Welcome to the den Mr. and Mrs. Grizzley. And remember just say no to CRACKer jacks.

Hindsight had nothing to do with it. The Season Roli left he had a .915 save percentage and played 3/4 of all the games for the Oil. He hadnt lost the job, he was playing well by the measurable standards. I probably was in the minority, and I do deserve to take a bow. I wont though, because I'm simply too humble to accept that kind of deserved and public recognition.

I've said it before, I understand why the Oil went another direction, but not every one of us was ready to exile Roloson to a remote part of Siberia* because he was done as a player. I thought they were planning on going younger, or better. They went with neither. At least not young enough to matter anyway, but definitely not better.

*That is what you do with the elderly, right?

At the time, I was also against giving Roloson a multi year deal - i just didn't think it was worth the risk given his age and the potential cap consequences of a multi-year 35+ contract.

So, I was fine with teh decision to walk away from Roli, or at least to wait and see what the market looked like before committing to a multi year deal to a 35+ goalie.

Then the Oilers signed a different 35+ goalie to a richer, longer contract, a move I agreed with even less than a multi year deal for Roli.

So (and this IS hindsight, but hindsight on July 1, 2009, not today) I would have much rather seen the Oilers sign Roloson to a 2 year deal earlier that day than what turned out to be the alternative, the 4 year deal to Khabibulin.

Regarding hindsight on the Khabibulin - there were an awful lot of people against it as soon as it was announced. Here are two LT links, one to the general 2009 UFA day thread where the signing broke:

http://lowetide.blogspot.com/2009/07/were-not-jet-set.html (comment re: Khabi signing start on the 2nd page)

and two, the Khabi specific thread:

http://lowetide.blogspot.com/2009/07/oilers-sign-bulin-wall.html

those links have a lot of comments, and are pretty long, but it's interesting reading if anyone's interested.

I wanted to see how clairvoyant I was, so I went back to see if I remembered my take on Roli correctly. I did.

Ender wrote:

Why are people unhappy with this? I figure that Roli will see the writing on the wall and accept this [1-year] offer fairly soon. For anyone who thinks this is a mistake, your memories are all very short. For one season, there is no reason to think Roli cannot deliver the same performance as last year, and Roli earned his cheque last year. Let's put the puzzle piece in place, be happy the hole is filled, and move on to the real problems the Oilers still need to address.

I was wishy-washy about signing him for 2-years, but I honestly didn't think he'd get a lot of other offers.

As I looked up my quote, I decided to see what some other famous people had to say that day. This one caught my eye.

Archaeologuy wrote:

Roli can play another year, he was mostly very good this year, but any attempt to strong arm a 2 yr deal ought to be met with an indignant laugh. It should feel like when the chunky kid in highschool asked out the most popular girl in the 12th grade. I like Roli, although i did think that Garon was going to have a good year last year (blew that one), but he needs to recognize that the Oilers already gave him a longer contract that anyone was going to 3 years ago. Its time for a little reality check.

In reading all the comments, know who the biggest Roli supporter was that day? None other than our very own Wanye. Dictator for life and blessed with precognition as well. Who knew?

Indeed I believe I wrote that.

Like I said earlier, I completely understand why the Oilers walked away from Roloson, but I didnt think he was done. I thought he didnt have a leg to stand on as far as bargaining a new contract was concerned. I thought at that stage of his career he wasnt going to get more than a year at a time. He was getting older and there were other goalies on the market that year, not just NK. I was definitely in the "Play Hardball" camp (as evidenced above), but even Ender's quote starts off with "Roli can play another year".

All I said to Monsieur Zarf was that I didnt think he was "done with" as a player at the end of 08/09.

Zarf's response at comment 34 outlines the idea that most fans thought he was done and sulking over losing his job to Garon. In his Final year as an Oiler Roli won back his job as the starter and played 60+ games with a .915 save%. All I'm arguing is the reason why I as a fan was generally OK when he wasnt re-signed.

