Trade Deadline

[Nolan]

The deadlines approaching fast and the rumors are starting to heat up, but my question is are we buyers or sellers at the deadline? We're currently ranked 7th in the west but have five teams within 3 points of us; Anaheim, Dallas, Nashville, St. Louis and Minnesota. Personally I

think we need to buy, we need a big time scoring winger to play with Hemsky and we've been rumored to be interested in Martin St. Louis, but the lightning have also said he's not available. Others guys that are said to be available are Milan Hejduk, Olli Jokinen and Doug Weight all guys that could help us out. I also believe that if Lowe wants to make a push into the playoffs he needs to get rental defense man to fill the void left by Visnovsky.

well what do think UTMCretin? since your the only other guy that visits this board lol.

[UTMCretin]

well what do think UTMCretin? since your the only other guy that visits this board lol.

Verily!

For years there has been the talk of the Oilers dealing for some big name winger to add some flare to an almost offensively mediocre offense, and for years, we've had little in the way of results. And while it's a nice idea to cultivate, we just don't have the pieces to be big-time buyers and still field a team deep enough to make a strong playoff push (something we probably won't experience this year, barring an 05-06 style miracle). We'll get floated around in some Eklund-esque proposals while management makes some relatively aggressive pushes for Jokinen et al., but there are other teams that can and will offer more than us, making the ongoing desire to add a star to play alongside Hemsky just another pipe dream (for the time being; here's hoping that'll eventually change).

As for whether we will be buyers or sellers, I think it's a safe bet that we'll probably end up on the buying side of things, but not to any substantial degree. If we're in playoff contention, we're probably buyers. A veteran blue-liner, as you said, is probably a pretty good bet for a pick-up, someone who's a solid puck-mover and who can ably fill a spot in the rotation. Maybe a two-way, checking line type on offense to shore up our forwards. Unfortunately for anyone hoping for a big shake-up, that will likely be the extent of our trade deadline participation. Although that's not to discount the possibility of Lowe/Tambellini (I hate that I still actually have to look up his name) getting involved in something bigger, as I could see Cole being traded, for one, but I'm not going into Wednesday expecting much.

[Nolan]

Pens just placed Miroslav Satan on waivers today, he could be a nice pick up for us, another dude that can score.

Also Gary Roberts has been put on waivers by the Lightning could be a solid 3rd or 4th line player for us with tons of experience.

[UTMCretin]

Hey! Something happened!

As expected, Cole is gone, along with a 5th round pick for Patrick O'Sullivan and a 2nd rounder.

http://oilers.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=412290

That 2nd rounder was then quickly shuffled off to Buffalo in exchange for Ales Kotalik.

http://oilers.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=412336

So: we got some good young offensive help in exchange for a 5th round pick and guy who we probably weren't going to be able to hold onto anyway. Kotalik's also a UFA, so whether or not he remains here for longer than the duration of this season is up to him, but O'Sullivan has two years left and given his age he could end up factoring into the team's long-term plans (I've always been something of a fan). These are just some initial thoughts, anyway.

Another link: http://www.edmontonsun.com/Sports/Oilers/2009/03/04/8629656.html

[Nolan]

I really like the moves we made we ditched a guy who wasn't gonna stick around and a late round pick for a solid young player in O'Sullivan who can help us now and looks like he has a bright future along with that we got another solid winger in Kotalik. I think we did well, we didn't sell out our future by dealing prospects or high picks and we got better in the process.

[UTMCretin]

I really like the moves we made we ditched a guy who wasn't gonna stick around and a late round pick for a solid young player in O'Sullivan who can help us now and looks like he has a bright future along with that we got another solid winger in Kotalik. I think we did well, we didn't sell out our future by dealing prospects or high picks and we got better in the process.

Agreed. We didn't give anything important away, and we got some good pieces in return. It wasn't a coup, but you certainly can't complain. And really, that's the best we could have hoped for.

[Nolan]

Here's a nice little article from the Edmonton Sun summing up our deadline deals

http://www.edmontonsun.com/Sports/Oilers/2009/03/05/8633596-sun.html