Craig MacTavish is the new GM of the Edmonton Oilers

[oiler99]

The Edmonton Oilers announced today, that they have fired GM Steve Tambellini, Craig MacTavish was announced as his replacement. Also Scott Howson will be taking MacT's role as Senior VP.

The timing could have been better, but I for one am really happy that Tambellini is no longer GMing the Oilers. Time to start the MacTavish era.

[CJ Matthews]

Hooray! No helmets for everybody!!!

[ConcreteCharlie]

I thought Tambellini did an OK job, but I think he was too attached to some of their players.

Their draft picks, eh, I mean there wasn't much imagination to their first rounders since they kept picking so high (consensus picks, can't criticize or praise, really) and I think they got some decent prospects in later rounds. The main things I thought they did wrong were playing their top guys as 18 year olds every time out and also they got too caught up in the Hemskys, Horcoffs, etc.

They brought in a bunch of new skills and didn't add the right players to balance them out. They should probably have cut ties with Hemsky at the same time they did Penner. It was a super weak trade market and he was a UFA to be. They got a solid haul for Penner, but they could have turned around and moved Hemsky for more and really loaded up at the deadline. Instead they begged him to stay and gave him $10M.

When you've got young guys, you have to go out and buy up bridge players and sandpaper guys to balance them out with experience and grit. I didn't see that happen, with the exception of Ryan Smyth, I guess.

[oiler99]

I watched the press conference and I'm pretty convinced now that the Oilers made the right choice. MacT said that he will bring depth to the organization to help out the kids. Which is exactly what the Oilers need. He also said that he's not afraid to make bold moves to make the team better.

[guam64]

The Oilers front office is like the incestuous European royal families that passed hemophilia from inbreeding, where they pass along s***ty teams from repeated hiring from within the Oilers "family."

[Sluggermatt15]

I thought Tambellini did an OK job, but I think he was too attached to some of their players.

Their draft picks, eh, I mean there wasn't much imagination to their first rounders since they kept picking so high (consensus picks, can't criticize or praise, really) and I think they got some decent prospects in later rounds. The main things I thought they did wrong were playing their top guys as 18 year olds every time out and also they got too caught up in the Hemskys, Horcoffs, etc.

They brought in a bunch of new skills and didn't add the right players to balance them out. They should probably have cut ties with Hemsky at the same time they did Penner. It was a super weak trade market and he was a UFA to be. They got a solid haul for Penner, but they could have turned around and moved Hemsky for more and really loaded up at the deadline. Instead they begged him to stay and gave him $10M.

When you've got young guys, you have to go out and buy up bridge players and sandpaper guys to balance them out with experience and grit. I didn't see that happen, with the exception of Ryan Smyth, I guess.

Great points, CC. Pretty spot on. Agree they didn't add complimentary players to help guys like Hemsky, Horcoff, etc. It's also too bad neither of those guys turned out to be superstars and 100 point scorers. Had that happened, Edmonton would have probably been more successful. I also believe they never addressed their need of a franchise goalie. The Oilers had a couple guys who played well like Roloson and Garon, but they moved on.

You point out the team playing their top guys that are 18 year olds. That's kind of what they are still doing right now with Hall, Yakupov, and Nugent-Hopkins as some of their top stars. I wonder whether MacTavish will try and add the complimentary guys the team needs...