Judging by the season that Hall, Eberle, RNH and Gagner have had, he does have elite offensive talent on the team. Smyth and Jones played extremely well and been productive. And with that offensive talent on the team, he gets slightly over 0.5 points per game, and he ranks 187th in points. As a playmaker, he currently ranks 141st in assists.

At what point do the Oilers see Hemsky for who he is, and not who they want him to be?

And while the skill infusion will continue, having to re-up these kids after giving them first line minutes when they are too young to carry the team but old enough to put up the numbers that require big money contracts is just going to make it harder to complement them with the types of players every team needs to win.

Furthermore Edmonton has historically had tons of trouble signing impact players in free agency (or even getting Oilers to re-sign at reasonable cap hits) so it’s not like they can rely on going out and signing a Brian Campbell or a Zdeno Chara or what have you.

It’s a long road ahead for the Oilers organization, and the guys they have at the helm have a considerable track record indicating that they probably won’t be able to navigate it.