Oilers Trade for Visnovsky
The Edmonton Oilers have traded Jarret Stoll and Matt Greene to the LA Kings for Ludomir Visnovsky. The Oilers have an abundance of young players looking to crack the line up and the trading of Stoll makes room to give someone a shot.
The 26 year old Stoll is coming of a very disappointing season in which he scored only 36 points and is set to become a restricted free agent on July 1st. With Shawn Horcoff coming off one of the best seasons of his career and the emergence of Gagner, Cogliano, and Nilsson, Stoll would essentially be an expensive 3rd line center.
Matt Green plays with a lot of grit and heart but is not a very good puck mover and does not provide much offense with 13 points in 151 NHL games. He is a big defenceman who can provide great physical play and I expect will be successful in LA.
In return the Oilers receive an elite offensive defensmen in Visnovsky who will also provide veteran leadership for the younger players in the system. Visnovsky is much smaller than Greene but but moves the puck well and can quarterback the power play. Essentially the Oilers have traded away 2 questionable players for an elite player who is under contract for 5 seasons.
It will be interesting to see if the Oilers will sign RFA Joni Pitkanen, they now have approximately 20 million dollars committed to the defense but with the cap going again and a new owner with deep pockets I would not be surprised to see him signed.
Potentially the Oilers defense this coming season could be:
Lubomir Visnovsky
Sheldon Souray
Joni Pitkanen
Tom Gilbert
Steve Staois
Denis Grebeshkov
The Oilers may just have the best puck moving group of defensmen in the NHL, combine that with the group of offensively talented young forwards and this will indeed be a very exciting season.
The Voice.
I am impressed with the oilers defense but do they have the offense to win games in the new NHL? With the money they have spent on the blueline; it doesn’t leave much room to go after an elite forward that could make all the difference.
Well they just traded Joni Pitkanen for Erik Cole so the Defense gets a little weaker but the offense get stronger… All round an improvement I would say.