I don't mean to insult by any means, just an observation..
A friend of mine, pointed out to me this..
-the oilers the last few years have been on the bubble..always making 8th place.or 7th..whatever
-the oilers always trade away a good player, for a cheaper player
-so basically he was comparing them to the canucks..how the canucks have improved year by year, going from where edmonton is, to 4th place..and keeping the core group together
where edmonton seems to be in operation, just to make the playoffs.
Yes, I agree with your comments. Financially, the Oiler organization has their hands tied. I do believe the Oil do a tremendous job getting the most out of the players they have and their farm system and scouting is tops in the league. Rather than purchase players they raise them on the farm. The unfortunate thing is, they get to a point in their careers and they have to let them go because they just can't afford them.
If the Oil could afford to pay some of their players they would be a force to be reckoned with. Too many players have gone to greener ($$$$) pastures.
money, edmonton raises players with tremendous talent, look at guerin, weight, comrie when they first came to us and after a few years of oiler playing they have evolved in to superstars. The only problem is once they do we don't have the budget to pay superstars or players that require large sums of money and thus have to deal them off and bring in a new bunch of players to develop. Think if we still had weight, guerin smyth on a line and still had the rest of the oil on the others with salo in goal, how great a team edmonton would have. Even without, weight, guerin, carter, we are still a young, fast skating talented team no matter what happens that continues to surprise year in and year out.
The Oilers just can't afford big time players so they have to raise their own stars and ship them of when they become to e^xpensive. They will improve but its hard cause they are small market.
But c'mon, the Oilers aren't all about developing players and shipping them to more wealthy teams. Edmonton has a lot to be proud about, for example: Although we are the youngest team in the NHL with one of the lowest payrolls, we still seem to make the palyoffs every year. ButI know what you are thinking, the Oilers are not improvingif they lose to each year to the first round of the playoffs (namely Dallas). We still have some 'stars' as we Oil fans call them, Ryan Smyth, Tommy Salo. We have some of the best toung talent in the league, in fact, I think that this year will be a hard year to pick who makes the team. Some names are, Jani Rita, Jarret Stoll, Tony Salmelainen, Raffi Torres, and Peter Sarno. They are all battling for the 'last 2 spots' for the forwards. Of course, Georges Laraque is known around the league, for his toughness on ice, and his niceness off ice. Hemsky is a rising star and will be known in around the league quite shortly I'd think.
The reality of the sisuation is, is that once a player gets to the point where he can actually maybe start to become a consistant player the oilers can no longer afford him... and end up trading him for someone younger. After the first scare edmonton fans got when we almost lost this team, the fans understand and still come out and support this team like crazy. I can recall the number of sell outs last season but it was way up there. Unfortunatly the Oilers sisutation is out of their hands, money is a huge issue and the fact is the Oilers don't have much... they do well with what they have. Drafting, signing key players, trading Lowe's been an awsome GM and IMO hes put together quite a good team that can do some damage. I could care less if the Oilers "only" finish 7th or 8th each season, the only thing that matters is that they remain the EDMONTON Oilers.
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I don't think there is really much difference between the way Edmonton and Vancouver (or Ottawa, for that matter) built their respective teams. Low payroll teams have to develop their own talent and trade for young players they think they can develop. They are constantly having to shuffle the deck to keep under their payroll ceiling, while hoping to find the right combination one of these years. The Canucks have been more successful than the Oilers recently, but only very recently.
Right now I think the Oilers have a remarkable number of talented forwards for a team with a 32 million dollar payroll. Comrie's departure, which now looks probable, will leave them thin down the middle and they are already a little thin on defence. If they can address these issues through trades. If their power play improves. If Salo returns to his pre-Olympic form. If Hemsky, Dvorak and Isbister all play to their potential. Then the Oilers could climb the standings, and have a chance to go deep into the playoffs. If not, they might miss the playoffs alltogether. Whatever happens they will be a very entertaining team to watch, and I will be watching them whenever I can.
Hey now buddy, reread my post. No need for hostility.
It was a question, without meaning to insult or direct.
Anyway, yes, without Bertuzzi and Naslund, the Canucks would be a non playoff team. But, we do have Bertuzzi and Naslund. We are lucky, but also we have a very good GM/drafting process.
Edmonton Improving?
Edmonton Improving?
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