Thats.. not a lot of positive things. Adding five 4th liners, 7th Dman and aging backup for below average starter is BAD. Taking reclamation project in Neal is fine, but they are worse team than they were last year..

I've been highly critical of Holland this summer as I think there were several opportunities to improve the team that he whiffed on, but the above statement isn't true. On paper they're slightly better, and the jury is still out on whether that translates to the ice.

Ok so you prefer to have Manning, Stolarz, Lucic and Brodziak than Smith, Bear, Neal and Jurco?

A potential under-radar move that could benefit Edmonton is adding Smith. Though Smith is an inconsistent goalie, he still is more of a starter than Talbot has ever been. He could pair nicely with Koskinen and aid both of them improve.

I agree that Holland should have tried for at least one other 3rd liner. EDM is betting on their big 3 though,

Giving Holland the benefit of the doubt: he just started and wasn't given a great starting point.

Exactly... he isn't responsible for Chiarelli's mess

I think his point was that the Oilers roster last season - on paper explicitly - was at the least visually better than what the Oilers are icing this year. Strome was a legitimate #3C, Puljujarvi was expected to take a positive step forward, and Lucic wasn't seen as the complete boat anchor that he's become. The entire management and a healthy chunk of the fanbase bought into the hype surrounding an RNH-McDavid-Rattie line early. Koskinen was an unknown quantity and Talbot was presumed to be able to bounce back.

This year's iteration might feature a better-on-paper-and-in-usage blueline, but we know that the goaltending is a massive uncertainty due to Koskinen not being an NHL-calibre goaltender and Mike Smith's best years well behind him. The team has two fourth lines, and the makings of two half-assed top two lines. Even if the pairings of McDavid-Neal and Draisaitl-RNH find success, both lines are missing a quality third piece to the puzzle.

In all, the Oilers ARE going into this season with a worse roster, even if it may be more balanced. The skaters should be better defensively and on the penalty kill (systems and personnel considered) but they'll still struggle to score and the goaltending is suspect at best.



A big part of why this team will be worse than it was last season has little to do with the team itself: the majority of teams in the West took a positive step forward, and the ones that may have regressed mildly were teams already outperforming the Oilers. The Oilers having a projected bottom-5 finish this year speaks more to teams around them improving and the Oilers remaining (at best) stagnant.



No, he very much is. Holland as Chiarelli's successor - by definition - is responsible for righting the course. Chiarelli was the one who pulled the trigger on some wildly inappropriate trades during his stint as Oilers GM, but the effects of those trades don't go away because ol' ChiaPete isn't here anymore. The Neal-Lucic trade is a small piece of that puzzle. The plethora of expiring deals Holland now has to navigate is another. The prospects poised at demolishing the AHL this season is another cog in the machine of "rebuilding" the McDavid Oilers, and all of that falls into Holland's lap.

My concern would be the group in upper management that okayed the Koskinen deal (supposedly) or the collection of professional and amateur scouts that wouldn't maintain employment anywhere else in the NHL. It's Holland's responsibility to fix the Oilers but until he has the tools to do so, don't expect it to happen overnight.

I think Holland has done a great job this off season. He never made a mistake of signing UFA's to overpriced long deals. He also got rid of the Lucic contract. We will not see Holland's true team until next season where all the Chia bad contracts except Koskinen and Russell will be off the books. At that time we will see what a Ken Holland team actually looks like.

Smith has always played well under Tippett too.

Culpable was the word you needed here.

Getting rid of Lucic and his NMC before the Seattle expansion is a huge win, regardless of how Neal plays the next few years.