Thursday, February 19, 2009

Oilers deadline possibilities

With the Montreal Canadiens trading for Mathieu Schneider this week the trading season has kicked off and the Edmonton Oilers are in the interesting position of being one of those bubble teams that will have to decide whether to be a buyer, a seller or a hybrid of both. If I was Steve Tambellini, or the man who may very well be pulling the puppet strings Kevin Lowe, I would attempt to be the latter. However that’s not really their style as the Oilers usually go all in with one strategy. Obviously the most talked about player on the Oilers roster the last few months when it comes to being traded has been Erik Cole. The power forward who will be UFA on July first was acquired this past summer for Joni Pitkanen and has turned out to be the major return for Chris Pronger if you follow the trail(Lupul to Pitkanen to Cole) but hasn’t really fit in playing with the Copper and Blue. Some believe that the Oilers want to re-sign Cole while some believe that they don’t. However I really don’t get the impression that Cole wants to stay. Bob McKenzie of TSN claims that the Oilers have some interest in mr.enigma Alex Kovalev with Cole and a draft pick or prospect going Montreal’s way. I think both players would do better with a change of scenery and Kovy could be the winger Ales Hemsky has been looking for his whole career. If the Oil could find any takers for Dustin Penner or Shaun Horcoff and their massively overinflated KLowe contracts they’d be all over that. The Oilers will be looking for some defensive depth and of course a winger to play with Ales Hemsky at the deadline. Nik Antropov might be a guy the Oilers look at to ride shotgun with Hemsky or if they’re looking to make a big splash Olli Jokinen is apparently available for the right price so a package headlined by Horcoff and a 1rst round pick might do it. Defensemen like Derrick Morris and Niclas Havelid would be the type of depth dmen the Oil would be looking at, nothing big. And please Oiler fan, even though TSN is reporting that Ryan Smyth is available (http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=267766&lid=sublink01&lpos=headlines_main) please don’t scream about wanting him back. He’s not even close to the player he was, and even then he was a glorified second line winger.

5 comments:

  1. So forget Oiler trade possibilities. What's this I hear about the glorious Habs going down in flames with Renee Peron's upcoming disclosure on Sunday about gang activity by the Habs? - too many parties I am afraid.

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  2. Ha ha ha a little bit overblown if I do say so myself. Plus, simply knowing a criminal was nothing compared to what the 80's Oilers got up to in their hayday. Messier, Anderson, Fuhr, Lowe, etc. could put those Habs kids to shame when it comes to partying to much.

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  3. Haha, I don't know if the Oil could get their hands on Antropov now that Burke's in Toronto. He'd be nice to have though. If we could get rid of Horcoff for something more then a bag of pucks I'd also be pretty damn happy. And I think Cole will probably be gone by next season anyway so we might as well get something for him now even if he just makes a Horcoff/Penner trade a bit sweeter for the other team.

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  4. Whoever that vicious Hab hater is (Walleye), it's clear he's forgotten the good old days in the oiler's locker room when coke was not a refreshing drink but rather a performance enhancer. Should all those cup wins of the eighties have an * beside them.

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  5. Now I wouldn't go that far Match. I doubt that Zach Stortini could score 50 goals in 39 games just by being on coke alone. There was still a degree of skill there. Then again, maybe Sather found a kick ass way to motivate his team and that would explain why he hasn't had much success since!

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