Monday Either Goes At a Snails Pace or Lighting Speed for Oiler Fans

Two and a half days remaining. It's all the Edmonton Oilers have left in terms of time to make up their minds about the futures of some of the players on their roster.

Kovalev, Sturm, Neal, Stewart, Versteeg, Fisher and others are all names that have already been moved. Ales Hemsky, Dustin Penner and to a less extent Sam Gagner remain some of the few viable forward options for some twenty teams that are buying at this years deadline. The Kings, Coyotes, Wild, Capitals, Rangers and Predators are the names most commonly associated with Edmonton these past couple days.

The question becomes what does Steve Tambellini do? Reactions in Edmonton are mixed. There are plenty of fans who don't want either Hemsky or Penner to go. There are others who'd be fine with a move. The common denominator seems to be that if a move were to occur, the return should be an overpayment.

For teams like L.A. that means Brayden Schenn. In Phoenix, it's Oliver Ekman-Larrson or Kyle Turris. In Minnesota its Cam Barker. Two of those three I'd do. The other, as I would with many of the other supposed options available to Edmonton, would have me waiting for next year or this years draft to re-open conversations.

The only real guarantee, is that Edmonton is now a prime target for most of the NHL teams. Some teams have made their moves, but plenty remain. Yes, there are a few surprise trades that have happened like the Blues/Avs deal, which means there are others out there that likely few of us will guess are coming. But with so many teams looking at Penner, Hemsky and Smid among others that might be available, Tambellini is looking at a busy day whether he pulls the trigger or not.

But are we? For us fans, we might not ever see just how busy the Oilers get on Monday. To know for sure, we'll have to wait until the Oil Change TSN special at the end of March and even then we'll see if from a somewhat distorted and pro-Oilers point of view. We could be left at the end of Monday saying to ourselves "what happened to all the deals that were out there?"

Just because Tambellini is fielding calls, doesn't mean we'll see any trades. I predicted in a previous article that Hemsky or Penner being moved is a lock. I still feel that way. But one deal, may be all that we do if I'm right -- which I may not be.

Would you consider it a let down if nothing happened? If after all this talk, the Oilers stood pat and waited to the draft to grab another top three pick and trade some spare parts to fill in missing holes?

As fans, we watch games like the last five where the Oilers stood out as a team of the future. Then the 5-0 loss to St. Louis reminds us of how far we actually are. Do we really want to trade the only mildly reliable offence we have? I can see why the reaction is mixed.

What's your thought? Would you be upset if the Oilers did nothing? Would you be more upset if they did and you didn't like the return?