Guy Flaming is the most able person I know to speak about Prendergast and I'll be checking for his story on the firing over the next couple of days. You saw this coming, hell the Oilers could pink slip the janitor and get a cheer this spring; but I do think that if Kevin Prendergast and Craig MacTavish get the handshake we can and should ask questions about the fellow who is still employed today. What, exactly, would he have to have presided over in order to get fired?
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ReplyDeleteThanks be to What Ever You Have Faith in. I know whiskey and communism wouldn't let me down.
ReplyDeleteIf Kevin Lowe is fired he will be hired in a New York second.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure he's a nice man who's now understandably worried for his family's future. Nonetheless...
ReplyDeleteYaaaay! Fucking yaaaaaay!
Even if he was good, this firing hints at there being some sliver of accountability in the Oilers org.
Yeah Traktor, this season totally vindicates the idea that MacT sucked. Totally.
ReplyDeleteRick Olczyk should be canned as well.
ReplyDeleteI believed he did the negotiations on the Horcoff deal.
I wouldn't count on it Kris. Seems like another scapegoat like MacT was, while the head of the beast is still sitting at the top. Something still reeks at the upper echelons of Oilers management.
ReplyDeleteLowe would have to say on record:
ReplyDelete"Of course th new arena plan is a terrible idead" (or something of the sort)
to be fired.
Good that there is a little bit of accountability.
Interested in who would replace him.
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ReplyDelete"Of course the new arena plan is a terrible idea"
ReplyDeleteare you suggesting media pepper him with questions about the new area plan at every possible opportunity?
because who knows - given enough opportunities he might slip up ...
Bob Nicholson has rumored to be coming on board in some capacity.
ReplyDeleteTambellini: "The buck stops... there!" [pointing to Prendergast]
ReplyDeleteMemo to local media: your job is find out exactly what Prendergast's day-to-day responsibilities were.
On a Tambellini side note:
ReplyDelete""I don't think guys don't want to come here because of the city. Yet that's what seems to be talked about all the time," O'Sullivan said. "It's not a bad place to play."
That last person to suggest it was the city was actually Tambellini, in response to Sheldon Souray, who emphatically denied that the city or its fans were to blame.
Traktor
ReplyDelete"If Kevin Lowe is fired he will be hired in a New York second"
As a lifelong Oiler fan I am delighted to hear that because in the cap world there is NO ONE in hockey worse. No one.
So if our competitors are doing things to hurt themselves, that can be nothing but good for us.
Lots of things your hero has done but the worst......by far .....is to field the worst team in the league...... with our nose right up against the cap.
I'm actually more concerned about finishing last in the AHL than I am about finishing last in the NHL. If we're not developing young talent, then we have absolutely no future. We can't just hope to only draft blue chippers who are good enough to by-pass our atrocious developmental system.
ReplyDeleteNext year is absolutely crucial for this team in so many ways. We need to make the right decisions on our key prospects:
MPS - one more year in Sweden to excel in that league; Lander probably needs 2 more in Sweden followed by a little time in the AHL
Eberle - minimum half-year in the NHL (like Claude Giroux in Philly)
Seguin/Hall - Hall is probably NHL ready; Seguin, I'm not positive about. I'd really like to see him dominate World Juniors and get that experience. He's only played 2 seasons in junior (Hall is at 3).
AHL defence contingent:
Chorney, Petry, Plante - They all need about a year in the AHL; Plante maybe 1.5 years. These guys could all turn into players, or all busts, depending on how they develop. You could include Motin, but I think he'll be a solid #7 at best. (Or a good call-up option)
We also have a few nice bottom-6 options in Reddox, Van de Velde, and O'Marra. O'Marra is easily overlooked because of his poor AHL stats over 3 years, but he's a bigger guy who can skate and has a bit of skill. I could see him as a 4th line centre, or maybe even 3rd line RW, though more as a fill-in option.
Also, Omark will probably play most of the year in the AHL (barring injuries to our top-6) and get a shot late in the year to see what he can do. Unless he torches the AHL, which is also possible if he and Eberle are playing together.
