fat chance melnyk takes on Lucic contract, fat chance Lucic waives for OTT, and Fat chance dorion take Lucic contract without EDM paying for it and a no-name prospect, 2nd and 3rd will not get ANY team to take on lucic.

Unfortunately we are stuck with Lucic. Lucic has full control of his destiny and I don't see any scenario where he's cool going to Ottawa. Only way Oiler's get out of his contract is if each team gets a compliance buyout as part of the Seattle expansion. Cap increases next season and we need to sign a goalie and Chiasson with 7.5 million in cap space, so you can ride out the Lucic contract but goddamn does it limit our growth.

While you are mostly correct, i don't think any player that goes to the world juniors for a major hockey country should be considered a no-name prospect.

What is the one biggest problem facing the Oilers?

It isn't 1 winger or Lucic, its the fact that after McDavid's line leaves the ice, you are generally hopelessly outgunned. Depth is your issue. You have none of it, McDavid's line regularly outscores the opposition while the other lines often struggle to come out even in a game. One player isn't going to change that. You need 4 or more skilled fast wingers, or 2 more centres who are really good so you can permantently move Draisaitl to the wing to play with McDavid.

Priority 1 is fire everyone that works in management.

#2 Hire Mark Hunter and let him draft you some really good players over the next couple of years and then in 3-4 years hopefully you have enough skill to surround McDavid with some really good players and he can then not have to play 30 minutes a game.

Meh, Lucic may just want to play hockey ANYWHERE on the east coast. I'm confident he wants out of Edmonton, away from a real hockey market and a cut throat one to boot (see how we ran out Dubnyk, Schultz, Petry (do I have to go on???) and would waive his NMC.
The valid point you bring up is Melnyk. He is cheap, and broke. But if the cap truly does hit $83M next year, and if he isn't signing Duchene (MAYYYBBBEEE he signs Stone). Dzingel is not getting resigned. So he is not hitting the floor. Melnyk LOVES high caphit contract with lower real dolar costs (See Boedker for Hoffman trade, or even Phaneuf for Gaborik (knowing Gaborik full well his contract was insured)).
I believe Melnyk would be open to this trade effective Feb 5th (lol), after they find out whether or not they can resign Duchene and Stone.
And you are right, it will cost more than a 1st, 2nd and third.

Absolutely agree.

Agreed, but the above scenario clearly delineated that this is a "where do we start" perspective. Ie: trade right now that makes sense, and sets us up with a bit of capspace for this off season where THATS when the real decision making happens.
ABSOLUTELY do we need depth at the wings, and not just one.
But what RIGHT now are you going to trade for it. You've got no assets, and no cap space.
So yes, you start with starting to widdle away the deadwood eating your cap.
Like I said in teh description, you start with Lucic, then you figure out what do do with sekera and all teh expensive Depth D.
etc etc

The way I see things is that Edmonton is 3-5 years away from having enough homegrown talent to make a difference. So trade what you can but if you have to move a 1st rounder or a top end prospect to move Lucic, (which I think you'll have to do) why not just keep him until you can either buy out the last year of his contract or maybe an opportunity to unload him to a team that needs to reach the cap floor comes around. Who knows maybe he even plays well enough that someone wants him.

One thing you can count on right now though is that he doesn't help you win, which isn't a bad thing, I think Edmonton getting a couple top 5 picks would be huge in rebooting this franchise. They have 2 pieces that are for sure championship calibre players in McDavid and Draisaitl. Hire someone who understands that skill is the #1 asset to draft for (Mark Hunter) and then lose until you have the pieces to surround McDavid with NHL quality players.

Yep, I'd agree with that methodology 100%. I'm just having fun thinking up of possibilities.

Totally!

I spent a long time this summer pondering Edmonton and what I'd do if I was in charge there. No matter what I did, while trying to be somewhat realistic, and I always ended up with an awesome first line, an okay 2nd and terrible 3rd and 4th lines. The defence is questionable and the goal tending isn't good enough to mask the flaws. If they had an abundance of prospects or cap space they could maybe do something they don't have either.

Mark Hunter is a deadly GM candidate who I think would turn the Oilers around by putting a major focus on proper drafting and enhanced player development, which the Oilers are terrible at.

While I agree with the Oilers needing to re-haul the entirety of their front office, I don't think Mark Hunter should be the guy that's so sought after. I feel a lot of the hype regarding him is manufactured, and his track record isn't nearly as good as people say it is. The 2014 draft is really the only draft that Hunter was solely responsible for: Dubas was brought in a month after the draft to run stats, and by the following April was predominantly in charge of prospective player procurement and development. Looking back at that draft, I struggle to see why Hunter alone would solve the Oilers' drafting woes:

- Nylander was the consensus #8 pick; taking him at 7 isn't a huge reach, but is still a very shrewd pick.
- While Rinat Valiev did play a dozen games as a 3rd Round selection, names like Brayden Point, Victor Arvidsson, Danton Heinen, Gustav Forsling, Kevin Labanc, and Ondrej Kase were still selected later. It hints at Hunter and his staff sharing similar blind spots with every other scouting department.
- Pierre Engvall might yet pan out as a steal of a depth player in the 7th round, but the high-water mark for Toronto's other picks in that draft is a middling ECHL forward.

While I know Dubas wasn't solely in charge of the 2015 and 2016 drafts, I fail to give all the credit to Mark Hunter individually. I think he gets mislabeled as a scouting visionary (a la Bim Jenning) due to prospects Toronto already had in the system and the caliber of talent that came after the scouting / procurement roles had been split. Keep in mind the Toronto system already had Gauthier, Johnsson, Brown, and Sparks in it. Also, keep in mind that Marner and Matthews were consensus picks at #4 and #1 respectively. Names like Timashov, Bracco, and Nielsen are slowly starting to look like they're going to be flushed out of the Toronto system in favour of fresh blood. That leaves Travis Dermott as the only "real" success under the Hunter regime thus far.

I'm definitely in favour of purging the current regime, and possibly even Katz himself, but I'm not excited with Hunter being the guy they'd think to replace him with. Peter Chiarelli was also a GM far removed from the Oiler sphere of influence, and it didn't pan out. While I understand the Leafs going with Dubas' seemingly-visionary approach to the trade, I have concerns that Hunter chose not to procure NHL work in Los Angeles, Minnesota, or in Carolina, and instead went back to managing London.