Wow.

Eyes on the Prize, No "I" in "Team" versus Human Element, Communication Lines, Business Model and forgetting about when not to use an apostrophe...

What a pleasure it is to witness the Common Sense and the Synergy that occurs when an old guy and a young guy get drunk and express their feelings on ON.

~I firmly believe that a charge of lack of communication should be answered with no communication.~

I guess I'm the only one that hasn't been impressed by Whitney ? Why? What has he done ?

He hasn't looked that bad but next to AHL dman.

Well, obviously you don't know how it works around here....newest Oiler = latest saviour.

Props to that

Doesn't looking really good playing with AHL dmen doing something. How about elevating Gilberts play 14000% immediately after he got here.

I don't consider him a saviour and am not really sure he should be captain, but give the guy the credit he deserves. He played really well since he came over.

Had to chime in with my 2 cents from what I heard fans say on the radio and on here.

1. Pretty sure we can't trade Souray for a draft pick. Any team that takes Souray is going to be giving us Salary and/or a bad contract back. IT'S THE CAP ERA NOW

2. Boston is not going to trade their Second pick to the Oilers for any of the combinations: Souray, Hemsky, Penner, or O'sullivan, Horcoff, Nilsson.

They want their pick, and it's fairly obvious they want Hall.

3.Souray's response was ill-timed. It was done to hurt the team moving forward. It surely doesn't help his cause getting traded.

4. Tambo's generic (and tardy) response to Souray's comments almost reinforce Souray's allegations of a lack of communication from management to players. (I agree with Brownlee on this one).

RB I hope Tambo knows how to play poker, we all know that Boston wants Hall BAD, make Boston think you want Hall then try and get Lucic and the 2nd pick for Cogs and the 1st, gotta bluff once in a while

As I recall, Tambo said they took all the offers, or words to that effect, at the trade deadline, so no worries there. Not trading Souray, or any other player for that matter, in the summer, does not mean the Oilers necessarily want to much, but perhaps no one wants him at any price. Many other teams have those problems as well.

As for the other players having value, I notice none of them went at the trade deadling. what makes their value any more in the summer?

I am not willing to give Whitney all the credit for Gilbert's improved play, I think Gilbert had something to do with that. That being said, I agree Whitney has played well since coming here, but the calls for him to be the captain are way too premature.

I don't see what the problem is with Whitney. He showed good skill and determanation since his arrival, and as stated made Gilbert game reappear.

On a side note. Does anyone know, who the agents are for the following players; Heatley, Pronger, Nylander, Smyth and Souray?

Sorry to have to disagree with you again being as we both seem to be union orientated to a degree . Unions are losing the fights to the new wave of corporate culture , and have to reinvent themselves in the great opportunities the new culture can/is giving them . If we don't ,then unionism is also going to go the way of the "dodo " as long we are stuck to the old ways of doing business with the new wave . The new corporate culture (wave) is filling and recognizing all 4 types of employees ,and making the workplace in which all four catagories can achieve individual , team , corporate and busineess goals all in one neat package . It works and it is not going away anytime soon ! I'm not quite as old as Quinn , but probably older than yourself . I've adapted ,and see the far superiority of the new business culture over the old . It's time we all got into the new wave instead of being left behind trying to solve our problems the "old ways " . I don't need no "ad hoc " group or consultant to point out the obvious problem here . It is old school hanging on when we should be pressing forward with the brighter far superior in every way new corporate culture . Don't just take my word for it , Burke and Toronto are where we are for almost same reasons .

lol

How do you figure it reinforces the allegations because he was tardy to get to you?

Let's get whatever we can get for Souray and move on. Someone earlier mentioned Wade Redden for Souray. Hey, that works for me ... maybe.

Haven't seen Redden play in, like, three years, and so I have no idea if he's "brutal" or merely "mediocre." If he's the latter, I'd say there's room for him on the Oilers blueline right now. That said, I'm prepared to be shouted down on that because I think Redden has a LOT of term left.

As for whether or not Tambo should have ripped Souray a new one, well, I guess I can see Robin's point ... but only because he's in the media and it's his job to help provide the soapbox from which people stand and shout at one another. That's why it's fun to work in the media.

But, from an organizational standpoint, I can see why Tambo would want to take a higher road right now. Actually, I thought it was handled quite well by the Oilers on Tuesday - Tambo was the velvet glove and Quinn was the iron fist.

Interesting comment, about what I'm not sure, but interesting anyway, . . . Wait, was your point? Oh you're a flustrated spelling teacher?Is that it?

Sorry, my medication won't let me drink. Seems you might have forgot yours.

er, you do know that the allegation was lack of communication, no?

man I keep thinking about Grebeshkov and his crushed testie. I can only imagine what he said to the guys in Nashville after they learned that he played for another two periods after it happened.

"no big deal guys, if I was still in Edmonton they would have bag skated me and made me play for another week or two with a crushed nut. Two periods ain't nothin!!"

