from David Staples of the Cult of Hockey,

Beware of the promise of summer!

That’s the repeated lesson for fans of the Edmonton Oilers, especially when it comes to the team’s search for Top 4 defencemen.

Every spring and summer since at least 2010, the Oilers have signed up a defenceman or two whom team management has hailed as a “Top 4 defenceman.”

A number of these d-men have started out playing decent hockey for the Oilers and a few have even held their own for a time as Top 4 d-men. But not one of them is now a high-performing Top 4 d-man on the team, though Andrej Sekera, the latest signing in the group, certainly is trending in that direction, having a run of good games now that he’s been paired up with rookie Darnell Nurse.

The Oilers have now acquired so many so-called Top 4 defencemen that the roster is full of over-paid but under-performing veterans.

How did the team get into this mess? And what should be the proper response to the run of failure?

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