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Blair Betts and Correcting Myths (Updated)

In this morning's Chatham Daily News, Edmonton Sun writer Derek Van Diest explores the plight of Blair Betts, and makes this comment:

Having struggled to kill penalties and with no one outside of Shawn Horcoff able to win a draw last season, the six-foot-three, 210-pound Betts, would probably be a good fit with the Edmonton Oilers.

However, with just over $1-million in salary cap space available, the Oilers would have to move a body in order to make room for Betts, who made $615,000 last season. It's never a good idea for teams to go into the season right up against the cap.

That sort of statement has been made by more than one journalist, but it's quite wrong.  Let me explain, using math.

Star-divide

According to CapGeek.com, which has taken over as the go-to resource for salary-cap information, the Oilers have just over 1MM in salary cap space with a 23-man roster.  Obviously, taking say 700K out of that 1MM would reduce it to a razor-thin margin.

But that's not what happens when a team signs a 700K player.  They add the 700K player to the roster and send out another forward because - and this is critcial - the team can only have 23 men on the roster at any one time.

So, in this case, let's say Betts signs for 700K.  To make room, the Oilers send Liam Reddox, their lowest paid forward (515K) to the minors.  Now, instead of having the 1,176,667 in cap space that they had before signing Betts, the Oilers have 991,667 - a 185K shift.

Betts isn't the first guy I'd be looking at on the UFA market, but let's be completely clear: adding Betts over a player like Reddox makes almost no difference salary cap-wise.  It just doesn't.

Update: Today the Carolina Hurricanes signed Stephane Yelle to a one-year, 550K contract.  The 6'2", 35-year old Yelle doesn't add a ton of physical presence but would only represent 35,000 more against the salary cap than Liam Reddox and he does two things well: kill penalties (avg. 2:09 TOI/game last year on the PK) and win faceoffs (52.0% last year).  Again, he wouldn't be my first choice, but there's no reason for the Oilers not to add a player from the Betts/Yelle tree.

0 recs  |  Comment 9 comments |

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#15

Betts wears #15 so he should be a non-starter ;) All 15’s have been epic fails in an Oilers uniform

As for the post, I agree. Get a PK, utility C already….

by puckdonkey on Aug 19, 2009 12:10 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

#15

Kent Nilsson wore 15 for a spring and won a Stanley Cup. Otherwise, you’re right, the number has been a black hole for the most part.

by Bruce McCurdy on Aug 19, 2009 4:31 PM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

It’s irrelevant, anyway. Per Tencer, the Oilers aren’t an option.

SNN Sports - A theoretical Oilers blog (i.e. theoretically, I write stuff there)

by Doogie2K on Aug 19, 2009 4:25 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

I’ll second Bruce’s request: what did Tencer say? Betts wasn’t interested or the Oilers aren’t interested?

A posse ad esse.

Writer for The Copper & Blue and OilersNation.

by Jonathan Willis on Aug 19, 2009 4:46 PM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

Tencer put it on his Twitter feed yesterday.

Also, Betts told me Oilers aren’t an option.

Presumably, that means Betts wasn’t interested in the Oilers. No other statement or clarification.

SNN Sports - A theoretical Oilers blog (i.e. theoretically, I write stuff there)

by Doogie2K on Aug 20, 2009 3:04 PM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

Thanks.

A posse ad esse.

Writer for The Copper & Blue and OilersNation.

by Jonathan Willis on Aug 20, 2009 6:26 PM PDT up reply actions   0 recs

Yelle

I’ve said before that he would be an excellent 4th option, and at that price, there aren’t going to be many signings that can top Yelle at 4th C.

Contributor to The Copper & Blue, and leader of The Cult Of Hartikainen.

by Derek Zona on Aug 19, 2009 5:44 PM PDT reply actions   0 recs

1) We’re mystified why Betts is still looking for work. He was probably the rangers best PKer (other than Lundqvist). If we were trying to solidify that part of our team we’d look to add Betts who is pretty good on draws as well.
2) Ask Ranger players/fans how the team did after he got pummeled by (now ranger) Brashear last spring. As soon as Betts was removed, the caps PP thrived!

I find sometimes it's easy to be myself
sometimes I find it's better to be somebody else

by Fauxrumors on Aug 21, 2009 7:25 AM PDT reply actions   0 recs

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Northwest Standings

GP W L OTL PT
Vancouver 70 43 24 3 89
Colorado 69 40 23 6 86
Calgary 69 34 26 9 77
Minnesota 69 34 29 6 74
Edmonton 70 21 42 7 49

(updated 3.17.2010 at 5:57 AM PDT)

21 - 42 - 7

Lost 5

Oilers Stats Leaders

Stat

Forwards

Defense

TOI/G:

Horcoff (19:25)

Gilbert (22:10)

ESTOI/G:

Horcoff (14:29)

Grebeshkov (17:16)

Points:

Penner (53)

Visnovsky (32)

Goals:

Penner (26)

Visnovsky (10)

Assists:

Penner (27)

Visnovsky (22)

EV+/- /15

Penner (.145)

Smid (.090)

Shots:

Penner (178)

Gilbert (82)

Corsi/15:

Penner(.470)

Visnovsky (.460)

SCF/15:

Penner (5.011)

Visnovsky (4.517)

SCA/15:

Stortini (3.950)

Gilbert (4.279)

SCDiff/15:

Penner (.592)

Visnovsky (.122)

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