Hopefully Hartikainen comes over and plays in the AHL too. He's an interesting prospect. From what I can tell, he'd be a great prospect if not for his average (at best) skating.
Nash...I don't know anymore. He's still a good prospect, but it sounds like the odds of him pulling a Blake Wheeler and never signing here are pretty good, as are the odds of us dealing him to prevent that occurrence.
Eberle - of course I meant half year in the AHL...
ReplyDeleteThe city being unliveable is a convenient scapegoat for management. The sad facts of the matter are that most players probably don't want to come to a franchise that's largely been adrift for the past 15 years. The management and fans have shown a propensity to turn on players, the team is a perennial loser, and quite frankly, the coaching hasn't been exactly player friendly in the past decade either.
ReplyDeleteIf the team ever turns itself around and we get some competent, amiable management and coaching I suspect the "city problem" disappears.
Prendergast moving on is a baby step towards that end.
I think there is a city problem: by all accounts, it's why (Mrs.) Pronger wanted out, for example, and all else (i.e. state of the team) being equal, most players are going to prefer New York to Edmonton (the really stupid ones will also prefer LA to Edmonton: LA is awful). But nobody's going to convince me that Detroit is a better place to live than Edmonton, on any criterion, really. The day Datysuk and Zetterberg demand premiums to stay with Detroit is the day you can whine about Edmonton, rather than the Oilers, being the issue.
ReplyDeleteSteve:
ReplyDeleteI think there are three major problems with the city:
#1) It's a pressure cooker with nowhere to hide. That said, so is every other Canadian city, and a handful of American ones too. And most of that goes away if the team is doing well anyway.
#2) Edmonton international is a joke. Though that's getting better.
#3) The flights that are available are long.
I think the City is a minor negative, though a lot of that was alleviated in the cup run of '06. Players dream of that atmosphere.
ReplyDeleteIf our organization was run like Detroit over the last 15 years, Players would be very willing to play here. Hell, they go to Detroit and that is a pretty crappy city.
Steve: Sure, there are places that many players would prefer to live rather than Edmonton, but I don't think that the city is the problem, at least in my opinion. I think that if we resolve the problems I outlined above you'll see much less discussion of the city of Edmonton being the problem.
ReplyDeleteThe Other John: Traktor is joking. He's playing off a Lowe quote from a few years ago that if MacT were fired he'd have a new job in a New York second.
ReplyDeleteYou know why I think the City is overplayed, mostly by Oilers management after the fact?
ReplyDeleteCalgary is just down the road and doesn't seem to have any problem attracting free agents (within reason). At the very least, they can re-sign players. Souray hit the nail on the head and people still wonder what the problem might be. The team is run by morons.
They'll keep ragging on the city as long as Edmontonians keep having an inferiority complex.
ReplyDeleteWow, Chimera's first all-time playoff goal. Good for you, Jason.
ReplyDeleteHabs losing game 4. As for the Oilers brass mentioning the city as being a reason free agents stay way, that was of course a ridiculous comment.
ReplyDeleteJust behind that however, was Tambellini's stunning assertion that he'll be moving heaven and earth to get rid of these bad people, send them away to other towns.
Nice job increasing the trade value there, Steve. :-)
The other John said...
ReplyDeleteAs a lifelong Oiler fan I am delighted to hear that because in the cap world there is NO ONE in hockey worse. No one.
You mean worse than the guy who signed Dipietro? Lecavalier? Regehr? Rolston? Blake? Did the Chicago deals? etc, etc.
Admittedly some of those GMs don't have jobs right now, but it's kind of like the economy... everyone thought the US dollar would go tits up first, but that's because that's the devil we know.
And that's not to say we shouldn't expect better, but it doesn't seem like most NHL GMs have a clue about how to manage the cap and deflation has caught most of them with their pants down ("you can't tell who's swimming naked till the tide goes out"--Buffet).
Admittedly some of those GMs don't have jobs right now
ReplyDeleteThat's kind of what we're gunning for, as a best case scenario in Edmonton.
;)
Well, he did lose his GM job. Before MacT lost his, and KP his. (MacT has been a delight on the TSN panel btw).
