Quoting: The_Real_FBGM_37
trade McDavid then
Quoting: The_Real_FBGM_37
jk im not that stoopid
Tbh I probably would.
As it currently it the Oilers are just a time bomb until McDavid's contract expires. Between now and then you have to turn the Oilers around. So in that time you have to get rid of Milan Lucic, Andrej Sekaraj, and a bunch of other anchors (Russell, Kassian, Koskinen if he doesn't pan out, Gagner). Now you have to get an affordable and solid bottom 6. That part isn't actually that hard.
Now you have get 2-3 top 4 caliber dmen, and about 4-7 top 6 caliber forwards. Throughout this period the odds of you getting a top 5 pick are not that high. Connor McDavid hasn't let the Oilers suck that bad since he entered the league. So you think you can get all that done in 6 years? Cause I can't.
If you ship out McDavid, there is absolutely zero precedent for a player like that being shipped which means you could realistically clean a team out of meaningful prospects and picks for the foreseeable future, and maybe get Lucic off the books in the process. From there, you can do everything you should have done in the six years when you had him, but your draft pick is going straight to the top of the draft.
Bottom line is the Oilers aren't winning in the next couple years with or without McDavid, and if you're bad but don't actually rebuild you turn into the Anaheim ducks or the Minnesota Wild.