Don't Expect A Replacement For Reddox

by ryanbatty on May 27, 2011 11:30 AM MDT in Opinion

By deciding to play with the Växjö Lakers next season, Reddox was able to escape the darkness of the basement that is Edmonton.

In the great many posts about the departure of Liam Reddox to Sweden it is fairly clear that most fans believe Reddox is a dependable player on the fringe between being a full time NHL player and an AHL player. Fans like the effort he puts in every night but his decision to jump to Europe for next season isn't really a big deal because the skill set that Reddox brings is easily replaceable. There isn't a single bit of that logic that I can disagree with. But as easy as Reddox can be replaced I doubt the Oilers will manage to do so.

Coming out of training camp the Oilers sent Reddox to Oklahoma City, a clear indication that, despite all evidence to the contrary, he slots behind both Jean-Francois Jacques and Steve MacIntyre on the Oilers depth chart. Therefore, rather than replace Reddox it’s more likely that Tambellini will simply resign those players that he already fells were better options for his club than Reddox. The biggest upside with this strategy is that it will again give Tambellini a good shot at having the tallest fourth line in hockey, which of course balances out having a lot of smaller players on your top lines.

And even if Tambellini is smarter than I think he is, realizing that Jacques and MacIntyre can’t play hockey, I still doubt that he’ll manage to actually sign a useful replacement for Reddox. He may try, but his track record in almost three full years as the Oilers General Manger is ugly to say the least and doesn't give me much confidence that he can identify talent at the NHL level. Want proof? Take a look at the transactions he has made during his tenure (thanks to Oilfans.com for the list).

9/30/2008	Steve MacIntyre claimed off of waivers from Florida.
11/11/2008	Jesse Boulerice claimed off of waivers from Colorado.
11/21/2008	Jesse Boulerice claimed on waivers by Colorado.
1/17/2009	Mathieu Garon traded to Pittsburgh for Ryan Stone, Dany Sabourin and 4th round pick in 2011.
3/4/2009	Erik Cole traded to Carolina with 5th round draft pick in 2009 (Matt Kennedy) for Patrick O'Sullivan and 2nd round pick in 2009 (Jesse Blacker (Toronto)).
3/4/2009	Ales Kotalik traded by Buffalo for Carolina's 2nd round draft pick in 2009 (Jesse Blacker (Toronto)).
6/27/2009	Kyle Brodziak traded with 6th (Darcy Kuemper) round pick in 2009 to Minnesota for 4th (Kyle Bigos) and 5th (Olivier Roy) round picks in 2009.
7/1/2009	Nikolai Khabibulin signed as a free agent (formerly with Chicago)
9/10/2009	Mike Comrie signed as a free agent (formerly with Ottawa).
9/29/2009	Rob Schremp claimed on waivers by NY Islanders.
11/10/2009	Steve MacIntyre claimed off of waivers by Florida.
3/1/2010	Denis Grebeshkov traded to Nashville for 2nd round pick in 2010 (Curtis Hamilton).
3/3/2010	Aaron Johnson traded by Calgary with 3rd round pick in 2010 or 2011 for Steve Staios.
3/3/2010	Ryan Jones claimed off waivers from Nashville.
3/3/2010	Lubomir Visnovsky traded to Anaheim for Ryan Whitney and 6th round pick in 2010 (Brandon Davidson).
6/24/2010	Colin Fraser traded by Chicago for 6th round pick in 2010 (Mirko Hofflin).
6/30/2010	Ethan Moreau claimed off waivers by Columbus.
6/30/2010	Robert Nilsson remainder of contract bought out.
6/30/2010	Patrick O'Sullivan traded to Phoenix for Jim Vandermeer.
7/1/2010	Kurtis Foster signed as free agent (formerly with Tampa Bay).
7/2/2010	Steve MacIntyre signed as free agent (formerly with Florida).
8/6/2010	Martin Gerber signed as free agent (formerly with Moscow, KHL)
2/28/2011	Dustin Penner traded to Los Angeles for Colten Teubert, 1st round pick in 2011, conditional pick (2nd or 3rd round) in 2012.

How many good moves do you see in that list. How many would you even consider decent? That list of moves is what has allowed Tambellini to "manage" the Oilers from 19th overall before he got here to 21st, 30th, and 30th in the seasons after he arrived. I really think that if the Oilers do manage to acquire a useful player to replace Reddox on their fourth line it'll be more blind luck than an indication that they know what they're doing.

Holes in the bottom six have been painfully obvious for multiple seasons now. As have problems winning faceoffs and killing penalties and yet no help has come. Othe teams sign players to fill hole and yet the Oilers do nothing. Why? Because management can't identify NHL level talent already playing in the NHL. If this team is ever going to actually benefit from the rebuild we better hope that the draft continues to turn up nothing but gold because it looks unlikely that management doesn't has even the slightest clue about what they're doing when looking for help in the form of players already playing in the NHL.

Tweet Comment 15 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

Tambellini hasn’t been tremendously proactive in heading off problems before they take to the ice, but Reddox is likely replaceable by a guy like Harski. I’m more worried about the continued employment of JFJ and Smak.

