

Officials can’t make a call that bad in a game that important. It’s ridiculous that an offside 30 seconds before a goal is scored can be reviewed and the goal called back if the play is offside by an inch but you can’t have a second look at a call like that to make sure it’s right.

I mean, the call sucked, but Vegas has to be better. Maybe consider killing a penalty? Or making a save? Hell, maybe don’t lose Game 6 while you’re on the power play? They put themselves in that situation by not icing the series sooner.

I think some blame definitely falls on the shoulders of Vegas. They should have figured it out with their penalty and they had plenty of looks in overtime but at the end of the day, they should have never been put in that situation. It’s one thing to get called on a chincy minor penalty and even a double-minor wouldn’t have sunk them. They got screwed by a bad call and it’s unfortunate that it came in the final ten minutes of game seven.

I understand people putting the blame on Vegas for their horrendous penalty killing, but they’re not in that situation without the penalty kill. If it was a two-minute power play they’d be down a goal with just under 10 minutes to play. The penalty call allowed the Sharks to continuously score. Sure, ultimately the Golden Knights needed to kill the penalty better, but that was an all-time bad call. The NHL apologizing to Vegas and shutting down those refs for the season says all you need to know about that call. It cost Vegas the series.

I was pretty vocal on social media and after letting it cool for a couple of days I still feel the same, the refs need review help. We need to eliminate the offside review (unless the linesmen ask for it) and institute a review that refs can start right away (with a hand signal or something) when they haven’t seen the full play that resulted in an injury/goal/game-changing event. The Vegas PK was bad but you could see the momentum that the first and second PP goals gave the Sharks and that was allowed to continue because the five-minute major was the call. The comeback doesn’t happen in that PP if the call isn’t made.

My god. I’m still in shambles about how entertaining that game was. I was so invested in it and was rattled by the call. It was obviously a horrible call that should have never happened, however, I understand the human mistake behind it. The timing and significance of it were just awful and cringy though. Regarding the comeback, I am a believer that yes, if the referee didn’t make the bad call then Vegas wouldn’t have to kill the penalty. HOWEVER, hockey is full of unpredictable adversity. When a bad call goes your way, champions don’t roll over and complain about it, they rally and fight through. Vegas failed to do that.

It was a weird penalty there’s no doubt. But I can’t help but feel as though the Golden Knights needed to get something done on the penalty kill. They completely unravelled because of a bad call and ended up losing the series because of it. Should the call have been made? No. But once it happened, Vegas had to focus on killing off that penalty and they couldn’t do it.

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