Nice interview. I am also reluctant for the dive for five in ‘11, which means it’s time to shore up the weak positions. There’s enough to like about this team that some smart moves ala Phoenix would help significantly.

Goalie troubles on top of those missing links will likely keep us on the outside looking in. But (sadly) it’s quite hard to secure bottom five to count on a decent pick, and a prolonged rebuild is nothing but an easy excuse IMO.

I think your tone and content very accurately summed the (educated) oiler fan’s view.

But one disagreement I have with the typical view is that I am starting to warm on Tambellini…. wait don’t throw the monitor yet.

Inaction on a number of fronts has done well. When many were clamoring for a goalie, the right move was to ride our sub-par tandem. We learned about both of them and guaranteed a very nice pick. Also, since end of season there have been some stories about the primitive off-ice approaches (I’m thinking training, medical)… firing your boss’s brother is never the easy route. So avoiding some last second help to climb way up to “nearly respectable” could have hurt his long term off-ice goals as well as future considerations.

Souray was untradeable due to injury… he had to move some of that money on the backend and Whitney seems like a very good return for this team – character player, better age sync with team, good enough now to play top minutes. I really like Vis, but didn’t think we could get that kind of a player in return.

Early to say, but Grebs for Jones and a 2nd was pretty good too. Grebs was costing too much for his value and we really need some size up front. If you don’t think Jones was actually part of the deal then I think you are greatly undervaluing the org’s ability – it was clever but not mind blowing.

Staios as you mentioned was impressive…. not to mention that we hosed the Flames at the same time.

Sounds like no takers for Moreau and it’s easy to complain other duplicate skill players weren’t traded, but who knows what was offered.

I’m pretty confident we will get at least one stay-at-home 5-7D from training camp waivers, which is needed. His ability to fill out the D will provide much more insight into his ability… I think moreso than trading the un-wanteds from a non-contending team to improve our cap situation.

Clearly there’s been plenty of bad. But he seems to be getting better… We know KL and Katz’s fingers have been in the pie. That “clarity” that Tambi kept mentioning in the season end presser IMO, didn’t mean for himself, but for the rest of the org. So I’m definitely giving him many benefit of the doubts of some real stinkers and I’m not ready to definitely say that I think he’s great or even good.. but I am warming past horrible and still have some optimism.