Jordan Eberle and Steve Tambellini pose for the cameras. Eberle played his first games as Falcon last week.

(Image via cdn.nhl.com)

First of all, I'd like to say congrats to Jonathan Willis on the brand spanking new blog. It looks really good and I think I will frequent this location more than the old one and I used to read the old one a lot!

Tambellini is the new Dread Pirate Roberts

In the novel and movie The Princess Bride, every time the Dread Pirate Roberts found his replacement he would pretend to kill his him, and then train him in the art of becoming the next Dread Pirate Roberts. This way, the old Roberts could retire in peace and the new Roberts could claim a new crew and loot the high seas. This is much like Tambellini's experience thus far as an understudy of Kevin Lowe.

Previously, many an Oilers fan has been forced to ask the question: how much say does Tambellini actually have in trade situations? According to Jason Gregor's post on OilersNation, if there ever was any question about Steve Tambellini's sovereignty as a GM, there is no longer room for doubt as he has been given the green light to change the team as he sees fit without interference.

Apparently, when Tambellini was brought in the reason he answered to Lowe was because his job was to oversee the team in order to assess it. Once he perceived its strengths and weaknesses he would then act upon them at the end of the year. Perhaps it is thus that Tambellini was bound and fettered to this condition that left  him mostly hog-tied for most of the year.

I remember complaining endlessly about the 3-headed goalie monster and the lack of a shut-down D-man and 3rd line checking centerman throughout the early part of the season. Smid and eventually Peckham and Cogliano tried to fill these roles amiably, and I think it is obvious to many that what they lack in experience was abundant in enthusiasm. However, in professional sports enthusiasm is not always enough.

The pressing question for me is: starting with Cole and Visnovsky, and ending with Kotalik and O'Sullivan, how many of the trades we saw were actually Tambellini's and how many were Lowe's?

If this is really the start of the Tambellini era, will we might see a marked change in asset management and youth developmental policy? What does this mean for fringe NHL players like Jeff DesLauriers? Kyle Brodziak? Ladislav Smid? What does this mean for prospects looking for deals such as Gilbert Brule? Rob Schremp? Ryan Potulny?

Lowe has led a significantly defense-oriented approach thus-far in his legacy. His trend was in acquiring guys such as Pronger, Spacek, Tarnstrom, Souray, Pitkanen, Visnovsky, Gilbert, and Grebeshkov: this is why I'm starting to think that Tambellini started to make his mark starting with the Garon trade. Especially now that the Oiler blue line seems to be set in stone for at least the next 3 years with Souray, Visnovsky, Gilbert, and Grebs about to resign.

The Garon trade does not seem to be a typical Lowe trade: he acquired pieces and assets that at individual face value don't add up to what we gave up but altogether seem to be an interesting collection of items. Dany Sabourin has not suited up as an Oiler and his role on the Falcons was limited. Ryan Stone seems to be an above-average farm prospect. The 4th round pick is likely to be packaged for something else. It seems to be these pieces indicate that the Oilers are not making trades based on emergency decisions such as how they had their hands forced in the Pronger and Smyth deals: the Garon trade is the first trade that seemed obviously part of a bigger plan.

Well, what then of the O'Sullivan and Kotalik deals? Once again, the 3-way trade in itself is something new to the Oilers. The 3-way trade seems to indicate something about Tambellini that will be scary at first but exciting when we get used to it: Tambellini is takes calculated risks that are part of a bigger plan and he's not willing to be unconventional to do it. Sure Lowe was unconventional in his offer sheets too. But that wasn't asset management. That was asset acquisition.

I am optimistic about what Tambellini decides to do about Penner, Nilsson, and Roloson this off-season. MacTavish really railed on the first two and the latter is looking for a new contract.

I am more optimistic about what this means about the Oilers getting serious about developing our young players. Last year's youth development frenzy was trial-by-fire, and not an actual development strategy. It was countered by this year's lacklustre finish. With Tambellini in full control of the farm system, what changes can we expect when it comes to systems and asset management? Will it be good? Will it be bad?

It's probably best to remember that even if Tambellini has a plan it may take more than a season to see the positive effects. Best to keep our expectations for next season lower than we had them this past season. Trust me, if the Leafs can wait as long as they have (what was it, 1967?), we can survive one more off season of torment and have a new crew trained proper and ready for actoin.

And much like in The Princess Bride the time is ripe for Tambellini to cast out the old Roberts and bring the new Roberts to power.