Change needed: Factors standing in the way of the Oilers winning a Stanley Cup next year
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Now what?
After another regime change and a major player overhaul in the summer, the Edmonton Oilers seem father away from a Stanley Cup right now than they did a year ago.
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What started out as an epic series with the Florida Panthers — three-straight ferocious overtime games — fizzled into the Oilers being exposed.
When your last three losses of a series are by scores of 6-1, 5-2 and 5-1, the gap between you and the team that beat you is more like a canyon.
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This was an eye-opening final, to be sure.
Edmonton was good enough to steamroll the Western Conference. Going 12-2 in their last 14 games against Los Angeles, Vegas and Dallas is the stuff of a real contender. But face-to-face with a real champion, the Oilers didn't have an answer.
The Panthers were better on every possible level.
So this is going to be a massive summer for general manager Stan Bowman and Hockey Operations chief Jeff Jackson. The Oilers need a complete overhaul. If all we see are a couple of tweaks around the edges, the Oilers aren't winning a Stanley Cup next year, either.
Not as long as the Panthers are around. And you can be sure the other contenders are going to muscle up as well.
A LITTLE HELP
Right now, the legacy for Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, 10 years into their partnership, is one of near-misses and long-running frustration.
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But they've been more than good enough to win a championship.
In 96 career playoff games, Connor McDavid has 150 points, including 75 points in 47 games over the last two runs to the final.
Leon Draisaitl has 141 points in 96 playoffs games and 64 points over the last two runs.
It's the organization that's been letting them down, not the other way around.
Edmonton scored 16 goals in the Cup Final, not counting Vasily Podkolzin's garbage-time marker with four minutes left in a 5-0 Game 6. Of those 16 goals, McDavid and Draisaitl either scored or assisted on 11 of them. They were on the ice for 13 of the 16.
You can't win that way.
Florida had nine forwards with 15 or more points in the playoffs this year. Edmonton had three.
If Edmonton's two superstars are getting frustrated, it's justified.
BOSSES NEED A REBOUND
It was not a good summer for Oilers management. If you're going to lay the blame for this disappointment somewhere, start there.
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Getting Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson for a combined $7 million seemed like solid moves at the time, but they weren't. Trying to get something for nothing with Kapsperi Kapanen and John Klingberg wasn't the answer, either. Not when the Panthers were getting Seth Jones and Brad Marchand.
And letting Warren Foegele, Dylan Holloway, Ryan McLeod and Philip Broberg get away only compounded the issue, both in the short term and for the future.
The supporting cast that was supposed to have been an upgrade from last year had its moments, but wasn't consistent enough and couldn't generate anything when it mattered most.
Adam Henrique, one assist in the final. Trent Frederic, zero points in the final. Arvidsson, two points and a healthy scratch in the final. Mattias Janmark, zero points in the final. Kapanen, three points and a healthy scratch in the final. Skinner, zero points and three healthy scratches in the final. Connor Brown, one assist in the final.
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AGAIN WITH THE CAP SPACE
Making the necessary changes isn't going to be easy. Cap space is an issue again, they don't have the trade bait to deal their way out of this (having already dealt this year's first and second round picks and next year's first) and some of the players they need to move for addition space (Arvidsson, Evander Kane and Adam Henrique total $12.1 million) have no movement clauses.
It's going to take some very heavy lifting from Bowman and Jackson.
According to PuckPedia, the Oilers have $11.9 million worth of cap space and 19 players under contract. That's fine if they were standing pat and making minor upgrades, but as the Cup Final just showed us, that isn't an option.
Corey Perry, Connor Brown and Trent Frederic are all eligible for unrestricted free agency and restricted free agent Evan Bouchard will chew up a big chunk of that $11.9 when he gets a major bump on the $3.9 million he made this year.
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BRAIN FOG
You have to wonder what these two runs have done to the team's mental health.
Lose one Stanley Cup Final and it serves as motivation to come back the next year. But what happens when you play another 100 games, fight your way to another final and get stomped? Does the third run suffer for it? Do the Oilers run out of physical and emotional gas?
That's going to be something to watch next season.
PULLING THE GOALIE?
Is Stuart Skinner their guy? As far as value goes, he is giving Edmonton every penny's worth of that $2.6 million contract.
But when your team is in the prime of its Stanley Cup window and finds itself switching back and forth between goalies in the Final, and isn't really sure who to start an elimination game, it's a sure sign that something has to change.
You can't close the book on a 26-year-old who's only played three seasons and got you to a Stanley Cup Final twice, but do they dare roll with him again?
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