The Oilers payed way to high a price it was an act of desperation on Holland’s part he could have waited for Chic to buy him out and signed him as a free agent at a much lower cap hit as by all accounts it was Edmonton the preferred choice. This makes Oilers fans feel like a bunch of hicks who have been fleeced by a big city huckster.
Ryan Suter, another veteran who has aged miles better than Keith, was just bought out today and would be a significantly better option for our 2LD spot, it would cost us nothing in picks or prospects and Id put 99% odds that its lower than 5.538 million. Well done Ken
I'm not so sure anyone is worried about playing against Keith at this stage in his career, but there certainly could be value of playing with him. That said, Smith was an extremely risky move and one to backstop the failed M.K. experiment.
I was not pleased with resigning Smith last year, but it was 1.5 mil for 1 year, that is one of least risky contracts you can get for a backup goalie. Besides Smith and goalies in general are known to be very hot and cold, 38 year old defenders with as much mileage as Keith simply regress except for very rare cases like Chris Chelios, Nick Lidstrom and Zdeno Chara. Looking at the trend Keiths been on its not very hopeful he will join those 3 names I mentioned.
There's not a lot of playoff and big game success experience on this team and for this group of players and the dynamics of that dressing room, this may be an important piece in their success - even if it's less for Keith's on ice performance as the leadership/character role he may play.
I agree with your statement up until the point where you believe Keith will help this team win. I think veteran presence is very important, however his cap hit makes it absolutely unbearable and as others have pointed out overall makes our team worse. Like I said in my original reply to this trade if you are spending 5.538 million to get a veteran player that veteran player better be playing incredible hockey which Keith simply is not. Their are veteran targets in Free Agency that would either cost us 700k-2mil (Getzlaf) or someone who would cost us around 3-3.5mil (Suter) who like I said is better than Keith or you pay the 5.6 million for a guy like Martinez who looks like he is still in his prime. I understand not every player wants to come to Edmonton but that is a garbage excuse for panicking and taking Duncan Keith at this price, maybe if we used our cap well and built a contending team the vets would want to come, if you truly believe that Keith is your only option then have the guts to search at the deadline or next year and don't just take him out of desperation. Getting fleeced by Stan Bowman... quite the low for Holland right now.
At this point to make the moves we need to make to improve the team after this trade the moves we need to make are to trade the Kassian contract (3,2 million until 23-24) apparently Pittsburgh has interest so get what you can for him. Ideally a bottom six-forward (Bleuger's RFA rights perhaps?) making n more than 1 million. Buying out Neal or Koskinen (or both) is the next move. I don't like holding on to the dead cap space but when you have the need to resign guys and somehow improve the team like we do you have to make sacrifices. I prefer buying out Koski his buyout is more friendly and having an ineffective goalie is more of a liability than an ineffective forward. Trade Turris as well he is awful you might get a 7th rounder from a team with a lot of cap space. This gives us some breathing room to sign back our important free agent's (Yamamoto, Larsson and Smith) and maybe add a backup goalie and a 3rd line center.
I'd buy out Neal next year so the buyout only lasts 2 years instead of 4. Unless we have something big planned even with this garbage Keith contract on the team we should still have enough cap to be half decent. Buying out Mikko and making the right moves (which I have pretty much 0 hope for at this point) can still make this a successful offseason. If you are going to target more guys like Keith though just keep Mikkos 4.5 buried for this year and then don't worry about the 1.5mil for next year (which we would have if we bought him out). As for trading guys like Turris and Kassian we'd probably have to give picks to make it happen. Unless you are trading with the Oilers! They will take contracts hindering your team for free! In fact, they will give you assets to do you a favour, such nice fellows over in Edmonton! Also would like to mention that Bleuger is a fantastic player and unless I'm forgetting something involved with the expansion draft Pittsburgh would love to keep him around.
Of course all this complaining will be for nothing if Keith walks in next year and surprises us all, which despite all the pessimism in this post is still a possibility. I'll tell you all thats it highly likely Keiths overall game (analytically mostly) improves next season and we see a slight resurgence as he will be playing less minutes and against weaker competition on the Oilers. I will also tell you that is highly unlikely he plays at a 5.538 million dollar level, and although I see his game getting better due to his lesser role on our team, his skills and durability will still deteriorate due to his age. Don't forget he's signed at 5.538 million next year as well!
