The fact that Jarrett Stoll, Raffi Torres and Joni Pitkanen are on their way out of Edmonton this week should come as no surprise. At least not as much of a surprise as the contract the Washington Capitals just handed Jose Theodore. $9 million? Is that dollars over the next two years or his projected goals against average? Jose is coming off an OK season, but I'm here to tell you that the Caps are going to spend twice that on red light bulbs between now and the end of this deal. But I digress.
Once again, the offseason in Oil Country is proving to be as eventful as the regular season, but if this week's moves are any indication, the end of the line next year will most surely not be game number 82.
Replacing the dearly departed are Erik Cole, with a heart seldom found in mere mortals, Gilbert Brule, with his tremendous upside, and Lubomir Visnovsky who, if he wasn't buried on a bad team in California for the last seven years would be a household name up here in Canada.
Brule is a project, not dissimilar in that respect to Raffi Torres, six years into his own NHL career as he flies the other way in the deal with Columbus. Kevin Lowe is clearly hoping that he landed another Curtis Glencross from the Blue Jackets here, but bargaining that this relationship will last more than 25 games.
Visnovsky and Cole come as advertised: Highly skilled at high speed, with high expectations, not to mention high salaries. Lubo will make $7 million next year, Cole $4 million. It's not very difficult to imagine these players flourishing in Edmonton's full throttle offensive style, but it's not difficult to note their steadily declining offensive production in each of the past three seasons either. Visnovsky went from 67 points, to 58, to 41. In the same three year span, Cole's goal production dropped from 30, to 29, to 22 last season, with his 30 goals in '05/'06 coming in just 60 games.
But Cole and Visnovsky at least RESEMBLE the players they were three years ago, unlike Torres and Stoll who have spent more time in the press box than many of the media who are paid to be there. Stoll was nowhere close to resembling the player he was before his first concussion, while Torres never lived up to the flashes of brilliance he showed during the '05/'06 run that earned him a salary he never fully deserved.
The bottom line is that Visnovsky and Cole make the Oilers a far better team today than they were when they last stepped off the ice at the beginning of April. Brule is a 21-year-old, former first rounder that might just blossom in Edmonton's environment with the rest of the can't miss kids that dot this highly skilled roster.
Kevin Lowe likely didn't get very much sleep the last few weeks orchestrating these deals, and he might get even less over the next nine waiting for training camp to start. In the meantime, perhaps he'll swing a deal with George Mcphee involving some red light bulbs.