The Best Oiler Trade Ever...

As everyone goes on about the Dustin Penner trade to LA I would like to comment on how Steve Tambellini may have made the best Oiler trade ever, okay maybe not ever, and maybe it was not a trade at all. It was in fact not trading at all and in this case not trading Ales Hemsky. Don't get me wrong the bigger news of the day is definitely Penner and what we got in return, but not trading Hemsky is pretty huge. For all the talk about Taylor Hall and the kids, Hemsky is still the man on this team and will be for a few more years. I see him filling the Marian Hossa role on the this up and coming team, providing veteran offense and leadership when needed.

Also I think the return we would have gotten for Hemsky would not have been sufficient considering what it would take to replace him in a few more years. As I had posted earlier the likely return would have been similar to what the Oilers received for Penner; a prospect, a pick and a young roster player. Obviously thats not quite what Penner returned. Nonetheless two years from now it would be pretty hard to get a near point per game player like Hemsky and let alone sign him.

I'm hoping that we will see a contract extension this summer for Hemsky and that we will sign him long term with a lower cap hit, similar to Hossa's deal in Chicago.

One note on the Penner deal, I think this is a step in the right direction, it would have been nice to get a roster player in return but I think Tambellini did a good job in not taking a salary back which means this should free up some cap space to sign a much needed defenseman in the summer.