Colorado Avalanche: Comparison with the Edmonton Oilers

The Colorado Avalanche and Edmonton Oilers are both teams with talented rosters that still can’t win consistently. The two teams’ problems are very similar.

The Colorado Avalanche are not living up to expectations. They seem to have a talented core of players, but they just kind find their winning ways. The team has only made the playoffs once in the last six season.

The Edmonton Oilers are in a similar predicament — you could even say worse. In the past six years Edmonton has selected within the top three in the NHL draft five times — four of those picks were first overall:

Taylor Hall (2010)
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (2011)
Nail Yakupov (2012)
Connor McDavid (2015)

Leon Draisaitl went third-overall in the 2014 draft.

That is some serious talent. However, despite that talented core, the Edmonton Oilers haven’t made the playoffs in ten years. Like I said, they’re even worse off than the Colorado Avalanche.

The parallel between the two teams intrigues me — so much so that I contacted Sammi Silber, editor of Oil on Whyte, about the issue with her team in hopes of learning something about the state of the Colorado Avalanche.

I first asked Sammi specifically about how the talent on her team hasn’t translated into winning and what she thought the problems was. Here’s her answer:

“The problem is simple. The team has had management struggles over the years and has put the weight of the team on the shoulders of prospects and draft picks who face so much pressure that they simply collapse. Not to mention, the Oilers have been drafting forwards and that has left them with no strong defensemen.”

That’s an interesting perspective. Of those players listed above, Taylor Hall is the veteran at 24 years old. That said, in looking at the Oilers’ roster, while it’s true the lion’s share of players are in their 20s, some of them are mid- to late-20s. There are also some true veterans, such as 37-year-old Andrew Ference and 34-year-old Matt Hendricks.

Comparing that to the Colorado Avalanche, our core is young, but not absurdly so:

Erik Johnson (28)
Semyon Varlamov (28)
Matt Duchene (25)
Tyson Barrie (24)
Gabriel Landeskog (23)
Nathan MacKinnon (20)

That’s not a bad range, especially once you add veterans such as Francois Beauchemin (35), Cody McLeod (31) and the venerable Jarome Iginla (38).

It’s true that head coach Patrick Roy has stated that the core players need to carry the team. However, that’s the expectation of star players. I don’t think they’re collapsing under the pressure.

Concerning defensemen, Colorado hasn’t been much better at drafting them than Edmonton — Tyson Barrie notwithstanding. But the team has done a good job of acquiring defensemen via trade and free agency.

I asked a follow-up question. One of my themes for this off-season is that I think the Colorado Avalanche core is comprised of talented losers. I don’t mean them any disrespect. I just think it’s been OK for them to lose for so long that they have trouble finding it in them to win consistently. That’s what leads to those critical mental errors — a lack of focus.

Sammi was a little kinder:

“I think these players want to win, but they can’t because of the mentality and lack of other guys and assets on the roster. I would say some core players need to go, but at the same time, there are plenty of players that should stay because of their talent and positive mentality.”

I mean, she’d kind of saying the same thing, just with less sting.

I next asked Sammi what the Oilers needed to change in order to become more successful. Here’s her answer:

“I think there need to be some trades and signings by Peter Chiarelli this off-season. Now that he’s spent a year with the team, he knows what pieces to move and how to make it better.”

The Colorado Avalanche face a similar off-season. Unfortunately, because of some bad drafting and trading — mostly predating Joe Sakic and Patrick Roy, though 2014 was a stinker — the coffers are bare for the team beyond the talented core.

In order to see success next season, the Avalanche are going to have to acquire one more top-six forward. They need to sign Tyson Barrie and prepare Nikita Zadorov and Chris Bigras to take over a bigger role. They also need a solid bottom-pairing defenseman.

Additionally, the Colorado Avalanche also need to replenish the prospect pool.

To that end, I asked Sammi what a blockbuster trade would look like between our two teams. We had a pretty good time playing armchair GMs. Here’s the results of our negotiations:

Finally, I pointed out that the Edmonton Oilers have a proud history. The team won the Stanley Cup four out of five times from 1984 to 1988 and again in 1990. Of course, except for 1990, those were the Wayne Gretzky years, but that just points out that Edmonton once had The Great One.

With that in mind, I asked Sammi about the fanbase’s perception of the current roster’s “losing ways.” Here’s her answer:

“Oil Country is incredibly positive and proud. I couldn’t be more fortunate to be covering this team with this fanbase. These fans stand by their team and remember the good times, and root for the team during the ups and downs. They are loyal.”

Now, let me preface my response by saying I am a very proud member of Avs Nation/Avs Fam or any other name you want to give the Colorado Avalanche fanbase. However, as I said to Sammi, our fanbase is fractious as hell.

Next: Avs Should Seek Oliers' #4 Pick

We’re just so passionate about the only team besides the Denver Broncos that’s ever had any real success. That leads to our bickering about who should go, who should captain, who should coach, etc. However, we all have one thing in common — we’re ultra-loyal to our Colorado Avalanche.

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