Reddox isn’t the key piece. The other two being gone are (addition by subtraction).

http://hockeyzen.com - An Oilers blog

by mindmasher on May 27, 2011 1:23 PM MDT reply actions

Reddox is likely replaceable by a guy like Harski

Hopefully. But can every need on this team be filled from OKC and future drafts? At some point I think a trade or UFA might be required and this team’s management seems incapable of making those work.

Everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974. It's a scientific fact.
Writer for The Copper & Blue and a frequenter of the time waster that is Twitter.

by ryanbatty on May 27, 2011 2:21 PM MDT up reply actions

Not everybody can be replaced by someone in OKC, but hopefully guys like Reddox, who belong in OKC, can.

The biggest fanana of the Havana Bananas.

by Scott Reynolds on May 27, 2011 3:20 PM MDT up reply actions

Depends on how you look at it

If the goal was to finish 30th and grab #1 picks, you could say Tambellini’s moves (or lack of such) were right on the money. We haven’t seen a desire on behalf of the team to ice a competitive squad pretty much for the whole time Tambellini has actually had the reins. Until that happens, it’s pretty hard to gauge his real ability.

The next few months will give us a good idea how things will play out this winter. The fixes are so obvious that if they aren’t undertaken there’s another season of tanking on the horizon. And I’m REALLY looking forward to that. *spits

by David S on May 27, 2011 2:44 PM MDT reply actions

I’m very confident that the team was trying to ice a winning team in both 2008-09 and 2009-10. The 2008-09 club had some nice things, and the moves made over the summer helped them to improve substantially from 2007-08 (even though they finished lower in the standings), but the bif moves (Visnovsky and Cole) were made before Tambellini arrived. The 2009-10 version was just terrible. Tambellini tried to build a winner and he flat-out failed. The rebuild is his second kick at the can.

The biggest fanana of the Havana Bananas.

by Scott Reynolds on May 27, 2011 3:20 PM MDT up reply actions

Well I did say “for the whole time Tambellini has actually had the reins.”

by David S on May 27, 2011 4:21 PM MDT up reply actions

So for you that’s the last year?

The biggest fanana of the Havana Bananas.

by Scott Reynolds on May 27, 2011 6:23 PM MDT up reply actions

Yep. I’d bet Lowe was pretty much still pulling the trigger until last year.

by David S on May 27, 2011 10:41 PM MDT up reply actions

Well, I guess that’s your call, but I think it’s pretty silly to make such a firm distinction. Certain things prior to last year reek of Tambellini’s involvement (the acquisition of Boulerice and MacIntyre; hiring Quinn). The group has consistently said that they’ve been operating on consensus and nothing I’ve seen really suggests otherwise. It seems to me that Lowe is still involved today and that Tambellini was involved from the day he was hired. Since that day, they should pass or fail together.

The biggest fanana of the Havana Bananas.

by Scott Reynolds on May 28, 2011 8:30 AM MDT up reply actions

If the goal was to finish 30th and grab #1 picks

This really shouldn’t ever be the goal of any professional team. Not as long as they ask fans to pay to see the games. It is possible that winning wasn’t a priority this season but they were trying to win in years one and two of the Tambellini Reign of Ineptitude.

The next few months will give us a good idea how things will play out this winter.

I want to believe that they’ll get it right during the summer but there is a lot to make me think that they won’t. The optimism is being sucked out of me.

Everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974. It's a scientific fact.
Writer for The Copper & Blue and a frequenter of the time waster that is Twitter.

by ryanbatty on May 27, 2011 4:46 PM MDT up reply actions

9/30/2008 Steve MacIntyre claimed off of waivers from Florida. = who cares

11/11/2008 Jesse Boulerice claimed off of waivers from Colorado. = who cares

11/21/2008 Jesse Boulerice claimed on waivers by Colorado. = who cares

1/17/2009 Mathieu Garon traded to Pittsburgh for Ryan Stone, Dany Sabourin and 4th round pick in 2011. = wish we had gotten slightly more but we NEEDED to move a goalie.

3/4/2009 Erik Cole traded to Carolina with 5th round draft pick in 2009 (Matt Kennedy) for Patrick O’Sullivan and 2nd round pick in 2009 (Jesse Blacker (Toronto)). = Good deal at the time, Cole wasn’t doing well here.

3/4/2009 Ales Kotalik traded by Buffalo for Carolina’s 2nd round draft pick in 2009 (Jesse Blacker (Toronto)). = kotalik was good but that 2nd would have nice now.

6/27/2009 Kyle Brodziak traded with 6th (Darcy Kuemper) round pick in 2009 to Minnesota for 4th (Kyle Bigos) and 5th (Olivier Roy) round picks in 2009. = horrible deal, bigos is a dissapointment as a prospect , but Oliver Roy is pretty good. Brodziak has way more value though.

7/1/2009 Nikolai Khabibulin signed as a free agent (formerly with Chicago) = we all known how that turned out.

9/10/2009 Mike Comrie signed as a free agent (formerly with Ottawa). = was good when he played. doesn’t fit on the team though.

