He's faster and better defensively, that's about all we were expecting. But in hindsight, realizing that they weren't going to add another C, i probably don't make that deal. I thought for sure as soon as he was gone that we would have brought in a C to replace him, i was wrong
- SpoiledByOil

Mac really backed himself into a corner with that deal. He had to expect Draisatl to have growing pains but without a replacement for Gagner he had to stay. Having watched Connolly spend his rookie season in the NHL when he should have been back in juniors (and the corresponding negative effect this had on his development path) I hope for you guys sake the same thing doesn't happen.

Mac really backed himself into a corner with that deal. He had to expect Draisatl to have growing pains but without a replacement for Gagner he had to stay. Having watched Connolly spend his rookie season in the NHL when he should have been back in juniors (and the corresponding negative effect this had on his development path) I hope for you guys sake the same thing doesn't happen.
- uf1910

He was counting on one of the UFA centers signing and they all took deals elsewhere.

Id look at the James Neal trade for a comparison as to what the Oilers could expect to get for Hall(which isn't good enough to make it worth their while) Regardless of what people think about his on ice antics, James Neal is an elite goal scorer. He fetched a good winger and a middling to below average winger. A bad, bad return for a guy that is a sniper like Hall through and through. I think one issue is that wingers are the least difficult position to replace in the NHL. Elite Centers and top dmen are players rarely any team trades. An elite center can make even an average winger very good. Hall in all likelihood will not pull in an established top pairing dman. He probably wont pull in a very good second line center either, at least from a team that has a shot of winning the cup. In which case it's better for the Oilers to just hang on to him. He's still very young and they have decent prospects that could start a turn around in a couple of years.
- mnhockeyguy

Agreed ... need to consider it if someone wants to overpay... What is Buffalo offered Ennis, Myers and a first.

Still upset over that Vanek trade I see...
- sskkoo1

Yeah. We are all devastated.

can't even begin to figure out what this means
- DoubleDown

I was just joking... in that MTL should've viewed Roy as an untouchable and fired the coach instead. Roy in his prime would've been an untouchable in my mind, and so is Hall considering his age, skill and contract.

The Habs handled the Roy situation poorly - from hiring a coach Roy nearly got into a fist-fight with days earlier (from wiki "The two had almost come to blows in two incidents in 1995, one at a Long Island coffee shop before Tremblay was announced as a coach and after Tremblay allegedly fired a shot at Roy's throat during practice") to a rookie GM that decided the situation was unsalvageable (from wiki "Canadiens general manager Réjean Houle at the time had been GM for only 40 days and faced criticism for making the trade instead of trying to resolve the tension between Roy and Tremblay"). I do acknowledge that Roy told the team president it was his last game in MTL after being pulled in a 11-1 loss, but it wasn't like Roy just demanded a trade out of nowhere.

I was just joking... in that MTL should've viewed Roy as an untouchable and fired the coach instead. Roy in his prime would've been an untouchable in my mind, and so is Hall considering his age, skill and contract.

The Habs handled the Roy situation poorly - from hiring a coach Roy nearly got into a fist-fight with days earlier (from wiki "The two had almost come to blows in two incidents in 1995, one at a Long Island coffee shop before Tremblay was announced as a coach and after Tremblay allegedly fired a shot at Roy's throat during practice") to a rookie GM that decided the situation was unsalvageable (from wiki "Canadiens general manager Réjean Houle at the time had been GM for only 40 days and faced criticism for making the trade instead of trying to resolve the tension between Roy and Tremblay"). I do acknowledge that Roy told the team president it was his last game in MTL after being pulled in a 11-1 loss, but it wasn't like Roy just demanded a trade out of nowhere.
- KarlKarlsson

References from wikipedia... reliability at it's finest!

References from wikipedia... reliability at it's finest!
- mlindsay

please donate $3.

please donate $3.
- Fountain-San

Not too dis-similar to another site I know that you buy season tickets for

Not too dis-similar to another site I know that you buy season tickets for
- mlindsay

You're on Christian Mingle?

References from wikipedia... reliability at it's finest!
- mlindsay

...because unless you see it on TV it isn't true?

Those sentences are backed up by other references, from both news reports and interviews.

Should the Hotstove stop piling on the oilers and talk about something else?
- Oilfan19

Nope.

2013 Garth Snow would
- DDM-Coga

Can you even name one bad trade he's made besides Nino and Vanek (neither of which is actually that bad)?

They gave up Moulson and a late first rounder for Vanek, boo hoo. Not like teams do this all the time, right? Didn't the Rangers give up TWO first rounders for a 38-year old St. Louis last season? Their pick is more likely to be in the lottery than the Isles pick, yet nobody seems to care about that.

And as for Nino, the guy was a 19-year old coming off a 1 point in 55 game performance demanding a trade. That's not the kind of guy you need on the team, and if you care to look at the Isles roster, they're not missing Nino one bit (anyone should objectively rather Strome, Nelson, and Anders Lee over Nino, not to mention JT, Okposo, Grabner, Grabovski, Nielsen, etc. etc.). AND they just happened to get perhaps the best fourth liner in the league this year for Nino- Clutterbuck's Corsi and Fenwick percentages are both in the mid-to-high 50s, and he's 2nd in the league in hits.

So again, why the beef with 2013 Garth Snow? If you've watched 5 minutes of the Islanders this year, you'd see what they were building towards. Always easy for people to bash Snow until they're presented with actual facts.