Do the Oilers need to blow it up? Trade McDavid and Draisaitl?
A viral video from last night, sparks trade rumors concerning the NHL's two top players.
HockeyFeed
In case you missed it last night, the Edmonton Oilers dropped yet another decision to drop to 5-12-1, good enough for 30th in the NHL overall.
The Oilers got spanked 6-3 by the Carolina Hurricanes, with goaltender Stuart Skinner allowing five goals against on just 17 shots. Yikes...
The team's lack of quality and consistency between the pipes has been its downfall for at least a few seasons now, yet GM Ken Holland has done very little to improve at the position. Short of signing Jack Campbell to a truly terrible contract and riding an aging Mike Smith for two seasons too many, Holland hasn't made significant changes to the Oilers' goal crease.
At this point, something's got to give, right?
Surely the team can't carry on this way without a major shakeup. And, yes, the firing of former head coach Jay Woodcroft and replacing him with Kris Knoblauch was a major shakeup, but that move doesn't get to the heart of what ails the Oilers. They need major changes in goal. Period. There's no way around it.
The longer this team continues to languish, the more you have to really worry about the futures of superstar forwards Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. The pair simply can't stand for losing anymore, can they?
A couple clips of the pair, especially McDavid, helped re-ignite some trade rumors amongst the team's fanbase who claim that neither McDavid nor Draisaitl are long for Edmonton.
Check it out:
Yeesh... talk about a '1000 yard stare'.
McDavid looks like a shellshocked combat veteran.
Then there's this clip of the pair consoling each out through yet another bad loss:
If the Oilers were to strip everything down, take McDavid and Draisaitl out of the picture, it would take them years to recover. Frankly, what else do you have with this team beyond those two? Darnell Nurse and then a bunch of support players who mesh with with McDavid and Draisaitl... that's about it.
This is a poorly constructed roster that stands no chance of winning unless their two superstars perform like superstars nightly. That's simply asking too much from too few and it's not the way that Stanley Cup contenders are built. It's time in Edmonton to start building a real team that doesn't put all of its eggs in the baskets of just two players.
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