If Gary Bettman Cares As Much About The NHL As He Says He Does, He'll Finally Force The Oilers To Trade Connor McDavid
Bruce Bennett. Getty Images.Gary Gary Gary. What are we gonna do about this, buddy?
It's bizarre the lengths that Gary Bettman will go to make the NHL work in Arizona even though it's been proven for years and years and years that there's no long term hope for the Coyotes. It's bizarre that Gary Bettman would alienate himself from the top players in the world by once again not allowing NHL players to compete in the Olympics because the schedule has already been fucked enough by COVID and doesn't want any games to be played while all the best players are over in China. He has spent so much time and so much effort into making hockey work in Arizona and keeping NHL players out of the Olympics, all in the name of "growing the game"?
No, Gary. Enough is enough. If you care about growing the game as much as you say you do, then you'll realize the biggest issue in hockey right now. It's not the 'Yotes. It's not the Olympics. It's the fact that the best hockey player on the planet right now is wasting away his career on a dog shit team which has only been able to win 7 playoff games in the 7 years they've had McDavid. Not 7 playoff series. Just 7 playoff games. And who knows if the Oilers will even have a chance to win another playoff game this year with how pathetic this team has been since the start of November.
Just 2 regulation wins in their past 12 games. They've gone from the top of the league standings to 4th in their division. There's a very strong argument that Mikko Koskinen is the worst goalie in the league. And it turns out that it's hard to win games when you're not getting at least 2 points per night out of McDavid and Draisaitl. There's no hope for the Oilers outside of blowing the whole thing up and starting over again. Connor McDavid is 24 now. He doesn't exactly have time to go through another rebuild and still have time left in his prime to work with when it's over. The best hockey player on the planet right now is stuck in Canada playing for an organization who can't even tie their own skates, and Gary Bettman is too focused on the Coyotes and ruining the Olympics.
You want to save the league? You want to be able to market the shit out of Connor McDavid throughout the playoffs when you'll get people who don't typically watch hockey during the regular season to tune in? You want to actually grow the game? You need to get Connor McDavid out of Edmonton and you need to do it quickly. Obviously McDavid's $12.5M cap hit is a pretty tough contract to move. But if you want a good hockey deal that works out money wise, you send McDavid to the Flyers for James van Riemsdyk ($7M) and Rasmus Ristolainen ($5.4M). Edmonton clearly needs help to get tougher defensively, and JvR would have plenty of success playing on a line with Draisaitl. That deal almost makes too much sense. Let's get it done by lunch today, Gary.