[bigrangy]

I was talking to an Oiler fan friend of mine (he usually has good hockey ideas, even for just a normal hockey fan, for an Oiler fan he's like Einstein), and he's convinced that Russell is a top 4 d-man and is worth re-signing long term. I can understand how he (and most Oiler fans, judging by HF) seems to like Russell, he's a warrior and he's good in transition, but a top 4 d-man he is not. I imagine they're just so used to seeing Oiler defenses of the last 10 years that an NHL caliber guy seems to be a legitimate top 4 option for them.