So your contention is that poor communication is better than appropriate communication, as long as it's delivered quickly?

With the fans?

Sorry, I thought Burke was from the new corporate culture? New corporate culture seems to have got us in as bad of problems as old culture. Old is not necessarily bad and new is not necessarily good.

Results, however count. Just as many new corporate cultures in the tank as old corporate cultures, at least telling from the financial pages. The problem is leadership and we live in a culture which defines leaders as old fashioned and a bad thing. See lots of politicians in government and business, old fashioned, new fashioned, but not so many leaders. Leaders take risks and fight for what they believe come what may, politicans don't. Seen any leaders in North America lately?

No. My contention is that appropriate communication IS timely, and must be so in order to be effective.

Why would I trade Hemsky to Columbus?

I assume Howson's a fan.
I know they could use a playmaker for Nash - whether a center or winger.
Columbus' 4th overall pick intrigues me.
There's enough young talent on both sides to possibly make an interesting deal - beginning (but not ending) with Hemsky for the 4th.

Sounds like you wouldn't trade him there? Just given the prior relationship with Howson, I'd think he could be given 1st crack. Of course, if Florida was tossing around their 3rd along with Nathan Horton's name, I'd be intrigued as well.

I just recently looked into this Gudbranson kid, and I'm impressed.

A lot of things change going into the summer. Free agents go to other teams leaving holes you didn't have in March. Players retire, players request trades, players come back from injury.

Teams take nose dives and fall out of playoff contention and decide to change things. All of those things can change the market considerably. The market in June is a lot different than the market in March.

It's all speculation at this point, but time will tell.

Do you think Gudbranson is ready for the NHL. If not I'm not sure the Oilers can afford to trade all proven talent. Do they just play kids next year ? I think we have to keep some good forwards to help develop the kids

Ummmm yeah, Crust pretty much hit the nail right on the head....

Glad you got what I meant

Just putting this out there, but why would we take money back for Souray? Why can't we just waive him at the beginning of the year and send him to the minors if there are no takers? it seems like taking money back, or Redden, seems counter productive, if we waive him, at least we have the full 5.4 mil to spend, and Souray realizes that no one wants him if he goes to the minors...his ego is way too big to actually report to the minors, so he would be in default of his contract and then we can get out of it, no? just a thought, I'm not exactly sure how it would work if he had to report to the AHL, and I know that Katz would still have to pay him the 4.5 mil he is owed, but at least we'd have the cap room to spend money on filling the holes we need to fill...

I actually never heard that. Here I thought I was all smart & making stuff up and Tencer & Stauffer already did it? WTF? Seriously though, I never heard them (don't usually listen in to Dan - he comes off as quite arrogant).

Good point about Tambo with the Velvet glove and Quinn with the iron fist, I never thought of it that way.

Also, I believe Redden has four years left on his contract....Souray not so much...

I don't think I would want to invest four years in Redden, but hey we did give Khabi 4 years...............

Cause the buyout is 1.5mm (edit - capgeek says cap hit 2.4 for 2 seasons, 1.5 for following 2)for the next 4 seasons. You can't 'waive' people, you can buy them out though. I think he has "some" value on a trade.

Souray's comments were published Monday. The Oilers issued a statement on Tuesday. I guess you and I don't see 'timely' the same way.

What a generic and non informative comment the Oilers released; pretty sure you are missing the point.

Why can't you send him to the minors? Then he gets put on waivers for 48 hours in which any team can pick him up. Like what Florida did with Macintyre. If someone picks him up, then we don't have to buy him out, hence we save money.

I wouldn't move Hemsky straight up for the 4th pick, but like I said, there's enoughyoung guys on either side to make things interesting... like say - along with the 4th, what does Hemsky & Cogliano get you?

I think we would be on the hook for half his salary on re entry waivers? So I guess in theory it would about the same idea.

@ Pokey Reddock

Juan Bourbon wrote:
How do you figure it reinforces the allegations because he was tardy to get to you?

Crust wrote:
er, you do know that the allegation was lack of communication, no?

Ender the Dragon wrote:
So your contention is that poor communication is better than appropriate communication, as long as it's delivered quickly?

Crust wrote:
No. My contention is that appropriate communication IS timely, and must be so in order to be effective.

Now that we're all up to speed, Crust appears to be picking on the delay in communication. I pointed out the Oilers responded the day after they heard about it. If you want to grief about the content, take it up with several others who have already asked what else the Oilers should have said. If you wish to be a part of this discussion, it's about timeliness. I think maybe I'm not the one missing the point.

ATTN: Anyone considering Wade Redden:

He literally has the worst contract in the league. Back away from the 'puter screen.

So you want a comment you like, or you want a comment? The Oilers replied as they saw fit. Just because you don't like the comment is not the same as saying they didn't comment. You can like it or not, that's your choice. They reply as they like, that's their choice. That's why we live in a democracy, to choose our own actions.

