The Edmonton Oilers started the year looking pretty woeful, but a recent four-game winning streak has the outlook seeming and feeling much, much brighter. Now though, after the losses of captain and veteran defenseman Andrew Ference to a suspension and star scorer Taylor Hall with a sprained knee, some are wondering if the time is right to make a move to reinvigorate the squad.
The team may need to swap out some quality established players for more established, higher quality players, says Adam Proteau of The Hockey News.
"If you're an Oilers fan, aren't you asking yourself if the fates are conspiring against your favorite players and the larger management team owner Daryl Katz has assembled? If it's not one thing, it's another with this franchise," writes Proteau. "At some point, you have to admit it's not in the cards for you, and set out on a new course. That course can and should include some members of the current core, but as I've argued before, the changes that are made cannot be cosmetic. The landscape needs to be significantly different in a way that is visible to the naked eye from outer space. Good players must be moved out in the hope of bringing in different good players who can change things up."
Hall is Edmonton's leading scorer. He currently has six goals and 10 points in 11 games, and means very much to a team with a mediocre-at-best offense - they're currently 16th-best in the league with a 2.64 goals per game average.
Ference was given a three-game suspension by the league after his check to Zack Kassian's head, according to Sean Leahy of Yahoo! Sports. Ference is a tough grinder and minutes-eating leader.
Without these two in the lineup, Edmonton is lacking seriously in game-changing talent. Depending on the potential move, the franchise could grow stronger, or simultaneously weaker and handcuffed in the future.
"Ultimately, there's a choice Katz has here: he can make a move of real consequence - one that has a chance of haunting them down the line if it doesn't pan out - or he can be haunted by not doing anything and watching different set of fangs sink into this snakebitten unit on other nights to come."
The Oilers don't have to make a move, but doing something of consequence would show the team and the fanbase that they're serious about doing more than icing a "pretty good" product.