Mistakes Were Made.

If there is one thing my first-year English prof taught me, it was to never use the passive voice unless I was trying to avoid responsibility for something.

In other words: passive voice was for politicians.

Now, while I don't remember specific instances of Oiler management using the passive voice, I'm positive that they have used it at some point in time. Probably the after the Smyth trade, but I'm not positive.

Something along the lines of, "in the end there were different perspectives and a decision was made."

Translation: "We didn't want to pay him, so we aren't going to."

While I realize that there are some things that Management of any NHL team cannot possibly know will happen, I do believe that there are some cases, particularly cases pertaining to players that are let go, that it seems Management just wasn't thinking straight. I don't know a whole lot about the rest of the league and players that they've let go, but I do know a fair bit about the past 3 or 4 years of the Oilers, and players that they've let go. Some moves, like I stated earlier, were impossible to know whether it was a good idea or not; others, in my opinion, were glaring errors made on the part of management, and most of them come back to haunt us.

Part I: Mistakes that Were Impossible to Predict.

Jan Hejda:
This man didn't perform particularly well under the Oilers' system, in fact he was a minus six come the end of 06/07, and seeing as he is now known as a tower of defense on the back-end it is clear that management is not at fault there. Who would have predicted that in two seasons he's be sitting at an impressive +19, he's also making 2.00 M a year. Yeah, I'd take that contract.

Ty Conklin:
This one, in my opinion, is a bit of a question mark. Yes, he has done well after a few years away from the NHL, but he has been on powerhouse teams (Pittsburgh and Detroit). Detroit in particular is a huge factor when looking at his .911 %SV and 2.45 GAA. He's only making 750K and he's tied for second in the league in shut-outs with 6. But Detroit is a team with a defensive prowess all teams drool at, so that is something that should be mentioned.

Joffrey Lupul:
Another instance that management just can't shoulder any blame for. When he played here in 06/07 he had 28 points, 16 of those being goals. Not terrible, but not great. Yeah, but here's the kicker: the guy was a -29. I remember watching him play, and wanting him to do well, but if there was such a thing as a 'defensive-gaff-tree' then Lupul was the orchard owner. This season he has 42 points, with 20 goals, and he's even in the +/-, I'm sure that Philly's fans could still come up with some complaints but name me a city that doesn't do that. Did I mention that he's making 2.9 this season? That said: his extension is for 4.25 a year; the same amount Penner makes for another three years.

Part II: Mistakes That Were Glaring:

Petr Sykora:
I shake my head every time I think about the fact that we let this guy go. I will write the disclaimer now: I don't know exactly what happened during contract negotiations for any of these players, all I know is that I think it was stupid of management to let them go, but hind-sight is 20/20. Petr Sykora is making 2.5 M for this season and he's a UFA next season; he has 44 Pts, 23 of those are goals, and eight of those goals are game winners. Perhaps the worst part for me, as a fan, is that it seemed to me that Petr Sykora liked it in Edmonton; he also had some pretty sweet chemistry with Hemsky if I recall correctly, and we all know how we've been looking for a trigger-man for Hemsky. I still keep tabs on Sykora, I am particularly fond of his personality and he seems like a stand-up guy; I'd love for him to play in Edmonton again.

Marty Reasoner:
I'm not going to pretend that I was ignorant to the irony of Reasoner winning the game in OT for Atlanta last night. The girl sitting behind me was practically in orgasmic convulsions following the goal, despite the fact that she was wearing an Oiler jersey. Personally, while I have favourite players on other teams, I don't cheer them on when they are playing against the Oilers. But maybe that's just me. Back to the matter at hand. Here are the facts: The Oilers are not good PKers this season and the Oilers are not good in the face off dot this season either. Long story short: Marty Reasoner goes a long way towards solving those problems. Oh yeah, and did I mention he's only making 1 M this season?

Ryan Smyth:
First let me say that I am not dwelling on the Smyth trade, I'd just like to mention that this was perhaps a bad decision; especially if the rumored issues with the contract were true. A 100-300K difference is not something that we should be worrying about when we're willing to sign Shawn Horcoff to a 4 year extension with a cap hit of 6.5 M. The contract that Colorado signed Ryan Smyth to has a cap hit of 6.25 M; he has 56 points, 24 goals and 32 assists (for comparison Horcoff has 45 points, 30 assists and 15 goals).

Curtis Glencross:
I'm not going to say that Curtis Glencross would've been the solution to all of our problems this season, because he wouldn't be. That said, it was sure useful at the end of last season to have a fourth line that was scoring at the rate of a second or third line. He was signed as a UFA by Calgary for 1.2 M a year for three years, he has 36 pts, 11 of those goals; plus he and Brodziak along with Zach Stortini had some awesome chemistry going on.

Part III: Good Moves:

Bergeron for Grebeshkov:
We traded Bergeron for a player that had the same upside but next to none of the defensive liability. Good job on this one, especially if we can resign him for good value.

Stoll and Greene for Visnovsky:
We traded a stay-at-home d-man and a struggling two-way centerman who won alot of draws for an offensive defensmen who skates like a dream and plays point on the powerplay, he is also the guy I would chose to put out to defend a break-away or a two-on-one. We struggle in the face-off dot, but Visnovsky makes our defense one of the top offensive units in the league.

Part IV: Neutral Moves:

Pitkanen for Cole:
Pitkanen didn't fit really well in Edmonton, and it was rumored that he stayed in a hotel for the entirety of the season when he was here. He seemed a bit lazy defensively and was incredibly soft. We traded him for Erik Cole, a hard-working gritty RW with size, but again he didn't really fit well either. Out of this we end up getting O'Sullivan and Kotalik. Too early for judgment here.

Torres for Brule:
Again, too early to decide whether this was a good idea or not. That said, from what I heard Torres was a bit of a problem in the dressing-room; and trading him for a young kid with some grit and a scoring touch that can't seem to be translated to the big show seems like a good plan; but we'll see.

These are just my opinions, and I'm sure you have some of your own. I don't mean to dwell in the past like this, but I suppose this probably comes off like that...

I still love the team.

Go Oilers Go! ;)