Trade Talk – SAVE THE DAMN PUCK Edition

Alright, so I haven’t written anything in a while, so I’ll apologize in advance. Between working long hours and a team that was abysmal, I didn’t get a chance to write anything. Part of it could be, what would I write about? When your team is so bad that Ryan Whitney is making fun of it, you kind of lose incentive.

But, as of late, they have been playing better hockey. The players are trying harder. The coach has installed a new system that the players seem to be trying at. Combine that with players who had been a disappointment so far this year playing better, and you get a more competitive team.

Each game you get a sense that the Oilers will, in the very least, give teams all they can handle. For the first time in a very long time, fans aren’t ready to riot in the streets and flog management. Only problem is, they still suck.

The team still has so many holes in the lineup you could drop marbles through it. The usual problems, that we’ve had for years, still exist. We need a center who can play a two-way game, a Mike Richards type guy, but they won’t address it, which makes me very upset. That’s a discussion for another day however.

We need a couple of actual, honest to god, top four defenders. It would be great if one of those guys would be a top pairing guy as well, but once again, a problem that has been around since Mr.Popular left town quite a few years ago is still there. Nothing really new.

The team also lacks a “Pack” mentality, some team toughness if you will. We don’t need a guy who plays two minutes a game and sits 10 minutes in the box a night, what I’m talking is an “all for one and one for all” attitude if you will. It’s been so long since you’ve seen one of our players take a cheap shot, or do anything to annoy the other team. Even then, that player is taking on all five guys while our players skate away.

That is getting a little better, but still blatantly happening. I’m pretty sure you all know which situations I am talking about. But that is another problem that won’t be solved overnight. Back to what I said before…

The Oilers are playing better hockey, staying in games and giving good teams fits. We might not end up winning, but a lucky bounce here or there and the results could shift. The problem is, while guys do make some dumb mistakes, saves aren’t being made.

Fasth is a good goalkeeper, but at best a very good backup on a good team. He can look like a starter some games, but isn’t a guy who can steal you a game. On a good team, he could do very well, but on a horrible team, he isn’t even part of the question.

Scrivens is a guy that does give it his all in every single game. Only problem is, he runs more hot and cold than anyone I’ve ever seen before. The consistency needed by a team with porous defense is something Scrivens just can’t do. He’s a battler, but not good enough to lead a team like this. He is an excellent number two guy who can steal a few games a year, but nothing more.

While other aspects of the team will take time to repair with added depth, an upgrade between the pipes might not be as simple. It’s always hard to find a very good goalkeeper, just look at Edmonton’s track record alone. The next closest failure would be the Flyers, but a cast-off in Steve Mason seems to be changing the tides there.

We’ll never be able to pry a Quick or Rinne from anyone, if you think so, your truly kidding yourself. The best bet is either taking some chances on guys who haven shown flashes of brilliance, but that’s what we did with Fasth and Scrivens, which really hasn’t worked out so far. Let’s just ignore that option.

Another option would be trying to pry a good prospect away from someone, John Gibson out of Anaheim, for example. The amount of assets and quality of them would be a major over payment however. Don’t get me wrong, it could happen, but what it would take makes this highly unlikely.

The other option is trying to pry away a guy who is struggling, someone who is a very good keeper and has the numbers to back it up, but is having a down year and could use a change of scenery. A trade like this could work out for both parties. Although a gamble, the Oilers get their first legitimate starting guy in years, while the selling team gets a bunch of assets to add depth and sheds a big salary to boot.

The first guy that comes to mind would be Mike Smith. Money wise, Arizona is in sell mode. They are auctioning off players who have bigger multi-year contracts. They are cutting down salary while trying to restock the shelves.

Smith has a pretty big cap hit at $5.667M a year for four more years. That a pretty hefty contract for a guy who only has seven wins this year. That’s only seven wins in 32 starts, absolutely horrible for a guy who was the number three guy on the Canadian Olympic team only a year ago. He’s sporting a 3.49 Goals Against Average and brutal .889 Save Percentage.

These are all atrocious numbers for a guy the team invested a big chunk of change in. While a lot of that has to do with god-awful team play in front of him, he hasn’t helped his own case. Saves he would have made a year ago no problem have been going in all this year. When you watch him play, his body language is of a guy who has lost confidence.

Whether it’s in himself or his teammates is up to the imagination, but either way, a change of address would help a guy like him out. His worth is at an all time low at the moment, but as a former starter, he still has a fair amount of value. Trading him would make a lot of sense for the team’s depth and finances.

What I’m saying is, his bad play might have dropped his value enough that Arizona starts fielding offers from other teams for him, when only a few months ago he would have been untouchable. Don’t get me wrong, it would still be a king’s ransom to pry him out of Phoenix, but it might be an option with how his year has gone now. Would it make sense for the bottom feeding Oilers?

DEFINITELY!

Mike Smith is a big bodied goalie at 6’4″ and 215 lbs. He takes up a huge part of the net, which is always an asset. He’s also a backstop that battles with the best of them. He has the will to make saves he had no business of making, his desperation and compete levels are off the charts. You can see it with some of the tantrums he has thrown before, he has the will to win.

For a guy so big, he has very quick reflexes. He has a good glove and covers almost all of the bottom of the net. While he might not be the most positionally sound guy, he makes up for it with jaw dropping second efforts. He is very unconventional in the net, but he’s one of the few that makes it work.

His biggest asset though, would be his ability to handle the puck. He’s one of those guys that acts like another defender when given the opportunity. Plus, he can make passes a lot of defenders can’t. That’s the perfect type of keeper for a team that’s trying to build a possession/counter attack type of game.

While he does have horrible numbers so far, just last year he was pretty good. He had a 27-21-10 record with a 2.64 GAA and a .915 SV%, all decent numbers for a good starting keeper. All these numbers are pretty close to his career averages, which are a huge upgrade over what we’ve had for many years now.

It is definitely a risk anytime you target a guy who’s on the plus side of 30 in net, especially at such a high cap hit. That said, his contract only goes until he hits 36 years old. He would give them a solid upgrade in net, no matter which way you look at it. He would also give them a solid option while a prospect like Brossoit gets time to develop properly.

The Oilers are at a point where they are going to have to start taking risks to improve this team. Why not offer up a 2nd, a good prospect like Marincin and Fasth and see what happens? Maybe even upgrade the 2nd to our late round 1st if they keep some salary, it might even take more, heck it could take less. Only the people behind closed doors know. I just think this would make sense for both teams, don’t you?

Thanks so much for reading! Don’t forget to add any of the amazing writers on @theoilersrig on twitter, especially me, @sharkyzeee. Hope you enjoyed it and have a great day!