Edmonton Oilers

[Ballsakic]

#Oilers lines this morning are Hall-Gagner-Eberle, Smyth-Horcoff-Hemsky, Paajarvi-Belanger-Jones, Eager-Lander-Petrell




https://twitter.com/#!/NHL_Oilers/st...30392094388227

[chuckcouples]

Seems about right for the Oilers these days. Paarjarvi has his best game in 10 months and he gets demoted for a chance to play with Belanger and Jones. This plus the re-signing of Andy Sutton plus the foregone conclusion of an Ales Hemsky for picks/prospects trade might have me looking for a new favorite team after 30+ years.

[donions]

I agree its pretty ridiculous if Magnus gets demoted back to the abyss that is whatever line Belanger centers. Poor kid cant catch a break.

Still cant believe Philippe Cornet got 1st line minutes with Eberle and Gagner when he got called up, yet Magnus hasnt had a shift with Eberle since rookie camp 2 summers ago.

Kind of torn on the Sutton re-signing. Eliminates a spot for Teubert or Peckham next year, but we need to win some games 1 of these seasons. Suttons better then those youngsters.

Stick it out chuck; just pick an annual playoff bandwagon to jump on. Last year it was Mtl for me, I think ill go NYR this year.

[metaldude26]

Sutton makes an ideal 6th/7th defenseman. You need that kind of depth as proven by the Oilers injury woes this season. His re-signing is one small step in the right direction. Now the Oilers are just 2-3 defensemen away from a competent defensive unit. In other words, they are still far off but it is a step. If you consider he'd have fetched like a third or fourth rounder the Oilers were better off making the cheap deal.

As for Paajarvi getting the shaft. I have no explanation. I just hope he gets some power play time. The big thing for me is how miserably Smyth has played over the past couple of weeks. There is no reason he should be taking minutes from Paajarvi at this point.

[doulos]

But Paajarvi and Belanger has played so well together!

[doulos]

Tambellini today said...

"We have a much better team than the results and standings show, and we know that."

On the Oilers website. Without bursting into laughter.

I can only conclude that he has gone insane.

[chuckcouples]

The Sutton re-signing is terrible. I am a firm believer that the Oilers have reached a point in their "rebuild" that they need NHL calibre players more than they need picks and prospects. However, Sutton's stupidity has cost him 13 games this season and he's been a healthy scratch in 2 of the Oilers last 3 games. That seems like a great reason to reward a player with a new contract. What's going to happen when an Oiler who's been useful all season and is getting better needs a new contract?

It's also great to see that Tambellini thinks that the defensemen are not Oilers biggest weakness since all of them are under contract (or RFAs) for next season. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Excited for a lottery pick for the 4th year in a row in the 2013 entry draft.

[dyzfunctioned]

No issue with Sutton resigning. Our blueline has been ravaged by injuries past few years, having an extra NHL d-man is hardly a bad thing.

[doulos]

I'm not a fan of Sutton but it pains me to admit that he has been just fine the past little while. IF he can maintain that level of play then it's a decent signing.

Oilers need more vets, not less at this point.

[wendelclark17]

from twitter:

Rob Tychkowski @SUN_TYCHKOWSKI
#Oilers Ryan Smyth, on his meeting Tuesday with Steve Tambellini: "I'm staying put."

[dyzfunctioned]

Eberle is way too awesome... that is all.

[metaldude26]

It seems pretty obvious that Hemsky is a likely candidate to get traded or simply not re-signed but after reading Elliotte Friedmann's 30 Thoughts this week I feel like the writing is on the wall. He talked about how the Oilers feel like they have two guys who can play powerplay QB from the half wall in RNH and Gagner. There was once a time when that was all Hemsky. Either this was an oversight or they have already written him off.

[chuckcouples]

With Hal Gill + a conditional 5th round pick being worth a 2nd, a good prospect and a likely career minor leaguer, how much worse does the Andy Sutton extension look?

[metaldude26]

You cannot rule out the fact that taking Sutton off the market also increases the trade value of these other players. So between that and the fact that Gill has much more value than Sutton, I am not sure you can really conclude that the Oilers made a mistake.

The Oilers probably could have gotten a second round pick by trading Sutton but at a certain point you have to stop trading and start keeping some players, particularly if that player wants to stick around.

I mean, if the goal is to compete next year then the Oilers are just going to be trading for a Sutton type player at the deadline next year and if it does not work out they could always trade him at the deadline next year. The point is, the Oilers had two options with Sutton; re-sign him or trade him. Re-signing helps them now. Trading helps them in like 3-5 years. Either way they were getting an asset. Worst case scenario the Oilers trade Sutton next year so the prospect they would ultimately get is delayed by one year.

[tgraveline]

This team with a good off season makes the playoffs next year. Hold out there guys. I can't wait to see those kids mature more and more and take the league by storm like Chicago did.