ReplyDeleteMiss your blog, mike.
are you suggesting media pepper him with questions about the new area plan at every possible opportunity?
ReplyDeletebecause who knows - given enough opportunities he might slip up ...
I suspect Lowe would be very similar to my daughter's talking Elmo doll.
I wouldn't matter how hard you squeezed him, he'd have the same 3 stock answers.
If all things are equal, than the location of the city comes into play but winning and $$$$$ almost always trump everything else when a free agent is picking a new locale. The Red Wings and the Tigers are able to get top players but the Pistons and the Lions have to overpay and beg just to get shitty players. The Penguins and the Steelers get whomever they set their sights on but the Pirates are stocked with guys who weren't all that good at Triple A ball. Detroit and Pittsburgh don't show up on a lot of travel guides but the Wings, Tigers, Penguins and Steelers are perennial winners and the Piston, Lions and Pirates are all 2nd division squads. If the Oiler's start winning again (and firing KP was a step in the right direction), landing important players will stop being a problem in Edmonton.
ReplyDeletePboy,
ReplyDeleteGreat post.
Hey, everyone! Looks like the Oilers are rolling along smoothly:
ReplyDeletehttp://thepipelineshow.blogspot.com/2010/04/prendergast-fired-oilers-reach-new-low.html
Oh. my. God.
Mike Grier just ran out of steam during a Sabre's PK in double OT and cost his team the game. Satan took a nice pass from Ryder and slid the winner behind Miller for the W. Ex Oilers all over this play.
ReplyDeleteKevin Prendergast lasted longer than MacT and Lowe.
ReplyDelete(Okay, Lowe may still have a pulse, but I doubt he has the final call anymore after this season.)
Tambellini is entitled to his own guys, if you are going to blame him moving forward.
I think I'm getting punch drunk from commenting on this so many times but, seriously, I wonder how KLowe can look himself in the eye when he's shaving in the morning??? I wonder how he can cash his paycheque every month, and I'm sure it's a good one, without having the slightest bit of guilt. The man is pathetic. This whole organization is fucking pathetic. It doesn't need to be that way.
ReplyDeleteWow, this whole KP thing is brutal. What a gong show.
ReplyDeleteClarken: Yeah i guess he should feel bad, just because his job matters to other people than his boss.
ReplyDeleteLots of people work like shit, and i bet there's a good bunch of them here. I don't think anyone has a problem waking up in the morning tough.
LT: Well that's not really the classiest act they could put up.
Do you think it's the kind of events that can scare off good managers? (Not just GM the whole staff)
LT: As much as I respect Guy Flaming's work and commentary, that column he posted was a tough read. It was like reading someone else's long lost love letter.
ReplyDeleteKP seems like a nice enough person, but its not like its the first time someone has been fired. I just hope that for the first time in his tenure here, Tambo actually has a plan for this offseason. And if he actually does, I have no problem with him wanting to bring in his own people who think like he does.
I wonder how KLowe can look himself in the eye when he's shaving in the morning??
ReplyDeleteHe holds up his 6 Stanley Cup rings next to his face?
He remembers he has millions of dollars?
Oh, and when shaving, look at the part of face your shaving. Don't stare yourself directly in the eye. Just a tip. :)
kris: You make KLowe sound like Tom Cruise's character in Tropic Thunder. I don't think its that bad.
ReplyDeleteDKatz on the other hand...
In terms of Kevin Lowe, I asked Matty and Barnes on the Urinal's web chat the other day who has final authorization on moves. They said that Lowe oversaw the hockey department but I kept asking what if Tambi wanted something different than Lowe. The comment that I got back from both Matty and Barnes was "if push comes to shove, Tambi gets to make the call." In a sense that is reassuring. But then what is Lowe's role within the team if his subordinate (Tambi) has the power to overrule? I suppose it is possible this will change in the future but I doubt it will happen in the next year or two.
ReplyDeleteThoughts?
Lowe's role is selling club seats in the new arena to rich old men who were young in the glory days.
ReplyDeleteI really hope the release was an error by a subordinate of Tambellini's.
ReplyDeleteIts easy to see how it could get out early.
If not, well then, shit.
