Waiting For Leftovers Part II

In our second installment of a continued series on trades vs free agency, the Edmonton Oilers and their options; we take a closer look at the Calgary Flames.

As we know from past experience, trading players within your division is rare. Trading from Calgary to Edmonton and visa versa is probably even more rare, but let's pretend for a minute that it's possible, which we know it is. Who would you be interested in from the Flames?

Having made one of the biggest splashes in the days leading up to free agency, the Calgary Flames took one of the biggest free agent names off the market in Jay Bouwmeester. Inking him to a 6 yr, $6.68 million dollar deal per year added an incredible amount of depth to their blueline. With players like Dion Phaneuf and Robyn Regher already helping form a formiddable defensive core, Bouwmeester makes the Flames defense -- well, scary good.

That said, what does it cost the Flames in terms of goal scoring? They lose Mike Cammaleri, who scores 39 goals and signs on with Montreal. Immediately that hurts. What's worse is that they have no money to replace him with. Calgary sits just $3.1 million from the cap and have at forward only Jarome Iginla, Olli Jokinen and Daymond Langkow with any proven offensive experience over more that one year.

Perhaps the Sutter brothers will be happy to try and win games 2-1 or 1-0, but should they want to add at least one more experienced offensive forward, it may require moving someone out. Darryl Sutter's gone on record saying his plan is to keep the big three on defense. So who goes?

Daymond Langkow -- At 33, it looks as though Langkow's best years are behind him. His offensive production has slowly declined in each of his last three seasons. In fact, it can be argued that his one 70 plus point season was a direct result of being paired with Iginla for almost the entire year. Langow is a center and doesn't bring much more than Horcoff would to the Oilers, just a slightly lower cap hit. Calgary wouldn't make this trade one for one and with Gagner and Horcoff as number 1 or 2 in whichever order you prefer, Langkow makes little sense.

Rene Bourque - is young and looks like he's going to be a fine young LW. The Oilers need a first line LW, but Bourque is not that guy. He's yet to prove anything offensively with the exception of what looked to be breakout year last year until it was derailed by injury. At a cap hit of $1.3 and UFA status at the end of this coming season, Bourque would probably be a short term fit for the Oilers even if they chose to take a leap of faith. Bourque needs to prove far more than one 40 point season, before he solves any of the Oilers problems.

David Moss -- had his best season last year and at a $1.3 million cap hit over the next three seasons is a good contract that will easily show it's worth to the Flames. The Oilers might like to have someone like Moss on the team, but the Flames won't even consider making that trade. Let's move on.

Curtis Glencross -- Oiler fans know Curtis Glencross. He's a sore subject for a lot of fans as a player who once again slipped through the cracks, could have been a great player for the Oilers, but moved to the Flames once it looked like Edmonton was preoccupied with bigger fish. Glencross was on an amazing pace when he played the final 26 games of the season with Edmonton and we all knew in his next season, duplicating that would be impossible. With that in mind, his $1.2 cap hit is a bargain. See David Moss if you want to know what Calgary thinks of trading Curtis away.

The same can be said for Craig Conroy...we don't even need to discuss him.

Cory Sarich-- is the odd man out in terms of defense in Calgary. He's an excellent player but he's also a $3.6 million dollar cap hit. If there is one player on the roster that would give Calgary a little wiggle room, it's Sarich. The Oilers however, are not in the market for a defensive player like him and he solves very few problems including the Oilers own need to clear up a little cap space.

Conclusion...

Don't expect Calgary to discuss any trades with the Oilers. While Calgary is in a minor pickle in terms of cap space their is nothing here the Oilers need that immediately improves the team in it's troubled areas. I suppose that's a good thing, because as we mentioned at the start, a trade between Calgary and Edmonton is unlikely at best anyways.

When we come back... we look at the Chicago Blackhawks.