We read a distressing article on SportsNet.ca this afternoon regarding the possible departure of “Big Sexy” Souray. With a little digging we found similar articles on every single publication of note and in the time honored fashion of joining the dog pile we thought we might kick around a few ideas of our own.

First of all we have to commend the fact that Souray is still keeping it real classy while examining the possibility of being dealt, careful not to shed any negative light on the hard up City of “Champions” and suggesting that he would prefer to remain an Oiler:

"I would consider Eastern teams," the three-time All-Star said. "It could be East or West. I mean maybe they keep me or maybe they don’t. They might do something or they might not do anything. For now it’s important to be professional. When I come to the rink I’m still proud to be an Oiler."

We wish that more players came to the rink proud to be an Oiler during the Great Depression of ’10. These are the words of someone who should be made Captain of the team, not sent packing.

We can’t believe that 79% of the OilersNation want Souray dealt out of town as per today’s poll. This is probably one of the most shocking poll results we have ever seen on this site and we would be interested to hear the rationale behind it. And by “interested to hear” we mean “shut your dirty smut mouths.”

Helpful hint for you NHL GMs in the audience: "Trade away the few work ethics on your losing team that you would want replicated. This will allow the new players you draft to be molded in the image of the garbage that has been left behind your roster." This strategy can be found in the NHL book of stratagems under "how to ruin an already last place team for years to come" or under "Toronto Maple Leafs HR strategy: 1967 to present."

Either way, it might be considered ill advised.

This dressing room isn’t exactly overflowing with role models at the moment and on the verge of the 2,538th youth movement in franchise history, we may want to keep a couple of these quality veterans around. Otherwise you will have players looking to the Patty O’Sullivans of the world for inspiration and really, is that a good idea?

Pretending for a moment we don’t think trading Sheldon Souray is another in a long line of mistakes round these parts, lets walk through some potential thought processes of where he could be dealt and for whom. Let’s begin with the relatively safe assumption that California is the main destination for #44 should he be forced out of town. Reports are surfacing that he has given such a list of teams to the Oilers 1,405 team executives and we would hypothesize it would include the following teams:

Let’s also assume that the top teams on Souray’s list have a reciprocal interest in the big defender and that there is a deal to be done with one or more of these teams. Talking with the local vagrants at the bus depot, we have come to a round table agreement that the Oil would get a big contract back in return, though the relative value of a Souray – as opposed to say a Horcoff – would mean that the Oil wouldn’t be forced to trade big crappy contract for big crappy contract. We are therefore hunting for an expensive player that the Oil would get in return, but with a relatively shorter term contract remaining.

In short: this should be a deal that the Oilers can actually win.

This certainly isn’t the only scenario of what could happen to Souray. Perhaps the Oilers will convince someone to trade a series of prospects for #44 or perhaps he will be a part of a muliplayer 7-team deal. But if the stories are piling up on his pending departure, it may be time to start considering what is going to come back this way in return. Hunting for some big contracts that could be traded for Souray was the premise under which we spent an hour moseying around on the interwebs, listening to the dulcet tones of The Clipse.

 

Destination: Anaheim

Trade Candidate: JS Giguere

Contract: $6,000,000 per season, signed through 2010-2011.

You just know that with Jonas Hiller making a big stink about being starter in the NHL – by playing well in net – and with Giguere making a big stink about not playing as a backup in the NHL – but not actually playing well in net – you could probably snag Giguere out of Anaheim. He has a big ticket contract but at 32 years old he may be the youngest NHL calibre starting goalie in recent Oilers history. Plus if Khabibulin’s injury is as bad as we have heard it is since we returned to town – and by some accounts he may be finished as an NHL goalie – a strong presence in net could be a great stop gap measure until some of these gargantuan Oilers contracts start to expire and they can get some cap room freed up.

Destination: Los Angeles

Trade Candidate: Matt Greene

Contract: $2,950,000 per season, signed through 2013-14

Matt Greene makes a whole lot of money for a whole lot of years. And though he is certainly a physical presence on the ice, we have a sneaking suspicion that this is one of those contracts the Kings might want to have off the books. Know who likes to give big contracts to defensemen? The Oilers. Know who has a soft spot for Matt Greene? The Oilers. Know who would like to toughen up a back end that is already softer than butter and is about to get even worse with the departure of Souray? The Oilers. We certainly don’t think Greene would be enough to be traded on his own, but we could see him coming back to Edmonton along with some prospects in the deep LA system should Souray be LA bound.

Who else would you consider? There would have to be a contract coming back in return for Souray but as we have already mentioned this could be one of the few trades that the Oilers could actually win. Only this is a trade that they shouldn’t make, cause they will so totally regret it later.

Oh and if you want to read a great article by Terry Jones that hits about eleven separate nails on the head click here.