Jake Vermeer

Jeff Jackson (and Stan Bowman) absolutely decimated the Oilers chances to have a prolonged window at multiple Cups two summers ago. The decision to prioritize re-signing aging role players (Perry, Brown, Janmark, and Henrique) over Holloway and Broberg was a colossal miscalculation. Then (and probably due to a bull-headed owner) they decided not to match and let them walk for nothing. Broberg long-term would have allowed for: a) a lesser role for Ekholm as he began to enter the twilight of his career b) the ability to offload Nurse or force him into 3LD which would slot him where he should be and potentially also make him want to waive his NMC c) not needing to trade for Walman a year ago And THEN, in classic Oilers fashion they make reactionary moves to previous mistakes. They learn the wrong lesson from their failure and overcorrect. SO, last summer, they say, "oh shit, we need to lock up some of these young players." Inexplicably signing Walman to 7x7 and Frederic to 7 years as well. Don't address the goaltending at all in the summer, and then trade for a worse goalie on a worse contract that will now hamstring us further. It's a tale as old as time: Petry for a 3rd. Cogliano for a 3rd. Not knowing what we had in Glencross and Brodziak and letting them walk. Eberle for Strome for Spooner. Hall for Larsson. Trading a 1st for Reinhart. CONSTANT recency and local bias. Buying out Pouliot for no reason. Not doing anything to replace Sekera in 17-18. It's just insane that you have two of the top 4 playoff point producers of all time and you couldn't surround them with enough support and goaltending to win even a single cup.