{"id":54151,"date":"2026-05-21T05:04:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T05:04:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/54151\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T05:04:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T05:04:37","slug":"edmonton-oilers-management-the-good-bad-and-ugly-of-connor-mcdavids-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/54151\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton Oilers management: The good, bad, and ugly of Connor McDavid’s era"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has been 11 seasons since Edmonton drafted Connor McDavid<\/a> first overall in 2015 and the Oilers captain is still without a Stanley Cup ring.<\/p>\n

As we approach what could be the end of the McDavid era in Edmonton \u2014 if next year isn\u2019t his final season here, it\u2019s possible the year after that will be his last \u2014 it\u2019s time to examine what Oilers ownership and management did with its winning lottery ticket.<\/p>\n

If McDavid never wins a championship in Edmonton, it will be fair to argue that the gift has been squandered, that despite one of the greatest head starts in hockey history, Oilers brass couldn\u2019t get it done.<\/p>\n

If they do build a championship team around their centrepiece, then the critics will be silenced forever.<\/p>\n

How has it gone so far? Today we\u2019ll examine the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of management\u2019s handiwork in the first 11 years of McDavid.<\/p>\n

The Good<\/p>\n

\u2022 For starters, ownership and management kept McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in the fold, extending both of them to long-term contracts. Same with Evan Bouchard. Edmonton used to be a place where veterans never stayed very long and free agents avoided like the plague. Owner Daryl Katz treats his players very well and spends to the cap. Players want to stay here and players want to come here. That\u2019s an enormous difference from the Chris Pronger era.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Despite the heavy criticism and second-guessing, the Oilers are one of the most successful teams in the NHL over the last four seasons. Three trips to the Western Conference Final and consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Final is a legitimate power team. They haven\u2019t won a Cup, but only one other club in the NHL has been that good over that span.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Zach Hyman\u2019s free agent signing. Ken Holland\u2019s handiwork resulted in what is still one of the best bargains in the entire league. You don\u2019t see a lot of players who average just under 40 goals a year signed to seven-year contracts at $5.5 million a year. What were the Toronto Maple Leafs thinking?<\/p>\n

\u2022 Vasily Podkolzin trade. Stan Bowman sent a fourth-round pick to Vancouver and in exchange got a top-six forward who also happens to be the toughest player on the team. Podkolzin is an ultimate team guy, the kind of player you want to go to war with. He was also Edmonton\u2019s best player in the 2026 playoffs. And there is more to come with this player.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Getting Cam Talbot. In June of 2015, Peter Chiarelli acquired Talbot from the New York Rangers for second- and third-round draft picks. Talbot was Edmonton\u2019s starter for four years and helped end their 10-year playoff drought in 2016-17.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Mattias Ekholm trade. Ken Holland gave up Tyson Barrie, Reid Schaeffer, a first round pick (24th overall) and a fourth round pick in the deal, but Ekholm proved to be a major defensive pillar. And it was his presence that enabled Bouchard to reach a new stratosphere.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Getting Patrick Maroon in 2016 for Martin Gernat, who never played a game in the NHL, and a 4th rounder. Maroon scored 49 goals over 154 games in Edmonton, including a 27-goal season on McDavid\u2019s wing that helped end the decade of darkness take Edmonton two rounds deep in the 2017 playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Subtle, short-term moves. Duncan Keith (for Caleb Jones and third-round pick) and Corey Perry (free agent) brought leadership and experience into the room, some of which rubbed off on Edmonton\u2019s leaders. Warren Foegele (for Ethan Bear), Adam Henrique (for a first round pick), Brett Kulak (for a second, seventh and William Lagesson) were important parts of Edmonton\u2019s Cup runs.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Edmonton Oilers forwards Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid during Game 1 of the Western Conference quarterfinal against the Anaheim Ducks at Rogers Place on Monday April 20, 2026.<\/p>\n

