Hey Racki, it would pain me to change my Oilers forum sig and I have spoken quite highly of O’Sullivan since the Oilers acquired him, even to the extent of saying he would be the next Doug Weight. I still think he has the tools, just as Penner “had the tools” under MacT. Even so, he needs to come through when we need him to, rather than hitting posts and wasting opportunities. Plus he needs to play with more authority when fighting for the puck! I give him until the Olympic break to prove me wrong. He may do better on another team.

As for other “offensive guys that aren’t scoring” and I compare guys like Comrie (early season form), Potulny, Cogliano, Nilsson, and last years Pouliot and bearing O’Sullivan in mind, versus Gagner, Brule and the future Eberle, then I say this roster will inevitably change or drastically fail with so few players able to physically dominate a game. I think if the Oilers keep 5 of those guys and the fixtures of Horcoff, Hemsky and Penner, then the remaining 4 players need to be a physical threat, and 2 of those 4 guys need to excel defensively.

As for the defense, I think Grebeshkov would yeild a solid top 4 shut down guy and add some size in the back end. By the time Eberle and MPS are ready for the NHL I think Plante should be ready to strengthen the bottom defensive pairing while adding a right handed shot on the blue-line.

The goal tending situation should be stable if Khabibulin regains his health soon.

I suppose what I’m saying is that this team looks to be a couple of years away from being less than a nail biting, hope filling, teeth grinding, high five, hair pulling, jumping for joy and anger, type of team. In the mean time, they need to move at least 5 players.

I hope they win tonight. If they get their shit together, then THIS team has the ability to make one of the bottom 3 spots of the playoffs. Go Oilers GO!

What that means to me is taking away the offensive guys that aren’t scoring and the defensive guys that aren’t defending well enough and replacing them with some better PKer/shutdown types. Also on the backend, taking a bit away from the offense in that case, and finding a shutdown d-man.

The Oil can score goals with the best of them this year, they just can’t keep them out of the net. Khabi will help a bit in that regard, but really they need some better defence that know how to play in their own end.

AND, unlike the past, they don’t need to go and solve the problem in bulk (ex. “oh we need some skilled players, lets trade away all our defensive players).

chucker: …I obviously didn’t factor in position, but on a team with 13 natural centremen, who cares?
It’s not the huge contracts that will get the biggest bang here.It’s moving all the mid-range ineffective ones.

One of the reasons I am excited to see MPS is because he’s a natural winger. I understand that you draft “the best player” but I think that when you are “building a team” having 13 center-men that need to learn a new position is just plain stupid. Right now the Oilers have 3 forwards in the line-up with a right handed shot. I understand that some guys thrive after moving to the wing but why not let that be the exception instead of the expectation.

Good point on dumping the mid-end salaries. The Oilers aren’t in that bad of a spot when you consider how many contracts are up at the end of the year. Guys will either need to take a pay cut or they’re gone.

To Racki’s point, clearly this team was not rebuilt properly. As for who I’d keep… Gagner, Brule, Penner, Comrie, Souray, Visnovsky, Gilbert, Smid and either Cogliano or O’Sullivan. Add to that Horcoff and Hemsky who are fixtures on this team and the coming of Eberle, MPS, and Plante, the remaining 3 forwards and 2 defensemen need to add size, toughness, grit and defensive reliability. Maybe keep Struds as the #7 d-man because he’s cheep.

But really, they could try to trade Moreau and Staios at the deadline and if there are no takers, they hit the waiver line. I don’t feel bad at all about Moreau being waived, although I do about Staios. Ya, ya, I know I have a man crush on the guy, but he does throw it all on the line every night, so I hate paying a guy back by doing that. But with the waivered players we could always not send them to the minors if they clear. All the rest of the guys have value in a trade. Even O’Sullivan, despite his lack of scoring. We just won’t get full value on some guys, and that’s fine… again, it’s about addition through subtraction (as someone on HFBoards mentioned the other day).

Even with 15M left over, the Oil management are going to have to get stingy on the re-signings. No one has proven themselves in that bunch to be deserving of anything over 2M, as far as I’m concerned. Grebeshkov’s salary was already higher, so we have no choice there, but he should get the minimum qualifying offer for a raise.

Some of these players might not be-resigned because of playing hardball, but the Oil are going to have to do it and move anyone that isn’t going to “play along”. We may need to offer some number of 1-year deals to allow players the chance to earn a bigger raise next year, however.