Written on 10/06/2010 by Jim Cerny
The Edmonton Oilers finally moved veteran defenseman Sheldon Souray today. But don't get too fired up over this piece of news because the real story isn't nearly as exciting as you might have hoped.
Souray, whom the Oilers have been trying to trade or lose through waivers all summer and through training camp, today had his rights assigned to the Hershey Bears in the American Hockey League.
No, Hershey is not Edmonton's farm team. That would be Oklahoma City.
Hershey is the minor league club for the Washington Capitals. Souray is being loaned there the same way that the Caps have loaned a veteran they don't want around---center Michael Nylander---to Rochester, the top farm team for the Florida Panthers.
While Edmonton is still forced to pay Souray's big salary, the Oilers do not have to absorb his robust $5.4 million cap hit while he is in the minors. Clearly GM Kevin Lowe does not want to pay Souray all season, but right now it is best for the 34 year-old defenseman---with 2 injury-marred seasons in the past 3 years---to prove that he is healthy and not a shell of his former All Star self.
Last year a concussion shelved Souray early and a broken hand suffered in a fight with Jarome Iginla in January finished off the rest of his season. Those injuries, plus his salary and cap hit, his age, and his questionable attitude kept other teams from trading for Souray or picking him off the waiver wire a few days ago.
Is he finished as a star NHL player? Or is he the answer to some team's power play woes? It's worth noting that Souray played in 81 games with trhe Oilers just two years ago and totaled 23 goals (12 on the power play) and 53 points.
The real Souray must make himself clear in Hershey. If he displays a poor attitude and plays sub-par hockey, the Oilers are stuck paying him for the next two years, a huge issue for a notoriously penny-pinching team. However if he shows to be still a quality player, injury-free coupled with a solid attitude, Souray will be back in the NHL, no questions about it.
How does he return, if he returns?
If the Oilers are very lucky, they work out a trade with another team, say Columbus, who has been long-rumored to be interested in Souray. If they are not as lucky, the Oilers will place Souray on re-entry waivers and some team will snag him for half the salary and half the cap charge. That's not a perfect answer for the Oilers, but better than paying a player more than 4 million bucks to play for another team's minor league squad.
Souray was on the move today.
It won't be his last move this season.
Follow me on Twitter at: @jimcerny and @thenyrangers
Posted in
Edmonton Oilers,
Hershey Bears,
Michael Nylander,
NHL,
Sheldon Souray,
Washington Capitals
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Written on 2/01/2010 by Jim Cerny
Canada's Hockey Day on Saturday was its usual great spectacle, and made for great viewing on The NHL Network for this particular US scribe.
But intriguingly each NHL contest played in Canada that day set forth a chain of events that rocked individual teams and the entire league the folllowing day.
First Ottawa continued its impressive climb up the Eastern Conference standings with a thrilling 3-2 overtime victory against the Canadiens. Things are going so well for the Sens, whose win was their ninth in a row, that even Alex Kovalev dented the back of the net against his old club.
The bigger news, though, was Montreal losing its top goal scorer, Mike Cammalleri, to a knee injury. For a team that can be hot-and-cold offensively, seeing their 26-goal scorer go down was a huge blow for the Habs. On Sunday the other shoe dropped, as the Canadiens found out Cammalleri will miss 6-8 weeks of action, a devestating blow for a team battling for a playoff spot.
Next up was Vancouver and Toronto at Air Canada Centre, and Brian Burke's boys must have thought they were dreaming, racing out to a 3-0 lead and chasing Roberto Luongo to the bench in the first period. Dream turned into nightmare, however, as the Canucks scored once in the second and then erupted for four goals in the third to defeat the Leafs 5-3, with Alex Burrows and the Sedin twins taking starring turns.
That collapse was the final straw for Burke who went out and engineered two major trades less than 24 hours later, picking up Dion Phaneuf from Calgary and J-S Giguere from Anaheim in a pair of deals that saw ten players switch jerseys.
Of course Calgary GM Darryl Sutter (above photo) was front and center alongside Burke because it was he---mere hours after his club thrashed Edmonton 6-1 to stem their recent losing ways in the finale of Hockey Day in Canada---who took the leap and traded away the 24 year-old Phaneuf, a First Team NHL All-Star just two years ago.
That pleasing victory over the Oilers did not slow down Sutter's plan to shake up his club. Not only did he ship Phaneuf and two others to Toronto for Niklas Hagman, Matt Stajan, Ian White, and Jamal Mayers, Sutter was right on the verge of casting Olli Jokinen away to New York for Ales Kotalik and Christopher Higgins, but something---rumored to be either Sutter's asking for Ryan Callahan instead of Higgins or Kotalik's refusal to waive his partial no-trade clause---upended the deal.
As of today the Flames and Rangers still have been unable to pull off the trade, or some variation thereof, leaving Sutter with an underperforming star who now quite likely will be a pouting, underperforming star when Jokinen is forced to dress for Calagary at home against the Flyers tonight.
What a mess.
And speaking of blown trades, how about the Oilers, Calgary's victim in the last game Saturday night? They've been looking to move defenseman Sheldon Souray now that he is healthy again. Then Souray goes out and seeks to exact revenge against Jarome Iginla on Saturday for the Calgary captain's injury-inducing hit on the Edmonton defenseman earlier in the season. Souray and Iginla drop the gloves, settle their score in a fairly impressive bout, and in the process Souray breaks his hand.
Cancel those trade discussions!
The Oilers can't catch a break, though in this case, I guess they did, only literally.
One very memorable day on Saturday that bled over into Sunday, with ramifications running for the remainder of the season.
Posted in
Ales Kotalik,
Brian Burke,
Darryl Sutter,
Dion Phaneuf,
J-S Giguere,
Mike Cammalleri,
New York Rangers,
NHL,
Olli Jokinen,
Rink Rap,
Sheldon Souray
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