Regarding the Brad Marchand thing, I hate to say it but his point has some merit to it. I disagree with him saying that no one would take a pay cut or wants to play hockey here. There are a lot of players from Alberta and Canada in general who have no problem with the cold and love to play in hockey cities, they feel at home here, and now that we have a good team with a good leadership group we are having less trouble attracting players to our city because the main things players want to do is win, but it is still a problem.
If someone offered you a job on the Tampa Bay Lightning, a better team, better weather, Florida beaches, no state tax and also no ultra aggressive media trying to get a headline out of you vs the Edmonton Oilers, where would you choose to play? Not to mention these guys have wives and families and as we've seen in the past some would rather live in California than Edmonton.
It is a sad truth that Edmonton does have a bad reputation, if you take a look at our current 22 man roster you have 10 players we drafted, 5 players acquired through trade where they had no say in the matter (no clauses attached to their contracts), 1 outcast (Evander Kane) who despite being an excellent hockey player came to Edmonton for $2 million last year because practically no one else showed interest, and the remaining 6 were Free Agent signings. Of those 6, 4 had recently played on Canadian teams so they were used to the taxes and media etc, and the other 2 are depth forwards just searching for a job. Around the league it is a fact that a lot of No Trade Clauses include the Edmonton Oilers on them, us and Winnipeg are the 2 most commonly found on such clauses. Often these clauses contain all 7 Canadian teams, or all 7 Canadian teams except Toronto, or others that have Edmonton, Calgary. Winnipeg, Columbus etc. Also look no further than Andrei Kuzmenko coming over as a Free Agent from Russia looking to sign a league minimum contract to enter the NHL, his options were narrowed down to Edmonton and Vancouver, we are the much better contending team out of the 2 who could promise him ice time with the best player in the world, and after one look at each city he signed in Vancouver.
As mentioned above once people/players actually come to Edmonton they find it to be a perfectly fine city. The crime is over-exaggerated, we all know the troubles with the core but the issues are no different than many large North American cities, our hockey facilities are world class, and the city loves the team to death. There are of course people who don't like the weather but there are some who love it, recently acquired Mattias Ekholm's wife is from northern Sweden and she already loves the place, plans to spend even her summer here. Evander Kane felt more welcomed in Edmonton than anywhere else in his career and took a pay cut to stay and help the team win. Brett Kulak (From Edmonton) resigned this offseason and Klim Kostin who has become a fan favourite in the city is all smiles and playing the best hockey of his life, already suggesting he would like to stay.
Marchand's main point by the way was also regarding the all star game, where I do agree with him. He said that if the all star game were in Edmonton that a lot of players would try to skip it, I don't think that would actually happen but the all star break is a time to let players relax before the second more taxing half of the season, why make them and their families spend it in Edmonton in February. In my opinion the location of the all star game should be static like it is in some other sports. Put it in Vegas every year, all the guys love it and the Golden Knights do an excellent job with presentation. Or maybe even do something like put it in a European city and try to grow the game outside of North America.
I think we are more suited for hosting a draft, which occurs in June and everyone is more focused on hockey and not vacation.
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