Oh how the mighty have fallen

The Edmonton Oilers were the surprise team of the 2005-2006 Stanley Cup playoffs as it took the Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes seven games to finally get rid of the pesky Albertans and claim Lord Stanley's cherished mug. The future looked awesome for the young upstart Oilers who had a coupled of seasoned NHL veterans like perennial All-Star defenceman Chris Pronger and center Michael Pecca providing the experienced leadership that these youngsters needed so badly.


However after a couple of weeks of gloating after last years thrilling and unexpected run at the Stanley Cup things began to fall apart for the northern Alberta crew. The biggest surprise hit the team like a bolt of lightning in mid July when Chris Pronger who had eleven months earlier signed a long term contract with Edmonton screamed loud and clear for everyone to hear that he no longer wanted to be an Oiler and demanded a trade for what still appear to be mysterious personal reasons .He made it clear that under no circumstances would he return to Edmonton for this past season and his requests were deemed to be sincere enough by general Manager Kevin Lowe that he arranged a trade with the Los Angeles Kings that saw Pronger go to the City of Angels in exchange for defenceman Ladislov Smid and forward Joffrey Lupul who comes from the Edmonton area. Mike Pecca the other veteran leader the team was counting on who was an unrestricted free agent also left the team to play for Buffalo.






The Oilers downplayed the loss of these two key players going into training camp for this season and felt that the off season acquisition of veteran centre Peter Sykora and the addition of some young defencemen from within their own farm system would not make the loss of Pronger that noticeable. The result of these two losses were felt however as the team struggled right from the getgo. and it soon became evident that the team would be in for a long season.

Things went from bad to worse as the team was having trouble scoring goals and injuries to left winger Ethan Moreau and center Jarett Stoll for lengthy periods made things worse.The defence was not performing up to par as well and in the New year a surprising trade saw defenceman Marc Andre Bergeron who was their leading point getter on the blue line brigade get shipped off to the Islanders for a supposedly super prospect in Denis Grebeshkov.who had been the L. A. Kings first draft choice in 2002 and has played briefly with L.. A. and the Islanders but this season played in Yaroslav Russia.

Ryan Smyth the classy Captain of the team and their leading point getter who had been with the team since 1994 after being drafted by them from The Moose Jaw Warriors of the Western Hockey League was going to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season and the club and he could not agree on a contract and this caused many a sleepless night for General Manager Kevin Lowe as well. It appears that Smyth wanted a five year agreement that paid him 5.7 million dollars per season and the Oilers wanted to pay him 5.4 per season.Both sides dug their heels in and refused to budge or compromise. As a result on February 27th just moments before the NHL trading deadline arrived the Oilers stunned the entire hockey world by shipping off Smith to the New York Islanders for two promising prospects right winger Robert Nilsson who was playing in the AHL but had some NHL experience and centre Ryan O,Marra who was playing for the Saginaw Spirit of the Ontario JniorHockey League.

The jury is still out on the merits of this trade with the naysayers suggesting that Edmonton got nothing for Smyth and should have made an exception for him and given in to his demands because of his length of service and overall contribution to the club and his inherent leadership skills and his ability to change the dynamics of the game when he was on the ice.There was a fear that the team would completely collapse and give up the chase for a playoff spot if a trade was made and that appears to be exactly what has happened as the club has of this writing won one of thirteen games since the trade.The loss of defenceman Steve Staios and Jan Hejda for the rest of the season and star forward Ales Hemskys inability to play on a consistent basis has not helped things either.

The naysayers point out that when the Oilers traded other superstars like Gretsky ,Messier ,Coffey,Weight, Arnott and Guerin they did not leave the cupboard bare and the team was still a contender as evidenced by the fact that they won their fifth Stanley Cup after The Great One was traded to Los Angeles.There is a strong suggestion out there that General Manager Kevin Lowe is guilty of an error in judgement in this situation as it is obviuous that the required talent is not available right now to field a contending NHL team.

Lowe on the other hand felt that he should get something for Smyth now rather than risk coming up empty handed in the off season and see Smyth go somewhere else. In other words he did not feel confident that after these heated negotiations were over that he and Smyths agent could work something out
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It is indeed a sad state of affairs for this proud franchise and it will be most interesting to see what happens this summer and you wonder how much longer will the loyal Oiler fans put up with the kind of mediocre hockey they have seen since February 27th.