Monday, September 27, 2010

Oilers Deal With 6 Players Today And My Thoughts On Releasing Players

The Edmonton Oilers trimmed down the roster today by 6 six players. These three -- Teemu Hartikainen (LW), Johan Motin (D) and Jake Taylor (D) -- have been assigned to the OKC Barons. They will report ASAP.

The Oilers also placed Brad Moran (C) and Greg Stewart (LW) on waivers for purpose of assignment to Oklahoma City. I doubt anyone takes them so there is another 2 guys for the Barons.

The Oilers also released Jared Aulin (C) completely.

Our good friend Russ Jericho did some digging and the OKC Barons website made a whole bunch of pages in preparation of these guys coming to OKC. Aulin was found to have a page.

Edmonton Oilers
Later on today after all this happened, Ryan Rishaug said that Aulin was indeed invited to try out at the OKC Barons training camp, but no contract was offered. Rishaug went on to say he's considering his options.

There are now 37 players left at the Oilers main camp.

That's it for the news. Now it's time for my opinion.

Why the Oilers only cut 6 players today is crazy. The OKC Barons have started their training camp and with the bulk of their opening day roster still in Edmonton, this makes no sense to me.

I can say with confidence that Colin McDonald won't make the Oilers this year. The same can be said for Ben Ondrus or Chris Vande Velde. Are they really that close to making the team? I wouldn't think so. So why are they still there?

Maybe the Oilers want to ensure that the more "quality" guys get a real Oilers experience? Maybe the Oilers just want to push these guys to the limit? See where they stand?

Or maybe they are that close to a roster spot and I'm just to stupid to see it?

Oklahoma City Barons
Whatever the reason is, I don't like it.

Why not let the guys/kids go to OKC as soon as possible so that they can adjust and find a place to live before the long and tiring season begins? Why not let them go and get used to a new city? Why not let them get familiar with the coaching and management staff before it gets hectic?

Why not?

I can tell you this, this will all make less sense if they release more guys tomorrow. There is no game tonight, so why wait till tomorrow?

I guess we will see what happens in the morning.

ON A SIDE NOTE: If I was GM for a day, I probably would have put Deslauriers (my pick) or Dubnyk on waivers today for the purpose of assignment to OKC. Right now, not many teams are needing/wanting a goalie and if the Oilers do need a goalie to replace Khabibulin, Martin Gerber can come back up. This would have been a good chance to sneak one of them (JDD or DD) through waivers. Like Bob McKenzie said, there was a million guys on waivers today. Why not send a goalie?

-Written by Smokin' Ray-

5 comments:

  1. Gerber is waiver eligible though, that's our problem, we have 3 goalies that have to clear waivers to be sent to OKC. Gerber might clear because of his recent NHL track record, JDD and DD would not though(although I think DD might sneak through right now).

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  2. @Brandon Are you sure about Gerber? Isn't that the point of the two way contract. To go both ways without waivers? I'm confused.

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  3. The two way only affects the dollar amount. Here is where I got the info for his waiver situation: http://capgeek.com/waiver_calculator.php?player=206&submit_player_test=1&eleven_games_radio=0&eleven_games_year=pre&NHL_games=238&signing_year=2002&Calculate=

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Brandon You were right. I stand corrected.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think management see more of DD(of that's how I see it), he has played more in the preseason than JDD, and the fact that Gerber is still around, and that Khabi gets one, maybe two more games in the preseason tells me that management sees more in DD than they do JDD, (unless JDD starts tomorrow)

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