Moving Up

The news of the past week is that the Plymouth Whalers will be changing hands, meaning Peter Karmanos, who also owns the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes, is selling to Rolf Nilsen, owner of IMS Hockey Corporation.  The deal is pending approval of the OHL Board of Governors, and once approved, it will not only end the 30-year ownership run of Karmanos, but will also signal the end of the Plymouth Whalers franchise.  The team is moving to Flint, MI next season, meaning the team will be moving an hour north to start play in Perani Arena.  Whether the team will be still known as the Whalers is not known at this time.

New Life in a Different Sport

Yesterday, the Edmonton Oilers were the subject of a piece on how failure can spread.  It just so happens that the gentleman you see in the picture was one of the coaches during the Oilers' current run of failure, and believe it or not, he's actually had the most success of any coach since the 2009-10 season.  Why does Ralph Krueger's name come up you ask?  In a piece on the English football club Southampton on television last night, his name came up, so in an effort to figure out what his connection to Southampton is, some research had to be done.

In February 2014, Krueger switched from hockey to football and became the director of Southampton, a club that had as recently as five years ago, been playing in the country's third tier league.  In March of the same year, he would be named chairman of the club.  The documentary, called "The Southampton Way," was aired on NBC Sports and for viewing purposes, can be located here.  Krueger's part is included in this piece, and it is an insightful look into a club that wants to be the best while on a relatively modest budget.

Getting to the Root of the Oilers' Problems

The incompetence that is the Edmonton Oilers is well documented, and while it has been an ongoing problem, there are certainly ways to fix this problem.  Today, I look at one issue that has been plaguing the Oilers since before their first Stanley Cup championship: drafting and scouting.

Before you say anything about the recent picks and the failure of them panning out, remember that this is not an entirely new phenomenon, as the Oilers have drafted poorly for much of their existence in the first round, it just showed real signs when the Oilers started dismantling their championship team of the mid-80's with the Wayne Gretzky trade in 1988.

Beginning with the 1984 Draft (the first five drafts produced players that would be instrumental to the team's dynastic run on some level), the Oilers have had 38 total first round picks, which includes the 2014 Draft, and while it is too soon to tell whether Darnell Nurse or Leon Draisaitl will pan out, it is clear that the Oilers don't exactly know what to do with them once they are in the system.  In fact, from 1984 until 2001, the only players to have even had a significant impact with the Oilers were Jason Arnott (1993), Ryan Smyth (1994), and Ales Hemsky (2001) while players like Boyd Devereaux (1996), Tyler Wright, and Martin Rucinsky (both 1991) made an impact elsewhere in the NHL.  That means the Oilers got almost nothing out of their picks from 1984 to 1990.  No wonder the Oilers were in dire straits when the likes of Gretzky, Messier, Fuhr, and Coffey were sent out.

While on the surface the Oilers should be past the rebuilding stage at this point, remember that the Oilers have been in such since 2006, when they traded Chris Pronger after he wanted out.  Despite having had three first overall picks from 2010-12, the Oilers have had, at best, uneven effort from the trio (Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Nail Yakupov), while at worst, Yakupov plays absolutely no defense (-18 this season).

What the last bit says is that the Oilers are wanting to accelerate the rebuilding process while forgetting to actually build a solid foundation for the players to succeed.  Translation: their blue line is still minor-league level and they haven't been able to identify a number one goaltender since Curtis Joseph in the late 90's.

The Oilers have a multitude of problems, with their inability to figure out what to do with their prospects most of the time being one of them.  It's going to be major digging out for a team that hasn't found much success this century.

Back from Holiday Break

It's been a while since the last update, and yes, I realize that I've missed weekly updates for both the Erie Otters and the Portland Winterhawks. To that end, here is what has been missed since the last update:

• The Erie Otters will be getting Connor McDavid back after he missed time due to injury and the World Junior Championships.  McDavid had a slow start to his WJC tournament, but he got better as the tournament went on, helping Team Canada to gold in a tournament where the true stars of the team included the likes of Max Domi, Sam Reinhart, and Curtis Lazar.
• McDavid will be rejoining the team and will have to get familiar with a couple of new faces, as the Otters acquired Jake Marchment and Remi Elie from Belleville.
• The Portland Winterhawks get Nic Petan back this week from the WJCs, where he tallied a hat trick in the semi-final game against Slovakia.  He too, will have to get familiar with a couple of new faces, as Adam Henry was acquired from Saskatoon while Evan Johnson was acquired from Calgary in a deal that saw Brendan Burke go the other way.
• The soap opera that is the Toronto Maple Leafs took another turn, as Randy Carlyle was fired this week and Peter Horachek was named interim coach.  No need to rehash the many issues that the Leafs have faced here, as it's ongoing.
• Over the holiday break, the New Jersey Devils did a little house cleaning of their own, relieving Peter DeBoer of the coaching duties, and taking over in the interim is Lou Lamoriello, with Scott Stevens and Adam Oates handling assistant coach duties on defense and offense, respectively.  Yes, you've heard this story before, as Lamoriello is coming down from the press box to take over as coach again...while still being employed as General Manager.
• The Edmonton Oilers fired Dallas Eakins and Todd Nelson is now the interim coach.  Oh, and the Oilers are still stinking up the joint while the front office group is somehow still employed.
• The WHL trade deadline is this Saturday, and some big names are getting moved, with Morgan Klimchuk jumping from Regina to rival Brandon, Brycen Martin going from Swift Current to Saskatoon, Tyler Sandhu heading to Tri-City from Red Deer, and Kelowna loading up for a deep playoff run, acquiring Josh Morrissey and Leon Draisaitl from Prince Albert.

There is plenty of hockey movement going about, and with the All-Star game in Columbus looming, it's just getting started.