Ryan Spooner signs in Switzerland with HC Lugano

Earlier today, word broke on Twitter that former Oiler, @Ryan Spooner, had a signed a contract in the Swiss league with HC Lugano and I couldn’t help but laugh at the news… and maybe cry a little bit.

If you want another reminder of how bad Peter Chiarelli was at his job then look no further than the way the Ryan Spooner trade worked out for the Edmonton Oilers. After starting the 2018-19 season in a scoring drought that wouldn’t last, @Ryan Strome was shipped off to New York with ol’ Cuddles coming back our way as a means to kickstart the offence, gain some team speed, and get the boys back on track. Instead, what actually happened was that Spooner was infinitely worse than Strome ever was and ended up finishing his time with the franchise down in Bakersfield before eventually being moved to Vancouver. Needless to say, the Ryan Spooner experiment was a horrible one.

Fast forward to today and the Oilers are still looking for a third line centre to play behind McDraiNuge, which would have been a perfect slot for Ryan Strome. Rather than having that guy already on the roster, Ken Holland is forced to dig through the bargain bin to try and find someone capable of anything other than being useless. And yeah, you can certainly say that the emotional lift of bringing @Sam Gagner back to Edmonton in exchange for Spooner was a nice little light at the end of the dark tunnel that was the 2018-29 season, but I don’t know how much Samwise can reasonably be expected to help the team win more games come October. Obviously, I hope I’m wrong but I’d rather have Ryan Strome right now, wouldn’t you? *sigh* Thanks, Pete.

After being drafted 45th overall by the Boston Bruins back in 2010, Spooner amassed 48 goals and 119 assists in 325 regular season games with four NHL franchises.