How to rebuild a franchise....for Dummies (or Flames fans)

Trouble in Cow-Town? You bet! The Flames currently sit just 3 points ahead of the Oilers for last place in the west. Considering the hype, and the expectations going into the 2010-2011 season, this is an epic fail for the boys down south. Listening to radio talk shows, there is even talk of trading Jarome Iginla! That's when you know that the proverbial "shit" has hit the fan. The Flames future isn't much brighter either. They do not have either their 2nd or 3rd round picks for the 2011 draft. They now belong to Toronto and Edmonton respectively. So even to bomb on the season would not be as helpful for the Flames. So in watching what the Oilers have done over the past couple seasons, and what they are doing now, I thought I'd try and give my arch rivals a few helpful tips on what to do...

Clean House

Get rid of all the aging overpaid veterans, rid yourself of the pieces that don't fit. Steve Staios was a horrible pickup for a 3rd round pick, he needs to be rid of. At $2.7 million, he just isn't worth the seat in the press box. Same goes for Cory Sarich at $3.6 million. The Ian White trade doesn't even make much sense. Bringing in more older players such as Kostopoulos and Babchuk is a step in the wrong direction. Thank God Daymond Langkow is injured, but when he comes back, that's another $4.5 million for at best a 2nd line center. It could be a situation where they either hope he retires, or they might look into buying him out. Get rid of Nik Hagman, Ales Kotalik, and Olli Jokinen. They are all overpaid and under producing. If you can keep Alex Tanguay for under $2 million this off season, do so. The hardest part about all of this is that the Flames farm system is pretty dry of high end talent.

Draft Needs

So if the Flames decide that they will go on with the full rebuild, they would probably be selecting in the top 5 overall. That's good for them, so is the fact that the top 10 ranked players right now, are mostly Centermen and Defensemen. The Flames could really do with both, but preferably a Centerman. If the Flames could somehow get their hands on a Sean Couturier, Jonathan Huberdeau, or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. It would be massively beneficial to them. Acquiring another 1st rounder would be quite a feat, but reacquiring a 2nd and 3rd round pick, or picks, would also help a ton. Its really hard to start building for the future when you cant draft depth. The Oilers took Tyler Pitlick, and Martin Marincin in the 2nd and 3rd rounds respectively. Pitlick looks like he could be a nice addition to the Oilers roster in a year or two, and he has size. Marincin went #1 in the CHL import draft to Prince George and is excelling there. Plus he is 6'5" and weighs just over 200lbs. This is why a rebuilding team needs those picks. Drafting well and making the right moves also falls back to good management.


Shedding the Sutters

If the Flames ownership group were any smart, they would have got rid of the Sutter brothers a season ago. Now it has just gone too far. The team has suffered the effects of mismanagement and sub par coaching. The exclamation point for Darryl Sutters management campaign, was the bringing back of Alex Tanguay and Olli Jokinen. Both originally discarded due to lack of production, and yet, they were resigned this last off season. So far, Tanguay has looked better, but still not worth the trouble of being brought back. Jokinen on the other hand, has continued the terrible play that has plagued him ever since he left Florida. On the coaching side of things, Brent Sutters coaching style just has not seemed to fit well with the Flames. He truly hasn't had a ton of success at the NHL level and might be best returning to his Red Deer Rebels. His defensive style just wont work in the high flying Western Conference. Some of the Flames best players seem to have suffered the effects of his coaching system as well. The best example might be the Flames captain, Jarome Iginla. Whose production has slowly worsened since Brent gained control of the Calgary bench. I'm sure that at some point before this season ends, one of these two front office pieces will be discarded.


Hump Day Hammering

Enough with the Flames talk. I'd much rather delve into the Oilers beating that occurred tonight. Listening to 630 Ched after the game, I was slightly distressed at the amount of fans calling in wondering why the Oilers are sucking so bad. I'd like to point out the 1st years for two teams. In Sidney Crosby's first season with the Penguins, the team finished dead last in the east with just 58 points. Not only that, but the Washington Capitals, with a rookie Alex Ovechkin finished just ahead of them with 70 points. The Blackhawks did a little better with 88 points to finish 10th in Pat Kane, and Jonathan Toews' first years. The point is, this team is going to lose a bunch of games this year. They wont make the playoffs. There will be a point this year though, when this team will go on a rip. They'll go for 5 or 6 games, and you will see the flash. The flash of what is to come. These last four, five games have been miserable, but its just a matter of our guys finding their confidence. When you get blown out 7-1, 6-2, 8-2, and 5-0 in a span of 5 games, your confidence isn't very high. Trust me Oilers faithful, it will come, and be sure to be watching when it does...




 -Sporer

Damage Control?

