The Stanley Cup has been handed out, we’re just under two weeks out from the NHL Draft, and that gave me a minute to put a few Random Thoughts together about our beloved Edmonton Oilers. Even though it’s been months since they got knocked out of the playoffs, it’s been anything but boring around here.

I don’t know how else to say it, other than this summer/offseason got weird in a hurry. The Oilers got bumped from the playoffs in the first round for the first time in years, gassed Kris Knoblauch, tried taking a swing at Bruce Cassidy and aren’t allowed, somehow ended up connected to Mike Babcock before the NHLPA asked the league to look into his exit in Columbus, and we’ve also got Darnell Nurse trade rumours spinning around as the cherry on top. That’s a lot going on for a team that we all wanted to be spending this summer making smart, quiet changes instead of making the hockey world wonder what the next insane headline is going to be.

Maybe there’s a plan in the middle of all this, and maybe we’ll look back when the season starts, and it will all make a lot more sense, but this recent run of news feels like we’re off the rails way faster than expected. The Oilers are still close enough that they don’t need to reinvent the team, which is why the noise feels so strange, given that many of the pieces are already in place. Hire the coach, sort out the Nurse situation one way or another, make some smart additions to the roster, and get back to looking like a serious team with serious Stanley Cup aspirations. After the way the last couple of weeks have gone, a boring stretch would be a nice change of pace around here.

I was cruising around Twitter the other day, and I was seeing a lot of Isaac Howard trade talk that started to make me uncomfortable. And the more I think about it, the more this was an idea that maybe made sense until I actually sat with it for a minute. We all know the Oilers are trying to get back to their winning ways, and I understand that you have to give to get when you’re shopping for legit upgrades, but I’m having a hard time getting excited about the idea of moving a young shooter before we even know what the kid is all about. Gregor wrote about this the other day, and I think he’s right to be confused. Howard scored 24 goals in 47 AHL games, got into 29 with the Oilers, and already looks like he has the kind of shot this organization is desperately lacking. For a team that has spent years trying to crowbar the Ty Ratties of the world into the top six, punting one of the few guys who might actually fit there down the line feels like a miss.

By no means am I saying that Howard should be untouchable either, because almost nobody is, and I’m not pretending Stan Bowman should immediately hang up the phone if his name pops up. But what does the deal have to be to make including him worth it? That’s where I get stuck. But I think any deal with him leaving would have to be for a legitimate option, right? Are we talking about a proven scorer with term? Are we talking about a clear top-four defenceman who solves the Darnell Nurse void? Because if it’s just Howard getting tossed into the pile as the sweetener that gets somebody else’s idea across the line, I really don’t know if that’s the move. We already saw Brett Kulak get tossed into a trade, and it didn’t exactly work out so well. Maybe the Ice Man never turns into the sniper some of us pray he could be, but trading that bet before it has even had a real chance to play out feels risky in a way that does not tickle my fancy.

One of the cooler little side stories from Carolina winning the Stanley Cup is that Tyler Dellow and Dennis King are going to end up with rings and a day with the Cup. For anyone who spent time in the Oilogosphere back in the day, those are two names that carry plenty of weight for their work in the early analytics days. Dellow was one of the OGs in the Oilers blogging world at MC79Hockey before analytics were anywhere close to mainstream, and King was right there in that same world as someone whose eye for the game and ability to crack jokes about what he was seeing were as funny as they were accurate. These guys built reputations through smart analysis at a time when a lot of that work was being shrugged off by the people who probably should have been paying more attention.

That’s what makes seeing them get rewarded elsewhere so cool. Dellow had a short run with the Oilers during the Dallas Eakins era before eventually moving on to Carolina as an assistant GM years later, while King got his opportunity with the Hurricanes as a scout this past season and contributed to what is once again a Cup-winning organization. Unfortunately, Edmonton wasn’t the place where either guy got to put their skills to full use, but both of these guys were incredibly impactful for this medium, and ended up helping an NHL team win the whole damned thing. I don’t know how anyone from this market could look at that and not think it’s awesome. Two OGs from early Oilers Internet turned their passion for detailed analysis into jobs with the Stanley Cup champions. That is extremely cool, and I am extremely jealous that they couldn’t get that done here. But with all these bloggers getting Cup rings, I can’t help but hope our man Michael Parkatti is next on the list.

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