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McDavid and Las Vegas Steal The Show

June 21, 2017, 11:11 PM ET [54 Comments]
Matt Henderson
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
This night was about two things, Connor McDavid and the Las Vegas Golden Knights. And both made their mark tonight.

Connor McDavid took home three of the NHL’s biggest prizes on the evening. The Art Ross, the Ted Lindsay, and the Hart Memorial trophy.

McDavid had the Art Ross tied up by the end of the regular season when he finished with 100 points on the season, 11 points up on the next closest players in the league. The kid’s offensive prowess is remarkable and it comes as no surprise that he became the league’s scoring champion at the 3rd youngest player to do it.

The Ted Lindsay is probably the award that means the most to the players because it’s voted on by the players themselves. As voted by his peers, Connor McDavid was the best player in the NHL this past year. Given everything we know about how you have to “earn it” in hockey culture, typically by putting in time, it makes the fact that the players in the league voted this honor to a player in just his 1st full NHL season that much more impressive.

Connor finished the night strong with a Hart trophy win. This as voted by the PHWA makes the trifecta of major NHL awards. He ran away with the Hart, garnering 147 1st placed votes and leading Crosby by 500 points. This was an absolute runaway by McDavid.

The Oilers caught lightning in a bottle when the lottery balls lined up to reveal a franchising altering combination two years ago. We are seeing what that looks like as it transitions from promise to practice. McDavid was the best player in the NHL last year and he will not be satisfied with himself until he’s winning Stanley Cups like Sidney Crosby.

He’s incredible. The kid is incredible.

***

While the awards were going on, the Golden Knights made their selections official. As it pertains to Edmonton, the Knights took Griffin Reinhart, thus officially putting a conclusion on arguably the worst trade Peter Chiarelli has made as an Oiler.

From an impact to Edmonton’s roster next year, this pick probably impacts the club the least. There was a chance that Reinhart would play given Sekera’s injury, but even that would have been disappointing. It also seems likelier every day that the Oilers sign Russell to an extension (We’ll talk about that nightmare later). So even penciling in Reinhart as an injury replacement wasn’t a lock. Khaira ought to be the 13th forward at worst. Pouliot has a chance to bounce back and be productive again in the bottom 6. Brossoit will back up Talbot next year. Reinhart is taking away nothing.

The sting from this selection isnt the loss the club took at the hands of the Golden Knights. It’s the loss they took at the hands of the Islanders two years ago that really hurts. Edmonton missed out on Dougie Hamilton even after reportedly offering better assets to the Bruins, and in what looks a lot like blind panic Chiarelli ended up trading a 1st and a 2nd in a very deep draft for Reinhart.

It isn’t that Reinhart was already a questionable prospect, though he was. It isn’t that the picks were clearly more valuable at that time, though they were. The trade didn’t even make sense at the time because it was a move to acquire a left handed defender when the team was in desperate need on the right side. Though he hadn’t been acquired yet, the club was obviously planning to pursue Sekera, the Oilers also had youth via Klefbom and Nurse already in place.

Reinhart was blocked from day 1 as an Oiler and that’s before we criticize the player at all, which I don’t plan on doing at this time. So the loss of Reinhart was the loss of valuable assets, but if we’re realistic then those assets were blown 2 years ago. It just became Facebook official tonight.

***

At 6AM Thursday morning the floodgates can open again for trade action. There are believed to be several deals in place already with the Golden Knights and potentially other clubs. The Islanders are up to something, with Frank Seravalli suggesting that they are trying to get BOTH Duchene AND Eberle.

With the MSM buttering up the possibility of Eberle being traded for a player who is not anywhere near as good but who is cheaper, it’s hard not to see the Seravalli suggestion and think that the Avs will end up with a quality RHD while the Oil end up with the 4th best player in the deal. I don’t want to be negative about this, but when the connected guys keeping repeating themselves on these vague points as they’ve done for weeks, it’s usually because they all know the same thing but refuse to just say it definitively.

Prepare for Eberle to be traded this weekend and for Edmonton to get a downgrade in talent in return. Why? Gotta be able to afford Russell somehow.

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