The Oilers Trade Philip Larsen… Whaaaaa?

In surprising news, the Oilers have traded the rights to ghost of Oilers past Philip Larsen to the Vancouver Canucks for a conditional 5th round pick in 2017. Who had Philip Larsen in their Oilers trade pool?

I was just about to leave the office when I checked Twitter one last time and discovered that the Edmonton Oilers had traded the rights to defenseman Philip Larsen to the Vancouver Canucks for a 5th round pick. Who even remembered Philip Larsen? I bet if you asked Peter Chiarelli honestly he wouldn’t have remembered until recently that trading Larsen was on the menu.

In case you forgot, and I’m assuming you did, Philip Larsen played 32 games for the Oilers during the 2013-14 season. In that time, the mini defenseman registered three goals and nine assists. He spent the season going through waivers, and left for the KHL the following summer, never to be heard from again. I mean, unless you’re blogger extraordinaire Jonathan Willis that wrote about Larsen over at the Journal. Hockey blogger robots aside, who’s been thinking about Larsen?

From where I sat, I think the fact that Peter Chiarelli got anything for a guy that wasn’t in the plans was amazing. A fifth round pick? For Philip Larsen? Cool! Who doesn’t appreciate a few more magic beans? We could always use more beans. It was all exciting until I saw this:

Another ringing endorsement for how the Edmonton Oilers have been run over the years. Not that we should be surprised that the worst team in hockey has also had the worst management. Seeing that Philip Larsen wouldn’t feel coming back to the Oilers just kind of fits, ya know? That being said, I also find it hilarious that a fringe NHLer would look a gift horse in the mouth, but what do I know. 

At the end of the day, the Oilers have another asset in the bank and Jim Benning’s gradual decent into madness continues. In a matter of days Benning has traded a prospect for a plug, and a draft pick for a man boy questionable defenseman. In the very least this trade tells us that the Canucks have a man in charge that may drive them into the ground, and that’s all that we can really hope for.