Have to think pushing Roli out the door like they did, then signing a goaltender with a wonky back, Steve successfully drove this team hard and fast into the mud. Leaving duties in the hands of two kids that were in over their heads sortof makes you wonder doesn't it? If this was Steves plan then he it worked to perfection, we have Taylor Hall today partly because of this decision. Tambellini probably figured Khabibulin would've retired by now and the remaining cap hit would be of little consequence.

I feel Khabby has one more playoff run left in those bones within the next two yrs.

I completely agree. Here's some snippets from Wanye that day supporting the theory:

Wanye wrote:

2006-07 (27 wins)2.75 GAA 0.909 PCT 2007-08 (15 wins)3.05 GAA 0.901 PCT 2008-09 (28 wins)2.77 GAA 0.915 PCT

27 and 28 wins in his last two full seasons (when Garon wasn't messing with his starter's job) and a steady save % that improved last year.

He is actually remarkably consistent.

This team has a boat load of holes but goaltending isn't one of them.

Wanye wrote:

There is an absolute vacuum of goaltending prospects in the system behind Roloson - who will not be an option as a starter in a couple of years simply due to his age and the physical demands of being a starting goalie 55 games + per year. If you look at the players currently in the system and ask "how is goaltending in 4 years" the answer is "probably crappy."

If someone wants to say this is a real problem for the team in the goaltending department I can see this. But all this Roloson criticism of his current play is absolute garbage.

We don't have to sit here and argue that he is Vezina material year after year - fine. But to say that Roloson is in some way responsible for the problems on the ice these past three years is nonsense.

If I was Roloson and I knew how I had performed as an Oiler and I saw how fickle the fans here are - alternating between standing ROLI chants and demanding he be sent out of town on the next thing smoking - I would tell my agent to send me to a better team with a more stable fan base where I could play out my career in peace with an outside chance of winning the Cup.

But no, instead Roloson actually wants to remain here despite the shabby treatment from the Coaching Staff and large sections of the fan base.

I think you are giving Tambellini way to much credit.

I had thought the Oiler's let Rolie go more because of attitude or personality more than anything else. One year or two year contract - it's really not a big deal unless you have someone waiting in the wings.

To me it was the only explanation because he was performing well enough.

This the type of intangible us regular fans are not privy to.

Having said that, I heard during a TB broadcast the past few days that he's terrific in the dressing room.

off topic but for me the whole Roli the Goalie thing is such old news...like the Souray stupidity, build a bridge and get over it!

...i was wondering how the fan base at our sister site Canuck Army was doing, what with their team waiting to go to the Western Final for the first time in 17 years and all...!!!

would we be out of our minds right now if our team was in that position...maybe?

...in the last five offerings to the site by their voices, of their nation, there have been a total of NINE comments...NINE!... two outta the five stories written about their beloved teams' battle with the mighty Predators had ZERO comments...the last one offered by an "Alix" when the nucks won the game and finally closed out the Preds in kinda dramatic fashion (i'm NOT a fan) has three comments...two from one of their writers and one from the author of this last piece...jus' sayin'

Vancouver Fans? = MONUMENTAL FAIL

This management will not sign a goalie as they are not interested in putting a quality product on the ice. Example 1- Khabibulin and Dubnyk playing last year with Gerber in the minors. Your best players play regardless of salary and if its about developing them let them develop in Oklahoma. It's evident Khabibulin is only her for money and isnt interested in putting any effort into stopping pucks. Dubnyks size is the only thing that keeps him here I'm sure they're hoping the skill come to match up with the size, but it probably won't.(Ray Whitneys father showed more promise at 40 years old practicing with the team 25 years ago, probably at par now) Example 2- Chris van de velde playing in the NHL leads me to think Tambelini and Lowe are playing a game like the two guys in the movie Trading Places. Take any loser off the street and try and pass him off as an NHL player. This while Giroux and Macdonald are in the minors.

they do send them to siberia, to be youth-anized! doesn't that sound great? get to be young again in a mysterious land of siberia, sounds all kinds of warm and fun!!!!

No.. this site just hasn't caught on there as it has in EDM and CGY. Check out Nucks Misconduct. Lots of action there.

