Oilers Trade Logic

This is about as "BOLD" as it gets for MacT, and this was a while ago....

Craig MacTavish walked into his role with the Oilers with the ballsy statement that he was going to be making some "bold" moves to better the team. Someone needs to buy Craig a dictionary, highlight the definitions of bold and better and then go throw it at his head.

To recap, BOLD has gotten the Oilers:

• Andrew Ference
• David Perron (in getting rid of Paajarvi) 
• Boyd Gordon
• Luke Gazdic
• Jason LaBarbera
• Denis Grebeshkov
• Richard Bachman
• Ryan Hamilton
• Will Acton
• Jesse Joensuu
• Philip Larsen

Now don't get me wrong, there are some good acquisitions there, whether or not they were through trade or straight up signing, but "BOLD" is certainly not the word that should be used to describe those moves. At all.
Then tonight, November 8, happened. And I have a feeling I will be editing this post by the time I post it to include another move by the Oilers, but let's just talk about what has happened already.

Read on for:
Move 1: Smid Trade
Move 2: Bryzgalov Signing

Billy Talent, Hockey and Dallas Eakins

Here`s something you may not know about me (unless you actually know me in real life, in which case, STOP READING this and talk hockey with me in person), but one of my favorite bands is Billy Talent. I enjoy a whole lot of bands, but the guys in Billy Talent are my favorite, on a more personal level. I have had the honor of meeting them a couple times and they are perfect, amazing, sweet guys. But I digress, let`s get back to hockey. Friday night, Billy Talent was playing at the Halloween Howler in Edmonton. I was there, for obvious reasons. All four of the guys - Aaron, Ben, Ian and Jon - are HUGE hockey fans.
The band`s guys come out to set up the stage just prior to their set. I was watching the guy that was setting out the water bottles and beer bottles, and because I was on the Jon side of the stage, I saw his infamous Budweiser rocking a Toronto Maple Leafs holder-thing. String of curses came flying out of my mouth then.

Fast forward to about half way through the set, and cut me some slack here, there is no way I can direct quote this thanks to how long ago this was and the state I was in. Between songs, Ben asks the crowd "Are you all drunk enough for me to talk hockey, or should I wait?"
Then came the best part of Ben's whole hockey speech. To paraphrase what he said as accurately as I can remember... "The Toronto Maple Leafs are where they are because of Dallas Eakins. Give him time and it will work out." That was also the end of that, and back to songs they went.

That one quote was the perfect set up for what I wanted to talk about with Dallas Eakins.
So read on.

And I also just want to say, incase you don't read on, that I don't hate the Leafs by any means, or their fans. Some of my favorite people are Leafs fans, and I respect the people of Toronto and their team and their fans
Mixed reactions from the pit. Ben went right ahead. He started going on about how since they all are from Toronto and  they love the Toronto Maple Leafs. Yeah, yell that out to a crowd of drunk and rowdy Edmontonians. Goes real well. Lots of boos, lots of explicit phrases, lots of thumbs down and lots of middle fingers up. I'm guilty of it too, I was right up front flipping him off. What can I say. Ben starts talking about how they have always had a soft spot for Edmonton and whatnot. That quickly turned into Ben talking about how the Leafs are 1st in the East (which at the time they were), so yeah, yeah, plan the parade, whatever.