I was listening on the radio and it said that the Oil have $44.2 Million locked up for next year and the salary cap is expected to go down from $56.7 to around a 10% decrease of $51.6 Million. With that, simple math tells us that Edmonton will have (give-or-take) $7.4 Million bucks in cap room for the 2009-2010 season. With all the talk of trading players and shedding salary, I'm wondering where Edmonton is going to sign a goalie of Backstroms calibre? He's a $6-7 Million dollar guy, and an $8 Million dollar guy to a city like Edmonton (remember, we over-pay for our UFAs). Not to mention, you want to leave some cap space for wiggle room during the trade deadline.Also, the other factors...
- Staios is overpaid, but everyone else knows it, so, if Edmonton doesn't want their veteran leader at the price they have him at, what other team would want to overpay for someone on the back-side of their career?
- Eric Cole. Do we re-sign him or don't we? He isn't going to take a 'hometeam discount'. If he can get $4 Million on the open-market, he is going to take it. What veteran would want to take a pay cut at the ripe age of 30?
- Goaltending. Isn't it hypocritical for people to rant and rave about the lack of opportunity for Robbie Schremp, but then turn around and say Deslauriers isn't 'proven' enough for an opportunity. Deslauriers was 1-4 in Springfield, but he had ZERO offensive support and STILL put up better numbers then Dubynk. On any team, you need guys to play above the level that you expect them too: Detroit had Franzen and Hudler, SJ has Blake and Setoguchi, Boston has Wheeler and Krejci, so why can't Edmonton have Deslauriers dig deep down and surprise us? It sure would ease the pressure of our salary cap situation.
We all shout out that Hossa or Backstrom or whomever is going to sign here because we are going to 'break the bank' for him, but where is he going to fit? You would have to shed some current salary (Penner, Horcoff), but I also heard on the radio that the teams lining up for over-paid 2nd liners isn't existent.
So, I ask, just where is Edmonton's UFA savior going to fit into our new economy?
Cheers.
-Smith
your absolutley right on track with Deslauriers, i would love for the guy to play, he can play. IS he ready for full time duty? Im starting to think so. Id love to see him play a few more times (which is going to happen no question) before seasons end. The Oilers would be smart to start him next year to leave cap room for other things, the one problem would be, who plays backup? The thing with that is, is the fact that the Oilers could go out and get a vet backup, ut would probably end up paying more for the backup then for Deslauriers, which i guess isnt that bad after all. Here's hoping Deslauriers gets the start next year, and the Oilers put all their faith in him. Cole will get resigned, and im thinking for around the range of 2.5, while i can see Staios being dealt in a package deal, i dont see him going til his contract is up. The Oilers offense isnt that bad, its underperforming right now, but on paper, it should be great. This summer should be interesting, so should TD09.
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