*Ponders how to take down Nucks Misconduct in order to further the Nation*

Macdonald did't have an NHL contract so he couldn't come up, and Giroux had 2 points in 8 games and not exactly lighting it up. Khabibulin was to be our #1... Dubnyk was to be developing. I suspect we will see that change next year.

There won't be another goalie here, but Dubnyk will play more if he deserves it.

I think Fasth would be a great signing for the oil. We have several swedish players who would help make the transition that much easier.

One Player im surprised nobody is talking about right now is Jaromir Jagr. Yes hes 39, but he is lighting up the world championship and has said he would give the oilers first shot if he were to come back. Who better to tutor our many young players? He brings a ton of experience and would be a deadly combo with hemsky. We draft Nugent Hopkins and then there is no pressure to rush him into the lineup and gives you some time to possibly deal sam gagner.

The oilers instantly become a better team adding Fasth and Jagr.

RileyWAxMaN...thankyou

...to think that The Nation Network "hasn't caught on"...i ponder as well...share with me the interweb "takedown" subtrafuge...

i won't tell anyone...

Jagr doesn't fit the oilers plans, even he scoffed at the idea when Dan Barnes put it to him recently at the WHC. I believe teams like Montreal, Pittsburgh or NYR are more suited to sign him to a 1 year contract if he is considering coming back to the NHL. He has never been known for his work eithic and wouldn't be a good fit here IMO.

Now THIS is how you enter a discussion.

BOOM

I see what you are saying here. We try and let the Nation moderate its own. The people who read this site do an excellent job of running off trolls and keeping the inappropriate talk to a minimum and keeping censorship and deleting comments as rare as possible.

SWEET LORD - I wrote that?

*scratches head, tries to remember past*

Have seen you on another site. Welcome, BJG. To the only site you need. Although you probably won't see this sinc..... BJG is out.

Although the Oil are still over a season away from having any chance at competing for the playoffs, I do think they need to start making a few moves to position themselves for '12-'13 and beyond.

Like LT suggests, one of those key moves is in goal. Waiting Khabbi's contract to expire or hoping that Dubnyk turns into a solid #1 just isn't an option.

LT makes a good case for Fasth. Prying one of those 'tenders out of Washington is intriguing. I do highly doubt however that Ilya Bryzgalov is willing to pen up to play for us given his delicate skin and sensitivity to non-tropical climates. What a puss.

Souray threw the team management under the bus, and whether he was right or wrong, I would bet in the tens of dollars that he won't be playing in an Oiler uniform again.

And if you mean Grebeshkov by Grebby, I think you have him confused with MA Bergeron, unless I am missing out on a joke somewhere.

I can see how you missed the season where Rollie ran Garon's show out of town.

Repressed memory is a common symptom of those exposed to events to horrible to comprehend, like watching the Oilers play on a regular basis the last 5 years. That, or the blackouts resulting from the heavy drinking that watching those same games caused.

Roli was solid for the Oilers in his last year here, his numbers reflect that fact. He was good enough that the Oilers offered Roli a one year deal at a reported 3M. He wanted 2 years and turned it down, signing with NYI for 5 over 2 years. The Oilers didn't sign Roli because he took more money to play an extra season, not because the Oilers didn't want him

I didn't really mind the stand the Oilers took about the one year deal, yet it looked like a ridiculous decision after they paid even more for a longer term on a just slightly younger guy.

@ Lowetide

Can you see a scenerio where we sign Fasth and then ship Khabby to Philly for a guy like Scott Hartnell.

I think the deal makes sense for two reasons: (1) Philly sheds about 500K in cap space and (2) They then have a vetern "Russian goalie" to help out their young Russian goalie Bobrovsky.

I pick a guy like Hartnell only because he was rumoured to have waived his no movement clause to come here for Souray....then something happened...."sigh."

Does it really matter if we sign Fasth? What will make us better is replacing Khabibulin, with whomever.

Fact is, if they were willing to demote Khabibulin, we'd be signing Gerber up to actually play in the NHL, he was perfect for us last year. A tandem of Dubnyk (1) - Gerber (2) would be a HUGE upgrade over Khabibulin (1) - Dubnyk (2), and they said no to that.