9/29/2009 Rob Schremp claimed on waivers by NY Islanders. = if only we had thought to try him in the bottom six and stop trying to get him to be who he wasn’t.

11/10/2009 Steve MacIntyre claimed off of waivers by Florida. = who cares about enforcers.

3/1/2010 Denis Grebeshkov traded to Nashville for 2nd round pick in 2010 (Curtis Hamilton). = Really good deal, we get a 2nd for a player who barely helped the predators then left for europe.

3/3/2010 Aaron Johnson traded by Calgary with 3rd round pick in 2010 or 2011 for Steve Staios. = good deal, got cal to take a 2.7m cap hit, and got a third round pick for Stu. plus Johnson played well in Staios’ shoes. Wihs we had kept him as a depth player.

3/3/2010 Ryan Jones claimed off waivers from Nashville. = turned out very nicely.

3/3/2010 Lubomir Visnovsky traded to Anaheim for Ryan Whitney and 6th round pick in 2010 (Brandon Davidson). = Good trade, Whitney is a more complete player and I think we can win this trade if he gets a full season in. Brandon Davidson is a good prospect.

6/24/2010 Colin Fraser traded by Chicago for 6th round pick in 2010 (Mirko Hofflin). = good deal at the time. but he is a NHL who we got in exchange for a chance at finding a NHL player.

6/30/2010 Ethan Moreau claimed off waivers by Columbus. = lucky but awesome.

6/30/2010 Robert Nilsson remainder of contract bought out. = why didn’t we just waive him and put him in OKC?

6/30/2010 Patrick O’Sullivan traded to Phoenix for Jim Vandermeer. = Great deal, O’ssuly was a cancer on this team and he was turned into a contributor.

7/1/2010 Kurtis Foster signed as free agent (formerly with Tampa Bay). = great deal at the time, disappointing first year but could turn it around. or turn into a 2nd round pick.

7/2/2010 Steve MacIntyre signed as free agent (formerly with Florida). = who cares

8/6/2010 Martin Gerber signed as free agent (formerly with Moscow, KHL) = great okc signing.

2/28/2011 Dustin Penner traded to Los Angeles for Colten Teubert, 1st round pick in 2011, conditional pick (2nd or 3rd round) in 20 = we won this trade. Penner disappeared, LAK messed up their playoffs, and now Lombardi is calling him out.

All in all I don’t think it is the quality of the moves he has made, but the types of moves.

He is maybe a bit to hesitant to pull the trigger on bigger deals but maybe we saw him start to grow some confidence in his moves once he dealt Penner.

I would imagine he is especially hesitant about bigger UFA signings after the teams last few fiascos.

by NZoilerfan on May 27, 2011 5:57 PM MDT reply actions

You are a lot more generous in your assessment of those moves than I am.

Everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1974. It's a scientific fact.
Writer for The Copper & Blue and a frequenter of the time waster that is Twitter.

by ryanbatty on May 27, 2011 6:33 PM MDT via mobile up reply actions

wut?

You’ve uh… overestimated the values of a WHOLE LOT of those deals. Let’s face it: the Cole and Kotalik trades: flat out bad. Never should have moved those players, and the return was worth less than the original trades. (Jesse Blacker? LOL. How many NHL games has he played again?) The Khabbi move: bad. The Comrie/Schremp/McIntyre/Grebeshkov moves: bad. The Visnovski move? laughably BAD. Vis is getting Norris rumblings this season, because he’s a damned good defenseman for the Kings who was just looking for a good team to defend. Claiming that the Vish move was good for the team? Hee. Nice try but no. Vish was looking for a team that could use him. The Oilers? Not that team, not in the next decade at least.

by spokeinthebandwagon on May 28, 2011 7:42 AM MDT up reply actions

How was the Cole for O’Sullivan trade a good one if the move to get rid of O’Sullivan was good because he was a cancer?

The last really good trade the Oilers made was Lupul and Smith for Pitkanen.

Penner may have gotten called out by Lombardi but Teubert was a healthy scratch at times in the AHL after he was traded to the Oilers.

In theory, there is little difference between practice and theory, but in practice there is!

by dawgbone98 on May 30, 2011 7:58 AM MDT up reply actions

I’m not a fan of trades, but seems to me difficult to estimate the free (overpaid) market. Ultimately everything is a question of price-performance.
Cole was the trade for those days, in order, last season he was back on 50 points with Carolina. Bad for the Oilers – good for him.
It will be interesting how the management decisions of JFJ, Big Mac, Chorney, Struds ectr. will take. An NHL team has disposals Reddox or Schremp without land equal to last place. If we can displace them for the right price – fire the management.

by Screaming69 on May 28, 2011 2:03 AM MDT reply actions

Comments For This Post Are Closed

Oilers Schedule

Last 5 Games

@ Vancouver Nucks Misconduct	Sat 04/07	L 0 - 3
Anaheim Anaheim Calling	Thu 04/05	OT - L 2 - 3
@ Los Angeles Jewels From The Crown	Mon 04/02	L 0 - 2
@ Anaheim Anaheim Calling	Sun 04/01	W 2 - 1
Los Angeles Jewels From The Crown	Fri 03/30	L 1 - 4