Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

After stinking for years, will this season’s Edmonton Oilers pass the ‘smell test’?

2010 NHL Draft - Round One

during the 2010 NHL Entry Draft at Staples Center on June 25, 2010 in Los Angeles, California.

Bruce Bennett

I cannot help but be intrigued when an NHL general manager provides a look behind the curtain, whether the public perception is that he’s a wizard or a dunce. So it only seems natural that I found David Staples of the Cult of Hockey’s look at Edmonton Oilers GM-turned-team president Kevin Lowe’s “smell test” quite interesting.

Here is what Lowe said regarding the club’s team building strategy after the squad made it tantalizingly close to a Stanley Cup victory.

“I’ll say this, our decisions made prior to the new CBA in 2005-2006 season, all those decisions were made on, all the contracts we signed, were made on a completely different attitude and philosophy than the ones we made post-new CBA.”

“All the ones prior to the old CBA, the contracts had to pass the smell test. In other words: Are those contracts moveable? ... And as it turned out all the contracts were moveable.

“Not that you sign a guy thinking you have to be move him, but you you have to recognize that you might be caught with a contract, and if the player is not performing you have got to move the player. If you can’t move the player, then you’re stuck holding the bag.

“Our philosophy changed with the run in ’06, and new ownership, and we were able to try to just sort of opposite of what you’re saying ... (We were) trying to think long term, trying to average it out a little bit, if the guy is projecting to be a good player for a long period of time, try to cut out free agency and what have you.”

Taylor Hall, Steve Tambellini

Edmonton Oilers’ NHL hockey draft pick Taylor Hall, right, shakes hands with team general manager Steve Tambellini after signing his contract with the Oilers during a news conference in Edmonton on Monday, July 5, 2010. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press,John Ulan)

AP

Whatever reasoning attached to the Oilers moves the last few years, it doesn’t take a capologist to figure out that many of the decisions were foolish. Staples points out that new GM Steve Tambellini was able to get out from under some of the Oilers’ worst lingering contracts including Lubomir Visnokvsky’s deal, but they still are guilty of being shortsighted with Nikolai Khabibulin, Sheldon Souray, Shawn Horcoff and so on.

Chances are good that Tambellini will continue to try to move some of the cap-killing contracts, but the question is: would the team’s current course of action pass the “smell test?”

Like Staples, I think - for the most part - the answer is yes. The Oilers must be careful not to rush their prospects to the NHL; while Taylor Hall almost needs to play in the league in 2010-11, Jordan Eberle and Magnus Paajarvi (-Svensson?)'s development situations should be handled carefully. Sure, it’s easier for forwards to adjust to the highest level than defensemen and goalies, but you don’t want to waste a player’s entry level years if they’re not ready yet.

If the Oilers’ roster received smell test-inspired scratch and sniff stickers, the last few years’ editions would sport a skunk-like odor. It might not be all berries and cream for Edmonton next season, but chances are that Lowe and Tambellini are just hoping it doesn’t smell rancid.