Edmonton Oilers CEO Bob Nicholson spent a lot of time telling the fans why they should believe in yet another new era of Oilers hockey. They did it with Kevin Lowe and Steve Tambellini and Craig MacTavish and then Peter Chiarelli.
But it isn’t the fans who they need to convince. That ticket base is pretty solid and they have the best player in the world to sell to their fans.
And the questions yesterday were about how are you going to fix it, what would you tell the fans, but there was only one question I wanted to hear.
How are you going to convince the best player in the world, Connor McDavid, that there is a Stanley Cup on the horizon when you’ve only made the playoffs once in his first four seasons?
Because that is the real question that should worry Oilers fans. McDavid must be getting tired of talking for a locker room that isn’t anywhere close, while he’s the only reason they are ever in the games.
So for the next GM: Don’t work for the fans. Work for McDavid, because you’ll lose him way faster than you’ll lose the fans.