… simply on the basis that the hole he left on LW still hasn’t been filled. Oilers have had some pretty good defencemen come in since they pulled the plug on Hejda. Of course it was a mistake, I really liked what I saw of Hejda as an Oiler, and in retrospect he would be a better, cheaper option than Staios or even Gilbert or Grebs for that matter. But our top 6 as currently constructed is pretty solid … or would be, if they were ever all healthy. Seems to me Hejda has himself had some health issues though. Unfortunately, he suffered a major injury (dislocated shoulder?) in his one year here, and was one of the many blueliners in the pressbox as the Oilers came apart down the stretch in ’06-07. It was a double blow: Oilers missed him on the ice, and Hejda lost an opportunity to prove himself as a keeper. He was really coming on, making a real solid pair with Gator, and was starting to look like part of the solution before he became part of the problem.

GlenX on the other hand was nothing but healthy while he was here and played a major role as the Oilers went on that terrific stretch drive in ‘07-08. Oilers fourth line went from meh or worse to a real force, frequently dominating their counterparts both physically and in terms of puck possession/zone time. He was a natural LW of which we’ve had far too few around here: Penner and Moreau remain, but Cole, Pisani and pretty much all the smurfs prefer the right side (or the middle). In the time since GlenX left we’ve seen the likes of Pouliot, Strudwick, Smid, Peckham and MacIntyre* playing out of position on 4LW, as that gap has never been properly filled. Our fourth line has gone from a strength back to meh, while our third and second lines continue to beg for a solid LW.

That’s way too easy. Life is about hard choices, doog.