I've never burned anyone when showing them the door, the door is enough of a burn.
Mind you, I don't think Tambellini has a lot of experience hiring and firing. Its a shitty thing that you have to do, and easy to fuck up.
Somehow I'm thinking Mackinnon tripped on this little nugget. Probably called the Oiler offices asking KP, looking to do an article on the upcoming draft and prospects, and got some fresh news.
ReplyDeleteMacKinnon isn't exactly known for his investigative journalism.
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ReplyDeleteWoodguy:
ReplyDeleteI don't find Tencer's theory to be implausible.
That said, presumably it was someone in the org that told MacKinnon, assuming Prendergast had yet to tell anyone.
Yeah, Tencer saying MacKinnon leaked, Oilers needed to respond.
ReplyDeleteI'm sort of surprised this took so long. After listening to Tambellini's end-of-year rant the other day, I was sure that KP was going the same or the next day. He spent the first ten minutes talking about change in the organization, the need for development from within and the failures in this area. "Has it been uncomfortable for people in the organization? Yes it has!" That had to be fun for KP to hear. It looked like Tambo was laying a lot of blame in KP's corner though with his nervous manner that could have been just spreading too much emphasis on one of his talking points for the big interview. Sort of like spreading bile too thick on one side of a poison sandwich.
ReplyDeleteIt does make sense that Tambo have his guy in that spot. I just hope he is good and not just Tambo's guy.
If I get fired, I will pick up the phone and call my wife - its not like we are reliant on the Pony Express.
ReplyDeleteKeeping radio silence for 4 days on his firing was likely a little unrealistic. I imagine it leaked and the Oilers decided to announce it so as to avoid uncertainty.
Flaming has ignored the fact the Oilers have showed tremendous loyalty to KP.
Long overdue move. Should have been pushed out the door with Barry Fraser.
Classless organization.
ReplyDeleteIn a side note, the Oilers raised season ticket capacity by 500 today
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/Oilers+raise+season+ticket/2934592/story.html
Probably realized guaranteed income is better than the alternative of no one buying tickets when they're out of the playoffs early on.
Probably realized guaranteed income is better than the alternative of no one buying tickets when they're out of the playoffs early on.
ReplyDeleteOr that they're not going to sell 3000 minipacks next year.
I laughed when I saw that the Oilers had raised their allotment for season tickets. My assumption was since the team was having trouble attracting people to actually show up to games later in the season, this was the only way they could continue that fine sellout tradition. This way, they have to rely even less on a walk up crowd to buy game day tickets.
ReplyDeleteIf I get fired, I will pick up the phone and call my wife - its not like we are reliant on the Pony Express. Keeping radio silence for 4 days on his firing was likely a little unrealistic. I imagine it leaked and the Oilers decided to announce it so as to avoid uncertainty.
ReplyDeleteThat seems most likely, Guy's write up doesn't indicate that he got back to KP after the Oilers announced it publicly, so he is essentially speculating that the Oilers broke the trust.
I'm sure Kevin talked to his wife by phone. Even he can't screw that up.
ReplyDeleteIt's pro hockey. You lose your humanity when you sign the contract. You're hired to be fired.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good start. A sacking a day until draft day would be even better.
Who's next? J.F. Jacques.
Jesus, why would it take the man the better part of a week to muster up the nerve to tell his family he's been canned? I can dump on this org for a lot of things, but announcing that a high ranking member of the management team has been let go within 24 hours of it transpiring instead of a week isn't one of them.
ReplyDeleteHaha, man -- thanks for that Tencer link. It's wildly amusing that Tencer is saying that McKinnon "leaked" the news. I see that MC79 caught this one, correctly pointing out to Tencer that reporters don't "leak" the news, they "report" it.
ReplyDeleteI could just imagine the look on Tencer's face when he read that one.
If KP's family was in Mexico it cam still be a beast to make contact down there
ReplyDeleteNot sure with communications gaffes that the Oilers routinely make, why we would think they would handle this any better. Truly the gang that can't shoot straight
Typical Oilers mismanagement. They can't even fire anyone properly.
