Credit where credit is due, this skit form the 2010 NHL Awards is actually quite hilarious. It must make Kevin Lowe’s eyes bleed to see Bobby Ryan upright, a force in the NHL and sporting a silver medal. But it could be worse.

You could be placing your Captain on waivers.

Let’s take a moment to allow all of this to settle in shall we?

In addition to sporting the unfortunate initials P.O.S, Patrick O’Sullivan disappointed in his first year as an Oiler scoring 11 goals and adding 23 assists for a total of 34 points in 73 games. The fact that the Oilers would place the 6th highest point collector from last year on waivers is testament to how frustrating ol’ Patty von Frustratington had become to Coaches and Team Brass alike.

The flashes of brilliance that POS would display from time to time made his other wise ghost like play all the worse. If someone is just plain bad, you can simply say aloud "oh that guy? It’s not his fault he (INSERT GAFFE HERE). He just plain sucks. Other fans will nod solemnly, agreeing that you can’t blame a crappy player for being crappy any more than you can blame the Sun in the sky for shining so brightly.

But if that same crappy player can occasionally light the lamp, take a guy wide on the outside or make an all world pass it becomes one of those things that eventually leads your Head Coach getting "sideways promoted" and gets you bought out of an expensive contract.

We really had hoped you would fit in on this team Patrick. But your compete level registered somewhere between "really really low" and "none."

Don’t let the you know what hit you in the you know where.

Ah Robert Nilsson. How high our hopes were for you too once upon a time. You buttery soft 25 year old waste of exceptional skills, we now see how wrong we were. Speaking of low compete levels, you are one of the worst we have ever seen. If your heart was half of your skills you would be a perennial 20 goal scorer in the NHL.

Instead you are being bought out of your contract after 252 career games.

Good work.

We actually owe you a special debt of gratitude as it was your arrival in Edmonton as part of the Ryan Smyth trade that led to the eventual creation of the OilersNation. When our beloved Ryan Smyth was dealt the only news on oilers.nhl.com was annoucning that "The Oilers acquire Robert Nilsson." The subsequent rage we felt as a fan begat a Ryan Smyth protest site which begat the Nations. Thank you for that "Sir."

Buying you out won’t bring our favourite Oiler of all time back, but it is a start in erasing the past 4 seasons of our life.

Placing your Captain on waivers to start the buyout process is either a) truly the only move left at your disposal or b) classless. For the life of us we can’t figure out which category this falls under.

It must be noted that Ethan Moreau has been a tremendous Oiler during his eleven years in Edmonton. There are very few players who have been able to bounce back from such horrifying injuries as Moreau, nor are there many who make as positive an impact in the community. Anyone who comes on here and chirps a guy like Ethan Moreau needs to have their heads examined and then possibly bashed in.

It is astounding to look at the career of Moreau and see where things have ended up. Sure scoring 9-9-18 in 76 games isn’t exactly lighting the world on fire. Sure being -18 on the worst team in the entire NHL isn’t something you would ask to have mentioned at your retirement dinner.

But placing the Captain on waivers? Really? We can’t ever recall a team doing something like this. Warranted or not, you would think that the 12th Captain in a storied franchise such as this deserves better. The dignity of departing via trade – even for a late round draft pick – should have been extended to the guy.

Don’t tell us you couldn’t get anything in return Steve. The Captain deserves better.

We will leave the in depth post mortems to the heavyweights. But today truly marks a changing of the guard. And it also shows that the Oilers won’t be taking the "less pressure on the kids" route of development next year.

Rather than potentially allowing Eberle, MPS, Hall and Omark the option of playing a year in the AHL with less pressure, these 3 roster holes – plus failing to offer Potulny and Pouliot offers – now has 5 forward spots wide open for the taking come training camp.

Ready or not – get ready for the kids.