Oilers Fans Irate With Grebeshkov Trade

Oilers fans are just simply not happy with Monday evening's trade of defenseman Denis Grebeshkov to Nashville.

Ben Massey at The Copper & Blue summed things up quite nicely in a post this evening. The highlights:

What can't this guy screw up? What can Steve Tambellini possibly get right in this world? The catastrophically imbecilic Nikolai Khabibulin signing? The complete clusterbeep that was the Oilers' roster from day one? The closest things we've had to pleasant surprises - Ryan Potulny, Sam Gagner, and Gilbert Brule - were all Kevin Lowe moves.

Remember when we panned Kevin Lowe? I wake up in the middle of the night dreaming of Kevin Lowe these days.

And the latest. Denis Grebeshkov for a second-round pick. To the Nashville Predators, a team rocketing up the NHL standings. It's inconceivable that this pick will be earlier than fifty-fifth overall in the shallowest draft year for some time. Essentially, we gave Denis Grebeshkov away. Gave him away.

There was no reason not to keep Grebeshkov! None! If it takes us five years to relentlessly rebuild, well, then, by god, Grebeshkov will be 30 and just on the tail-end of his prime in time to contribute to a winning team! He presumably won't be that expensive and, with restricted free agency on the horizon, the Oilers hold all the cards unless somebody makes him an offer sheet (and if somebody made him an offer sheet then we'd get a lot more than a second-rounder for our trouble). If we were going to trade him, the return should bear that in mind: there aren't a lot of useful pieces on this roster but Grebeshkov was one of them.

Nope. Late second-rounder. Thanks, Tambellini. Thanks a bunch.

Here's the remarkable thing. It might get worse. You've heard the rumours? We're supposed to be giving up Sheldon Souray for a package centred around Wade Redden. Or Lubomir Visnovsky for Brad Marchand and a draft pick. There's a very real possibility that, by this time next week, Jason Strudwick will be our third-best defenseman. I mean actually our third best defenseman, not just Pat Quinn thinking he's our third-best defenseman.

This isn't a rebuild. This is a fire sale. The way Steve Tambellini is going, the 2010-11 Edmonton Oilers could be the worst team in NHL history.

C&B also broke the trade down by the numbers this evening. When quantifying things, does the deal look as bad?

Apparently, Denis Grebeshkov has been traded to the Nashville Predators in exchange for a second round pick in 2010.  This past summer, I was critical of the Oilers handling of Grebeshkov's contract situation.  At the time, it seemed to me like the deal wasn't outright terrible, but that they could've done a lot better.  With this trade, they've taken the extra step.  Not only could they have done a lot better, they've done something terrible!  After the jump we'll take a look at the extent of the stupidity.