ReplyDeleteCouple of thoughts:
ReplyDelete1. KP should have known he was getting canned the minute the season ended in Springfield. He would have been given the "last chance" speech last year after their terrible showing then. And that "last chance" would have been in respect of his long tenure. No way did KP not know it was coming.
2. Multi-million dollar organizations can't just fire someone one day and wait 4 days before announcing it. Sorry, but to expect them to is a sign of bush-league thinking. I can see how the posts would have been if that happened: how "secretive" the organization was and how Tambo was "Mr. Dithers."
3. The firing was a good step in the right direction. Rob Daum is safe, but I hope at least one more of the management team is shown the door. (I'm looking at you, Rick Olczyk.)
Speeds,
ReplyDeleteThat sounds about right.
It was a while coming, the development system has been one of the biggest repeated failing of this organization for years.
Guy's post is full of emotion, and it seeems like KP is a friend, but its easy to see what happened here without calling out the Oilers organization.
Milquetoast won't be happy that his organization leaked this, which forced the quick 2 sentence press release.
I wonder if Stauffer is going to put his hand up for the job, seems like his dream job and staff media have slid into management in other organizations in the NHL.
I think we probably need to wait for all of the facts. Just because the Oilers have a history of major communication gaffes doesn't mean they got this wrong.
ReplyDeleteIt just makes it more likely, and most certainly makes us immediately suspicious. I don't think people can blame Oilers fans for assuming the Oilers screwed up here based on all kinds of past events.
LT,
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
Given what we have lived through with this organization, assuming the worst is SOP, and we have usually been right.
Woodguy, I don't know how you can consider the development system to be the biggest repeated failing.
ReplyDeleteNot only has there been little to work with down there, but when there is something it either gets hurt or gets called up because someone is hurt.
"What? I didn't mean for you to fire just the assistant..."
ReplyDeletedb,
ReplyDeleteThis year was a disaster for the farm due to all the injuries in the NHL, no question.
To the question of development, how many Oilers are currently under contract for next (or the Oiler hold their RFA rights) who actually spent time developing in the Oiler's system?
By my count you have:
Horcoff
Pouliot
Stortini
Potulny
Chorney
Peckham
JDD
DD
Not an impressive list.
If you want to break it down further, actual NHL players developed by the Oilers:
Horcoff
Pouliot (maybe)
Stortini (probably, given his role)
You can place some blame on the NHL club for not letting guys like Gagner, Cogliano etc actually develop in the system, but they system didn't have any players to beat them out of those spots at TC when they were raw rookies.
Kinda chicken and egg debate, but the system hasn't produced any REAL NHL players at a rate to be considered a success.
(note: Oilers had Horcoff, Reasoner, Pouliot, Stoll and Brodziak at the camp when Gagner made the team... not that there was a glaring hole that he filled)
I missed JFFJ in my list, but he is far from a REAL NHL PLAYER.
ReplyDeleteThe farm system really played no role in developing Horcoff. Horcoff was down there for less than half a season. It was merely confirmational that he was ready for the NHL
ReplyDeleteIf you read The Pipeline blog, Guy has put up an addendum.
ReplyDeleteHe speculates that the Journal's McKinnon released the news first which prompted the Oilers to make a statement before they planned to.
Woodguy, if you are limiting it to that, there's a lot of teams who have that same issue.
ReplyDeleteLook at Vancouver for a minute:
Kesler
Rypien
Burrows
Raymond
Hansen
Grabner
Bieksa
Not a long list of names here either. Calgary is pretty similar.
I think if you want to be fair, you also have to include not just guys who are limited to being under contract for next year and RFA's, but guys who played this year. What about guys who were traded away?
Ryan Whitney is on the team because the Oilers traded 2 guys they developed (Stoll & Greene) to get Lubo.
Brule is on the team because they traded a guy they developed in Torres.
The list goes on.
Fleming thinks this org has long been considered to have been in a class all it's own - and I know I'm parphrasing here.
ReplyDeletebut Jesus Christ Fleming can't be that clueless himself can he?
the oil have been hateful and stupid for a long time and who's more petty than Kevin Lowe?
Well outside of Brian Burke, I mean.