Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Can Frolov Get Traded To The Oilers? Around the Water Cooler #4 ...



I was talking with Paq Twinn today and we started in on Frolov and the troubles that he is having right now in La La Land.  Could he be a fit on our 1st line with Hemsky and Horcoff we wondered?  What would it take to acquire a guy like him and how much would the Oilers be willing to give?  Would he adapt to Quinn & Co or would he be as complacent as they say he is in LA?  These are all questions that need answering.  Here's what I found...

Coach Terry Murray had this to say about Alexander Frolov before benching him against the Stars, "Frolov is out. That’s really a hard one. You don’t want to take your best players out of the lineup. That’s how you win games. Your best players have to be the best every night in this game. It’s such a competitive division, a competitive conference, a competitive league, that you just have to have your top guys on their ‘A’ game every night in order to give yourself an opportunity to win. It’s a hard thing, but those are the demands that the players have to meet."

“I haven’t been happy with Fro’s game for several games. The game the other night is the straw that broke the camel’s back, in my opinion. The turnovers, the careless play… It has to be better, and you have to come out with that high level of intensity, with smart work, hard work, and you’ve got to love the game. You’ve got to love the game in order to be a player. The talent is there, but it always is the work that brings out talent. And I need more."

GM Dean Lombardi had this to say about Frolov, "He’s either going to get on board or we’ll go in another direction with him. It’s as simple as that. I like a lot of the things I’m seeing, with what we’re trying to establish here. Get or board, or there’s another way too. But like I said, this is not a knee-jerk reaction.’’

Talk about a public lashing a'la MacT.  Ouch!  We all know how that plays out.  Time for a change Frolov.  Come to E-Town.  Just bring a winter coat.

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Why is Frolov not on the LA Kings depth chart?  Anyone else find that strange?

So it appears that LA might be close to done with this guy. Should the Oilers take a crack at him?  Is it worth it?  I think so and here's why.

Alexander Frolov.  He's 6'2" and 208 lbs.  In 6 years of playing with the Kings (not including this year) he's scored 14, 24, 21, 35, 23 and 32 goals respectively.  That's an average of 24.83 goals per year.  Now imagine for a second that he had Hemsky passes.  Imagine the kind of damage that those two could do.  He could be at 35 goals a year consistently with Hemsky.  He has the size that Quinn wants on every line, but can he use it to his advantage a'la Penner?  That's a good question that needs to be answered. 

The part I liked about what Murray said was this, "Frolov is out. That’s really a hard one. You don’t want to take your best players out of the lineup."  I guess it would be safe to say that the Oilers could acquire a real good player in Frolov.  One of LA's best.  That's a plus for sure.

Here is another question.  He has yet to play in the NHL playoffs so we have no idea what kind of person he is at that time of year.  Does that worry a GM when he's dealing for a player? 

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Ok, so maybe now your a little more open to the idea of bringing him here (pretend for the sake of argument please).  What do the Oilers give up?  How much space ($) is there?

The Kings have about 4.5 million in cap space and the Oilers have about 1 million left in space.  With Frolov at a 2.9 cap hit the Oilers really only need to make 2 million in space.  Keeping this in mind, here is what I offer.

I would offer Robert Nilsson ($2 million cap hit), D Cody Wild (minors) and a 4th round pick. 

With that deal done, the Oilers will have about $200,000 left in cap space (not including a roster move to the minors).  So it is possible to do.  But I'm not the one pulling the strings (only wish).  However, they may want Pisani instead of Nilsson and that's ok too.  They have the space to take both of them if they wanted, but I doubt that would happen.  Hell, I'd throw in Reddox as well if need be.

The bad part of the story... He's a UFA at the end of the season.

So is that too much to give to LA?   Is it not enough?  Is it worth it for the Oilers to pursue?   I hope this gave everyone something to think about.  I'd make the deal.  Would you? 

Get it done Tambo!

8 comments:

  1. The Oilers are playing good hockey right now and seem to be working as a team. I don't know if it's a good time to add another player into the mix especially one that has been called lazy by his GM and coach. I think the Oilers should hold off on a trade and see what this group of players can do.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, this years team is off to a good start and is playing well. But to add a guy like Frolov, well that might just put us in the top tier of the league. He just may be the piece to the puzzle that we are missing.

    But when we talk chemistry, I'm sure a trade for Frolov isn't going to make a difference with team chemistry. Quinn changes the lines more than MacT did.

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's less than what I would offer.

    I would've offered:

    Alexander Frolov, Wayne Simmonds, and a 4th round pick

    for

    Robert Nilsson, Jeff Petry, and 2nd round pick, and Ethan Moreau

    ReplyDelete
  4. Then follow that up with a trade to Buffalo

    Denis Grebeshkov, Steve Staios and a 4th round pick (L.A.)

    for

    Drew Stafford, Toni Lydman, Adam Mair (who will be our new checking center)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mind you, this will have to wait for Souray, Staios, Pisani, and Pouliot to come back from injury first.

    Otherwise, we risk destroying the fragile chemistry the team has shown so far.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I just did the math and it leaves us with 2-3 extra bodies. I'm not sure how we would deal with that, to be honest.

    ReplyDelete
  7. "Alexander Frolov, Wayne Simmonds, and a 4th round pick

    for

    Robert Nilsson, Jeff Petry, and 2nd round pick, and Ethan Moreau"

    I like that deal Raventalon.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Except our forwards turn out like this:

    Frolov-Horcoff-Hemsky
    Penner-Brule-Cogliano
    O'Sullivan-Comrie-Stone
    Simmonds-Gagner-Pisani
    Jacques-Mair-Stortini
    MacIntyre

    And our D:

    Gilbert-Souray
    Visnovsky-Smid
    Lydman-Strudwick
    Chorney

    And so we'd have enough forwards to ice 5 lines and then some. I'm not sure who else you would move and who you would be willing to risk on waivers.

    If all else fails, I would send Gagner to Springfield so he could tear it up.

    Not sure it would help his development, though.

    ReplyDelete

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