Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Connor McDavid Is Great, On The Other Hand The Edmonton Oilers Are Not

01/19/2019 at 9:03am EST

from Cathal Kelly of the Globe and Mail,

It’s still early days, but you are starting to get an ominous, Marcel Dionne feel from Connor McDavid’s career. His ability is undeniable. There is no serious argument over whether he is the best hockey player on the planet.

But McDavid, 22, has tied himself for the long term to a team that can’t figure it out. Some sports franchises couldn’t organize a two-car parade. Over the past decade, no one on the Edmonton Oilers' executive has a driver’s licence.

When Edmonton drafted McDavid three years ago, it was seen as a sort of architectural miracle – a club installing the foundation stone of their rebuild last.

From a personal-performance perspective, McDavid has lived up to his almost impossible promise – that he would be Bobby Orr- or Wayne Gretzky-good nearly from the off.

In return, the Oilers did the least helpful thing possible – go from being a very bad team with good future prospects to a middling one with none. They sit just outside the playoff picture, in no man’s land. Not good enough to matter; not bad enough to start again. Ask the Toronto Maple Leafs. They allowed themselves to be trapped there for the better part of 50 years.

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

From breaking news to in-depth stories around the league, KK Hockey is updated with fresh stories all day long and will bring you the latest news as quickly as possible.

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