It's been a while...

Well I have been MIA from Steemit for a few months now and figure I might as well start posting a bit more frequently. I've been in seclusion since the end of the NHL season pouting about my terrible Oilers. Two months later, they are still terrible and I'm still pouting.

It's been a depressing off season so far for Oilers fans. Our free agent acquisitions were lack luster, our depth chart is still extremely thin and no answers have been found under the guidance of Ken Holland. We had a pointless buy out, a whining youngster and a bevy of new questions about the direction of this franchise. It's not been great.

The biggest disappointment for me was the buyout of Andrej Sekera, who promptly signed a new deal with the Dallas Stars. Holland bought out the final two years of Sekera's contract in a move that doesn't appear to help the Oilers in any way shape or form. The Oilers will "save" $3M in cap hit but spread the cap hit over the next four years. From that $3M in savings a replacement needs to be hired to fill in the hole in the roster, which will cost roughly $1M per year. Yah, we saved $1M overall! Best part for me is that the Oiler's whiffed hard on free agency and didn't even use any of the cap space freed up by the move! Go Oilers...

Another storyline over the summer has been Jesse Puljujarvi and his apparent trade demand. Puljujarvi is currently an RFA, coming off a disastrous entry level contract. His trade value is non-existent and the Oiler's shouldn't be in a hurry to cave into his demands. Puljujarvi has no contract and without signing again, the Oiler's will retian his rights until he turns 27 years old. Kid, this is not a game of chicken you can win. Best case scenario for both sides is slowly creeping towards Puljujarvi heading overseas and playing in the KHL for a season.

Edmonton's free agent acquisitions have left quite a bit to desire. We had Joakim Nygard earlier in the summer, he's fast, has never played in the NHL but seems like a decent bet. Then we signed Gaetan Haas, another player to never play in the NHL, out of the Swiss league. Haas isn't a huge scorer but might be able to edge out a few of the dumpster fires that Edmonton has at the bottom end of its roster. Next up is Markus Granlund, an actual NHL player, who is coming off a non-descript season in Vancouver. The big additon was resigning Alex Chiasson who had a career year in Edmonton last season but didn't seem to have any suitors in free agency. Lastly we signed Mike Smith, a very old goalie coming off the worst year of his career, yikes. Overall pretty meh.

The holes Edmonton had on the roster are all still present and unaccounted for. A small amount of help is likely coming from the farm team but it's a big ask to throw them into the positions where we desperately need help. It's looking like another season outside the playoffs and another pick in the lottery draft. The life on an Oilers fan...