Kevin Lowe Needs to Be Held Accountable, Part Two

Continued from Part One—Kevin Lowe Needs to Be Held Accountable

Blooper Five

The 49 Million Dollar Man 

Reminding Edmonton fans of the Jack and Beanstalk tale where Jack trades the family cow for a bag of beans, Kevin Lowe elected to spend 49 million dollars on a team that looks like it will finish in the bottom five for the season—which is ironic since the Oilers have the fifth highest payroll in the league.  Consider that Detroit will spend nearly one million dollars less then the Oilers this year, you have to wonder why there is a 25-point difference in the standings?

With large multi million dollar contracts handed out to third-line players such as Pisani and Moreau, not to mention $3.5 million to a nearly 40-year-old  goaltender, the Oilers spend money like drunken sailors—which leads me to our next blooper. 

Blooper Six

The Sheldon Souray Affair

Desperate to land a free agent of any type in the off season, Lowe broke the team's piggy bank after refusing to sign Ryan Smyth, opting instead to offer the often injured Sheldon Souray 6.25 million dollars for the '07-'08 season.   Souray played 26 games for the Oilers before season ending shoulder surgery while still collecting his team leading paycheck—earning more than $240,000 per game as an Oiler while racking up three goals and seven assists for a total of 10 points. That works out to 620,000 per point—or over two million dollars a goal—and is by far the highest dollar to point ratio in the NHL.

Blooper Seven

31 Goals Out the Door

When the Oilers first signed Petr Sykora to a one-year contract last year, the speedy Czech forward looked like the perfect fit for Ales Hemsky.  The two clearly demonstrated a great chemistry together, and if not for Craig MacTavish's obsession with switching up lines could have really been special ( I have a hunch that MacT would have split up Gretzky and Kurri as well back in the day looking for the perfect line ) 

At the end of the 2007 season, Sykora went public, stating he clearly wanted to stay in Edmonton and was willing to do at a discount—of which Kevin Lowe elected against despite Sykora's 51 points and 31 goals.  Sykora eventually signed with Penguins and is on track for a 65-point season this year—which would put him second in scoring among current Oilers on a team that struggles to score goals from a player who would have taken likely around $1.5 million to stay in Edmonton—roughly half of what Fernando Pisani or Ethan Moreau are earning this year. 

Blooper Eight

Fightin' George

George Laraque was among the most popular Oilers in team history ranking up with other fan favorites as Dave Semenko, Kelly Buckburger and Dave Brown.  Laraque is the league's undisputed heavyweight, and now patrols the Penguins bench protecting Crosby and Malkin from players in the league who may otherwise take liberties with the team's stars—a role he used to do very effectively in Edmonton.  As Laraque was to find out though, the Oilers can't even spell loyalty never mind show it to their players.

Since Larque's departure, Oilers star Ales Hemsky has been fair game for just about every team in the league, and the stable of young stars the Oilers have been developing have been plastered into the boards without mercy—something that would have never happened with the prospect of Big George coming over to discuss how the weather was in between pounding you into the ice.  Last year, the Oilers set a team record for injury games, and are easily on track to beat that pace for this year which begs the question, when you are spending millions of dollars on the performance of your stars, does it not make sense to have a 240-pound insurance policy protecting your investment—apparently Kevin Lowe doesn't think so.   

Blooper Nine

Schremp's Toil

Those outside of Edmonton or the OHL might not recognize the name Rob Schremp—who has been left to toil in the AHL while much less talented playes like Pouliet and Jacques have been given ice time with the big team.  The real kicker here is that Schremp was second in scoring behind Sydney Crosby in the OHL, with 57 goals and 88 assists for a total of 145 points—and has been given a grand total of three games in two years to show his stuff in the big league. 

Granted, who comes up and stays in the minors is usually up to the coach, but in this case, when you have one of the most talented Junior players rotting in the minors thanks to a coach who seems clearly against him, the GM has to step up and make the call. 

Blooper Ten

Where in the World Are Our Prospects?

During the lockout, the Oilers moved their now defunct farm team called the Road Runners to Edmonton for the season, but elected to fold the team once the lock out was over as they told the media they didn't have a city for the team to play in.  It took nearly three years before the brain trusts in the Oilers' front office got around to setting up a farm team that could be taught the Oilers' system and instead, elected to disperse our young talent across a variety of leagues and teams like orphans at a flea market. 

The question begging to be asked, did the Oilers and Kevin Lowe not see that the strike was going to end one day or another and a city for the Road Runners to play in was going to be needed ?  The result is that many of the Oilers young promising players, and in particular Schremp and goalie Jeff Deslaurier, had their advancement put on hold while Lowe and the rest of the Oilers' brass struggled to figure out a solution that shouldn't have never happened in the first place.  Interestingly, the Oilers three young stars who joined the team this year, that being Gagner, Cogliano and Nilsson were not part of the Oiler's system last year. 

Coming Next, the debate continues as to why Craig MacTavish continues to have a job in Edmonton.