CHANGING THE NARRATIVE
In the last week there have been a few voices trying to change the way the Petry situation is being perceived. This piece by Mark Spector is an example of that. The basic premise here is that losing Petry is not the Oilers' fault.
Now I've been accused of being heavy handed in my assessment of this situation because I believe the Oilers have been guilty of screwing this situation up beyond repair, but there is room to argue that it isn't ALL Edmonton's fault. That would be reasonable. However, to say that Edmonton has NO FAULT in the Petry situation is entirely unreasonable and ignores all of the evidence at hand.
PETRY LEAVING ISN’T OILERS FAULTLots of Oilers fans wonder how a team with such a weak defence can afford to let Jeff Petry go. They’re right — he’s going to leave a big hole next year. But last summer, when the time came to sign Petry long-term, his game wasn’t deserving of the commitment. Sure, he was the best guy on a poor defence, but in my opinion, someone will be having buyer’s remorse on Petry at this time next year, when he signs for four years and $18-19 million.
The key to the negotiations though, is that Petry wanted to go to UFA. There haven’t been any talks leading up to the deadline. The player simply wants to exercise his rights, play the field, and make a choice on a new team come July 1. It isn’t always a GM’s mistake when a player leaves. Sometimes the player, in this case an American-born player married to an American girl, wants to head south.
It’s no more complicated than that.
Well, actually, it probably is more complicated than that.
Jeff Petry's game absolutely was worthy of commitment after last year. He has been a good player for some time and last year he likely could have been signed for less money than it would take now. Considering the fact that he was/is the team's best Defenseman and the Oilers have proven it difficult to find and keep good Defensemen then surely a player they drafted and developed should have been a priority.
He wasn't.
If 18 Million over 4 years (4.5M per year) is an overpayment for a top 4 Defenseman in the prime years of his career then the NHL has been overpaying for these players for years. That's the going rate for these Defensemen.
The assertion that Jeff Petry wants to go to UFA status is the most problematic here because it attempts to absolve the Oilers of any culpability in pushing Jeff Petry to that desire. It also assumes that Petry ALWAYS wanted to go to UFA and never had any desire to negotiate with Edmonton. So this is wrong in 2 ways.
1) It has already been reported that the Oilers have not made any multi year contract offers to Jeff Petry since January and there have been no reports saying he was offered anything of the sort in July either. There are 2 reasons why a team wouldn't leak that kind of information in the face of losing a key player to free agency. Either they didn't offer him one or they did but it was an insultingly low offer.
2) Reducing the situation to its most simple "He wants to go" completely ignores the fact that the Oilers praised, paid, and played lesser players ahead of Jeff Petry. Nikita Nikitin got paid big money ahead of Petry. Andrew Ference got paid more money than Jeff Petry. But most painfully, Justin Schultz was touted by management, paid more, and played over his head. Then the Oilers made Petry a healthy scratch against the Kings in October to play Hunt and Nurse instead. When negotiations on an extension became possible in January the Oilers didn't make contact with Petry's agent and when they reached out to him he was told he would traded.
I'm sorry if that sounds a lot like the Oilers made mistakes in how they judged and handled this player, but they did. They failed to accurately assess what they had in front of them. They failed to foster a relationship with the player that would convince him Edmonton was a worthwhile place to stay and play. They are, at the very least, principally at fault here.
And that's without ever taking into consideration the nationality of his wife.
CHANGING MARKET
Yesterday I discussed a scenario where the Oilers would have dealt with Chicago involving Jeff Petry and goaltender Antti Raanta. They promptly made a deal with Philadelphia to acquire Kimmo Timonen who hasn't been medically able to play for some time with blood clots in his lung and leg.
That's one more team filling their need on the blueline without using Jeff Petry and it is a little concerning. Detroit, Montreal, and Tampa Bay all could use a player of Petry's calibre to bolster their d-corps in order to make a long run in the playoffs, but fewer potential buyers is never a good thing.
I worry that we may have passed the period of peak demand. That could mean settling for a weaker pick or prospect instead of getting the one you were hoping for. Anything can still happen between now and Monday. However, at this point there's nobody left who believes the Oilers will be able to re-sign Jeff Petry and that means they need to move him. That puts Edmonton behind the 8-Ball if demand suddenly disappears.
Tampa Bay, I believe, continues to be the team I would prefer the Oilers deal with. They have the extra 1st Round pick and they have some interesting prospects in their system. With Carle out to abdominal injury and a couple of younger players not performing overly well they could use the added depth.
Anaheim also remains a potential destination.
The next couple of days are going to keep me up at night as I wonder what direction the Oilers are headed in. This season Edmonton has reverted back to moving valuable pieces out for picks. There's another wave of young players that should be graduating next year in Nurse, Draisaitl, and whoever they select at the upcoming Draft.
LINEUP
Nail Yakupov should make his return to the Oilers. The time in between games meant sitting out one game would give him more time off than normal and it was probably for the best. Management has decided to make Jeff Petry a healthy scratch in this game so we've seen his last as an Oiler. Oesterle will be playing in his place. Hendricks remains at C and Gazdic will be in over Fraser.
Pouliot RNH Eberle Purcell Roy Yakupov Gazdic Gordon Klinkhammer Hamilton Hendricks Pakarinen
Ference Oesterle Klefbom Schultz Marincin Fayne
Scrivens
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) The Yak Came Back. Yakupov back brings a scoring threat to the 2nd line. The Oilers will need all the help they can get against the Blues and Yak has a big test against a very good club. He had a hot couple of weeks but the 20 games left are the real test to see if that was a flash in the pan or the sign of him turning a corner.
2) Beaten Blue. The St Louis Blues have beaten up on the Oilers physically this year and a lot of that has occurred after the whistle. A lot has been made of the team's attitude with Nelson behind the bench. They show more life and that has also shown up in post-whistle scrums as well. The Oilers can't wilt when the Blues get rough tonight.
3) Big Game Ben. This blog is ruthless on goaltenders who struggle greatly and I make no bones about it. I don't hide from saying a goalie is at fault for goals against if he really is despite the fact that it goes against hockey convention to blame the goalie. That's why it's only fair when I say that the last game against the Wild was Ben Scrivens' best game of the year. He absolutely stole the game for the Oilers who were outplayed in the last 2 periods of the game by a wide margin. He shut the door and looked solid doing it. Now do it again.
Puck drops tonight at 8:10 PM on CBC. Tank On!
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