The downside is they will once again have $15 mil tied up in a line that quite frankly isn't very good that is supposed to "protect" the kids.
I'm not sure what Hemsky has to do with the horrible contract they gave Horcroft.
And the fact that the line "isnt very good" has nothing to do with Hemsky who is a very good player when healthy (and typically plays on the first line)
Maybe they won;t be a cap team, but right now they have $20 mil of cap space and need to sign Dubnyk and SMyth....both of whom if histroy has shown as anything will get more than they are worth. They then need to sign another 3 players whcih will bring the cap space down to $10 mil or so....and they haven't made any improvements yet. Improvements cost money.
Yes and if they don't sign Hensky they have to make even more improvements.....
I don't really get your point here. 5 mill on Hemsky is perhaps a small over payment but unless it inhibits your ability to sign other players then it doesn't matter.
I dont think a short term deal like this one will make any difference to whom they do or do not sign. Take the Hemsky contract out and they have 25 to 28 mill with 15 players signed, who are they going to spend that money on?
Frankly given some of the bad players the Oil have wasted money on tying up the extra cap room might be a good thing. At least Hemsky is actually a good player.
The downside is that now they won't know what sort of offers might have come their way monday morning as the deadline ticked near. If nothing comes sign him. If he is annoyed they didn't sign him before the deal then he doesn't really want to be an Oiler anyways.
Like I said if the right defenseman had been available then I agree it's a poorly timed signing. That said I think the odds are low that an ideal situation like that would have materialized. The last thing the "buyers" want to give up are cheap defenseman who can actually play.
What are the odds of the Canucks giving up Tanev, I would say fairly close to zero given he will probably give us 16 to 20 mpg next year at 900k.
Gillis has said numerous times that the most valuable asset in the league are young defenseman on ELC's who can actually play significant minutes.
The odds of Hemsky bringing a player like that are slim IMO
That said if we see a player like that moved for a veteran skill forward then I will agree with you.
That team needs to start winning some games or their kids are going to continue floundering.
I don't disagree. Signing the same surrounding core that isn't helping them now doesn't do that IMO. It's reminiscent of Nonis keeping on a failed core and being surprised they failed.[/quote]
They aren't losing because of Hemsky. They are losing because they don't have enough good NHL players. If they don't sign Hemsky then they have even fewer good NHL players.
If the Oilers had 12 good NHL players they wouldn't be terrible, but they have closer to 6 or 7, and Hemsky is one of them.