Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
It's been well established that Russell brings some leadership intangibles, is a warrior, and a useful player when used properly. He's hard to quantify as ideally you would want him in your 3rd pairing but teams lie the Flames and Oilers over played him in their 2nd pairings which means the man basically turns himself into a backboard blocking shots and while he's good at it and it can be useful it's also leads to poor possession and puck time in his own end. What's worse is that he really doesn't have any offensive upside (Engelland had a better season offensively for comparison) which is what you hope for as a tradeoff with undersized defensemen. Oilers really need to tread carefully on this extension as he's not good enough to lock up long term in the range of $4 million/season.
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Fair assessment. The reality is that most teams have guys that most of us think are not properly top 4 in their top 4 and we are looking to sign guys like that to equivalent salary - guys like Stone or Franson; dreaming of getting a guy like Hamonic.
So no the Oilers haven't upgraded but looking pretty solid for next season. I'll agree that the Oilers appear to have some salary cap and defensive issues on the horizon. But I don't think it makes this board look good to gloat with glee at every move the Oilers make as though it automatically is a bad move. In the meantime, we talk ourselves into believing everything Treliving does is gold.