Sylvanfan
12-30-2004, 12:17 PM
Rumors out of Edmonton have the Oilers trading three good AHL prospects to the Panthers in exchange for two CPHL players and a draft pick. It's rumored that last years Sergei Makarov award winner Matt Lombardi, along with Matt Stajan, and Jeff Woywitka will be leaving the snow and cold of Edmonton for the sunny South. Coming back to Edmonton are depth winger Mikael Samuellsson and defenceman Vitaly Visnevski and Montreal's second round pick in the 05 draft. Just back from a trek to the North coast of BC to visit inlaws and get a first hand look at a declining depressed fishing village West Coast style Sylvanfan offered some comments on the deal.
"Well we were looking to add one more cheap depth winger up front and Sameulsson fits that description. He can play either side and is capable of filling regular 4th line, and spot duty on the third line if injuries occur. We really didn't have any suitable call up wingers so Sameulsson does fill a need for us. Visnevski is a good young defenceman who's starting to find his way in the league. He's the best right now player in this deal and the reason it goes down. We gave up three very good young players, but it boils down to us having terrific organizational depth at centre and being able to move Lombardi for the depth winger. Woywitka is a good young prospect who we like, but Visnevski was a #5 overall pick to a #27 overall pick and has 334 NHL games under his belt to Woywitka's 0 at this point in time. Still in time Woywitka could be the better player possibly a star player we don't know yet, but Visnevski is better right now. Stajan is also a very good young player with good offensive upside. If we pick wise with the Montreal 2nd (should be somewhere between 47-57 overall pick depending on how Theodore plays) than we'll be okay in this deal long term. But if we poop the bed with that pick we lose the deal long term because all three of these guys will be good regular CPHL players in 3-4 years. Than again it didn't cost us any of our top prospects and does improve our team today as we prepare to contend for this years CPHL championship."
Of course the rumors are preliminary and the deal still needs to be ratified by CPHL officials.
"Well we were looking to add one more cheap depth winger up front and Sameulsson fits that description. He can play either side and is capable of filling regular 4th line, and spot duty on the third line if injuries occur. We really didn't have any suitable call up wingers so Sameulsson does fill a need for us. Visnevski is a good young defenceman who's starting to find his way in the league. He's the best right now player in this deal and the reason it goes down. We gave up three very good young players, but it boils down to us having terrific organizational depth at centre and being able to move Lombardi for the depth winger. Woywitka is a good young prospect who we like, but Visnevski was a #5 overall pick to a #27 overall pick and has 334 NHL games under his belt to Woywitka's 0 at this point in time. Still in time Woywitka could be the better player possibly a star player we don't know yet, but Visnevski is better right now. Stajan is also a very good young player with good offensive upside. If we pick wise with the Montreal 2nd (should be somewhere between 47-57 overall pick depending on how Theodore plays) than we'll be okay in this deal long term. But if we poop the bed with that pick we lose the deal long term because all three of these guys will be good regular CPHL players in 3-4 years. Than again it didn't cost us any of our top prospects and does improve our team today as we prepare to contend for this years CPHL championship."
Of course the rumors are preliminary and the deal still needs to be ratified by CPHL officials.