I just don't see how they go after Fasth with any conviction, I think we're dreaming here.

That deal makes sense for everyone but the Flyers.

SWEET LORD - I wrote that?

*scratches head, tries to remember past*

...was this bit of prose written before you got

the dancing bear?

DEAD KENNEDY'S!!I think I may have a man crush

Why wouldn't Philly just sign Fasth.

No one, no one, wants an under performing convicted felon with two years left on a contract that pays him at least double his market value.

No one.

The Oilers are still over a season away from competing for 14th in the division.

As long as they employ management who believe Khabibulin is MVP material, JFJ is an actual hockey player and the best way to raise kittens is to drown them, 12-13 is just a pipe dream.

Why would any straight thinking UFA want to walk into that mess?

Good topic to read, props on you all. Some very good ideas and insight. I got a goalie for ya all. What about trying to pry Josh Harding out of Minny? I read that he was an unhappy camper there and wanted to be moved. I’m too lazy to look up stat’s, but I recall him being a very good goalie. He’s NHL ready, proven and cold winters apparently don’t bother him.

Harding had season ending surgery.Hip I believe.

Well then....That sux!

Fans need a goat. A witch to burn.

Remember before the season started the ideas being tossed around in the blogosphere of a straight up trade of Khabibulin for Tim Thomas? Bruins fans seemed keen on the idea as well.

Roloson is showing what an old-timer can do with determination on his side. Thomas picked himself off the floor, wiped his bloodied nose, and then proceeded to Chuck Norris™ the crap out of the leagues best scorers.

Khabibulin had a bad year, but so did everyone on the team. We don't need a goalie. We need some healthy defensemen who can cover the wide open man tapping pucks in the net all season on our poor goalies. The Oilers could splice the DNA of Patrick Roy and Terry Sawchuck with some Jesus H. Christ sprinkled in there for good measure and stick that creation in net and they would still be 35+ points out of a playoff spot! This is a team game and our team was shitaneously horrible. Barring health or legal problems, it should be Khabibulins job to lose next season, with more responsibility given to Dubnyk. This would be a more prudent plan than chasing him out of town with torches and pitchforks.

Khabibulin is done? Try and tell HIM that face to face over a bottle of vodka. I'm taking a page from Wanye's book and standing up for my goalie. Khabibulin isn't done. Not like that.

A lot of you are commenting how Nucks Nation is a bit slow. It is an easy fix During the next series and the final if some how they pull off a shocker. Go to the Nucks Nation website and spew a few comments. It will produce action then Nucks fans will show up and shoot back. I am not saying you have to be nice or pretend you are not Oil fans just create some heat. Why Because when we get in to a Western Final with the Nucks it will be fun to go over there and RUB IT IN THEIR FACES when we go to the Finals and Win the Silver! Besides Rivalry's are Good and Calgary could be a while!

Waxman and myself went over there during game seven of the Chicago series and i think we had the comments over 35 with just the two of us. We had a field day with the the one guy that shot back at us but alas he had the last laugh.

I was just over and Replied to an "12 Questions post it was such fun giving my unbiased opinion on why I feel Vancouver is not Canada's team. OilersNation Show some rivalry spirit! Go over there.

Who is responsble for throwing the entire team under the bus ? Who drove down their worth , and why we are stuck with downgrades and AHL players for fill ins because of it. Who over reacted and sent to many packing at the same time , at a low cost to other clubs because he couldn't keep his mouth shut about the toxic environment here ? One thing to try and save your own ass to maintain a job here , but another story to trash your team and thus it's value to get even money , etc. when you try and rid them away . One mistake after another followed because someone other than a player couldn't keep things inside until after they tried to deal off those veterans he wanted to despose of . Who screwed up far more severely in his vendatta against his own players ?

That's true. The seasons are starting to meld together. Thanks to you (and others) for setting me straight on when exactly it was that Garon's play had Rolly sulking.

