There are reports coming out of TSN that when the Canucks decided to see what the market would be for Cory Schneider, they got some hits. One was from the Edmonton Oilers who are rumoured to be willing to pay the asking price -- a high first round pick and a prospect.

This is way too much if I'm Craig MacTavish and I already have a pretty good goalie in Devan Dubnyk available to me. I don't believe anything more than a 2nd rounder and a roster player would be fair unless I've already got a trade in the works for Dubnyk to a team like the Flyers for Braydon Coburn.

A goalie tandem of Dubnyk and Schneider sounds great on paper, but it creates more of what Vancouver is dealing with now (on a smaller scale) and Edmonton has way too many other areas of need to be wasting the 7th overall pick when all Edmonton really needs is a solid back-up option in net.

Money better spent would be trying to move a 2nd round pick and prospect for Coburn out of Philly and going all in for Letang out of Pittsburgh. Give up your 7th overall, prospect and a roster player for Letang and you have the cap room for his $7.5 per season ask.

Letang/Smid, Petry/Coburn, J. Schultz/Belov, Potter and you have one of the most dynamic blue in the NHL. Two legit power-play threats, lots of stay-at-home toughness and shot blocking and room for injury should something happen.

The best part is, you can keep your young guys all in tact, with the only risk that your cap doesn't go up to the point that you can't afford to keep everyone. Around $22 million for your defense in 2014/2015, but the Oilers have Letang at one year on a bargain price.

Maybe this isn't realistic, but you can't do any of it should you trade your 7th for Schneider.

This time of year and with the lock-out ending, this is a buyers market in the NHL. Teams are looking to unload cap space, make room to maneuver should opportunities present themselves and with compliance buy-outs, opportunities will present themselves.

And, the same teams who are taking advantage of these buy-outs will likely make the same mistakes again.

Lecavalier doesn't go to Vancouver, the Flyers or Detroit unless they make room. Briere can't land in many of the some 15 teams who have expressed interest unless they move pieces first. Letang doesn't move to Toronto unless a bigger name blue-liner probably leaves first.

This isn't to name teams that might not be looking to make a splash, but just need to clear space like Chicago who wants to sign Bickel, or Minnesota who might move Clutterbuck to free themselves of the Parise and Suter cap dilemma they created last summer. Boston has to find a way to fit Horton, Rask and Bergeron.

Polished and experienced players will become available and many for song. Fortunately for Oiler fans, it's these depth players who may have some cap that Edmonton can and sort of wants to take on.

Mac-T has already stated his willingness to move his second-round picks. Look for these picks to land a few names that make very much depth sense for the Oilers. 

So if the rumors are true, and potential trades like Dion Phaneuf for Sam Gagner and Ales Hemsky for Zack Smith were to happen, how quickly would the Oilers look very different than they do today?

If, and that's a big if; these rumors are true, this could be the fastest roster turnover in Oilers history.

With the trade rumors out there, the news that Edmonton has given Shawn Horcoff and his agent permission to speak to other teams about interest in Horcoff's services, and a press conference coming on Tuesday, it could be less than one week and the Oilers will be very different team.

The top six blue could be Smid/Petry, Phaneuf/J. Schultz and N.Schultz/Belov/Potter. That's a lot of different and in my opinion miles better than it was last year. Phaneuf for all his detractors has a lot of game left in him, he's got that nastiness Edmonton lacks and it spreads out the top six quite evenly. Add to that former Toronto Marlie and Eakins friend for life Paul Ranger to that defensive group, which I think the Oilers will, and I'm quite comfortable with the Oilers depth on the blue. Actually very comfortable.

Moving Ales Hemsky gives Edmonton Nuge/Hall/Eberle, Paajarvi/Yakupov/??, Zach Smith/R. Smyth/R. Jones, A. Lander/Mike Brown/??

That seems to leave a lot of question marks. I think there would be more as Lander should start in OKC and Ryan Jones may not be retained.. I fully believe Belanger is gone, as is Smithson and Petrell. The obvious hole exists at 2nd line center, where if Gagner is moved I would keep Horcoff. I'm not sure the Oilers agree.

The Oilers likely feel and they may be correct that Edmonton should be able to wait for compliance buy-outs. There are bound to be centers available from Danny Briere to Brad Richards, to Vincent Lecavalier or to down the depth chart with Adam Hall. All have been rumored to be moving on and that's what's going to make the next two weeks so exciting.

Depth players like R.J. Umberger and Ryan Malone could be picked up for a song and free agents like Viktor Stalberg, Clarke MacArthur and Eric Nystrom could be left when the big tickets go as they always do.

Edmonton should have enough options with the cap room they possess to fill that part of their roster moving guys up and down the lineup. Could or should the Oilers draft a player at the #7 spot like Sean Monahan or Alexander Barkov, both might be players in a deep draft that could get some time on the roster immediately. If they trade the pick, the value is likely enough that Edmonton could pick up an immediate second line center right there.

When the dust settles and the smoke clears come 48 hours after the completion of the Stanley Cup Finals, the Oilers could very much be the 2013 version of the every day Phoenix Coyotes. Wait for left-overs and build a very competitive team with the scraps. The only difference being there could be some very worthwhile scraps.

Edmonton has the elite talent to play top six. The missing pieces should be available in trade or buyout and it could all come together in a matter of 48-72 hours.