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Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen
I have a much greater opinion of OEL than this board does apparently. Probably doesn't hurt that he seems to always produce against Alberta teams.
I don't see concern with his contract. He'll be 35 when it ends, if this season was more of an anomaly as opposed to a decline, it's fine.
I think the biggest problem is that he is relied on so heavily for the Coyotes. Play the powerplay, the penalty kill, plus another 20 minutes a night with hard assignments, and then he needs to be the Captain and face of the team. He's so important to the Yotes that their (lack of) success is tied to him but he isn't the reason the team has had struggles. I'd like to see him surrounded by a team with solid coaching and more depth (if not star power to provide relief).
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The biggest problem with all of that is he is paid to be those things. He has produced very similar results at even strength over the last 2 season as Hanifin except his salary is almost double. Sure he plays against tough competition, but he struggles with it. With him hitting 30 it's hard to imagine he's going to get better. Do you really want an aging, $8.25 player on your second pairing?
You don't bring in a contract like that to give him less responsibility. Especially when our left side already has Hanifin, Gio, Valimaki, and Kylington.
It just doesn't add up. The only realistic scenario I see is that Arizona really wanted to shed salary and Treliving is smelling blood in the water. Get a useful player and some other pieces for next to nothing other than taking on the dollars.