This week is going to be pretty busy based on the way Monday morning has gone down. The Oilers have been whisper quiet today but a lot of interesting things are happening near targets they have been linked to in the past. The Flyers went and did something incredibly ridiculous by trading Scott Hartnell for RJ Umberger. Then of course there is also the report from Friedman that the Canucks have made a real offer to Florida for the 1st Overall pick. After that the news broke that Matt Greene is close to finalizing a new 4 year deal with the Kings. Then at noon the new Markov deal broke. What will these falling dominos mean for the Oil?
UMBERGER – HARTNELL
New GM Ron Hextall’s first major move turns out to be a real head-scratcher as he chased out his club’s 4th leading scorer and 50 point guy Hartnell for a floundering RJ Umberger. The Oilers have been linked to both players on and off with most Oiler fans hoping to avoid Umberger while the majority of plugged in sources kept honing in on that name. Umberger and Hartnell have similar Cap Hits (less than a million apart) and both are associated with “physical… play but the similarities end there. Aaron Portzline continues to assert that the Blue Jackets were heavily contemplating a Compliance Buyout on Umberger as his Cap Hit far exceeded his contributions to the team.
Now you COULD just conclude the comparison at Hartnell’s 52 points to Umberger’s 34 and walk away knowing you had a pretty solid victory. But then you would miss out on the chance to gloat about the fact that Hartnell is one of the best possession players on Philly (+6.2% Corsi Rel) and Umberger is one of the worst for Columbus (-4.5% Corsi Rel). Umberger, as signaled by what was his impending buyout, is an anchor in the worst sense of the word.
As an Oiler fan I’m just glad we dodged a bullet.
VANCOUVER 1ST OVERALL
Friedman’s 30 Thoughts point us to a situation worth keeping an eye on for Oiler fans as he reports the Canucks have made a solid offer for the 1st Overall pick. The Canucks are a wildcard here because very little has been reported as to who they covet at the 1st Overall position but some speculate that it might be Reinhart. If that were the case then you have the makings of a scenario in which Ekblad could conceivably fall past Buffalo and into Edmonton’s lap.
For what it’s worth, my opinion of the proposed deal is that the 6th, Shinkaruk, and a real live body is pretty close to value but it all depends on who that NHL player is. If the Canucks went full rebuild and decided to move Edler it would be a go for sure. At least it would in my books.
MATT GREENE
The media here had been in full-blown Matt Greene re-signing mode prior to the announcement that he was on the verge of signing a new 4 year deal with the Kings. The Oilers, I’m sure, would have loved the chance to get back Greene as a half-way apology for moving him in the first place. Now I would have traded Stoll and Greene 8 days a week to get Visnovsky and still would make that trade again if given the opportunity, but the club blew it by listening to geriatric and noted curmudgeon Pat Quinn and his complaints about Vis moving the puck up the ice (like it was a bad thing).
So fast forward a few years later and it just seemed inevitable that the Oilers were about to offer Greene money and term to come back. He was a useful player for the Kings but would that have translated well into the Oilers? We will only be able to speculate now.
MARKOV
Ok, so Greene is crossed off the list of potential UFAs, but at least they can still go after that premiere puck mover in Marko-ahhh dammit. So the Canadiens have purportedly agreed to a new 3 year deal with Markov. This move effectively keeps one of the most high-risk high-reward players off the UFA market. He could have easily matched the 5.75M per year he took from the Canadiens but it might have taken more years for him to consider a stop like Edmonton. Those extra years on the deal are the scary bit.
At his age (35) the penalties for retiring early are harsh and the Cap implications are dangerous. He has had some injury concerns in the past and those don’t generally go away with age. Still, he’s a bet I would have been willing to make on behalf of the Oilers.
ODDS AND ENDS
The Oilers also received news that Darnell Nurse and Greg Chase have been invited to the World Juniour National Team Summer Camp, which is like regular summer camp but without the Canoes and Co-Ed hijinx and with life altering competition instead.
This is great news for the two, it signals that Hockey Canada has noticed their achievements and puts them in the running to play on the squad when the holidays roll around. Obviously it’s all up to their performance from here on out but it gives the Oilers a better sense that if Nurse is returned he wont be robbed of the Jr experience the way he was last year. I’m still disgusted by his snub from this past year but presumably he’s moved on. And for Chase, he’s beginning to show more and more like he’ll be the guy people will talk about years from now and say things like “How did he last until the 7th round?…
It’s a busy day in the hockey world (I didn’t even touch on the HHOF announcements), but even though the Oilers weren’t officially involved in any of it the news seems to impact them nonetheless. Potential changes at the top of the Draft, an ever shrinking UFA market for Defensemen, and potential bullets missed impact what the team is going to be doing in the next week and a half. Crazy times.
And it’s only Monday.
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