It may have taken the Edmonton Oilers much longer than everyone expected, but they’ve finally filled the head coaching vacancy that Tom Renney left after he was relieved of his duties at the end of this season. Instead of bringing in a new face to help cultivate the cornucopia of talent the Oilers currently possess, GM Steve Tambellini decided to promote assistant coach Ralph Krueger to head coach of the Oilers.
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After Edmonton Oilers general manager Steve Tambellini had a month or so to dwell on his club’s sixth straight playoff-less season, he came to the conclusion that another big change needed to be made.
That’s why the Oilers decided to show head coach Tom Renney the door.
Renney, who spent one year as Pat Quinn’s associate coach and two seasons as the head guy, led the Oilers to just a 32-40-10 record this past season. The Oilers are loaded with high draft picks, including forwards Taylor Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the two first overall picks in the last two drafts. Yet despite the surplus of young talent (Hall, Nugent-Hopkins, Sam Gagner, Jordan Eberle, Magnus Paajarvi), the Oilers failed to even complete for a playoff spot in 2012.
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Edmonton Oilers forward Taylor Hall has played in only 61 games in the 2011-12 NHL season. It looks as though that’s all he will get.
The Oilers‘ superstar will miss the rest of the season, electing to have surgery to fix a chronic injury in his left shoulder.
It turns out the surgery was a longtime coming. According to Hall, he’s been putting off the surgery since he was with the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League.
“Four years now…I injured it in junior and it’s been wearing away,” Hall said. “I’ve been playing with a pretty bad shoulder for most of this year and I’m excited to see what I can do after it’s fixed.
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With the NHL trade deadline now just three weeks away, the trade rumors are out in full force. Here are the latest:
Smyth Broadway Bound?
When Ryan Smyth returned to Edmonton this offseason, it was an emotional experience. The 35-year-old veteran was back home with the team that drafted him first overall back in the 1994 entry draft.
However, Smyth has yet to have his name engraved on Lord Stanley’s Cup, and with the Oilers sitting 13th in the Western Conference, 11 points out of the eighth and final playoff spot, he’ll have to be traded to complete the dream.
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The Edmonton Oilers have had issues with their young stars falling victim to injuries.
First it was Jordan Eberle injuring his right knee, then it was rookie Ryan Nugent-Hopkins who was put on the shelf after suffering a shoulder injury, and now former No. 1 overall pick Taylor Hall will be out for an undisclosed amount of time.
And while all three injuries are major blows to the Oilers’ roster, it was Hall’s freak injury that has everybody talking.
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If there was one theme in the month of October in the NHL, it was to expect the unexpected.
With that in mind, as hard as it may be to believe, the current NHL standings are in fact correct.
So, where to begin?
How about over in the Northeast Division, where the last team you would expect to be at the top would be the Toronto Maple Leafs (7-3-1). However, the only thing that might be more surprising within that division is that the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins are dead last (4-7-0)—not only in the division, but in the entire Eastern Conference.
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Edmonton Oilers GM Steven Tambellini is probably sick of hearing the question, but as long as he continues to keep dodging it, reporters are going to continue to pester him: “Is Ryan Nugent-Hopkins staying?”
“I’m not going there,” Tambellini told the latest reporter to be denied an answer. “What I will say is I knew he’d make the decision difficult for us, but that’s a great problem to have. If he proves he’s ready, he’s ready, but we’ll cross that line after Thursday. Either way, we’ll do the right thing.”
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It’s hard to believe, but it was only five years ago that the Edmonton Oilers came up one win short against the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2006 Stanley Cup Finals. However, since that time, the Oilers have found a permanent residence near the bottom of the Western Conference standings, missing the playoffs five consecutive seasons.
But the one upside to finishing a season off so poorly (or in the Oilers’ case for the last two seasons, dead last) is having first dibs at the fresh crop of talent that pops up at the draft. As it stands now, the Oilers have plenty: Sam Gagner, Magnus Paajarvi, Jordan Eberle, Taylor Hall and most recently, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the first overall pick in the 2011 NHL draft.
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I am happy to announce a new promotion here at Hockey Tickets Online. Beginning in October 2011, we will giving away way two tickets each month to a regular season NHL game.
To enter, simply leave your name and email address below. Once you are entered into the contest, your will be eligible to win tickets every month.
Congratulations to Eric who is our October ticket winner. Eric gets two tickets to the Panthers v Penguins game in November.
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I guess it turns out that Dean Lombardi knew exactly what he was doing when he placed Marco Sturm on waivers last week.
That’s because the move allowed the Los Angeles Kings GM to acquire Dustin Penner from the Edmonton Oilers prior to today’s trade deadline.
Penner was by far the biggest name to be moved today, but that’s because of all the major trades that had taken place in the previous two weeks. The Kings are hoping that the 6’ 4” power forward will be a key piece in making them potential Cup contenders. However, the deal came at a price. Lombardi had to give up defensive prospect Colten Teubert, a 2011 first-round pick and a conditional second-round pick.
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