Trade Talk

Peter Adler cut through the doldrums of summer like a hot knife through butter last night. An actual trade rumor involving the Edmonton Oilers. Music!

Adler’s article is here. When I read it last night I decided to ignore it, as if looking away would somehow make it come true (watched pot and all that). This morning, I read it again and noticed that Spector’s picked it up (adding to the credibility: EJ and Spector’s are actual places where you can read things that have a snowball’s chance in hell of coming true) which is always a good sign.

Late this afternoon (after a hard day’s work–my business picks up this time of year) I allowed myself a look at capgeek to see if "The Who By Numbers" would give me a clue:

Not bad. Not bad at all. Add a pick and we’ll take Nylander’s wife! Then I’m reminded that those damn Canucks are involved (freaking Canucks, get your own rumor) with Kevin Bieksa:

Oilers get Bieksa and Nylander (plus 2nd for taking Nylander family), Canucks get Fleischmann, Caps get Souray and Cogliano.

OILER BENEFITS: Offload the Fonz (as named by Bob Stauffer earlier today) and get back an NHL calibre defenseman with one year left on his contract. Also receive Nylander, for which a nice draft pick should be included. More free dollars next summer, but Mr. Katz won’t be able to rotate the tires on the Batmobile this winter.

CANUCKS BENEFITS: Make room for Willie Mitchell by sending away Bieksa (they’ll need to IR Salo and make sure his household receives everything Ron Popiel ever offered) and get back a nice piece up front. More moves to come, but it makes Vancouver better overall and they do save $1.15M on this deal.

CAPS BENEFIT: Offload Nylander ("getting rid of the Albatross, sowing the seeds of discontent!") and Fleischmann for a nice tough defenseman with a leather jacket and maybe someone who can help up front in Cogliano. They also save some money (about 1M) depending on how much Andrew C. wants for his next contract.

Possible? Probably not. A nice dream? You bet.