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Interesting piece of news on Hockey’s Future, which is a phrase I never imagined I’d write. The EIG are apparently sending a survey to season ticket holders, asking some questions about their stewardship of the team. The survey is apparently being administered by an organization called Banister Research. After the jump, I’ll post the survey, with a tip of the cap to HF poster Z Killer.

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Cal Nichols, following Brian Burke’s whine the other day:

A number of months ago management presented ownership with a five-year plan and has the authority and go-ahead to make decisions as they see fit to put a winning team together. Kevin has one year left on his contract and we are desirous to renegotiate that contract.

Two obvious questions arise. First, who in the hell says “desirous”? Second, is it just me or are there an ever increasing number of parallels between the Oilers and the Soviet Union? Five year plans aren’t the only things that the Oilers have in common with the Soviet Union - they’ve got a local press full of Walter Duranty types, they crack down on dissent through the confiscation of signs and hauling people down to the Gitmo Room, those who fall into disfavour have their reputations attacked and, for all the talk about how Edmonton is such a great place to live and play, there seem to be a lot of hockey players who want no part of Cal Nichols’ Workers’ Paradise. Sure there are some differences - when Trotsky went to Mexico, Stalin killed him whereas when Fraser went to Mexico, the Oilers let him run the draft - but there’s more than enough there to cause one to raise his eyebrow.

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Kevin Lowe on March 2, 2007:

“If you believe in Billy Beane’s strategy, eventually, you know, someone else does replace those [goals].”

Kevin Lowe on July 4, 2007:

“We need one forward for sure.  Maybe we can hold on for a while until we get a second one in a deal after the season starts.

We spent a lot of time at this.  Our inability to attract guys.  What is it?  The city?  Me?  What’s the statement?

Billy Beane, in Moneyball:

The day you say you have to do something, you’re screwed.  Because you are going to make a bad deal.  You can always recover from the player you didn’t sign.  You may never recover from the player you signed at the wrong price.

So does Kevin Lowe believe in Billy Beane’s strategy?

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Looks like Matt at the Battle of Alberta has some company in the Flames blogging business.  It’s called Oil Critic and while words don’t do it justice, I’m going to try and explain just how it exemplifies everything there is to cheering for the Calgary Flames.  First there’s the name - the astute observer will note that it has nothing to do with Calgary, as is fitting for a city that has performed so poorly compared to it’s northern counterpart.  It’s like a collective case of little man syndrome.
The post currently at the top of the page is apparently supposed to link to a video, although the author of that post seems to have screwed up - all that’s visible is an html address.  I copied and pasted (here’s the link, for people who don’t have time to deal with that nonsense) and it’s a slideshow, consisting of a song stolen from the Scorpions and photographs stolen from Getty Images and either Covered in Oil or Battle of Alberta (I can’t remember which of those cats put it together).

Other than that, there’s a post with a semi-nude Gretzky picture that positively drips with Freudian overtones, a picture of Pronger with the Cup, a monkey wearing an Oilers jersey and the obligatory shot at Craig MacTavish’ vehicular homicide conviction.  The whole thing is done in what looks to be about 14 point font on an eye burningly red background.  There’ve been five posts total.

The best part?  It apparently takes three Flames fans to produce this.  If any doubt remained, this should wipe it out: Calgary is like Alabama with oil revenues.

I was recently in Chicago and Milwaukee, on a quick road trip with a friend to see Wrigley Field and Miller Park. Outside of Wrigley, there’s a statue of Harry Carey. How do you end up with a statue honouring a broadcaster as your most significant tribute to a person related to the club in the area of the stadium?

