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Bouwmeester an Oiler? Ummm, No |
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Dun dun dun...Another one bites the dust...
Yes, Oilers fans, yet another NHL defenseman is not going to end up in Edmonton. Word from the TSN website this afternoon that the Flames and Wings are working on a deal to send Jay Bouwmeester to the Motor City. I have no idea what the Flames will get in return with the deal, but chances are it will be an overrated, old, overpriced, and under-performing forward and a mid-level prospect who will cry himself to sleep night after night as he plays out the next eight seasons in the AHL.
Say what you want about Bouwmeester's lower-than-expected offensive production numbers or how oversized his contract is, but he's a quality defenseman. He's also a guy who can play 25 minutes a game, play both the PK and PP, and always be healthy. Players like that are almost impossible to acquire. Well, not impossible if you're the Red Wings. Impossible if you're the Edmonton Oilers.
Where this situation confuses me is that Calgary, perhaps more than any other team, needs Bouwmeester themselves. Have you seen what they consider defensive depth to be in Calgary? If you can help it, you just don't trade away your best defenseman, regardless what he gets paid. Dennis Wideman is overpaid but he's a solid player. I like Mark Giordano's game. But after that, if you remove Bouwmeester, who do you have playing in your Top 4? TJ Brodie? Gross.
Anyway, we're not here to talk about how stupid the Flames are. We're here to talk about how inept of a GM Steve Tambellini is.
You get the feeling the Oilers have decided to do absolutely nothing until the new CBA is sorted out. Which, when you think about it, makes zero sense. When the new CBA happens, the cap will come down, but players will take a pay cut to make it work. The Oilers will have no problem fitting under the cap even if they immediately added another $5mil to the salary structure of the team. And if you're over, so what? Deal away a couple of guys who aren't important.
Lowe, Tambi and MacT are shooting themselves in the feet with the inactivity. They could have signed Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle to six year, $5.5mil per season contract extensions a few months ago. Because they've done nothing, stupid teams like Carolina have overpaid someone like Jeff Skinner on his extension, driving up what Hall and Eberle will expect to receive. If the offensively-skilled but one dimensional Jeff Skinner is a $5.725mil per season player starting in 2013/2014, you can pencil Hall and Ebs in at $7mil per each. Thanks Jim Rutherford. Having one Jay Feaster in the NHL was bad enough. Now we have two. Didn't Rutherford also give the incredibly overrated Jordan Staal 10 years, $60mil? Moronic.
I made a list of 20 quality Oilers prospects the other day. 20. No other team has a list of 20 anywhere comparable to what the Oilers have right now. Deal a few of them. Seriously. It's not going to hurt the Oilers at all. Only so many of these guys can make the Oilers in the future. Tobias Rieder...excellent prospect, but he's already facing a future of being behind Eberle and Nail Yakupov on the Oilers depth chart. If moving Rieder can bring in a Top 4 defenseman who is young enough to help the Oilers for the next 5 to 7 seasons, I say do it. Or maybe, don't move Rieder. We could move Marincin, or Gernat, or Lander, or a bunch of other guys. It's not like we have nothing to work with. I don't believe for a minute there are no deals to be had out there. Tambellini is just being cheap, lazy, and too conservative.
So if JayBo is out of the question, go find out if Chicago is still willing to move Nick Leddy. Or call up Phoenix and see if Brandon Gormley or David Rundblad are available. Heck, if you don't want to give up much, deal for Rusty Klesla. He'd upgrade the Oilers D for the next two seasons at least. There's Sekera in Buffalo, Tim Erixon from Columbus, Jon Blum from Nashville, about four different guys from Pittsburgh...There are options. Honestly.
If Steve Tambellini doesn't make a deal to upgrade the Oilers D by Halloween, I swear to God I'm egging his house. Most frustrating GM in history.
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • 
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