Poor old Oilers give it another shot,
Addition of Red Wings executive with a history of success buoys team Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had the best offensive season of his career last year.
If there’s been one constant in Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ time with the Edmonton Oilers, it’s change. Constant change. New teammates and new linemates are one thing and to be expected of any NHL team. But the Oilers seem to have a revolving door of coaches and general managers, meaning a level of change that isn’t conducive to winning hockey.
“You want consistent,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “You want to play consistently, you want your team to play consistently. And so at the same time, you want consistency with your coaches, with your general managers. I mean, it definitely does make it easier when you know what you’re getting, coming into each season.”
This year, the Oilers brought in veteran executive Ken Holland to provide managerial stability after Peter Chiarelli was fired.
“He’s a very experienced guy, and he’s had success. Lots of success,” Nugent-Hopkins said of Holland, the fourth GM of the player’s tenure. “I think he’s going to bring a lot of steadiness, stability to our team. He’s not a guy who’s gonna make rash decisions all of a sudden.
“I mean, he’s definitely just a calm, calm presence up there for us, which goes a long way on the ice, off the ice when you know you have a guy like that up there upstairs for you.”
Holland, who left the Red Wings after more than two decades and three Stanley Cups as their executive vice-president and general manager, brought in Dave Tippett, the eighth head coach of the Oilers since Nugent-Hopkins joined the team nine years ago.
“I do know (Dave Tippett) a little bit (from international hockey) and I think he’s going be a great coach for us. He’s going to provide that structure in our game, which I think is gonna be huge for us.
“And I don’t think he’ll let us get away from (our structure), which sometimes in the past, things start to go bad and we leave our structure and things get worse.”
A winger over more than 700 games in his career, Tippett established himself as a coach who can get the most out of a team in his 14 seasons with the Stars and Coyotes. Tippett was the last coach to get the Coyotes into the playoffs, in 2011-12.
The Oilers have been lost in their own kind of desert, a team that seems to have more go wrong with it than right in any given year. A first overall pick in 2012 was seemingly wasted on Nail Yakupov, who couldn’t find a home in the NHL. And a fourth overall pick in 2016 may also have been misspent on Jesse Puljujarvi, who’s home in Finland wanting out of Edmonton. Combined with some questionable contracts and trades under Chiarelli, the Oilers were seemingly wasting Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
McDavid seems on track not to miss any significant time, recovering from a knee injury suffered in the last game of a 201819 season that saw Edmonton finish second last in the Pacific Division.
“It’s not a shocker that he’s our leader. He’s kind of a our engine,” Nugent-Hopkins said of McDavid. “He’s going to come back and he’s gonna be ready to go. He’s gonna be full flight.”