The Oilers took calculated risks and signed free agents that will address their major weaknesses.
History shows that it's not about how big the names are that you sign on July 1. It's about the needs you fill.
So, for a Vancouver Canucks team that was one win away from a Stanley Cup, Marco Sturm is a top-6 left-winger who could push Mason Raymond on the second line, or become an upgrade for departed third-line left-winger Raffi Torres.
But Sturm is a tweak, not major surgery. Because, let's face it: there just isn't that much work required in Vancouver.
When you were the 30th place team however, whose building has become the easiest, most bruise-free building in the National Hockey League, who was routinely the worst faceoff team in hockey, who were too small and whose young stars were never afforded any protection….
Well, you get the picture.
Edmonton had a shopping list that was a mile long, and a ton of cap space as well. So GM Steve Tambellini brought in several players to meet those needs.
They got bigger and tougher with Ben Eager and Darcy Hordichuk. They got better and more abrasive on defence with Andy Sutton and Cam Barker.
And most importantly, the Oilers landed one of the NHL's top faceoff men in Eric Belanger, who for the next three years can win draws for the Oilers, and pass along what he knows to their young crop of players.
When you're the worst team in the league, it goes to figure you have the most itches that require scratching on July 1. But give GM Steve Tambellini credit for pulling the trigger all day long on Friday.
He landed Eager, who skates, shoots, fights and hits as well as any third-line banger in the game. He's a wildcard, an unpredictable scrapper who will make an opponent think before running Taylor Hall or Ales Hemsky.
"He's a big man, at the right age, who has played on very good teams," Tambellini said. "I wanted some emotion in our dressing room. If it's a flat game, Tom (Renney) has the ability to play Ben Eager with one of our young guys, and provide some energy and emotion in the building."
There are teams who don't need that type of player, but Edmonton sorely did. And with him comes some Joe Thornton from Eager's time in San Jose, some John Madden and Andy Ladd from Chicago -- a shortcut to building the culture in Edmonton that Tambellini had to address.
His team didn't block enough shots so Tambellini found big defenceman Andy Sutton. His defence was weak, so Tambellini got the hungry Cam Barker on a one-year deal.
On Barker, Tambellini said: "He's 25 years old, has the potential to be a top-4 defenceman, and he's on a one-year deal." At Edmonton's stage of the rebuild, why wouldn't you take a run at a kid like that?
Belanger will help in the circle, "something that we desperately needed," Tambellini said, and Hordichuk adds some team toughness on the fourth line.
Of course, when you're waiting around on the biggest fish the way the Toronto Maple Leafs were, you can't give away cap space on the Eagers and Suttons. So Toronto waits on Brad Richards -- as do the Rangers and Kings -- and the Leafs had better hope they get him, or they may come away empty-handed.
But isn't that ultimately the way these two teams are charting the course through their rebuilds?
Tambellini added several parts, mostly spare ones that may or may not be around when/if Edmonton is Cup worthy. Burke is in a hurry, so he's fishing for the largest catch in Richards -- all or nothing this July 1st, it seems.
We have learned, in a salary cap system, that there are three periods each season where a general manager can really impact his roster: At the draft, in free agency on July 1, and at the March trading deadline.
Tambellini just drafted first overall in St. Paul, and now enters the second phase of the rebuild, where July 1 becomes more important than draft day.
If you are one those who wondered if he could pull the trigger, you'll have to admit he had a pretty good Canada Day.
