Tom Gilbert, d-man for Oilers - any opinions?

Poking around the stats sheets for a possible trade partner for Montreal
to land a solid d-man, only a couple stand out.

One is Florida and Bouwmeester. He'd be a great pick-up, but virtually
every other contending team is thinking the same way. His price would be
extreme and then he's either have to be offered a huge contract, or he
may walk at season's end. So there's a lot of negatives. Then there's the
fact Florida is competing for 8th. It's unlikely they'll want to weaken
their team anytime soon.

So after poking around the bottom dwelling team I notice Edmonton. Here's
a team that can't score but has 3 d-men in their top 5 in scoring. In
other words, here's a team that could trade a d-man for a forward or two.

Now, Souray is one of those 3. He's out. Visnovsky is another. He has a
huge contract (5.6 million cap hit) for 4 more years. With all our
pending UFA's, I don't think we want that big contract. However, Gilbert
is only 25, scoring at about a point ever two games, which is just
slightly better than last season. Here's his scouting report.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/players/Tom_Gilbert

In other words, he sounds like a very good #3-#4, a good guy to pair with
Hamrlik. He's young, so not much of a cap hit. So what the Habs could do
is try and pull off the rarest of trades. A good, old-fashioned hockey
trade which has nothing to do with contracts and age, and more to do with
skill of the players and need.

So here's why Higgins name keeps coming up in trade rumours, because he
certainly would fit a need for Edmonton, but he has not made himself
indespensible to the Habs line-up. I certainly think these 2 could be key
parts in a trade. I'd need to know more about Gilbert. He'd have to be a
decent upgrade to Gorges to be worth it.

Conversely, Latendresse and a pick or prospect like Maxwell, but I doubt
that would get it done. Latendresse and O'Byrne? Well, you never know. If
they were in need of size, they might be intrigued by their upside, and
minimize their downside.

Anyway, I like the look of Edmonton as a trade partner. A glut of d-man
who can put up points, and two of them with long, hard-to-move contracts
makes Gilbert a possible commodity tyhat can be bought without a premium
price. The key is to scout and discover if he's the good puck mover the
scouting report states, or if he's really just a very average d-man.

Marty

I don't think of Gilbert as being especially good in the puck-moving
sense. He's ok there. And ok on the point. And pretty robust in his
own end. I think of him as a guy that can basically play ok in any
facet, and it's the summation of all those oks that actually makes him
a very good young player overall. Most players have strengths offset
by weaknesses, but I think of Gilbert as a guy whose weaknesses are
pretty hard to determine.

But I don't think of him as being particularly likely to be available
either. I don't know why the Oilers would trade him. Good young
defensemen must be the highest market-value commodities out there,
relative to their actual on-ice impact.

The presumptive pricetags for guys like Bouwemeester scare me.

I think there are a few guys around who may be essentially free to
acquire, surplus players who are surplus for good reason, but maybe in
a new situation they'd have something to show. Brent Sopel and Tom
Preissing seem to be in that category right now. They're free because
of their contracts, though. I don't see Gainey (or any other GM these
days) gambling with that kind of money.

I guess there will be some impending-UFA types who go on the rental
market when the pack separates clearly enough on which teams are
buyers and sellars. The rental market doesn't strike me as a great
place to get a good deal, however.

I don't know. It's getting harder to predict or even suggest moves
these days. It wouldn't surprise me though if our best option ended
up being just sticking with what we have. Gorges has elevated himself
into a viable #4 NHL defenseman by the standards of the rest of the
league IMHO. Bouillon is a viable bottom-pairing guy. Brisebois,
much as it hurts to say it, is probably also playing at a viable
bottom-pairing level compared to the rest of the league. We're
vulnerable if any of our top-3 get hurt again... but I guess, who
isn't? It would be nice to have another good defenseman. I guess
I'll be pleasantly surprised if it turns out that we can find a way to
get one at a price that I'd be comfortable with, however.

l8r,
Gerry