It was only two days ago that the Edmonton Oilers announced the hiring of new General Manager James Love and he has already changed the direction of the franchise by trading the teams superstar Ilya Kovalchuk. News is just breaking that the franchise player has been moved to Atlanta along with Edmonton's and Columbus' 2nd round picks in this summer draft in exchange for all-star center Olli Jokinen, left winger Johan Franzen, prospect Patrick Berglund and Edmonton's 1st round pick (14th ov) in this summers draft.
"To be honest, when I took over this job I had every intention of keeping Ilya, who is obviously one of the best players in the world, but it soon became aparent that moving him was necessary," commented GM Love on his blockbuster deal. "We were able to bring in two elite players to help us now and in fact we believe we are more competitive with the both of Olli and Johan than we would have been with just Ilya. Also we added Berglund who is one of the best prospects in the world right now, a player we feel can have an impact with our club in the near future and a top pick to get another young player for the future and we think it's a double win for us."
Luckly for Mr.Love the Oiler's faithful seem to be on his side, at least for now. One local pub goes when asked of the trade replied, "Ilya was the Oilers and he's gonna score fifty for Atlanta but we got a lot of good players and this team needed that. I guess we'll let you know in a year but if the Oilers get off to a bad start I say toss that Loverboy on his ass."
Rumors also keep popping up around Marc Savard and Martin Biron. With Jokinen at center the Oilers can afford to move Savard for some more future or depth. Likewise in net the Oilers have Pekke Rinne and Tomas Greiss in the minors and there are a number of options available in UFA so Martin Biron may be moved to improve the teams future some more.