The article came out just after 12:00 a.m. Monday and the Oilers were asked for comment prior to the article being published. The Oiler statement came out at 4:00 p.m. Tuesday. So, yes I guess I would say that, given the statement that they gave, it didn't need to take 40 hours. Agree to disagree. :)

I would like to include Drury and Gomez in that category please.

I understand the frustration with Tambs generic response, but at the same time what is he supposed to say? That is an open question to everyone. I just want to know what response would have been suffice for the media and us the fans. I personally don't need him to say anything. Souray wants out, he made some allegations against management, Tambs said those allegations are untrue. I thought the statement was just fine. We know he wants out, we're going to work on that and we didn't pressure him to play hurt. Think that pretty much gets his stance across.

C'mon, guys. Let's move on from the "when-the-Oilers-should-have-responded-to-Souray" discussion.

Really, who cares? Souray's diatribe on Sunday was the opening volley in a game that's going to be played out all summer. I'm sure there will be more back-and-forth and it'll be up to beat reporters like Robin to help provide the stage for it (like I say, that's the fun part about being in the media). This ain't over yet.

Here's something to help put this Souray stuff in proper perspective: What Souray has done is pretty much exactly what guys named Messier, Coffey and Moog did back in the day (a lot of people forget that Messier was under contract when he asked for the trade; he wasn't a hold-out).

When that happens, you pretty much have to mitigate damage by minding your P's and Q's and working on getting the best deal. As I recall, Slats used to love the little wars-of-words with players - he seemed to relish in it. But, in the end, I'm not sure if he ever really accomplished very much ripping malcontents in the media, at least not in the later years.

If I'm Darryl Katz, I'd be a lot more satisfied that Tambo is working the phones on a Souray trade rather than his one-liners for the soapbox.

Because Katz (probably) doesn't want to pay a guy 4.5 million to play in the AHL.

~He needed to respond at 12:01 and tell us that Souray wanted out because he couldn't handle the fans.~

The last words 'Agree to disagree', and punctuated by a smilie. I really do like and respect that, and I don't want to be 'one of those guys' who needs to get the last word so feel free to respond and I will let it drop after this.

Just want to point out that Spector says Tambi "did not respond to a request to speak with sportsnet.ca Sunday evening." What does that mean exactly? Spector sent Tambellini a text or e-mail at 11:00PM right before running the story so that he could include that line when Tambi didn't run screaming to the phone to call him back?

The soonest management could reasonably discuss it was Monday, and Tambi had other things to get ready for besides just fielding Souray's comments. I'm sure there were several discussions over the tone to take and the pros and cons of being too harsh or skirting the issue too widely. By the next day they had decided on, among other things, what they felt was appropriate to say in the release, what they felt Quinn could be allowed to say to the press right away, and what it was better for Tambellini to say in person after the Lottery had been dealt with. Totally cool for people to second-guess their decision, but I don't think people can pick on the timeline too much. Saying the wrong thing without first discussing the effect could have been far worse for the organization.

Redden - KNOWN CLAUSES: NTC (can list eight teams he will not accept a trade to); 4 yrs left @ 6.5 cap hit; actual $ - 6.5,6.5,5.0,5.0; no-good anymore --> U-G-L-Y

Drury - KNOWN CLAUSES: NMC; only 2 years left @ 7.05 cap hit; actual $ - 8.0, 5.0; still useful, but grossly overpaid (a rich-man's Horcoff, lol) --> at least its only 2 more years

Gomez - KNOWN CLAUSES: NTC (can list three teams he will not accept a trade to); 4 years left @ 7.35 cap hit; actual $ - 8.0, 7.5, 5.5, 4.5; still useful, grotesquely overpaid --> pretty U-G-L-Y

And that genius Glen Sather signed all 3... boy, if he just had the Rangers budget, then he could do some damage, eh. Slats = perhaps the most over-rated GM in history.

If you're talking "for Souray" (who has 2 years left), why would Redden's name come up? At least Roszival (also a Slats signing) has the same 2 years left as Souray... ideally they could find a guy with only 1 year left (a la Brewer).

I don't see that the only choices Tambellini has are to remain silent or tear Souray a new one. What about addressing the problem Souray brought up?

I wouldn't mind them acknowledging that the possibly of a communication problem exists within the organization and that they are willing to try to improve it. I don't think such a statement would damage anybody and just might make the organization look better.

Not even close. Redden is in his own category. Then you can lump in bad/arguably bad contracts below him.

Looking at stats, maybe Drury can be in Reddens Group... but Gomez got 60 pts - just barely an overpay. Considering his average was only slightly above that before he signed his contract hes almost putting up expected value.

Thank god for NTC's.

And trading for Redden is worse than playing a disgruntled Souray. But Quinn likely wouldnt stand for it