The Edmonton Oilers publicly stated that they were headed in a new direction when they fired their GM early in the BRHL2 offseason, by bringing in the league office to run things in the short term, the team had a couple of options, either try and patch together a team that could conceivable kick and scrape and maybe have an outside shot at making the playoffs, but likely fall in the just missed category; or, blow it up, and start to build.
Well, two weeks later and it is vastly clear which route the team has taken, and a quick look at the roster shows very few familiar faces. Here is a breakdown of all the trades that the team has done since the league offices took over. The Oilers did not have a single draft pick at this time 2 weeks ago, between then and the end of the draft the team acquired multiple picks, and ended up selecting 9 players.
Trade 1 - Jan Hejda to Chicago for JP Dumont & Chi 5th (Matt Climie) Trade 2 - Dumont & Ebbett to Detroit for Josh Harding, Joseph Crabb, Phx 6 (Brandon Mashinter), Det 7th (Ryan Stanton) Trade 3 - Matt Taormina to Colorado for SJ 7th (Roman Wick) Trade 4 - Ales Kotalik, Steve Sullivan, and Robert Lang to Pittsburgh for Atl 2nd (Johan Fransson) Trade 5 - Josh Harding to Chicago for Billy Sauer, David Schlemko and Was 3rd Trade 6 - Was 3rd to Nashville for Jamie McGinn & Nas 7th (Johan Backlund) Trade 7 - Matt Walker to Detroit for Phx 6 (David Kolomatis) Trade 8 - Mike Glumac to Tampa for 100k Trade 9 - Brian Gionta to Chicago for Buf 1 (yr6), Kevin porter, Teemu Laakso, Chi 7th Trade 10 - Matt Smaby to NYR for NYR 4th (Dan Sexton) Trade 11 - Edm 6 (yr6) to Buffalo for Fla 7th (Nick Schaus) Trade 12 - Filip Kuba and Edm 4th (yr6) to Florida for Andrew Ladd and Fla 6th (yr6)
With the announced deal today sending Kuba and a pick to Florida for Andrew Ladd and a 5th, the team is starting to take shape. There is a solid rumour floating around the team office that Danius Zubrus has been traded for a 2nd round pick to a west coast team, but payment is holding that up.
With a buttload of cap space, the Oilers are still not expected to me much of a force in the UFA market. They may chase a name or two, but the team is definetely on a clear course to rebuild, and do things the right way, as they await a permanent GM. Right now the two pieces being shopped the hardest are RFA Martin Havlat and veteran forward Glen Metropolit. Havlat has had a few interest suiters, and one would expect him to be moved sooner than later.
The Oilers still have the everyone available sign up and displayed, we will see what additional moves come out of the Heartland of Hockey as the offseason progresses
