The Edmonton Oilers could use a lot of things right now. The season is an almost unprecedented disaster. I say almost because the last team with 3 straight first overall picks sucked pretty mightily for years after the first first was picked. But that’s beside the point of this post and a topic for another day. This is about what I want. And all I want for Christmas is a burly power forward.
The burly power forward I desire has to be able to play. He needs to hit like Mike Grier, rag the puck like a possessed Georges Laraque, score goals like Bill Guerin and take no quarter like Mark Messier . But there is a problem in acquiring a player with those true Power Forward qualities. They are a rare breed. So maybe a burly PF isn’t exactly what I want. What about, using a common hockey lexicon, a “heavy” player. There are great examples of teams that have and hold the “heavy” players who contribute a balance of offense and physical impact. LA has an embarrassment of riches in Brown, Kopitar, Carter, King and Nolan. St Louis is much the same with Backes, Berglund, Stewart and stocky talents like Steen and Tarasenko. The list goes on. Getzlaf, Perry, O’Rielly, Landeskog, Benn, Toews, Doan, Thornton, Marleau, Burns, Lucic, Neal, the Staals, etc. You get the point. Guys that can play, to varying extents, and can handle the physicality of an aggressive opposition. There is a problem though.
The Hertl (ho ho ho) with finding “heavy” players that can play is that ones that are of any use are gripped pretty tightly by the teams that own them. For the Oilers to land one or two of these players they will have to do it through some combination of trade, UFA signing, or developing their own. All three have their benefits and draw backs. Think of it this way…
To get the guy they need the Oilers are going to have to sacrifice something. If they want to shorten the timeline and find a quality player through trade it’s going to have a high cost. If the stay the course of the draft and develop route (otherwise known as throw shit at the wall and see what sticks method as someone said recently at Lowetide) the cost may be low and they may find someone of quality, but it will take time. If they sign a UFA they’re sort of in the same boat as the trade scenario, higher quality and little waiting. But its going to cost them.
So is it a realistic dream that we see the Oilers find the players who have the will to compete and contribute? Maybe, but it is going to cost them, or we are going to have to wait. I really think all three are viable, although a little unsavory, options.
There really is no easy fix for the Oilers. To find the player they need through trade one of the young cluster guys, say Eberle, Yakupov or Gagner, will undoubtedly need to be dealt. There is no balance on this roster between skill and ability to pay the price of the physical demands so something would have to give. If they are signing the player they need through free agency chances are the guy they’re chasing is also being chased by 29 other teams. What’s worse is that if they do land the big fish they may end up with a situation a la David Clarkson. That would be quite the yoke to carry around, hey Toronto!? It’s clear with UFAs that a GM is far from guaranteed that the shiny new acquisition is going to deliver the value needed to cover his big ticket price tag. So you’re left with the D&D option. You have to wait for these guys to grow into it. I just don’t think I can stomach the pains of watching another young man stumble his way through a job he’s not ready for.
I’ll leave it open to all you readers to decide who will best fits the bill. There are guys out there who do so let me know what you think. I’m going to take my time wrapping my head around the inevitability of the possible outcomes. We’ll either see one of the young gunz dealt or we’ll watch the team go through the crap-shoot of free agency or we’ll suffer and watch the team suffer more losing while we wait for the troops in training to be ready for duty on the front lines.
It would be nice to get a burly power forward for Christmas, but it’s a little unrealistic to expect it.
Merry Christmas? *Sigh*
Feel free to share some banter with me on twitter, @borisnikov, be it hockey or otherwise.
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