Ugh. Why is so much bad stuff happening to Kevin Lowe? Seriously, if the news reports on the Nylander debacle are true, he has every right to be seriously livid over this. What the hell? Here's where this thing hurts the most. Kevin Lowe thinks he's signed the talented player to play on the top line with Ales Hemsky. Now he can move on to fill in other chinks in the Oilers roster. This is just two days after the free agency has kicked in, and teams have grabbed a large portion of the top talent available. Now, a full day later from when Lowe *thought* he had a signing, he now needs to backpedal and see what he can get from the dwindling pool of talent available. At this point, he might have to consider Alexei Yashin ... a player I'm not entirely thrilled to think about in an Oiler uniform. If he doesn't find a player he wants, he's going to have to resort to trading again - which may or may not be possible. *sigh*. I feel real sorry for Kevin Lowe. Seriously. The guy is smart. He's made a lot of smart deals for the Oilers. However, he's gotten seriously screwed over by a couple of things ... the Chris Pronger thing was one, and now this. Not to mention the players who left after the Stanley Cup Finals last year ... despite finishing runners-up to the Carolina Hurricanes, they decided that other hockey teams were better locations. Bleh.

I really respect what Kevin Lowe is doing. His job is not easy. I feel that his Smyth trade was a smart move considering that Smyth seemed to be more interested in the money than signing with his home team. The recent Jason Smith and Joffrey Lupul trade looks like a really good deal on paper to me. Sure, we lose another heart player. We've still got a lot of those! Staios, Stoll and Moreau are awesome heart and soul players for the Oil! In return, we get Pitkanen and Sanderson - both players who I think can contribute.

We'll have to see how things go. The Oilers are still in a position to do well this season. Sure, they need to add a bit more talent ... and Nylander could have been a key piece. However, they still have a lot of young talent that could either prove themselves this year or be tradebait for some top-notch talent. I'm excited to see names like O'Marra, Nilsson, Shremp, Pouliot, Cogliano, and Gagner just about ready to enter the NHL - it's an exciting time for them and I'm looking forward to seeing them develop into good players!

So I say to Oilers fans ... stay patient with K. Lowe. We're in pretty good shape still I think.

Heraldk