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Monday, January 20, 2014

Daryl Katz Writes Letter To Oilers Fans

To Oilers Fans Everywhere:

We all thought this was going to be the year the Oilers turned the corner. Obviously, that hasn’t happened, and it hurts. It’s frustrating – for all of us. For our fans, for our players and staff, and for everyone in our community who shares a common bond around a game, a team and a city that we love.

I know this will almost certainly be the eighth consecutive year since we made the playoffs. I hate that fact as much as anyone, but the reality is that this is only year four of the rebuild that started when we drafted Taylor Hall. The good news, if you can call it that, is that other teams that committed to fundamental rebuilds went through the same kind of droughts over the same kind of time frames, or longer. That doesn’t make it fun for anyone; it just means we have to stay the course.

Yes, we hoped and expected to be better this year – there’s no question about that. But we’ve also been more active than any team I can think of in rebuilding our organization from bottom to top by supporting player development in OKC and Bakersfield, revamping our scouting organization, naming a new GM and a new coach, signing free agents like Justin Schultz, Boyd Gordon, Andrew Ference, Anton Belov and Ilya Bryzgalov, and trading for players like David Perron, and now Ben Scrivens and Matt Hendricks. And we’re not done.

But I can also tell you that we are not going to sacrifice the future by doing something short-term. Those days are over and they’re not coming back. If we’re going to rebuild, we want to do it right and we only want to do it once.

I hear a lot from fans about accountability, so let’s be clear. We are all accountable. That includes me, Kevin, Craig, Dallas, every player who wears our jersey, and every member of our staff. I know Kevin is the target of a lot of personal attacks right now, and that’s really unfortunate. Kevin is a big part of our organization, and it’s not just the Oilers that value his knowledge and perspective. He is consistently chosen, year after year, to play a leadership role with Hockey Canada. But when it comes down to it, this is Craig MacTavish’s team. He is the GM. He makes the calls, and he is accountable for building a team that can compete for the Stanley Cup — year in and year out for years to come.
That’s our vision. We are committed to it — and we’re confident that we are on the right track.
Our fans have been incredibly patient and supportive. At the same time, we know there’s a lot of frustration and we are asking you to hang in there while we fight through this and put the next few pieces of the team in place.

I’ll tell you this, despite everything, we all wear our Oilers colours with the same pride now as we ever have, and as we will when we’re back on top. We hope you’ll do the same.
We value our fans, we hear you, and we appreciate your support.

Daryl Katz

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

It could have been worse. It could have said he was moving the team to Houston or Seattle.

Anonymous said...

Lowe is the common denominator between the old regime and the Katz regime. He has been terrible in his position. He's probably the guy who didn't want St. Louis on Olympic team. CMON DARYL!!!

75flyersbestteamever said...

Sure sounds like Kevin had stood over Daryl's shoulder while he typed this, absolving Lowe and now saying its MacT's mess...
...doesn't this say something that whether you cheer for the Leafs, Habs, Ducks, or I am even hearing firsthand radio guys in Calgary,..CALGARY!! home of their main rival, pleading for the circus in Oilerville to end, they see the joke has gone too far.
..this should serve as warning to any GM debating whether to strip it down and re-build to not follow this model. Try winning every year and you won't have to write letters of apology.

Anonymous said...

Mitch. I think the oilers need to clean house with the Alumni. Look at the bruins when Sinden passed the reigns to Mike O'Connell. He traded JOE THORNTON for 3 average players. Once Chiarelli got there things changed.

I think they need to keep (MAYBE) Kevin Lowe and go out and find a NON oiler GM who has TOTAL control.

If the Oilers worked as hard as the Flames, they'd be in first place in their division.


Russ from Saskatoon

Anonymous said...

Scruff, I think the players tuned out Eakins a long time ago and I don't think he was the right guy for the job. If they wanted to hire an AHL coach then why not take their own guy from OKC who previously coached a bunch of these guys? I also question their chance of success with Lowe and Mac T at the helm. Definitely a mess in Oilerland for sure.

Anonymous said...

Lowe has to go.