Monday, September 21, 2009

Contrary To Popular Belief, Bloated Salaries Will Play A BIG Part In The Making Of This Team


Pisani $2.5 Million
Moreau $2.0 Million
Nilsson $2.0 Million
Eberle $1.19 Million
Pouliot $825K
Brule $800K
Schremp $715K
Stone $600K
MacIntyre $538K
Jacques $525K
Reddox $515K

Whether you think that Robert Nilsson and Fernando Pisani are the best players for their roster spots or not, at least one of them will likely be down the road before the season starts. Hypothetically speaking if the Oilers traded Fernando Pisani and Robert Nilsson for assets that don't count against the cap or buried them in Springfield and replaced them with Stone and Schremp, they would come out with $3.185 Million in cap space. That may not seem like a lot, but when it comes to re-signing Gagner, Cogs, and Grebeshkov next year as well as a potential cap drop, it is considerable. That much cap space could allow the Oilers to be buyers at the deadline, or better yet allow them to be buyers on the trade front.

Let's take this 2 steps further.....

Out: Moreau, Pisani, Nilsson, Staios
In: Jacques, Stone, Schremp, Peckham

Cap Savings: $4.76 Million


Suddenly we go from spooning with the cap ceiling to having the room to add more impact players while also having cheap youth to entice other teams in trade. I highly doubt that the Oilers would go this route as they have never seemed to have been keen on selling off vets in recent history and most certainly not en mass like what I'm proposing. However a number of other contracts are near immovable and it's time for Tambellini to start cleaning up the cap hell that he inherited.

6 comments:

Wimpy said...

"That may not seem like a lot, but when it comes to re-signing"

Pisani is on an expiring contract,
so he has nothing to do with re-signing "Gagner, Cogs, and Grebeshkov next year".

"Out: Moreau, Pisani, Nilsson, Staios"

Two should have been moved
This past summer
for whatever
Not Pisani as noted above

"In: Jacques, Stone, Schremp, Peckham"

Looks like Jacques & Stone are in anyhow
Schremp isn't good enough [never was]
Peckham needs another year, instead
Arsene [or Eminger or Petiot...] in

Bryanbryoil said...

Pisani is an expiring contract but he clogs up moves this season. Tambo needs to clear up some space so that if a trade is there to help his team he can make it. He was crying about a lack of space, now he could create it by slightly weakening his team. If the other players pick up the slack and have better years than last season the difference could be little to none.

Doused In Oil said...

I don't like the idea of getting rid of proven NHL players just so that our team can get younger. If we needed the cap space to sign someone like Jagr then I would be all for it, but not just for the sake of "addition by subtraction"

Bryanbryoil said...

It's for the better long term, it's not about getting younger, it's about getting better long term. Shedding salary and freeing up flexibility while developing the youth is the way to go.

Mike said...

I agree when it comes to signing Grebs, Gagner and Cogs next year that sounds like a great idea. Key words "next year"

But if we're in a position to make a run later this year I think we can make the room then by trading away Pisani/Moreau/Nilsson/Staios. No sense on doing it now when we haven't even had a chance to analyze the lineup and when pretty much no one is looking to trade a big named player. Pisani and Moreau (and maybe Staios) would have more value to a contending team looking to add experience and grit for a run and we could probably get a better return for them then.

Bryanbryoil said...

Mike-The deadline is always the best time to deal vets and its the time that their value is highest no doubt. Perhaps we move one vet now and possibly move some of the others then.