Quote:
Originally Posted by Locke
Even something like that is just pissing into the wind.
That trade shuffled the roster around, but it was some finishing touches and roster movement and contract control and flexibility.
I mean, whats the Oilers laundry-list of needs even at these days?
- Starting Goaltender
- Backup Goaltender?
- Top 4 Defenceman (x2? More?)
- Top 6 Wingers (x3?)
- Bottom 6 players (x6?)
And that doesnt even include their needs to ditch players like Russel, Lucic, Sekera, etc.
I cant even imagine what it would take to re-work that lineup.
Without even slight exaggeration I can say that any expansion team has a significant advantage over the Edmonton Oilers because they dont have as much crap to get rid of before they can even start building.
Vegas proved it and Seattle will likely hammer that painful lesson home.
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To illustrate the mess, let's take a quick look at the D. These are the players under contract for next year:
Klefbom, Larsson, Sekera, Russell, Nurse, Manning, Benning, Bouchard - $26.108M
By comparison, the Flames have:
Giordano, Brodie, Hanifin, Hamonic, Andersson, Valimaki, Stone, Kylington - $26.086M
Yes, the Oilers have 8 guys signed for next year (9 including Jones, but I doubt we ever see him again), that cost (slightly) more than the Flames' 8. There simply is no room to bring in a couple top 4 guys - how could they possibly do it? Who can they move from that group? Only Klefbom, Larsson and Nurse (none of whom they are willing to move). So this is it for next year. So let's take a look:
Klefbom - Larsson <<<<< Giordano - Brodie
Nurse - Sekera <<<<< Hanifin - Hamonic
Russell - Bouchard << Valimaki - Andersson
Manning - Benning <<<<< Kylington - Stone
(I moved Nurse up and Russell down in order to have a stable defensive guy with Bouchard)
This is what they are looking at for next year, with more money tied up on D than the Flames have, and literally NO WAY to improve things, unless they trade of of their good young players, or buy out Sekera.
But if you buy out Sekera, that will cost $1.5M for 4 years. That leaves you $4M to replace him. So what can the Oilers get on the open market for $4M? Russell cost $4M. Stone cost $3.5M. That's what you're looking at. Is that an improvement over Sekera? Maybe a marginal improvement, if they can find a decent player who is willing to come to Edmonton. But it isn't going to move the needle on this D core.
Their D is going to be just as bad next year as it is this year.
That's year 5 of McSavior down the drain.