Steve Tambellini: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Good

1. The major thing Steve Tambellini has done is give room and bullets to the amateur procurement department. His first trade (Garon to the Pens) and his most recent trade (Penner to the left coast) included draft picks (both 2011 selections) meaning MBS and his scouts have a better chance to find useful things.
2. Trade of Denis Grebeshkov to Nashville for a 2nd rd pick. Similar to what I discussed above, but this is worthy of a spotlight because the return was a 2nd in a good draft year. MBS turned that pick into Curtis Hamilton. Steve Staios deal is exactly the same kind of deal.
3. Claiming Ryan Jones off waivers. Jones has played in enormous luck and the advanced stats expose the conditions he’s playing in, but the results offensively have more than covered the waiver cost.
4. Trade of Lubomir Visnovsky for Ryan Whitney and the pick that turned into Brandon Davidson. Special circumstances here, coach Quinn liked his defenders to pass the puck up, so the sublime talents of Lubo served to gall the already galled coach for much of the time. Getting a younger veteran like Whitney and a depth pick was a nice return considering the situation.  
5. Lower level trades and signings for men like Colin Fraser and Kurtis Foster. Although neither worked out in year one, these were good bets and may end up paying dividends in year two. Fraser was low event (not a bad thing) and Foster struggled for many reasons but was a good soldier and should be better in 11-12.

The Bad

 

1. The 2009 deadline deal that sent away Erik Cole and a 5th rd pick for Patrick O’Sullivan and a 2nd rd pick. The 2nd rder was flipped in exchange for Ales Kotalik. It’s bad because this was a trade in an effort to improve for the stretch run and acquire a young, useful offensive player (O’Sullivan). Nothing about this trade worked, and two years later the other teams involved (Carolina, Los Angeles and Buffalo) all made out like bandits compared to the Oilers.
2. Trading Kyle Brodziak at the draft and then spending two seasons trying to find Kyle Brodziak. You know the player Edmonton is looking for this summer? You know, 2-way forward who can PK and help out a little on offense? Win some faceoffs? That guy? Yeah. Kyle Brodziak. Dealt at the 2009 draft for the picks that turned into Kyle Bigos and Olivier Roy. You can’t trade people from your NHL roster if there is no one to replace them.

The Ugly

1. The major item for this Oiler fan was the Khabibulin signing. I liked the goalie, but not the money and not the term. A rational signing would be coming off the books by now.
2. Firing Craig MacTavish and replacing him with Pat Quinn. A disaster, a complete disaster. When you bring in a coach to help young players and they don’t progress, the cost is enormous. It was so bad the Oilers had to make the move to Renney ahead of schedule. Long term negative impact on the team.
3. Keeping Kelly Buchberger over Charlie Huddy. I’m not sure if it was a cost consideration or maybe the Oilers just don’t like defensemen, but the club had some young blue who were on track when Huddy was here who have stagnated since he left. It would behoove the Oilers to re-hire Huddy in his previous role should he come available this summer.
4. The handling of Sheldon Souray’s situation. I can only guess about the reaction from NHL players to the year long trip to Chocolate land. This sort of thing doesn’t help the Oilers reputation, already negative due to things like the Comrie cash grab and the Smyth $100,000 game.

WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?

• Robin Brownlee:  "Just Saying: Might the Oilers look at trading the 19th pick in the first round this year and their first pick in 2012, which figures to be anything from a fifth to a 10th pick, to get a second top-five pick in Minny? More on that to come."