A Reflection on Defense Men

One of my favorite French writers Georges Sorel, once said: “So little are we prepared to understand pessimism that we generally employ the word quite incorrectly: we call pessimists people who are in reality only disillusioned optimists” (Reflections on Violence, P. 9). He goes on to say a bunch about pessimism and politics that I find to be quite thought provoking.

I am not going to talk to you about those here, but rather point out why the phrase I quote above is relevant to Oilers Hockey. (You can find a bunch more interesting reads about pessimism about hockey here or here, by the way.) But I am going to tell you that I am disillusioned optimist vis-à-vis the Edmonton Oilers.

I want to be excited and cheer for the Oilers; when I watch Hall or Pääjärvi, I cannot stop myself from thinking that “this is the greatest thing since sliced bread.” The optimism abounds. I call hockey my ‘soap opera’ since I follow it everyday and it gives me something to cheer about. Classic optimist behaviour?

I am just disillusioned since there still is a crappy blueline: easily the biggest weakness in getting to a playoff contending team. It has been like this since the summer of 2006 . . . it is not getting better by itself, here. It is hard to turn on the television, year after year, to watch games (that will end far after midnight) knowing the once mighty Oil have a blueline in the bottom third of the league. Sometimes we have the worst blueline in the entire league. Reason for Disillusionment?

Here is the line up as we have it, based on a bunch of arguments other places.

Left Defense	Right Defense
Whitney (22+ min/Not-the-toughest comp./#1 PP)	___________(22+ minutes/experience playing toughest comp./1st unit PK)
Smid (18+ min./maybe can play toughest comp./2nd unit PK)	Gilbert (20+ min./has played toughest comp./used in all special teams)
Barker (12-16 min/third pairing-offensive/some PP time)	Peckham (12-16 min/third pairing-old skool/no special teams)
Sutton (12-16 min/third pairing-can hurt peeps/maybe PK)

Petry is not on my Oilers Team. Sorry all those that love him. Petry would be my first call up. First and foremost, Petry does not fit a description of having experience 22 minutes a night playing the toughest the opposite can throw at him actual NHL career. Plus Petry is a better PP than PK man, imo. The Pitcher’s Son can clear waivers both ways: I doubt Barker or Sutton would survive re-entry waivers, and no one else (but Chorney) would survive the hook going down. Imagine, an Oilers blueline that could afford to send Petry down to the AHL. When injuries do hit, Renney will have a defenseman that could come and fill in at a multiple of situations. There is no other player but Petry that can be shuffled back-and-forth while playing at such a high level. This means what 20 games of Petry being in the minors to start the season and maybe a few more games in the triple AAAs, if, the NHL club avoids a major injury or two near the end of the season. The more minutes in the AHL will mean more development at all the special teams, strength & conditioning, and lots of even strength experience with the toughest of AHL competition for when Petry comes to the big leagues.

Oh, sign me up for that scenario. Plus this means we have to fill in that other defenseman position from a trade or free agency (since Petry is better than the rest of the AHL defensemen). An ‘actual’ NHL defenseman, at minimum.

Washington

It seems like they have spent too much money and are over the cap and have a lot of defensemen. The thing is that Poti is unlikely to return in my opinion—lets set the betting at 50-50: so really, without Poti, the Caps have just over 1 million to spend, one Karl Alzner to sign, and 6 NHL defensemen under contract. Carlson won’t be traded; Hamrlik can’t be traded; Erskine has a nice contract; the rest of them . . . anything is possible. If, I was Tambo, and I am not, I’d be calling Mr. McPhee.

Denis Wideman shoots right and can play both sides of the rink I am told. That sounds nice. Quickly from Behind the Net: last year Wideman played 16.91 TOI at even strength and had a 0.80 Points per 60; 3.8 power play TOI, and 3.36 Points per 60; plus had another 2.32 Penalty Kill TOI. That is a lot of icetime, and not bad production. I am not going to look up his experience against tough competetion, but lets assume it sucks. He got a contract just a hair less then 4 million, and is a UFA next year.

He is worth trading for by the Oilers, at the right price. He was just traded for a 3^rd round in 2011 and an ECHL player or some bag of pucks. Just make sure the deal is not too much more, but still an upgrade from Washington’s perspective: maybe a good looking forward prospect and a 3^rd round in 2012. As for the slightly-off-blue-chipper, I’d suggest (in this order): Toni Rajala, Tyler Pitlick, Chris VandeVelde, Curtis Hamilton, or Anton Lander. They all ain’t going to all make the show . . .so come on Brass, display to us why you are worth your money: choose the one that you don’t think will make the Oilers and toss it in the ring for a part we need. I really think a promising second round draft choice and this years third is going to get McPhee talking real hard on the phone.

Maybe, just skip the McPhee part. The Oilers could deliver an RFA contract to Karl Alzner! He is not the experienced player we are looking for now, and not a right defenseman, but I still think the Oilers should look into this. It would mean most likely trading a Left Dman (Whitney or Smid, or maybe one of the three on the bottom pairing . . . ok, anyone but Gilbert or Petry) but the age group would grow around the ‘core’ and add a defenseman to go along with Petry at the blueline ‘core’. It would make the team better on in the long term and this year, but just not as good as I want the blue line to be this year.

It would have to be as large as possible a contract, but not too much and give away the farm. The compensation for a second round contract ends at about 3.1 million a season, and any more then five years does not count in figure out compensation. A $15.5 or $12.4 payout over five or four years is what would take for this to happen. And it still not happen, if I was McPhee, I’d gladly pay Alzner 3.1 a year not to let him walk. I think the Oiler brass could make the contract unpalatable for the Washington Ownership.

Here is what I’d do, make it a five year contract with most of it coming in bonus money. The average salary would be one million for each of the five years, and the rest of it comes in signing bonus. This way the player is protected from the possibility of a lockout effecting their salary. Make the first signing bonus (say 11 days after the contract is signed) for 7 million dollars, and the second signing bonus paying out 3.5 million on July 1^st 2012 at midnight. If Alzner is signed to a RFA contract then Mr. McPhee cannot trade him until July 1^st 2012, and will be forced to pay out eleven point five million dollars in that first year of the contract. That is a lot of money for the ownership to swallow even if the Caps get the player for the next four for basically nothing.