Oil Change Delayed

The biggest story this off season for Edmonton is the trade that wasn’t, or at least isn’t yet. Once Heatley’s trade demand gathered momentum it was the Oilers that came up with a trade offer that the Senators found acceptable. The trade would have moved Heatley to the Oilers in exchange for Cogliano, Penner and Smid. This trade would have moved out the large contract of Penner though it would have cost them a highly valued player in Cogliano. The trade could have helped both teams.

Heatley however continued his selfish behavior by finally refusing the trade and as of now that trade is dead. What is unfortunate is that the three young Oilers know that they were on the verge of being shipped out by their team. The Oilers are a team that relies on cohesion and you hope that this almost trade is not a distraction for the team.

Upfront the team is solid and has young players on the way up. Gagner and Horcroff give the team a solid one two punch and will likely be the core centers for the next few years. Cogliano at 22 is the number three center and like Gagner he is a small high skill center that is growing into his potential. The problem for the Oilers is that both are RFA’s after this season and both will command serious salary increases. The Oilers are a budget conscious team and that is what made Cogliano expendable in the Heatley trade talks. Cogliano has very high value and I can see the Oilers still being willing to move him for that reason.

On the wings they have a nice mix with O’Sullivan and Hemsky as fast scoring wingers. Penner and Moreau add grit with a scoring touch and there are still hopes that Nilsson develops into an offensive force. If Heatley was in the mood to play here, he would have been a great fit for this fast, young, exciting team that despite the talent had problems scoring goals.

The concern on defense is that they do not have true stay at home defensemen in the mix. What they do have are players that move the puck up the ice quickly so the Oilers remain an offense first team first. Considering the offensive focus of the defense it is surprising that the Oilers only ranked 22nd on the power play last year. Special teams are a big concern for the team since their penalty kill was 4th worst in the league.

The one big free agent signing that the team did make was to sign Khabibulin to replace Roloson in net. This signing is really a wash as far as performance goes since you can not knock the goaltending that Roloson has provided. The risk here is that Khabibulin is 36 years old and Edmonton signed him to a 4 year contract at $3.75 million per season. That’s quite the long term commitment to a 36 year old goalie that relies on reflexes and acrobatics.

The Oilers should be an exciting team to watch again and are loaded with young talent that will continue to develop. To move up in the standings they need to improve their special teams and pick up a stay at home defenseman.

As they sit today, I do not see them cracking the playoffs in the tough Western conference.