The quote from Craig MacTavish during Dustin Penner's tumultuous tenure in Edmonton is one of his all-time best: "We signed him to be a top-two line player and that's kind of where it ended. The difference was we thought the contract was a starting point and he's viewed it as a finish line."
Zing! Sound familiar? It might if you were watching Trent Frederic last season. He signed a staggering eight-year contract worth $30.8 million, and in the first year of that deal, he settled into being a point-per-month player. He was eventually a healthy scratch for the last two games of Edmonton's ill-fated playoff series with Anaheim.
Shifting into neutral right after you sign a long-term deal is a bad look, but the Oilers are stuck with him because Frederic has a full no-movement clause. Even if he didn't, nobody would be crazy enough to take on that contract. The deal itself is a no-movement clause, so if something doesn't give next season, that $30 million anvil gets even heavier. Will the new coach help? It certainly can't get any worse.
GM Bowman's Assessment
"Freddie didn't have a good year, you have to call it the way that it is," Oilers GM Stan Bowman said at the Oilers exit interviews. "I've talked to him about it and we need him to play better. Part of that is on us, too. I don't think we set him up well. We've moved him in a bunch of different roles — we started him with Connor and Leon at the beginning of the season and we moved him around to different lines. We need him to play better. And we need to do a better job to set him up so he can have success."
Set him up to have success? We're talking about a third- or fourth-line grinder, not the Princess and the Pea. It was on Frederic to make the most of his linemates and his minutes, and the fact he accepted that kind of season from himself is a stinging indictment on the player.
World Championships and Prospects
Full disclosure: The last time I watched an IIHF World Championships game was when Anson Carter scored the overtime winner in 2003. Same goes for whatever the Spengler Cup is. It's not real; it's a working holiday for guys who want to keep playing after the meaningful hockey is over. Still, it's good that Evan Bouchard is playing well for the Canadians, showing the people at Hockey Canada what he can do and earning some good will with the brass. His road to the next best-on-best tournament starts now. But, please, let's not put too much stock into how anyone, including Oilers prospect Ike Howard (three goals in five games), is doing against third-tier Norwegians on Olympic-sized ice.
Coaching Dynamics and the Golden Knights
It's a fascinating dynamic: Under Bruce Cassidy, the Vegas Golden Knights were going nowhere. They were sinking fast. So they get a new coach, and he turns their moribund team into a Stanley Cup finalist. That doesn't make Cassidy look especially good, does it? But he is still being touted as the undisputed answer to Edmonton's problems? I'm not saying he wouldn't be, but it's weird how the Coaching Recycling Program works. It's also fascinating that the Golden Knights control Edmonton's future.
