I suppose I deserved that.

I wrote a blog yesterday detailing how the Oilers looked like they were finally coming out of their slump and were back on a path of success. The team responded by playing their worst game of the season, looking utterly hapless against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

First off I want to talk about who scored for Columbus.
- Adam Fantilli, a #3 pick from 2023 in his 2nd NHL season.
- Cole Sillinger, a #12 pick from 2021 in his 4th season
- Mikael Pyyhtia scored his first NHL goal, a 4th round pick from 2020
- Kirill Marchenko had a couple assists, a 2nd round pick from 2018 and Yegor Chinakhov, drafted #21 overall in 2020 had an assist too

I recognize the Blue Jackets have been a lottery team over the past 6+ years and are at a very different stage of their NHL journey but last night I saw a team of young, talented, and eager players run circles around a veteran team that couldn't have looked less interested to be there. They played with pace, they generated on the rush and the Oilers looked completely baffled at how to deal with them.

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It's time to talk about Philip Broberg. It was the right call to not match the offer sheet for him. The organization couldn't risk paying an untested defenseman 4.5+ million when they weren't certain on if he could be a top 4 NHL player... the issue is that the team walked the player to RFA status where he could be offer sheeted, and still had no clue what he was.

The Ken Holland masterclass of prospect development was to "overripen" players in the AHL. His assumption was playing guys in the AHL until they were 23+ years old would mean they would be ready to then step into the NHL as full time players. The obvious failure of that strategy is that the AHL and NHL are two different entities and there is still a learning curve for these players once they come to the NHL.

Back in 2022, Dylan Holloway had a great pre-season, he was finding chemistry with Leon Draisaitl and scored a hat-trick. He started the season on Leon Draisaitl's line for his first NHL game. On his first shift, he got over excited, made a bad turnover which directly lead to a goal against. He was immediately taken off Draisaitl's wing. The next game he was on the third line. By game 12 he was centering the 4th line.

In the playoffs last season, as the team was trying to find a partner for Darnell Nurse, they eventually turned to Philip Broberg, who ended up playing very well despite having to play his off-side... why wasn't Darnell Nurse, the veteran making 9.25 million and wearing a letter for this team called upon to taking the tougher assignment?

For years under Ken Holland, it was the mindset of this organization that young players need to "earn" their spot and they cannot make mistakes or they will be demoted or have their minutes reduced. Meanwhile veteran players like Nurse could miss assignments, take stupid penalties and play poorly with absolutely no consequence.

At no point in Broberg's time with the Oilers did they give the player, even a short, consistent, look as a top 4 left side defenseman, or even a regular on the left side on the third pairing. In the eyes of the Oilers organization, if he made a mistake in a game, it meant that he was not ready and instead of putting him right back in the same spot in the next game to give him a chance to learn and grow, they pulled the shoot and sent him back to the AHL or the pressbox.

Now the St. Louis Blues are reaping the rewards and are playing a young player in the position he was drafted to be and are seeing success.

Back to the Blue Jackets, I admittedly do not watch a ton of Blue Jackets games but I see a young group of players that are starting to come into their own. That is happening not because every time Cole Sillinger or Yegor Chinakhov made a mistake they were benched, but because the team kept working with them and let them learn how to be legit NHLers. Maybe Stan Bowman, JJ, and the Oilers organization will learn that if Edmonton is embarrassed by other young talented teams a few more times.

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Oh, also Connor McDavid is injured. Right now the injury is not believed to be serious but he will at the very least miss the game on Thursday against the Predators. Perhaps we will see Noah Philp, who deserved to be on this roster after his own pre-season success get into his first NHL game.

Thanks for reading.

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