Denis Grebeshkov just signed a 1 year deal avoiding arbitration just north of $3 million ($3.15 million to be exact) and that means that the Oilers now have 5 defensemen making $2.6 million or more. In comparison they have only 4 forwards making that much dough or more. The Oilers are looking for top line help and the fact that they almost landed Dany Heatley without giving up one of the teams 4 best and highest paid d-men was amazing.
In theory they could've landed Heatley and still traded one of Visnovsky, Souray, Gilbert, or Grebeshkov for a quality young forward. As it stands the Heatley deal seems to be on life support, the power went out, and the back up generator is running on empty. The Oilers should be actively in talks to improve and add size to their scoring lines in return for one of the guys making $2.6+ not named Staios. A trade package centering around Grebeshkov or Gilbert and Andrew Cogliano should fetch a prized return.
The Oilers are in a position where they need to improve their forward skill and have an abundance of defense skill, if they decide to roll with the current top 6 defense, we had better hope that the forwards really up their games, but if they do Grebeshkov's numbers could go through the roof and his demands could be much higher than they were now.
