It's time for another high point on the professional hockey calendar. The time where players slowly filter into town after their long summers of training – because playing golf, hanging out at their vacation lake of choice (or as they call it in eastern Canada, "Cottage Country"), and working out several times a week is all part of the millionaire athlete's summer day job in preparation for the upcoming season. For a fan and amateur sportswriter like me, this is the time of year where hope is sky high. No games played, still time for big trades, and no season-crippling losing streaks to wear out my profanity vocabulary…yet.
It's a time of year where the rosters aren't set and fans and media pretend that several jobs are on the line for their favourite team's players. Of course, in today's professional hockey world, with one-way contracts, big-money, long-term deals, and salary cap restrictions, there are but a few jobs truly contested in training camp. Despite the fact general manager Steve Tambellini in May promised Oiler fans big changes for the upcoming season, we are very likely going to see a similar roster as last year. But, with a new coaching staff (save for all-time NHL fights-lost leader Kelly Buchberger), it's quite possible the bubble players will change. With Craig MacTavish gone, every player will now need to prove himself to Pat Quinn and Tom Renney. This means no more benefit of the doubt for players like Shawn Horcoff, Ethan Moreau, Steve Staios, Sheldon Souray, and Sam Gagner, as well as a clean slate for former doghouse players Dustin Penner, Ladislav Smid, Robert Nilsson and Rob Schremp. For the first time in years, training camp will have a different feel in Edmonton, even if the roster is similar to last season's disappointing squad.
What's fun about this year is nobody really knows what to expect. We all have a rough idea that Pat Quinn will try to roll four lines more evenly than his predecessor, that Tom Renney will help the woeful penalty kill and defence, that we could see a very different Dustin Penner – who will still be accused of being overweight and out of by the world's most petty and fickle group: sportswriters. What we don't know is far more exciting. Most of the Oilers only played for one coach in the NHL prior to now. How will guys react to different roles, different minutes and different line mates? For the last several years, we knew that Ales Hemsky would be stuck with Shawn "Whiff" Horcoff as his centre. It could happen again this year, or maybe not…who knows?
The biggest problem facing this team is that they aren't the biggest. Up front, the Oilers are almost comically small. I read a recent glass-half-full take on their lack of size, comparing these Oilers to the Buffalo Sabres of a few years ago. At first I thought, "Those Sabres went to the Conference Finals!" then I thought…"in the Eastern Conference." Unfortunately, the Eastern Conference style is not as physical as the Western Conference, so these Oilers are in for a real fight. Up front, the Oilers have small and/or and not-so-physical players in Andrew Cogliano (22), Mike Comrie (29), Sam Gagner (20), Ales Hemsky (26), Shawn Horcoff (30), Robert Nilsson (24), Patrick O'Sullivan (24), Fernando Pisani (32), and Marc Pouliot (24). And that doesn't include the bubble players like Gilbert Brule (22), Jordan Eberle (19), Ryan O'Marra (22), Ryan Potulny (25), Liam Reddox (23) or Rob Schremp (23). Mix in the few big, physical players in J-F Jacques (24), Steve MacIntyre (29), Ethan Moreau (33), Dustin Penner (27), Ryan Stone (24), Zach Stortini (23), Viacheslav Trukno (22) and you have an interesting mix of skill, speed and toughness…unfortunately, no one player features all three traits.
What's particularly worrisome with the forwards is their lack of top end talent. Outside of Ales Hemsky, not one of these players is remotely close to being a point-per-game threat. The offensive players – interpret the term as you see fit – are all small with the potential to score. The bright side of bringing Mike Comrie back into the fold, is that at least now the Oilers have a 30 goal scorer at the NHL level…unfortunately, Comrie hasn't accomplished the feat in several years, but at least now he's injury prone! However, having only one or two proven scorers in the line-up while being up against the salary cap and trying to convince fans this is a playoff contender is going to be one hell of a chore.
On the back end, the Oilers have Tom Gilbert (26), Dennis Grebeshkov (25), Ladislav Smid (23), Sheldon Souray (33), Steve Staios (36), Jason Strudwick (36) and Lubomir Visnovsky (33). Unfortunately, Smid, Staios and Strudwick are the only ones that so much as attempt body checks, with Staios and Strudwick long in the tooth and slow footed. I like Jason Strudwick as the next Sportsnet Colour Commentator, but as the seventh defenseman, he eats a spot better suited for Taylor Chorney (22) or Theo Peckham (21). With the current defence core's long injury history, it's a given that one or both young players will play in the NHL this year. It's just too bad they have to wait for at least two injuries for it to be a reality.
The biggest problem that plagues this blue line is that Kevin Lowe was the architect. After the Chris Pronger fiasco, Lowe was desperate to get a puck moving defenseman to replace him. So he overpaid for the one dimensional Sheldon "Thunder Throat" Souray and his slap shot. Then, in quite possibly the stupidest – but amazingly not worst – trade of his tenure as general manager, Lowe traded two younger players in Jarrett Stoll (27) and Matt Greene (27) for Lubomir Visnovsky. Now the Oilers have two expensive, old power play specialists who don't hit and don't defend well and going in to camp sorely lacks a right-handed faceoff specialist/penalty killer and bruising stay-at-home defenseman. The result of those moves left Oilers with four offensive-minded defensemen and no punisher. To add salt to the wounds, the cost of offensive defensemen is usually about twice that of stay-at-home defensemen, pushing the team even closer to the cap.
Going into this season, there is some hope on the back end, despite the hefty price tag. Smid, to me at least, looks like could play a similar style to Niklas Kronwall in Detroit. If and when Peckham gets the call to the big club, the Oilers could finally have the punishing pair of defensive blue liners they've sorely needed for at least two years. Behind Chorney and Peckham are Alex Plante, Matt Nickerson and Johan Motin manning the Springfield Falcons defence.
Finally, let's look between the pipes. When Dwayne Roloson (40) decided he wouldn't accept a one-year contract and will continue to fossilize elsewhere (and oddly enough, in an even worse three goalie system), Tambellini brought in Nikolai Khabibulin from Chicago. Although I'm not enamoured by the four year term for a 36-year-old goalie because there is literally no way out of the cap hit if he stinks up the joint during his tenure, it wasn't a terrible move. In fact, as a goaltender, he's better than Roloson and with the new coaching staff, we'll finally get to see what Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers (25) can do with 25-30 games. The term of the Khabibulin deal is also a bit strange since goaltending is the position the Oilers have the most depth (and oddly enough, size) with Devan Dubnyk (23) and even Olivier Roy (18) waiting in the wings. But I'd rather have an embarrassment of riches in the system than some of the questionable tandems we've seen here in previous years.
Training camp kicks into gear in a few days and we all get to bask in the fact that the Oilers have the potential to score goals, have a new coach and the goats of the old regime no longer have to fight an uphill battle from day one. We'll see how all the players adapt to the new system and who might make the leap from the minors or junior hockey to the big club. We'll see how former favourite fare with having to prove themselves for the first time in years. We'll see new line combinations and hopefully it leads to a much hungrier team than last year's edition. But for now, let's sit back, see who shines in camp, and assess the team again after they pare the roster down to 23 players for the regular season.
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