It’s easy. You alternate between bad decisions and ones aimed at maximizing short term revenue for years and years that result in you not having anyone worthy of such an honour since Ernie Banks (a statue for Ron Santo would be a bit much). The Cubs are a money making machine, more concerned with making decisions that maximize their returns in the short term than with doing what’s necessary to build a team that can succeed in the long term. With the Oilers decision to sign Sheldon Souray, I think that it’s getting increasingly difficult for anyone to maintain the position that the Oilers aren’t willing to make decisions that maximize their possibilities for this year at the expense of their opportunities in the future. This might be defensible if they were maximizing their chances at a Stanley Cup but they’re not. They’re maximizing their chances at a first round playoff appearance and a five game loss to Detroit.

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I’ve found the reaction to the contracts handed out to Joe Thornton, Jarome Iginla and Ryan Smyth more than a little interesting. As I see it, the consensus is that Thornton and Iginla took hometown discounts to stay where they were, while there is at least a certain segment of Edmonton fans who have convinced themselves that Smyth wanted every last piece of silver that he could get, even if it meant betraying the Oilers to the Flames, Canucks, Avalanche and Wild (Caiaphas’ soldiers in this particular analogy). I figured that, at the very least, it might be worth taking a look at the numbers of the three before buying into that particular narrative - my faith in Lowe’s assertion that Smyth just isn’t an elite player was shaken by the revelation that the Smyth trade was a financial one.

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Pat LaForge on February 27, 2007:

While on the one hand some Oilers fans might be distressed that this trade was made today, I want those same fans to be assured that the Oilers will use these excellent young players and our own deep pool of young talent in a new plan for this team. We can afford to spend the money necessary to have the kind of elite players expected. This was about the Oilers staying true to a plan. I know our hockey strategy is sound.

Kevin Lowe on February 27, 2007:

I want to be very clear that making this trade today is a hockey decision. It was not financial.

Kevin Lowe on March 2, 2007:

It’s not that we don’t have the resources, it’s not that we didn’t have the money and it’s not that we won’t have an eight or nine million dollar player on our team someday, maybe in the very near future.  It’s just that we made a decision that we couldn’t allocate the kind of money that they were demanding for a very good player, not an elite player.

Pat LaForge on March 15, 2007:

Of course, Ryan had a demand for compensation.  We matched it and it was rejected by him at the time.  Nobody sent us a note but it was what he wanted.  Kevin was left with a very short deadline.

Kevin Lowe on July 4, 2007, courtesy of Jim Matheson:

Lowe did want Ryan Smyth after trading him to Long Island Feb. 27 because they couldn’t agree on a five-year deal. He says he made a call to agent Don Meehan early in the free-agent proceedings Sunday, but Smyth opted for Colorado.

“Now we’ve got a different budget and a different salary cap (up from $44 million last year to $50.3 million this season),” said Lowe, admitting he hadn’t read the tea leaves well enough to know how high it would jump. If he’d known in February what he knows now, he said Smyth probably wouldn’t have gotten away.

I hate this team.

The shit has hit the fan.  The statement released on the Oilers’ website today is pretty unbelievable:

On Sunday, July 1, 2007, Kevin Lowe, Oilers General Manager, and Mr. Mike Gillis, Certified Agent for Michael Nylander, negotiated and agreed to a multi-year NHL Standard Players Contract, starting in 2007/08. Mr. Gillis confirmed same to the Oilers in writing.

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916 skaters played in NHL games in 2003-04.  By 2006-07, it was down to 858.  I would assume that this is related to the transfer agreements between the NHL and the minor leagues, which limit the number of players who can be called up after the trade deadline.  I’m not sure who this agreement was negotiated between but that’s an interesting little effect of it.  58 guys who would have received an NHL paycheque for at least one game under the rules in effect in 2003-04 didn’t get one last year.  Nice for the current NHLPA members (who presumably lose less in escrow) and nice for minor league teams; not so sweet for those guys who straddle the AHL/NHL border and for whom an NHL paycheque is a nice financial boost.

“I like Lupul.”

-Doug MacLean, proud owner of a .406 point percentage in six years as GM of the Columbus Blue Jackets

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