Kotalik Signs with the Rangers

While the Oilers wait on Dany Heatley, another player has seemingly slipped through the cracks. Ales Kotalik has signed on with the New York Rangers for 3 yrs at $3 million per season.

The Edmonton Oilers had offered Kotalik a contract extension, but no where near the $3 million he was asking right out of the gate and with at least two other teams interested (the New York Rangers obviously one of those teams.), Edmonton fans can say goodbye to a winger who put on a strong season ending performance since coming from Buffalo.

For many Oiler fans, this is just another example of history repeating itself as another relatively inexpensive contract has left town while Edmonton attempted to land a bigger fish. Last year it was Glencross while they went after Hossa. The year before it was Sykora as they went after, --well almost anyone who would be interested in Edmonton and now it's Kotalik in attempts to woo Dany Heatley out of Ottawa. What bothers me, is that the Oilers seem to have wasted a 2nd round draft pick to add Kotalik and seemingly spent no real effort to keep him. Would they not have been better off keeping the 2nd round pick?

Some might argue that at $3 million, Kotalik is being overpaid by New York as seems to be a tendancy by the Rangers; however others might argue that Kotalik will bring special skills to the team as a powerplay, shootout and hard shot specialist.

In either case, Edmonton waits. They say goodbye to a decent player in Kotalik and as of yet, the Oilers have nothing to replace him with.