Cult of Hockey has a great post on the Heatley trade from the Oilers' point of view...
by Quisp on Sep 12, 2009 8:48 PM PDT
3 comments
...and I think it applies just as well to the Kings:
The Oilers offered three good players for Heatley. The Oilers deal was far superior to the one that Murray accepted from San Jose. They must be cursing Heatley right now in Ottawa. Me, I'm just glad Heatley isn't an Oiler, not because Heatley's any kind of bad person or weak player. He's one of the top snipers in the league, in fact. But I believe the Oilers' only real hope -- if the team's goal is to compete for the Stanley Cup -- isn't in picking up a short-term, one-dimensional paycheque man, even if that one dimension is scoring 40-50 goals a year. If Edmonton is to win consistently, the Oilers need to build around youth. They need a young base of talent who want to stay together and won't demand the sun, moon and stars in financial compensation from management. This is the Detroit model, it's the best model in the salary cap era, so why not follow it? Smid and Cogliano are young players on the way up, players who still might improve significantly. They are also relatively cheap players right now. The Oilers aren't close to winning the Cup, and the team is going to need more than just one veteran sniper to win in the playoffs. It will take a group of young players who improve as a group, who play as a team, who push one another to excellence. When this notion becomes the core belief of Oilers' management, things will start improving in Edmonton, and not until that time.
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someone who didn’t know better would read that and think the Kings organization is WAY ahead of the Oilers’, yet we’ve finished behind them since, well, since the last time we made the playoffs…2002. that being said, we SHOULD finish ahead of them this year, right? and our young group SHOULD be able to incorporate a top notch sniper, right? i mean, at this point they’re a strong enough core to withstand a little bit of ego from an elite player, right? i think so.
by wavesinair on Sep 13, 2009 9:48 AM PDT reply actions
You’re right, of course. The thing is, the Kings are trending up, while the Oilers are trending down. The Oilers are in disarray; the Kings are singular in purpose (whether you believe in that purpose is another matter, of course). And, yes, the Kings MUST finish ahead of Edmonton this year, or all of our cliches will have to be re-evaluated. As far as “incorporating a top notch sniper,” that depends on the sniper. Hopefully we can grow one ourselves (Moller and Loktionov are excellent candidates, and Purcell is a very good one). Getting one in trade, a la Heatley, is tricky (even without the Heatley baggage issue). If you have to give up Frolov to get Heatley, I am quite sure that doesn’t help us one bit. As for “withstanding a little bit of ego,” there are many different flavors of ego. Heatley, frankly, seems stupid, literally not that bright. That strikes me as problematic.
by quisp on Sep 13, 2009 11:04 AM PDT reply actions
as far as heatley goes, i had no interest whatsoever. especially if he is dense. i guess i just think we could have done better in the FA market. our record of getting dinged up, aging players who come through for us is not good at all. williams, smyth, and now stoll possibly being a bust. these are all big question marks for me and they are going to be a huge part of whether this team succeeds this year…or not.
by wavesinair on Sep 13, 2009 11:22 AM PDT reply actions
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