Oilers Fire Primary Scouting Staff Five Days Before Draft

[Rich]

http://thehockeywriters.com/edmonton-oilers-fire-scouting-staff/

 

 

 

On Saturday night it came to light that the Edmonton Oilers have fired four members of their scouting staff, including head amateur scout Stu MacGregory, according to TSN’s Bob McKenzie. MacGregor joined the Oilers in 200o and become the team’s head amateur scout in 2007.

 

Interesting move.  With their poor drafting history over the last number of years, it isn't surprising that this has happened. Chiarelli is going to want to bring his own guys in.

 

The timing just seems curious. I'm sure they've had all their meetings and given their reviews and ratings on the prospects. You just think there would have been a benefit to wait a week.

 

I guess if you don't have confidence in your scouting staff, no point in having them there for the draft.

 

 

[17to85]

There was a lot of talk earlier in the year that the scouting department was going to be changed around. As for the timing, I'd assume that all the scouting work is already done for the draft. It's interesting but always happens when there's a new GM in town. I don't know if the amateur scouts were that bad for the Oilers, Tambellini had a very funny way of drafting and McTavish appeared to do better in later rounds. There's also the development aspect to consider which I think is the biggest issue the Oilers have faced. Their farm system was pretty much non-existent until only a few years ago. 

[iHeart]

really? I thought they were going to get first dibs on Connor McDavid or something

 

holy smokes I am an advanced member already

[Goalie]

The reality in this, regardless what Oiler fans who always seem to be in some sort of form of denial about their team is, outside of the first round picks the oilers have had, none of their draft picks are really worth anything. Outside of the consesus can't miss but apparently they have missed on some picks, the Oilers have found nothing.

 

Now someone will wing off a bunch of guys who at best are 4th liners or 3rd pairing d man, but... it's the truth. 

 

The scouting staff was fired  cuz quite frankly outside of the top picks, they have basically found nobody at all yet.

 

There is no depth, none what so ever, that's why the oilers are forced to go out and over pay for  free agents.

 

Getting rid of that scouting staff was long over due, Oilers have made some good moves this off-season so far, They are actually my next favorite Canadian team outside of the Jets so i hope they do well... but, you can change management, you can change coaches over and over and over, you can change the scouting team but until you actually go out there and change some of the guys on the ice, same old same old. I hope the Oilers actually do make some moves at the draft, they are the team i'm most interested in seeing what they do at the draft cuz they got some holes to fill, big ones too. 

[mbrg]

EEEEEAAAAAKKKKKIIIIINNNNNSSSSS!!!!!

 

shakes fists at the sky

[17to85]

The reality in this, regardless what Oiler fans who always seem to be in some sort of form of denial about their team is, outside of the first round picks the oilers have had, none of their draft picks are really worth anything. Outside of the consesus can't miss but apparently they have missed on some picks, the Oilers have found nothing.

 

Now someone will wing off a bunch of guys who at best are 4th liners or 3rd pairing d man, but... it's the truth. 

 

The scouting staff was fired  cuz quite frankly outside of the top picks, they have basically found nobody at all yet.

 

There is no depth, none what so ever, that's why the oilers are forced to go out and over pay for  free agents.

 

Getting rid of that scouting staff was long over due, Oilers have made some good moves this off-season so far, They are actually my next favorite Canadian team outside of the Jets so i hope they do well... but, you can change management, you can change coaches over and over and over, you can change the scouting team but until you actually go out there and change some of the guys on the ice, same old same old. I hope the Oilers actually do make some moves at the draft, they are the team i'm most interested in seeing what they do at the draft cuz they got some holes to fill, big ones too. 

Again with the outright ignorance. Jordan Eberle wasn't a can't miss pick and he worked out just fine. Yeah he was still in the first round but at twenty something that was a great pick. Anton Lander has developed into a solid depth player, all it took was Eakins being fired. Klefbom wasn't a can't miss pick either and he's developing just nicely, again first round but not one of the first over alls. Marincin was a 2nd round pick that is also developing nicely, Tyler Pitlick was a solid draft pick in the 2nd round too who would be a solid depth player except for the fact that he keeps getting hurt. That's not really on a scouting staff either. There are some other guys developing in the minors it's just that most of them are the types of players that generally take 4 or 5 years to start to be NHL ready and given that their rebuild really only started 5 years ago it makes sense there isn't a lot of NHL depth right? Especially when you consider that they had even less on the farm than they did in the NHL when they kicked that off. 

 

You have to look in depth and not just fall into the "herp derp oilerz suck" kind of analysis. Tambellini outside of the first round used his draft picks trying to get size. That's not really on the scouts if the GM just says "who's the best big player?" and then picks that guy. Craig McTavish did do a better job of selecting better prospects in later rounds, but again too soon to call on a lot of them. The scouts were fired for good reasons, they didn't do enough, but I still say it was lack of development that was a bigger issue than anything. Part of developing is having a good organization top to bottom so you can bring players along slowly and Edmonton simply didn't have that. Their amateur scouts weren't the worst. They weren't the best but not the worst either. The pro-scouts though were terrible. Just outright useless and that was a big problem. 

[sweep the leg]

Watch out for Tyler Pitlick.

[17to85]

Again though, Pitlick is a good bottom 6 player when healthy.. but he's never ******* healthy. Is it the scouts fault that a guy keeps getting hurt? I don't believe it is it's just the way it works. 

 

Scouting is only part of the issue as well, development plays a much bigger role and no one is going to claim that the Oilers were great at developing players. It's only been recently that the farm team has actually started to develop any players. Prior to that most of the development happend with guys who went directly into the NHL. Going to the terrible farm team was basically a death sentence for careers. 

[Goalie]

Being drafted by the oilers outside of the first round was the real death sentence. Someone don't like it when ppl pretty much say the truth about the oilers. Always some excuse or coach to blame.

[17to85]

some people follow the team and know what happened rather than making incorrect assumptions.

[AtlanticRiderFan]

really? I thought they were going to get first dibs on Connor McDavid or something

 

holy smokes I am an advanced member already

 

They are, but our previous scouts were terrible for destroying any players we drafted, plus Chiarelli wants his own guys. Now McDavid should be in better hands.

[iHeart]

maybe he should play for the Jets!