Edmonton Oilers need to hustle if they want another crack at a Cup (2024)

When a team and a town are one game away from the greatest Stanley Cup championship in NHL history, where does losing that game rank on the all-time list of agonizing defeats?

For Edmonton, it’s hard to imagine anything worse than what happened Monday night in Florida. Probably because there isn’t anything worse than what happened in Florida.

Storming back from 3-0 down in the final to set up a Game 7, that everyone is positive you’re going to win, only to watch your dreams being carried into the Panthers’ dressing room is the deepest cut of all.

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No fan base in sports wanted this championship more than Edmonton did. To tease them like this is cruel and unusual punishment, even for a franchise that spent the last 34 years writing the book on suffering.

Now that it’s over, where do the Oilers go from here?

It’s easy to say they’ll be back next year and with a few tweaks here and there they will be just like the Panthers, celebrating a championship in their second crack at a Cup final.

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But that’s too naive and too simplistic and anyone who remembers what happened in the aftermath of Edmonton’s 2006 run to the final knows better than to assume anything.

Yes, this is different. This team has the best player in the world and an elite supporting cast. They are in a legitimate Stanley Cup window, not an underdog that caught lightning in a bottle for two months.

But, like in 2006, it’s going to take a lot of wheeling and dealing to keep this group together. There are a handful of important free agents that need to be re-signed or replaced before the Oilers can hope to make another charge at this.

Mattias Janmark, Connor Brown and Adam Henrique, the third line that had such an enormous impact on the Stanley Cup Final, are all unrestricted free agents who upped their value in the playoffs. Warren Foegele, Vincent Desharnais and goalie Calvin Pickard are also unrestricted while RFAs Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg are due for raises.

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The Oilers need to get them signed or replaced with players of equal or greater value while still socking money away for next year, when Evan Bouchard will at least double his $3.9 million salary.

And, like in 2006, there is the very real danger that a cornerstone of the team might be walking out the door. Back then it was Chris Pronger, this time it’s Leon Draisaitl, who is heading into the final year of his contract and due for a massive raise.

Again, it’s easy to assume the best, that he’s going to stay here because he loves Edmonton and loves playing with Connor McDavid and Game 7 has him wanting to finish what he started. But you never know.

Maybe he locks in another long term deal for those exact reasons. Or maybe he feels like he gave it a good honest try, gave 10 years of his career to this organization, and Game 7 taught him there are no guarantees in hockey. So maybe it’s time to see what else is out there for him.

Draisaitl’s decision is going to be a seismic event that will have a dramatic impact on whether or not the Oilers ever reach the final again. And perhaps it might even have an impact on what McDavid decides to to when his own deal expires in two years.

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Feel free to shudder.

As of right now, with the July 1 free agent frenzy just days away, the Oilers don’t even have anyone in place to address these issues. General manager Ken Holland appears to be on his way out after five years at the helm, which is a rather unusual for a guy who just built a team that went to Game 7 of the final.

Holland has his critics, but he inherited a bit of a mess (the Oilers finished 25th the year before he got here) and he turned them into a contender that made the playoffs in all five of his seasons.

They went to the Western Conference Final two years ago, the second round last year and the Cup Final this year, losing out to the eventual champions three years in a row.

You have to assume CEO Jeff Jackson has a succession plan in place, but whoever’s in charge will have to hit the ground running.

It was an incredible run by the Oilers. Some of the things they accomplished, like coming back from 31st place and from 3-0 down, is storybook stuff. It would have been legendary had the Oilers won on Monday.

But, as author Zach Hyman said before Game 7, nobody will remember any of it if they don’t win.

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It’s sad. Maybe the saddest loss ever. But there is no time to mourn.

The team is in Wait Till Next Year mode and next year comes in a hurry.

E-mail:rtychkowski@postmedia.com

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