Oilers Win, But There's Only One Reason Why It Matters.

The Oilers finally have a reason to celebrate. Sure, it feels a bit odd to rejoice when your team just ended the season in 30th place and one of your superstar defencemen, whom you'd spent too much money on, lambasted your franchise as so many have done before; but every cloud has a silver lining.

A silver lining with an asterik that is.

With the draft in 2010 deep, but far from clear of superstars outside of the top two selections in Taylor Hall and Tyler Seguin, the Oilers would have been a winner whether they had drafted first or second. Both will yield a potential superstar to the team who drafts them and the Oilers could use the skills of either player.

For all we know, whoever makes the pick for the Oil on June 25th may still not be 100% certain the name they call is the clear cut best option.

What winning the lottery does, is give Edmonton some negotiation power with the Boston Bruins (and only Boston should they not trade that 2nd overall pick to another team prior to the draft). Should Boston have their eye on one of Seguin or Hall in particular and the Oilers are willing to give that player to them for a the right to pick number two, Edmonton could pick up an additional asset, so winning Tuesdays draft lottery is big.

Pretend the Bruins want Taylor Hall with a passion. It would be worth something to them to give an additional prospect or asset to Edmonton in order to draft first and secure Hall as part of the Bruins team. Maybe the trade gets bigger than just draft selections and Boston takes some salary like the officially on the market Sheldon Souray along with the 1st overall pick for the 2nd overall pick and a goal scoring sized RW youngster like Blake Wheeler. Maybe more, the Bruins throw in a later 3rd or 4th round selection.

Perhaps drafting first overall means that much to Beantown. Then again, perhaps the Bruins are just as happy as the Oilers would be with either player.

Whatever the case and whatever names get tossed back and forth between Edmonton and Boston should conversations even take place, the Bruins are the only team the Oilers should consider speaking to and only for the 2nd overall pick plus.

So celebrate all you like that the Oilers won the lottery. It has the potential to make an extremely big difference. I might suggest to do so with cautious optimism as the Bruins may be happy as a pig in (#*# to draft 2nd.

If nothing else, winng something feels good even if the Oilers essentially, had little to lose.