Omark Heads For Switzerland

We may not know when the NHL will begin the 2012/13 season, or even if there will be a season, but we now know that when/if the season starts the Oilers won't have to think about what to do with Linus Omark because he will be playing with EV Zug of the National League A (the top tier of the Swiss hockey league). It appears that it was Omark himself broke news of the signing early Wednesday morning via Twitter. For a player that previously tweeted his desire to be traded that seems very appropriate.

The deal with Zug is for one-year after which, according to Martin Lundén, the Oilers will still retain Omark's NHL rights. It seems then that Omark is still intent on making it to the NHL, as he has always said, and that he is hoping that he can stay healthy and generate some interest from another NHL club next summer. I am still very much a believer in Omark and I think there would have been value in the Oilers re-signing him this summer but the team seems to value grit, sand paper, jam, or whatever you want to call it, over actual hockey skills when it comes to the bottom of their roster.

Omark's time in Edmonton unfortunately coincided too closely with management's decision to burn the team to the ground and start fresh by rebuilding through the draft. With that plan in place Omark found himself competing for time and space alongside much more highly touted players when he arrived in Edmonton. There are only so many choice assignments and easy minutes to go around and Omark wasn't going to be the player to get them. Basically, he got here at the wrong time and was a victim of numbers. But as Derek said a few months ago "Linus Omark didn't blow his chance, he never had one."