Oilers fire maligned Peter Chiarelli; Keith Gretzky named interim GM

"We've got some real good players. We've got some real good staff," said Nicholson, "but there's something in the water here in Edmonton that we don't have right and we've got to get that figured out."

Hard to argue with that. Edmonton has some good pieces. Hard to figure why they aren't doing better.

They should try changing the owner.

As long as his priority remains keeping the Boys on the Bus in town, the team will flounder.

I like the part where the enraged and fickle fans who wanted Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle run out of town on a rail are now pissed off at the GM who did exactly what they wanted and got rid of them. What's up with that kind of memory lapse, too difficult to remember which ones it was a couple of years ago who got all the blame for what was wrong with the team? Perennially bad management, a revolving door of head coaches, a worthless good ol' boys group surrounding the owner, a seemingly endless string of first-round picks that turn out to be wash-outs, and fans with almost insanely unrealistic expectations of what the team is actually capable of accomplishing do not make for a happy hockey city. Expect it to get worse too, when McDavid's rookie contract comes to an end and he demands to be traded. It'll be depressingly worse for Edmonton when that happens than when Chris Pronger bailed out on them.

I don't follow hockey that much anymore and the Oilers, even less... but as soon as McDavid came aboard I, and probably a lot of people, thought that it was just a matter of time before the Oilers and McDavid won the Stanley Cup. Now I wonder if the 2 together ever will.

Another 5+ year rebuild. The entire Oiler Upper management should be shot. What a unmitigated disaster that team is.

McDavid resigned a 8 year $100 million dollar deal in 2017(the deal activates after this season)... He could still ask for a trade. He has until 2022-2023 season to request a trade as that's the year his NMC kicks in.

Poor bastard. You know it's bad when even the Maple Leafs can now say "hey, we're still not that good but at least we're not the Oilers".

Good on your Flames for finally getting it together, T.

Maybe the Oilers can learn something from whatever it is they did.

I will point out that the Oilers got worse after hiring Glen Gulutzan as an assistant coach and the Flames got much better after firing him. Glen is not a bad guy but he makes things way too complicated and puts far too much emphasis on forcing the players into adapting to a difficult system instead of adjusting the system to take advantage of the individual skills & strengths of each player. What happened most of all here in Calgary since the end of last year's disastrous season is that Bill Peters took a lot of the stress off the players by making things much more basic & simple than the Gulutzan system was. For the first time in a very long time the Flames are having fun on the ice and that's happening because they're far more relaxed and much less stressed out now than when GG was coaching.

We've been saying that for years. I mean how many first overall picks have they had? Since 2010? Hall, RNH, Yakupov,McDavid? Then how many top 10's? Nurse, Draisaitl, Puljujärvi, Bouchard? What the fuck are they doing in Edmonton? The fucking team should be the Harlem Globetrotters of the NHL.

If the Coilers win the lottery this year I'll be pissed.

Give the # 1 to somebody who can use it. Like the Canucks.

As of today the bottom teams are:

Ottawa
NJ
LA
Philly
Chicago
Detroit

https://www.nhl.com/standings/2018/league

Kind of a waste if Ottawa gets the #1 pick given their recent history and Eugene Melnyk's shitty attitude. Same with the Flyers who seem to be perennially bashing their heads against the wall too because they've had an Oilers/Leafs kind of poison running through their veins too for a very long time. Those other teams though are quality organizations and are probably just a couple of years away from being contenders again.

Edmonton really isn't a truly bad team this year, they're just mediocre, the same way the Flames were last year and too many times as well since their own Cup run in 2004. With the odds of infinite perversity being what they are watch the Oilers win the draft lottery though and end up with yet another Number One pick whose career gets destroyed by ennui and depression by ending up in that hapless organization.

I think the draft lottery allows positions 1 to 3 to be won by any team finishing in the bottom 15. I heard that somewhere. Currently the Canucks would be picking 12th. Hang in there guys then win one of those 3 spots.

The top five choices are stacked this draft. Fingers crossed.

The Oilers would be picking 7th if the draft were to be held today. That's without the lottery. There's actually choice, choices in the top ten this year. Wouldn't mind picking 7th. Somebody like Peyton Krebs might still be around.

Even if Ottawa won the first pick overall, Ottawa will not draft first overall. Ottawa's first pick belongs to Colorado.