Last night Craig MacTavish made one of the bold moves he was talking about by trading Ladislav Smid and minor leaguer Olivier Roy to the Calgary Flames in exchange for C/W Roman Horak and G Laurent Brossoit. Upon first look, this was a trade to open up cap space to sign G Ilya Bryzgalov however this trade never needed to happen to sign Bryzgalov to his 1 year, $1.75 Million dollar contract. So what gives?
Cap Compliancy
Rumors circulated last night that the Smid move wasn't the only trade in the works. Craig MacTavish said this morning in a 1st intermission interview with Gene Principe that "trades will be a by product of poor play". MacT also said he hadn't been impressed with the teams inconsistent play. Like speculated by Mark Spector and others last night, I thoroughly believe that the Oilers do have another trade in the works with a team like the Flyers.
A trade with Hemsky and Simmonds being the centre pieces is what has been rumoured. Another player I could potentially see leaving the Oilers roster is Sam Gagner. With last night's acquisition of Roman Horak, the Oilers are now left with a large number of centres who are capable of playing at the NHL level and not enough strength on the wings. Guys like Arcobello, Gordon and Acton have stepped in and played well this year. Bringing in a player with size and skill like Wayne Simmonds or maybe even Sean Couturier is exactly what this team needs.
I wouldn't be surprised to see a potential trade of Ales Hemsky and Sam Gagner for Wayne Simmonds and Brayden Coburn. This trade would work for both team as the Flyers receive scoring ability and the Oilers receive size/scoring in Simmonds and a Top DMan in Brayden Coburn.
Breaking down the trade
With the recent call ups Taylor Fedun and Philip Larsen stepping in and playing very well, Ladislav Smid was made expendable. Roman Horak is being brought in and is expected to play Center somewhere between the third line and OKC. Last night I spoke extensively with Zenon Herasymiuk who says Roman "Horak is a good two-way guy, but he's smart and has skill. You'll like him". The Acquisition of Horak makes a guy like Gagner expendable.
Laurent Brossoit was also acquired in the trade and it is expected for him to be playing in OKC.
Yours Truly,
Loweded.
Follow the JSBM guys on twitter here:
2 comments:
I like the moves yesterday. We have lots of 4-5 d men. When you have lots of something you trade the one that give you the most value in return. We had no goalie coming down the pipe that has any real potential - fixed. We needed more depth at center - fixed. We needed someone that can push Dubnyk and/or take the ball and run with it himself - fixed. We as Oilers fans need to get used to the idea of saying, "I like him, he was good and Im really going to miss him." as we have some damn good players just not the right players. If you have excess of something you use it to fill areas of need, MacT did that and has cap room to do more.
I was fully expecting something to pop after the Smid trade.That it didn't happen kind of pissed me off. There was alot of talk about Hemsky's equipment being moved out of the dressing room almost immediately after the trade was announced. What a load of crap. God dammit I hate rumor mongers. My Oilers boner was left completely unsatisfied that day.
Post a Comment
Tell us what you think