This is Ales Kotalik, the player currently slotted on the left wing of Ales Hemsky and Shawn Horcoff.

Let's compare him with Liam Reddox, fringe NHL'er, at even-strength. To make this fair, we'll pretend that both players have played a full 82 games this season, and have played the same amount of ice-time (12:00 minutes a night, say) and have only played at even-strength. How would their scoring numbers compare?

Kotalik

2007-08: 82GP - 12G - 8A - 20PTS
2008-09: 82GP - 7G - 11A - 18PTS

Reddox

2008-09: 82GP - 10G - 11A - 21PTS

The point I'm making should be obvious. It is beyond me how the Hockey Operations department of the Edmonton Oilers does not understand that Ales Kotalik is not a scorer at even-strength. It doesn't surprise me in the slightest that there was nary a word critical of the Kotalik trade in the Edmonton media, though.

After all, he's friends with Hemsky, right?