Oilers Relieve Duane Sutter of Duties

The Edmonton Oilers continued their spring cleaning yesterday when they showed VP of Player Personnel Duane Sutter - and key piece of the Pro Scouting setup — AND FORMER FRIGGIN’ CALGARY FRIGGIN’ FLAMES STAFFER — (!!!) - the door after an objectively poor nine-year tenure with the club.

Sutter, a former NHL player of two teams and part of the legendary Sutter family, was a good Alberta boy except for when it pertained to his job. Teflon Duane was here for the most of the Steve Tambellini era, having been hired by Mr. Dithers in 2011. He then oversaw the entirety of the Craig McTavish General Management Experience, and sat idly by watching Peter Chiarelli eviscerate the first team from on high, presumably with a glass of Bobby Nick’s Cabernet Sauvignon 2024 - aptly named because like its namesake, Bobby Nick’s wine is ahead of its time.

Here is a brief overview of some of the absolute beauties that Duane Sutter was, at least, tangentially associated with. Or, at best, a willing participant in:

Ryan O’Marra for Bryan Rodney

Tom Gilbert for Nick Schultz

Anything At All for Mike Brown

Tobi Rieder (the younger, more-than-zero-goals version) for Kale Kessy

2013 4th for Jerred Smithson

Shawn Horcoff for Phil Larsen

Ladi Smid for Roman Horak and Laurent Brossoit

Linus Omark for Imaginary Friends

Devan Dubnyk for Matt Hendricks

Teemu Hartikainen+ for Mark Fraser

Ilya Bryzgalov for Air

Nick Schultz for Air

Ales Hemsky for Dog Shit

Something for Nikita Nikitin

Sam Gagner 1.0 for Teddy Purcell

David Perron for Rob Klinkhammer

Jeff Petry for A Slap in the Face

Griffin Reinhart for A Calder Winning Star and Another Good Player Like Aho Was Available At 33 For God Sakes

Actual Assets for Eric Gryba

Boyd Gordon for Lauri Korpikoski

Justin Schultz for Dirt

Teddy Purcell for Nothing

Taylor Hall for A Lower Ceiling

Nail Yakupov for A Warm Body

Brandon Davidson for David Desharnais

Jordan Eberle for Ryan Strome

Jussi Jokinen for Mike Cammalleri

Assets for Al Montoya

Brandon Davidson for 2019 3rd

Pat Maroon for J.D. WHOdek?!

Jakub Jerabek for <REDACTED>

Ryan Strome for Ryan Spooner

Actual Stuff for Chris Wideman

Drake Caggiula+ for Brandon Manning+

Chris Wideman+ for Alex Petrovic

Cam Talbot for Anthony Stolarz

Ryan Spooner for Sam Gagner 3.4

Look at it.

Just look at it.

At a minimum, seeing one of the higher-ups go from a department that’s such an obvious organizational pain point demonstrates that Ken Holland understands, at least a little, some of the Oilers’ lingering problems.

And yet, one can’t help but feel like this still isn’t enough. Like it’s step one. Or, with MacTavish’s departure last week, step two. There are many more necks to introduce to the chopping block and less time between now and the draft than there was when you started this article. The time was now yesterday.

The Oilers still require significant restructuring at the executive level and while Duane Sutter is a start, it’s still just that - a start.