Heart Break and Heatley

Here are the two players I wanted the most on Free Agency Day (or known as Canada Day, for my more nationalist friends). One is John Madden from New Jersey; a good third line centre and a UFA. The other is Danny Heatley from Ottawa; a pure sniper Left-winger and a selfish player demanding a trade. I will deal with Mr. Heatley first and them move on to the more pressing need (third line Centre, which myself- and half of the OilDiaspora- have been begging for since Sept. 2008). Maybe if I am not to angry and drunk, I'll deal with goalie situation.

Well the Heatley situation reminds me like my recent love life: shooting for the moon to reach my Ariadne, but only to find a empty island and I can't quite figure out how to get home. Both the Oilers and I should learn that aiming for princess (some out of our leagues) often gets us alone on the island: after reaching Naxos we only learn a God, and the God of Wine, had beat us there. The Oilers offered a package of Youth (Cogliano and Smid) up for her, while really I don't have much to offer (but I did travel to reach her), to find out that a son of Zeus- aka the Rangers- is also in the mix. But both my Ariadne and Heatley have haunted my dreams for the last few weeks . . .

Maybe we never found Naxos, and spent the last little while searching the wrong island. Maybe we should have never reached out to the demi-mortal, and aimed for a more practical love. Either way we have had our dreams for a while and now we need to take Mick Jagger seriously. So what do the Oilers need:

- Martin Havlat: would look great with Hemskey. I think he is big enough and is definitely defensively responsible. Would he come here?

- Marian Gaborik: mister glass groin! But I would think he is the most talented player available. Would love to see him with Hemsky, but size and dependability's is an issue.

- Mike Cammalleri: is a shooter, and we need that. But is really small and we have too many Smurfs. The Folks on the Team think he will be the biggest over pay of free agency.

- Jason Williams: he could be a fit and is a UFA. I would think he is more of a second line player (tops) and really is a decent third liner. He would be affordable, I am thinking 2 million for two years. Kinda small again.

- Ales Kotalik: he seems like he wanted to be here, and he can play on multiple lines (from one to three). Can quarter-back the power play, and could replace Big Sexy or the Slovak on the first or second PP. He is big, but doesn't hit that much. Most likely will be cheaper then the rest of the second liners on this list (about 2.5 Million for two years).

I know I have tried to find what I need (and have found it on a weekly basis), and I hope the Oilers try to figure out what they need. Neither of us can get the total package, but lets aim for two out of three: looks, intelligence and emotions, or size, skill and dependability.

Now on to the most pressing need for the Oilers: the third line centre! A lot of folks (bloggers and MSM alike) think we need a starting goalie first, but those are always cheap on the trade front: Thanks to coach, JW, and others on Lowetide for teaching me this. We need a reliable third line centre that can shut down the big skilled forwards in the West. I think John Madden is the guy for us. First, he is smart since he is from the Jersey system and we know that the Oilers love that trait. Second, he plays the toughs: 0.03 QualComp (2nd highest of all Centres in NJ, playing 50+ games) but with -0.37 QualTeam (the lowest of all centres). He did have the worst GAON/60 and traditional plus/minus of all those centres, but those can be related to his play the toughs with the dregs. I think we can get Madden for a reasonable price tag: I'd give him 2.5 million for one year, so that he clears the cap so it would be easier to resign Gags. Think about the third line of:

New LW grinder (Moan/Ward) - Madden - St. Fernando

Hopeful all three of them could come of the books. Pay them 6.5-7 million (1.5-2 Million new guy, 2.5 million for both John and Freddy) and then they all come of the books. This way we can re-sign the ones that earn their keep and are willing to take a pay cut.

Now to the Goalies: We got Nikolai Khabibulin! I am pretty happy about this, even if others are saying he too old (Roli was older then this when we signed him to his three year deal after of the run 2006). I was hoping for this since the middle of the season. His contract is very reasonable: $3.75 Million a year for four years. He has a career goal against of 2.67 in the regular season, and 2.40 in the playoffs! His save % is 0.908 in the regular and a 0.914 in the playoffs! One Stanley Cup: This man is a BIG GAME player!! Good job every Tambo, now go get Ariadne.