RW, D, G Potential Returns for Hemsky and others...

They are only on the table due to an article I read about Okposo being a good fit here, which I agree with but I don’t seriously think the Islanders will be interested in Hemsky. Their development trajectory is too similar to ours.

Hawks probably need a centre more than a winger.

I would be shooting for d-men that are closeer to NHL ready and leave the RW to the draft. Despres, Gudbranson (but I highly doubt he is available), Voynov, and Blum would be interesting. Cowen would be great but no way Ottawa trades him now that they have Turris.

If you want a good RW, why not re-sign Hemsky? The Oilers also have multiple ways to fill Hemsky’s spot:
1) Omark
2) Hartikainen
3) Fail for Nail
4) Draft a centre with the Oilers first pick and move Gagner to Hemsky’s slot.

Lots of options. Options on defense are scary. If your gonna move an asset like Hemsky, defence has to be coming back.

It’s too bad Annaheim (Palmieri, Etem) and Buffalo (Kassian, Armia) are not in a buying mood as it may be easier to pry a top RW prospect off a team with more than one.

But teams like Dallas (Chiasson, Reilly Smith, Glennie), Florida (Dadonov, Donskoi, Hyman), St. Louis (Tarsenko, Rattie), Detroit (Pulkkinaen, Jurco), Rangers (Thomas, Miller), Chicago (Hayes, Shalunov) and Ottawa (Mark Stone, Noesen) may be willing to part with one of their quality RW prospects for the instant offence that Hemsky can bring to a playoff run.

In my dream world we’d send these 5 to one of the playoff run teams in the table for their top prospects at RW, D, & G and get Smyth back in the summer. Hemsky isn’t fitting in with the new young core so let’s get something, anything, for him. Let’s trade Khabibulin while he still has some value. Let’s keep Smyth happy by giving him a chance at a Cup every spring. Let’s give Omark a chance to make a team at LW where we are deep on both the team and the farm and get something we need in return. Sutton would be very valuable to a team’s cup run and we’ll lose him at the end of the year if we can’t sign him. We’d have to send a steady D to get a quality D prospect in return. Like I said, in my dreams.

Prospects… Edmonton doesn’t need more prospects! The Oilers need actual NHL players.

If we ship out Hemsky that’s one less player we have, and more unproven youth that will need TIME to develop and, newsflash is not guaranteed to be as good as Hemsky or, frankly, make the NHL.

In case anyone hasn’t noticed, flushing all our actual NHL players is what has us in the situation we are in now. The amount of talent we have traded for “prospects” since is 2007 is blinding:

Smyth – for Nilsson, O’Maara, and the draft pick that became Alex Plante
Brodzaik – (and pick 161 which became Darcy Kuemper) for picks 99 (Kyle Bigos) and 131 (Olivier Roy)
Torres – for Brule
Penner – for Teubert, the pick that became Klefbom, and a 3rd rounder this year
Grebeshkov – for the pick that became Hamilton
Garon – for Dany Sabourin, Ryan Stone, and the pick that became Tobias Reider

Of course there was the time the Oil pulled off this string:
Lupul for Pitkanen
Pitkanen for Cole
Cole for O’Sullivan and the pick that was immediately swapped for Kotalik.. O’Sullivan was eventually dealt for Vandermeer, who the Oil let walk in FA last year..

That should give you a pretty good idea of some of the talent that Edmonton has dealt away over the last few years for “futures”. Now let me ask you this, how many “prospects” that the Oil have acquired in those deals are helping the team RIGHT NOW? Are any actually bringing good fortune to the OIlers? How many of the players that Edmonton traded away, could actually improve the team by being on it today? How many of the players we shipped out for futures, have created holes in the lineup that we are still looking to fill, or took years to fill? How many of the futures that we acquired, failed to pan out, never made it, or whose chances keep dimming away?

Trading Hemsky (or Gagner, or Gilbert(!?), Potter, Whitney) for futures is just pushing the Oilers down a deeper and deeper hole. Eventually the Oilers need to stop trading away their actual NHL players for prospects and start building with what they have. If not, before you know it, we’ll be trading away Hall, Nugent-Hopkins and Eberle for prospects too.

On Sportsnet West I heard John Shannon mention that Buffalo is looking at trading Tyler Ennis, Tyler Myers and Drew Stafford. Now I know that getting all three would be unlikely but do you think it would be realistic if Edmonton offered Ales Hemsky, Theo Peckham and their first round pick (and maybe a prospect or two like Curtis Hamilton) for Drew Stafford and Tyler Myers and possible Tyler Ennis?

Imagine if you will

Hall – RNH – Eberle
Ennis/Paajarvi/Omark – Gagner – Stafford
Smyth (resigned cheap) – Horcoff – Jones
Hartikainan/Lander – Belanger – Eager/Hordichuk

Smid – Gilbert
Potter – Myers
Petry/Sutton/Whitney/Teubert

This article is ridiculous. You want to trade a PPG RW for a RW prospect who might someday be as good as the one you’re trading away? The Oilers don’t need prospects – they have prospects. They need to start using the foundation they’ve built by choosing some of their prospects to keep and some as trading tools to get real NHL players. Top two D and goaltending are the obvious holes. The Oilers have plenty of offense in the organization, but without D and Goaltending it simply doesn’t matter.

Prospect Scores based on Hockey’s Future website from October / November of 2011 Reports

Spreadsheet: Click > Potential Prospect Returns at Trade Deadline

It would be great to get a D with a 7.5B or higher rating. The table is ranked by D score first, then G, then RW.

I don’t think Boston will ever give up Hamilton.
Blum may be an option in Nashville.
The Florida Panthers look like an ideal partner if we can pry Gudbranson (not likely) and Markstrom off of them, with Hyman thrown in on RW.

For Comparison – Oilers Scores on Hockey Futures:

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, C – 8.5C
Oscar Klefbom, D – 8.0C
_________________________
Anton Lander, C – 7.0B
Martin Marincin, D – 7.5C
Linus Omark, RW – 7.5C
Curtis Hamilton, LW – 7.5C
David Musil, D – 7.5C
Teemu Hartikainen, LW – 7.0C
Tyler Pitlick, C – 7.5D
Tyler Bunz, G – 7.5D
Jeremy Blain, D – 7.5D
Ryan Martindale, C – 7.5D
Olivier Roy, G – 7.5D
Colten Teubert, D – 6.5C
Travis Ewanyk, C – 6.5C
Alex Plante, D – 6.5C
Dillon Simpson, D – 7.0D
Tobias Reider, RW – 7.0D
Brandon Davidson, D – 7.0D

Getting one or two players that rate a 7.5B or higher is fairly elite company. The type of elite company that you build cup contenders around.

Hockey futures Scoring Explanation