MTL passes

How many rebuilds is that now?

This is the 4th since 2007? Absolutely pathetic the state of this franchise.



Would you rather dump Tatar, a bunch of bottom-6 pieces, and have Edmonton send a first like every other Montreal AGM? That's a steal of a deal for a top LHD for Montreal, and he's got 5 years of term.

id rather not trade our 2019 1st rounder and the 2nd leading point scorer for D-Men in the WHL....

EDM is the Cleveland Browns of the NHL.

Then what do you think the ask for a top-pairing LHD with 4 years of term, on a team-friendly deal mind you, after this season is worth? Rental defencemen of Klefbom's calibre fetch at minimum a 1st and a top prospect. This is the piece Montreal is missing right now, is it not?



Its ridiculous to think that this can't actually start fixing itself until there's a new owner in place. What a farce.

Sorry to hear that only a month after re-signing Koskinen you're talking about buying him out before the contract is up. Maybe he'll surprise and be solid for a few years.

Nice job, you've obviously done some research on the draft picks.

I agree with the comments above about the price for Klefbom - he might be worth that on the open market but as a Habs fan I would prefer they use the #21 pick themselves (most likely an offensive LD like Thomas Harley) and be patient. Some of the younger RD prospects could also play their off-side for a bit to fill the gap in development.

Hope the Oilers can cut a deal with Ottawa to take away one of their bad contracts and create some cap space.

It's the Oilers "annual" rebuild...

I wouldn't have minded him at about $1.5M cheaper, but nearly $5M for a career .904sv% netminder is absurd, and I'm incensed that Oilers management didn't fire Chiarelli before he signed that extension AND that the group at large okay-ed the extension collectively. I'd rather run a combination of Elliot, Comrie, and Starrett into next season (45/24/11 split): collectively, that trio wouldn't cost as much as Koskinen does now.

Years of Oiler futility has shifted a lot of my attention away from professional hockey and into prospects and drafting. I tend to rely on a mix of DobberProspects and McKenzie's lists for the top-50ish, then it's a matter of using ratios of players under Central Scouting and prioritizing 17 year-olds playing in professional leagues or national teams, avoiding overagers unless they're bonafide top-100 talents, and not being afraid of a kid being under 5'10". I find it annoying that I could probably do a better job scouting these kids than the current Oilers setup.

Glad I at least got the price on Klefbom right lol

The trick with offloading crap on Ottawa is that the majority of the crap on the roster has a NMC or NTC of some sorts. Right now, Spooner and Manning could be dropped on the Sens, but I can't imagine either Russell or Lucic wanting to go there. Sekera is more manageable right now I think.

This has nothing to do with Ownership and everything to do with management.

Too me, ownership isn't trading a top 5 LW in the NHL for a #4 RH Dman.

An owner is the peak of the management pyramid. Katz signs the paycheques and hires to fill the remainder of management positions. Whoever is POHO is his call. Whoever is GM is his call. Every hire, even if it's made by the GM and not Katz directly, is still indirectly attached to Katz.

Since Katz bought the team, the Oilers will have had 4 GMs (including K.Gretz/whoever replaces him) with little to no changes to the pro or amateur scouting, 8 head coaches, and still have the same issues that the Oilers had in 2008. The Hall-for-Larsson trade or Reinhart for top picks trade highlight this: the talent evaluation in this organization is terrible. This is no longer just a management issue. There's been some change of who calls the shots, but the problem persists. At what point does the policy of not hiring the best possible management group actually lead to sustainable success in any business? 2006 was a fluke. 2017 was a fluke. The onus is on Katz to make these corrections, but until the cash-flow into Rogers Place is greatly diminished, he has no incentive to do so.

It's worth noting that I don't buy for a second that the OBC doesn't have pull in some of these decisions - Nicholson has emphasized that things like the Koskinen extension and the Petrovic/Manning trades were consensus decisions - but doesn't specify who that group is. Upper management and the scouting staff are littered with nepotistic hires, members of the 80's Oilers, and "hockey men" that played the game but couldn't muster a critical thought to save their lives; to suggest that there isn't communication with Gretzky, Lowe, Messier, Coffey, and whoever else Katz has kicking around these days is pure ignorance. Any business has communication through pretty much all levels regarding personnel decisions ABOVE the level of who makes the decision. For what it's worth, the Gryba buyout was a Katz call. He wanted to save $300k over this season and next instead of spending the $900k this year. It's a seemingly insignificant amount, but was almost the amount that Nurse was willing to hold out for, and is the difference between having to waive two players or make a losing trade as opposed to just waiving Manning. The Yakupov pick was a Katz call. Katz is clearly involved in the decision making process.