Even More Trade News on Shawn Horcoff and Ethan Moreau That Isn't Getting the Oilers Excited.

One of our sources close to the offices of the Edmonton Oilers was able to shed a little light on some of the names involved in trade deadline talks for the Edmonton Oilers. Unfortunately, much of that news, while some not surprising, isn't great.

First, in respect to Ethan Moreau, the Oilers have about two teams interested, but not seriously. The teams talking to Edmonton are doing two things. First, they are making it known to the Oilers, that in taking Moreau, they are simply adding a player to help the Oilers in terms of salary. The rub of course, is that the Oilers must give up a higher draft pick than they want to.

The Oilers have tried to counter with other players or prospects going both ways, but it seems the minute a team is talking anything but higher picks, they stop talking all together. To move Moreau, who it seems as though nobody wants, they have to be willing to ship a decent pick.

In fact, many teams the Oilers have talked to have brought up Moreau's rep around the league as a disturbance. I had to ask again and was shocked when it was repeated that Ethan Moreau has a rep around the NHL as a bad influence.

If it's true and the Oilers are aware of it, that doesn't bode well for a franchise who knows they have a captain no teams want, is overpaid and is actually more of a disturbance than a captain.

Speaking of impossible to move, the Oilers have tried to stir up conversations with a couple teams regarding Shawn Horcoff. Not surprisingly, not a single team, even those like Montreal who were rumoured to like Horcoff were interested at his salary vs production. The Oilers are stuck with Horcoff until he can put together a more productive season.

The problem, is that Horcoff's confidence is at an all time low. He'll need a run or a scoring streak of some sort to feel better about it. His knowing of his grossly inflated salary isn't helping and as was evident in a recent interview where he diverted blame to some fans misunderstanding of economic conditions is just an example of how he's not handling the pressure well.

On the plus side, there has been some interest in Gilbert Brule and Andrew Cogliano. Which teams and for what return, we haven't heard, but that the Oilers aren't keen on moving either. So too, the especially aren't even inviting conversations about Sam Gagner who has attracted some interest from teams around the NHL.

From what we've heard, any talks regarding Sam Gagner have been stalled as the Oilers aren't interested unless the team calling mentions a name of a star on their roster as part of any deal. No one has done so, thus conversations have been short and to the point.

Our source says the mood around the Oilers office, is that little is going to get done before deadline day.

For a franchise looking to sell, that doesn't say much.