Il voce nuevo

There’s going to be a new voice in the radio booth for the Edmonton Oilers on 630 CHED this season—and no, HHOF broadcaster Rod Phillips, who we profiled at Oilersnation the other day, isn’t going anywhere.

What I’m hearing is Phillips long-time colour man, Morley Scott, won’t be back for the 2008-09 season and that an announcement to that effect could be made by the team as early as Friday.

If that’s the case, and I believe it is, that’s another hole to fill with Oilers broadcasts on radio and TV for the coming season.

Sportsnet is already looking for a replacement for Ray Ferraro, the highly regarded analyst for Oilers TV telecasts for the last several seasons.  While play-by-play man Kevin Quinn will be back after signing a new contract, as will host Gene Principe, Ferraro leaves big shoes to fill as he moves along to TSN.

The candidates to take over for Ferraro likely include former NHLer and Edmontonian Rob Brown, who has done analysis on Oilers pay-per-view, former Oiler Louie DeBrusk and Scott, who has done some play-by-play on pay-per-view.

As for who’ll ride shotgun as the analyst with Phillips on 630 CHED, that’s anybody’s guess—especially since Scott’s exit hasn’t been made official by the team yet.

I obviously don’t get a say in who’ll take over for Scott, but I know who I’d hire—if I was the Oilers I’d be looking at Bob Stauffer, the opinionated and connected host of Total Sports on Team 1260.

Hiring Stauffer works on several levels. First, Stauffer knows his stuff. Second, if you’ve heard his call of Golden Bears hockey and football, he knows his way around a microphone in a game situation, not just in the afternoon drive-time format.

Finally, snapping up Stauffer would put a helluva dent in TEAM 1260’s roster—his afternoon show has the best numbers of the three sports talk call-in shows at 630 CHED’s main rival.

I don’t know if the Oilers would consider such a move, seeing as Stauffer has long been one of the most vocal critics of the team—or if he’d be interested—but if they want a guy who can make their radio product better, he’s it.

Global TV’s Kevin Karius has also done some good work in the radio booth alongside Phillips when Scott moved over to pay-per-view, but I can’t see him leaving his gig and there’s no way he could juggle his desk work on the tube with the demands of an 82-game season.

The only other candidate I can think of with any ties to the Oilers would be Brian Munz, who did play-by-play with the Edmonton Road Runners of the AHL during the 2004-05 season. Last I checked, though, he was working the mike with the Manitoba Moose.

Stay tuned.