Dave Hodge: Perhaps you heard, the Edmonton Oilers won the right to draft Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel will be welcomed in Buffalo…
But first, it was my intention to talk about the games on the ice. But I’m guessing we ought to start with the game of luck. Or, your choice, Bruce…
Bruce Arthur: We’re going to talk about Connor McDavid and Edmonton. It had to be Edmonton. Here’s the thing. Buffalo did everything right, tanking, and Arizona did everything right, tanking. But you’re playing on Edmonton’s turf. This is their game. Life isn’t fair. I’m not even mad that he’s not coming to Toronto, I’m happy he’s not going to Arizona, but this franchise is now being rewarded for the old-fashioned kind of tanking — the incompetence sort of tanking. This franchise has tried to pull itself out of a morass that has been going on now since 2007, and now Daryl Katz is going to be rewarded, and Kevin Lowe is going to be rewarded, and now the Edmonton Oilers are going to have Connor McDavid’s career to play with. This is not good. No offence to Edmonton Oilers fans by the way, good for them, I hope you’re happy. History says you might not be.
Hodge: You’re a little more demonstrative than Connor McDavid was, whose face showed us what, Michael?
Michael Farber: Maybe his pet was critically ill. [Laughter] He just looked so unhappy, he couldn’t even fake being happy about the Oilers. Because now he is the next Wayne Gretzky. Forget Sidney Crosby, he’s now the next Wayne Gretzky, because the comparisons are obvious and they are odious. It is one more thing to lump on his shoulders.
Hodge: Two numbers away. [Sweater #97 vs. #99]
Steve Simmons: There is a reason that he looked unhappy, it’s because he was unhappy. He did the stiff upper lip, “I’m not going to say anything and I’m not going to come out and say what’s on my mind”. This isn’t where Connor McDavid wanted to be drafted to. One of the people he holds dearest in the world, Sherry Bassin, the general manager/owner of the Erie Otters, is being sued by Daryl Katz, owner of the Edmonton Oilers. Don’t you think that was on his mind last night.
Hodge: He was playing the odds, he clearly wanted to be a Buffalo Sabre, we would have seen a different look on McDavid’s face if the odds had held up. But they didn’t. And the Buffalo Sabres because of that get Jack Eichel, how happy or unhappy are they?
Arthur: Tim Murray, you just got Jack Eichel, American-born potential superstar. This is great, this is what you’ve been waiting for. You had a hundred percent chance at #1 or #2, only had a 20% chance at #1, and Tim Murray came out … saying “I’m disappointed for our fans” and “I’m disappointed in the process”, this is the last year you had this much of a guarantee. And you got what you paid for. You’ve destroyed this team on purpose — good job! — and you got Jack Eichel and you managed to look disappointed. I don’t think Jack Eichel wanted to go to Edmonton either, but I don’t know how much Jack Eichel wants to go to Buffalo this morning.
Hodge: Is there any result that would have had all of us and a whole lot of other people saying hurray?
Farber: I would have been cheering for Boston and L.A. because I hate the current system, and until you remove all incentives I’m going to hate the current system. It’s not a good thing for the NHL because Edmonton on a global scale remains a smaller Canadian market outside the mainstream of the league. I don’t think it’s good for a man named Todd Nelson, who is the coach for the moment of the Oilers, and he didn’t exactly get a ringing endorsement from Craig MacTavish who said “we’ll have to see whether he is the coach that is going to go forward”. Unless I’m mistaken, McDavid doesn’t play goal [laughter], he doesn’t play defence. There are lots of questions about the Oilers that remain to be answered.
Hodge: The real loser is Arizona, the team that had the second best chance at one or the other and didn’t get either. Alright, let’s get on to the ice. There are fans in five Canadian cities who say, “yeah, Edmonton’s happy, but we’re playing hockey, the Oilers are not”