The Bad<\/p>\n

\u2022 Drafting Jesse Puljujarvi fourth overall. This was a killer when you think that Matthew Tkachuk, Clayton Keller and Mikhail Sergachev went sixth, seventh and ninth. Puljujarvi was a middle of the pack player on his Finnish team, nothing special at all, but he caught lightning in a bottle at the 2016 World Juniors (17 points in seven games) and the Oilers couldn\u2019t resist \u2014 even after Finnish-speaking Columbus GM Jarmo Kekalainen passed on him. Viewed as an analytics darling, Puljujarvi fizzled out in second, third and fourth chances in Carolina, Pittsburgh and Florida before returning to Europe.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Mounting bad contracts. You\u2019ve got Trent Frederic (eight years at $3.85 million) Jake Walman (seven years $7 million a year), Darnell Nurse (eight years at $9.25 million), plus nearly $8 million in goaltenders ($5.3 million for Tristan Jarry and $2.6 million for another year of Jack Campbell\u2019s buyout). Add it all up and it\u2019s a shade under $28 million, which is more than McDavid and Draisaitl make combined. From Milan Lucic to Zack Kassian to Kris Russell, overpayment is a long-standing concern here. It used to be unavoidable (it was the only way to get and retain free agents) but that\u2019s not that case anymore.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson. This one isn\u2019t nearly as bad as revisionist history makes it out to be. Larsson proved to be a steady first-paring defenceman who brought much-needed grit and stability to Edmonton\u2019s blue line. Hall had one great year, winning a Hart Trophy on the strength of 93 points, then settled into a journeyman career, averaging 39 points a year over the next eight seasons. Did Peter Chiarelli get enough for Hall after his 65-point season in 2015-16? Probably not, but he did OK with a diminishing asset.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The 2021 Draft. This was the year Ken Holland traded down from 20th to 22nd, passing on highly-rated goaltender Jesper Wallstedt and taking Xavier Bourgault one pick ahead of Wyatt Johnston. There were two world class impact players available who could have made a significant difference in the Oilers trajectory and Edmonton passed on both. Bourgault? He\u2019s played two NHL games.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Coaching changes. The average lifespan of an Oilers coach in the McDavid era is 171 games, which is terrible for a team with this much star power on it. And they\u2019ve had some high-end, well-respected guys come through here in Dave Tippett, Todd McLellan and Ken Hitchcock. Nothing screams organizational instability like six coaches in 11 years.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Trading Patrick Maroon. In 2018, with Maroon on an expiring deal, Chiarelli traded him for somebody named J.D. Dudek and a third-round pick. Maroon, a heart and soul guy, went on to win three Stanley Cups in three years with St. Louis and Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Jack Campbell contract. The Oilers are still paying the buyout on his five-year deal, which saw Campbell buried in the minors one season after Holland signed the contract. You could see this coming. Campbell was fading fast in the second half of his last season in Toronto, posting a 3.28 GAA and .894 save percentage over his final 17 games. In a first-round playoff loss to Tampa, he was 3.15 and .897. After two seasons the Oilers were paying Campbell not to play goal for them.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Edmonton Oilers\u2019 Jesse Puljujarvi (13) reacts to a save by Philadelphia Flyers\u2019 goaltender Carter Hart (79) during first period NHL action at Rogers Place in Edmonton, on Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021. Photo by Ian Kucerak<\/p>\n

The Ugly<\/p>\n

\u2022 The Andreas Athanasiou trade. This was a beauty. In Feb. 2020, Holland sent Sam Gagner and two second round draft picks to Detroit for Athanasiou, who lasted nine regular season games in Edmonton. At the end of the pandemic-shortened season Athanasiou was a restricted free agent and the Oilers decided not to qualify him, letting him walk for nothing. The Wings traded one of the second-round picks to Los Angeles and the Kings used it to pick Brock Faber, who they traded to Minny in the Kevin Fiala deal.<\/p>\n

\u2022 McDavid wasn\u2019t an Oiler for one weekend before the Oilers took a wrong turn. Chiarelli spent the 16th overall pick and 33rd overall pick to get Griffin Reinhart, a plodding former Oil Kings defenceman in the Islanders minor league system. WHL writers knew this was a bad deal (one of them even bet that Reinhart wouldn\u2019t play 30 games in the NHL). Reinhart ended up with one assist in 29 games and that was the end of his NHL career. The first round pick? The Islanders used it to take Matt Barzal.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Turning Jordan Eberle into Ryan Spooner. Chiarelli, needing to free up cap space for a McDavid contract, traded Jordan Eberle to the NY Islanders in 2017 for Ryan Strome. Then, in 2018, he traded Strome to the Rangers for Ryan Spooner. Spooner lasted 25 games in Edmonton. Eberle has 1,140 games and is closing in on 800 points.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Holloway and Broberg for Arvidsson and Skinner. With Jeff Jackson in charge of July 1, 2024, while the Oilers looked for a new GM, he poured $7 million into Viktor Arvidsson and Jeff Skinner, leaving the Oilers hopelessly vulnerable to an offer sheet. St. Louis saw this and six weeks later offered Broberg $4.5 million and Holloway $2.29 million. Neither offer was at all unreasonable, but Bowman, hired in late July, didn\u2019t have much money to work with and decided not to match, allowing both blue chip prospects to walk away for nothing. It\u2019s a chain of events that will haunt this team for years to come.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Andreas Athanasiou (28) of the Edmonton Oilers falls to the ice after colliding with Dylan Strome (17) of the Chicago Blackhawks during Game 1 of the Eastern Conference qualification round at Rogers Place on August 01, 2020.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

E-mail:\u00a0rtychkowski@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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