Game 64 Preview:  Minnesota Wild vs. Edmonton Oilers - March 5, 2010 - 7:00 pm MT - Rexall Place - PPV

Well, the 'new' Oilers will be hosting the Minnesota Wild tonight at Rexall Place.  Sadly, this game will be on PPV, so you'll have to pay to see the new heavily depleted roster.  We all know that things we're going to be ugly going forward, but it's probably going to be even uglier than many of us anticipated.

The good news is that the season is almost over.  The bad news is that it seems likely that the 'rebuild' is going to be a project two or three years in the making.

In terms of stats, the only one that really matters at this point is how far back we are of the Toronto Maple Leafs.  Currently, we've got a  six point safety margin for last place in the league.  It's likely that we can breathe a sigh of relief and look forward to drafting Taylor Hall or Tyler Seguin without too much to worry about.

Daily Line:  Favors Minnesota (-180/+160).  Follow the jump for the 'projected' and possibly inaccurate lineups.

More to come by Jay but here is what we have so far:

Lubomir Visnovsky to Anaheim for Ryan Whitney and 2010 6th round pick.  Whitney has similar length contract to Lubo but is at $4 million a year vs. $5.6 million.  Whitney is a good half foot taller at 6'4".

Steve Staios to Calgary for Aaron Johnson and a future 3rd round pick.

With Souray headed to the hospital today with a post surgery infection in his hand, it looks like his season may be over (per TSN).  That likely made Lubo the guy to go.  Lubo was my pick to depart but I hadn't expected to take on such a big contract in return.

It would appear that Tom Gilbert, Shawn Horcoff, Ethan Moreau and Patrick O'Sullivan will be on the books at least until this summer.  Not too surprising to find a lack of interest on these players.

Ryan Jones claimed from waivers by Edmonto Oilers

As per TSN, the Edmonton Oilers have claimed Ryan Jones from waivers.  He was placed on waivers by the Nashville Predators prior to yesterday's game.

Ryan Jone, 25 years old, is listed at 6'0" and 200 lbs.  Joan Ireland speculates that the acquisition of Jones suggests that Ethan Moreau will be traded.

Jones has 11 points with 7 goals in 41 games this season. He's +3 as well.  Last season, Jones had 17 points in 46 games, again with 7 goals and a +1 rating.  He has a goals vs. threshold of 1.9.  This season he's played soft opposition (Qualcomp -.08) with decent linemates (Qualteam +.087).

Like the recent acquisition of Matt Marquardt, it seems this is an attempt to add some grit to the roster, though it's a fairly low event roster addition.  Jones has one-year left on his $975,000 contract.

Game 62 Preview - Edmonton Oilers vs Nashville Predators - 6pm MT - Sportsnet - March 2nd, 2010

Well, just like watching the Olympics, we'll get to watch Denis Grebeshkov playing against us.  The Oilers are back from the Olympic break with a few roster changes.  In addition to the recent Grebeshkov trade, the Oilers have also traded Cody Wild for Matt Marquardt from the Boston Bruins.

It seems that Matt Marquardt is a 22-year-old left winger with some size. He's listed at 6'3" and 222 lbs.  He's never played in the NHL and has bounced between the AHL and ECHL this season with a combined total of 35 points in 51 games between the two leagues.  Marquardt is a 7th round draft pick from the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, so this move appears insignificant unless I'm missing something.

(Jimmy Jeong/Canadian Press)

I made a comment on the site this morning that as the People's GM, I was none too happy with the Oilers trade of Grebeshkov to the Nashville Predators for a 2^nd round pick in next year's draft.  I thought I would take a deeper look to see if my gut feeling was correct.

My gut tells me that we traded a future RFA for a 2^nd round pick when we could have received at least as much if we had held onto to him until he hit the open market.   After doing my research I am not sure things are so simple.

To start off, a quick recap of how the RFA world works.  Prior to the start of free agency, the Oilers have a decision to make with their RFAs.  They can make a qualifying offer, request arbitration or let the player walk and become an unrestricted free agent. For a guy like Grebs who makes over $1 million a year, the qualifying offer has to at least match his $3.15 million salary for this year.  Should Grebs decline, either party could ask for arbitration (Oilers can only ask for arbitration once for each player) or Grebs could test the market and look for an offer sheet.

If Grebs signed an offer sheet and the Oilers declined to match it, the Oilers would receive compensation draft picks depending on Grebs annual salary.  A salary less than $2.6 million would garner a 2^nd round pick, a salary less than $3.9 million would yield a 1^st and 3^rd round pick.