Less than an hour before what had been an placid craft deadline, Steve Tambellini took out the trigger on a great apportion with a much-rumoured dealing mate, Dean Lombardi of the LA Kings. The merely little detail that misconceived was the names of any of the prinicpals as it is Dustin Penner, not Ales Hemsky, who's aim to the left coast, and Colten Teubert, not Brayden Schenn, aim for the River City. Oilers also adopted the Kings' first-rounder in the forthcoming 2011 Entry Draft, a pick which currently projects around the #21 emplacement, besides as a conditional third-round pick in 2012 which coulded if the Kings have a booming playoffs this year, or so the comment currently has it.
So, three assets. Hmmm. Let's start by talking of the one (slenderly) cognised commodity, namely Colten Teubert. He's a big (6'4, 201) right-shooting defenceman who was taken 13th overall in the 2008 draft, which is to say, nine breaks up ahead his Regina Pats mate Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Eberle. Dealing his stats page Teubert comes along to be the Advent of Alex Plante, which is a little of a strange accomplishment given we're already awaiting for the 1st adding up of Alex Plante. Whatever, I suppose having two youngsters with a 50% accidental of arriving is amend betting odds than one.
Penner earlier cost the Oilers three assets, their first three draft alternatives in 2008, which were #12, #43 and #73 overall. The return getting back now does not appear much different, a slight upgrade if anything. Meanwhile Penner was paid a good dollar, and produced at a pretty decent level, scoring 93 goals since his arrival in Edmonton 3¾ years ago, 29 more any other Oiler.
That output will be hard to replace, Penner's mammoth body even moreso on a team already overloaded with smurfs. Course they may well find that alternate as is place they found Penner himself, on the free spirit market. There's now extra cap room to address the need for a ability forward, perhaps an edgier one than Dustin himself, maybe even one who can play centre. The Oilers remain flush on the flanks with veteran Ales Hemsky and the entire desire. brigade of Hall, Omark, Paajarvi and Eberle all natural wingers vying for top six type ice time. So in the short term this deal will open up an increased opportunity for somebody like Paajarvi.
For Penner this represents a move to the home of his new wife, which may have played a role in the "fit" of this deal, who knows. He has played in southern California before, playing seven playoff rounds and winning a Stanley Cup in Anaheim, all while technically a rookie. His game may be ideal for the post season, alas, we in Edmonton never got the chance to see that first hand. Certainly this will make the Kings that much less putdownable to follow this April and on the far side.
As an Oiler Dustin Penner was a controversial character, a lightning conductor among a fan base who either loved the guy, despised him, or both. His strength as a player are, well, his strength, and his ability to attic excellent complemental player on any line. To those who follow or produce advanced stats - such the Cult of Hockey's own David Staples - the guy was a dream.
He joins a Kings squad that already features big top six forwards in Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown, indeed it's easy to imagine that threesome going head-to-head against the rival Ducks' behemoth trio of Getzlaf-Perry-Ryan. It's a big addition for the Kings, who now feature four prominent ex-Oilers, including Ryan Smyth, Jarret Stoll and Matt Greene. It'll be all the easier to root for that squad in the post-season, give or take the fact that their playoff success coulded draft pick Oilers just acquired. Presumably i.e. both the reason and the trigger for the condition on the secondary pick in 2012, so this Oiler fan isn't going to lose much sleep over it either way.
The deal was by far the larger of the two transactions Steve Tambellini signed off at the deadline. The other was a swap of minor league defencemen, as Shawn Belle was swapped to the Colorado organization for 22-year-old blueliner Kevin Montgomery. Perhaps the drive behind this deal was the fact that Belle has been a supernumerary veteran in OKC, one of six guys with 260+ professional person GP. AHL rules restrict teams to using just five such players, so since Zack Stortini's arrival Belle has been sitting out with a mysterious "lower body injury" that sounds suspiciously similar to Gilbert Brule's various ailments. An injury of convenience. Montgomery, a former teammate of Sam Gagner with London Knights, presents no such barriers. For that matter, neither does Colten Teubert as OKC's blueline just got both younger and more crowded.