The Oilers have just finished their road trip from hell. Serious. Its been brutal, sure they won in Chicago, but losing 7-1 in Raleigh, 6-2 in Detroit, a tough 4-3 OT loss in New Jersey, and finally an 8-2 beating in  New York. One would start to question weather this is a good environment for the new Oiler rookies to be developing in. It would be one thing if they were losing close-er games, but being blown out every couple games can't exactly be helpful in the growing process. The Oilers seem to have a 5 year plan in mind. Ok thats good, so what year are we now? I'd say we are already in year 2. Last season was year 1, as we bombed and grabbed Taylor Hall, with Eberle and Paarjarvi already in the system.

I would compare this years Oilers to the Chicago Blackhawks, circa 2007-2008. They won the Stanley Cup 2 seasons later.  2007-2008 marked both Patrick Kane's and Jonathan Toews' emergence into the NHL. The Hawks team at the time already featured a young up and coming defense corps. Also, a good mix of veteran leadership and a sprinkle of decent young players were involved. In net things were eerily similar, with Nik Khabiboulin minding the twine, of course then 4 years younger then the current version on the Oilers roster. That year, the Hawks finished tied for 9th, with 88 points (with the Oilers), just 3 points out of the playoff picture.

This was the first time in 7 seasons that the Hawks had finished above the .500 mark. Their forward corps looked like this:

Patrick Kane-Jonathan Toews-Patrick Sharp
Jason Williams-Robert Lang-Martin Havlat
Andrew Ladd-Dave Bolland-Dustin Byfuglien
Adam Burish-Yanic Perrault-Rene Bourque

Compared to the Oilers current forward corps:

Taylor Hall-Shawn Horcoff-Ales Hemsky
Dustin Penner-Sam Gagner-Jordan Eberle
Magnus Paarjarvi-Andrew Cogliano-Gilbert Brule
Zach Stortini-Colin Fraser-Ryan Jones
*highlighted in red are rookies

Of course it is hard to compare as we haven't seen what the Oilers current lineup have accomplished over 82 games just yet, but with math, we can calculate what they are on pace for. True, not exactly accurate, but it gives a number. An obvious difference right away is the average age difference. Currently, the oldest Oiler forward is Shawn Horcoff (32). Whereas, the 07-08 Hawks possessed (at the time); Robert Lang (37), Yanic Perrault (36), and Craig Adams (did play over 50 games) (31). Possibly another major difference and helping hand, was the skill in the faceoff dot, with one of the best (Yanic Perrault), and Robert Lang both lining up. Which that in turn probably helped the younger centers learn. The Oilers on the other hand, rely heavily on one man; Shawn Horcoff. Of course comparing the Oilers current rookies to Toews and Kane might be an overshot, but Kane and Hall are both 1st overall picks, and Paarjarvi and Toews are both top 10 picks (Toews at 3 , Paarjarvi at 10).

Possibly the biggest separating factor for these two teams is the defense. The Hawks had already been working on theirs, which now has become one of the most formidable in the NHL.

Duncan Keith-Brent Seabrook
James Wisniewski-Brent Sopel
Cam Barker-Andrei Zyuzin/Jordan Henry

compared to this years Oiler defense:

Tom Gilbert-Ryan Whitney
Kurtis Foster-Ladislav Smid
Theo Peckham-Jim Vandermeer/Jason Strudwick

So lets not kid around., Keith and Seabrook are a franchise D pairing. Ryan Whitney, not a stud. Tom Gilbert, not a stud. Kurtis Foster and Ladislav Smid are 3rd pairing defensemen on most other teams, and although Theo Peckham has had a strong showing, he is also basically a 3rd pairing guy. As for Vandermeer and Strudwick, they shouldn't be playing in the NHL. Compare that to Keith and Seabrook (team Canada champs 2010), Cam Barker was highly regarded, he's fallen a bit, but id still take him over the Oilers last 3-4 Dmen. Brent Sopel is an absolute warrior, so is James Wisniewski, neither are highly skilled, but they work their tails off. If anything, this is where the Oilers need the biggest improvement.

So the Oilers need to definitley start tweaking things, because that offseason, the Hawks added; Chistobal Huet, and Brian Campbell, ya sure both are over payed, but they both played integral parts to what the Hawks were to become. In the Hawks second year, they also saw a few players from within make the step up; Kris Versteeg, Troy Brouwer, Colin Fraser, and Ben Eager all had impacts on the 08-09 Hawks roster. To me the Oilers need to be somewhere similar when this season finishes. I'm not hoping for playoffs, but I am hoping for competitiveness, enough to get them close-ish. Of course the needs are very apparent (a veteran faceoff specialist/penalty killer, and a 3-4 shutdown defensman). Oh well, Christmas is around the corner....



Oh and before I forget, Sean Avery is a scumbag piece of dog feces:

Save of the year.

This is the save of the year. Hands down.

Big win by the Oilers last night, apparently they like playing in the "Madhouse". Should be a decent road trip since they now have some momentum going into Raleigh. Dubnyk should also get a start either in New Jersey or Detroit, Im thinking itll be against Detroit, letting Khabiboulin get the second night. Shawn Horcoff is listed as day-to-day with a leg contusion, could even play against Carolina.

-Sporer