Edmonton: A Front Office of Clowns by Edward Stefaniak

     The NHL is a league of constant parity, every season we see a team make an unexpected run. Last season the Dallas Stars, the year prior the Carolina Hurricanes. The common theme though is that Canadian teams are not a part of this trend. Sure we saw Winnipeg make it to the Western Conference Finals only to be overshadowed not only in play but in media coverage by Vegas. No one expected a first year expansion team to make it to the Western Conference Finals let  alone to the Stanley Cup Finals. Vancouver was in essence the last great Canadian team in 2011, only to lose to the Boston Bruins in game 7 of the Stanley Cup. 

    But with this revolving door of Cinderella teams we have yet to see the league's most marketable player(s) in the mix. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl have not once found their way to any sort of finals yet. It’s far from their fault too, they consistently put up Hart trophy numbers year after year. Their management has to step up and find key depth and role players for them, to take the workload off of them to an extent. 
    
    But what the Oilers need desperately is goaltending. Mike Smith was a good goalie 7 years ago, but today he is a shell of his former self. Ken Holland needs to get off his ass and trade for a goalie. No clue who he would get now but this past off-season when Marc-Andre Fleury was on the block, Aaron Dell was being traded, they had options. 

    The Oilers have a lot of work to do in the back end if they want to contend. Either trade for pieces now so they can make your lineup after covid protocols and get games in or sell everything and give McDavid and Draisaitl the opportunity to win somewhere in their prime. I’m sure every team would be more than willing to take on those contracts.

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