The Oilers got warmed up for the trade deadline by making a minor deal this afternoon, trading Ryan O'Marra to the Anaheim Duck for Bryan Rodney. Rodeny has played in 41 games this season for the Ducks AHL affliate, the Syracuse Crunch, scoring 5 goals and 15 assists. Before signing with the Ducks in July 2011 Rodney was a member of the Hurricanes organization where he played a total of 33 games with them at the NHL level over the last three seasons.
O'Marra of course joined the Oilers on the first day of Rebuild I when he was acquired from the Islanders along with Robert Nilsson and the first round pick that the Oilers would eventually use to select Alex Plante in exchange for Ryan Smyth. Since then O'Marra has spent the bulk of his time playing in the AHL, first for the Springfield Falcons and more recently for the Oklahoma City Barons. In each of the last three seasons O'Marra has made brief appeances in Edmonton playing a total of 31 games, scoring a single goal. With the Barons this season O'Marra had 17 points in 40 games.
I'm not going to pretend that I know a lot about Bryan Rodney; in fact, an hour ago it would be safe to assume that I'd never ever even heard of the man. So to get an idea of who Bryan Rodney is I thought I'd see what our good friends at Anaheim Calling had to say about him. The following are the last two mentions of Rodney on their site; draw from these what you will.
From Chirping the Bench: The Philosophy of Lit:
You watch these guys play now, and you can see sparks of potential again. The energy is there. The drive appears to be brought back (unless your name is Dan Sexton). But then Yawney lets Bryan Rodney onto the ice, and everything falls apart.
From Chirping the Bench: Valley Low:
A few games ago, the Crunch lost in OT after Bryan Rodney stepped aside and allowed free reign at a rather rusty Jeff Deslauriers. Everyone in the building knew the game was over as soon as they saw that Rodney was our last line of defense, and sure enough the Crunch went home crying.