from Damien Cox of the Toronto Star,

Look, McDavid is the fastest player in the NHL, and somehow the Oilers are one of the league’s slowest, least mobile teams. They are swimming against the current of what wins in today’s NHL. That has to change immediately.

So McDavid, obviously, and Leon Draisaitl can stay. Darnell Nurse hasn’t played 300 NHL games yet and it’s always a mistake to make a decision on a talented young defenceman until at least that point in his career.

Otherwise, the rest of this team can be exchanged for an entirely different type of team, probably smaller and definitely faster. They’ll need a coach — perhaps Sheldon Keefe — who thinks that way too, and they’ll need to clear up their payroll situation. Milan Lucic, with four years left on his deal at $6 million per season, would be a perfect fit in Ottawa next season to help get the low-budget Senators to the salary-cap floor. Gretzky should have been on the phone to Pierre Dorion yesterday asking what it would take to make that happen.

This isn’t a total tear down because the Oilers have McDavid and Draisaitl, but it’s close. There’s a cinder-block foundation, and that’s it. The executive who comes in telling Nicholson those cold, hard facts is the person who should get the job, not the one who comes in talking playoffs in 2020.

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