Oilers make first move of offseason

[Sylvanfan]

After suffering an embarassing 4 game sweep in the Stanley Cup finals the Oilers took a week off to assess the team, digest the new rules before making any significant moves. But the first move is pretty significant as the Oilers have acquired defenceman Sergei Gonchar from the Pittsburgh Penguins for Christian Ehrhoff and Antoine Vermette. The Oilers also receive a 5th round pick in next years draft.

The Oilers have been wanting to add a number one offensive defenceman to the mix and the oppurtunity to land one of the SIM's most productive ones finally came about. Gonchar is pretty expensive and he is getting up there in age, but he's still a very productive NHL player and has one more year left on his NHL Contract. The best offensive defenceman in the CPHL are all either not available via trade, or in this age bracket so we'll gamble on Gonchar.

Vermette and Ehrhoff both had decent CPHL seasons last year and both had pretty decent NHL seasons too although Vermette had really struggled until he was traded. Vermette in our opinion has peaked where he is ratings wise and to be honest we were hoping he'd be re-rated to a 75 OV so he'd be cheaper to sign next year. Ehrhoff has been a 74 OV guy for 3 straight years now and did have a career high 42 points this past year playing just over 20 minutes a night for the Sharks. We weren't really sure what Ehrhoff would rate this coming year as his offensive numbers were decent but he had a negative +/- on the NHL's top regular season team and was their #4 defenceman.

We thank the Pens for the trade talks and I'm sure the league will laugh at us for giving up too much to get Gonchar. But as the Oilers...it's my job to try and ruin this team.

[simmer2]

With the justifications you've provided, I think this is a pretty even trade. Gonchar is the best player in the deal and neither vermette or ehrhoff will get massive re-rates.

And sure Gonchar is a UFA but he's an 81 OVR so a guy like that retains their value. IMO this is a good move for both sides.

[Goffie]

Well for us this move was all about filling roster spots and getting unbder cap. Gonchar is an elite defenseman, but with 19mill tied up between him and Markov we had to pick one guy to move and Markov's age gave him a keeper. We like Erhoff, and think he will be a good secondary offensive dman behind Markov, but we don't think he will come close to the 78 points provided by Gonchar. We like Vermette as a solid 2nd line winger and hope he can get his NHL game together in Columbus and become a 30 goal guy.

All in all we like this deal as it helps both teams, Syl get an one of the elite offensive defensemen in the NHL and CPHL and we get two solid young guys and come closer to getting our cap in line.

[I wanna be like Miikka]

I like this a bit more from the Pens perspective but overall a pretty even deal. Once the season starts the "sim producers" seem to triple in value so Syl locking one up here is still a nice move.