Quote:
Originally Posted by bubbsy
Wasn't one of the reasons the oilers picked draisatl over bennet, other than size, the fact that he'd likely be better positioned to move into the NHL soon?
REGARDLESS of where draisatl plays, gagner shouldn't have been their #2 Center this season. That much is clear, and good on Mactavish for finally being a guy in oiler mgmt to have the stones to do the inevitable.
they get a big winger who can play on the top line and be effective. I really thought they'd use gagner and another asset to try to get some help on D, but they did address a need.
Curious what tampa feels they have locked in for Jul1 to need the capspace. I wonder if it is niskanen, boyle, other D, or maybe a surprise and they go out and grab someone like stastny or a trade for someone out of left field like marleau, etc.
Lot's of options on how this could play out.
Also, pretty decent for the yotes. If they're smart they'll move him to the wing. All we can hope for is for gagner to just rip it up in the desert so we can continue to laugh at the oilers.
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I thought they traded for Teddy Purcell? While this guy is slightly taller than Gagner, he is actually lighter and had all of 13 hits last year (or something pathetic like that). Hardly a "big winger". As for being effective on the top line, he was so bad in TB that they had demoted him to the 4th line and were prepared to buy him out in a couple days.
This appears to be a "crap for poo" trade of two players that were drastically overpaid for what they provided. Credit to Yzerman who managed to completely unload the dead weight, get a 6th round pick, and save the cap space. Edmonton just traded one whipping boy for another. Now instead of a soft, short non-physical center who has no clue how to play defence they have a soft, taller non-physical winger who has no clue how to play defence. But I guess they did save $300k on the salary cap so there is that...
Interestingly that roughly last year at this time the entire hockey world was laughing at the contract MacT doled out to Gagner as more evidence that he had no idea what he was doing. Now, about a year later, we learn that the value of Gagner is half of a 6th round pick, if you retain some salary. There was even rumours last year that MacT had given Gagner his word that he wouldn't be traded before the NTC kicked in July 1st this year... so much for that.
With this trade, Edmonton probably becomes even more no good than they were before it.