But am I not correct about Rolly pulling his kids out of school early in anticipation of a move to a place Anywhere That's Not Edmonton? Did that not happen? I seem to recall reading that somewhere in the print media at the time.

Given my rather spotty memory of seasons-past, I don't want to hang myself out on another limb, but I would suggest to you that a one-year offer from the Oilers represents the bare-minimum level of interest, for obvious reasons.

You're right about Rolly's numbers that last season. They were solid. Better than anything that NK has put up.

But that one-year offer to Rolly spoke volumes. It suggests that the Oilers weren't overly impressed with the numbers or the attitude or the birth certificate or some combination thereof.

I'm with you - I wasn't offended by the Oilers' offer of a one-year deal because it was prudent. I also thought that the NK deal was reasonable, too ... at the time.

NK was a couple of years younger, he'd won a Cup and, above all, was willing to come here. Really, the only bad things that were being said at the time was NK's potential for injury. And that's a gamble you take with signing guys in their 30s.

Above all, I think we (and I include myself in that group) probably fuss over that NK deal a bit too much. The Oilers rolled the dice on him and they lost ... at least so far. Maybe there's a rebound season in NK somewhere. Maybe not.

Wanye wrote:

SWEET LORD - I wrote that?

Indeed you did. Even if it were unsigned, the use of the word 'shabby' is a dead giveaway.

You were also pretty snarky that day. The good kind of snarky - the kind that makes milk shoot out of people's noses. In the interest of keeping the peace I left that stuff out, but it's a great read someday if you're bored and want to remember the good ol' days when you didn't care what people thought.

Wanye wrote:

Oh is that how the draft works? Thank you for taking time out of your busy day at MENSA to explain it to me. Perhaps you could clearly articulate this inconsistency you mentioned without any supporting fact yet again.

You know, if you can put down the two rubiks cubes you are simultaneously solving.

[reflects]

Sooooooo . . . I guess nothing's changed after all . . .

Edit: Arch had some fire back then too. Couldn't help but chuckle reading nuggets of solid gold like "A monkey with a learning disability could have figured out that MacT should have been fired years ago." Fantastic stuff. I may have to go away from reading the new articles and just start poring over the archives.

Of the players that were let go last year or were sent to the minors,who exactly did we miss?Moreau?O'Sullivan?Pisani?Or was it the slow footed,injury prone Souray?Surely you don't think he would have made a big difference if only the Oilers could have got him in the lineup for 30 games. When you are a last place hockey team and you are getting rid of bad players what exactly do you expect in return?A first round pick for O'Sullivan?By putting Souray on recallable waivers Tambo was giving him away for FREE and pay half his salary.NOBODY wanted him.

Yeah, I re-read that too. I sure was fired up back then.

We were all testy having almost won Stanley to living in the bottom of the cesspool again can make any person whom expects winning to be the norm to get a bit testy.

I'd love to see Khaby go to Europe or Russia like Huet did this season.

As for adding NHL vets this offseason, I'd say it's a bit more likely we'll be discussing Nail Yakupov with our 1st pick this time next year.

Just add the Roli/Khabby decision to the growing pile of gaffs, goofs and blunders. We are sticking to "the plan". Alrighty then!! Where do I sign up for my season tickets?

LT. Nice shot of the recently defeated Liberal. I still say his book "The game" was one of the best hockey books ever written.

Smartest goalie... Ever. Invented the value of position play.

DD hasn't sold me as the future. Apparently he didn't sell Team Canada after watching him in practice. He doesn't cover across the slot passes well enough for my taste.

The Oil better draft Perhonen or Gibson.

I had forgotten how many people liked that signing at first.

I was against it at the time but I understood why people liked it. They all saw the name Khabibulin that had won a cup and had some pretty remarkable playoff series early in his career. Most people hadnt seen him much or knew much of his career those past few years since the cup to see how injury prone and washed up he had become. It was clear in the few games I'd seen him play and the numbers he was putting up that he was an inferior goalie to what we had at the time and that he was unlikely to get better.

I cant believe that the Oilers pro scouts were as blind as the vast majority of fans who hadnt been keeping track of him.