PHOENIX – While many National Hockey League teams are hustling to get their impending unrestricted free agents signed prior to the March 4 trading deadline, Edmonton Oilers general manager Steve Tambellini has not made Call 1 to the agents for goaltender Dwayne Roloson or winger Erik Cole.
"I haven’t spoken to Steve since before Christmas," said Steve Bartlett, the agent for Cole, who has been a major disappointment in his first season Edmonton. Roloson also indicated that contract talks had not yet begun.
With just 22 points – and on a pace for what would be basically a career low 33 points – the $4 million Cole has been a major disappointment in Edmonton this season. There is no reason to question why Edmonton wouldn’t want him back next year, though speculation circulates around whether they’ll cash him in at the deadline to scratch another itch.
With Lubomir Visnovsky (shoulder) out for the season, and Denis Grebeshkov possibly out as long with a high ankle sprain, a previously defence-rich Oilers club suddenly finds itself with a need on the blue-line. As well, Edmonton has been looking for a left winger or centre to compliment right-winger Ales Hemsky for a long time.
"Just trying to find the perfect fit for Ales, long-term," said coach Craig MacTavish, who has been happy, of late, with the work of Shawn Horcoff and Dustin Penner.
MacTavish doesn’t have to think back very far to the deadline work of then-GM Kevin Lowe in ’06. A few quick moves and Edmonton was on a Stanley Cup run that took them all the way to Game 7 of the Final.
"When we did go to the Finals that year we made some great moves just prior to the deadline, and into the deadline," MacTavish said. "We added [Jaroslav] Spacek, and [Sergei] Samsonov at the deadline. We definitely don’t go to the Finals without those guys. I was surprised, at the time, what little we paid at the time for those players."
Spacek came for farmhand Tony Salmelainen. The cost for Samsonov was Marty Reasoner, Yan Stastny and Edmonton’s 2nd round choice (who become Milan Lucic).
And then there was Roloson, snapped up by Lowe a few days before the ’06 deadline for a first- and a third-round choice.. "We had to get a goalie, for sure," MacTavish said. "It took a first-rounder to get him, but that was a draft choice well spent."
