This is Anders Kallur, a quality player for the New York Islanders during their glory years. Kallur is kind of the poster boy for modern "cap bargains" in that he was an inexpensive player (to acquire) and his skills were important to the building of a championship team.Kallur's Islanders certainly had other, better talents. But Kallur had remarkable speed and he was very skilled, and when he returned to Europe after 6 NHL seasons he had 4 Cup rings.
Kallur was kicking around the edges of the NHL in the mid-70s (he is listed on the Boston Bruins pre-season roster, fall 1975) but it wasn't until the summer of 1979 the Islanders signed him to an NHL deal (Following his last year, he was named the Swedish player-of-the-year and placed on his country's World all-star team).
He spent two games in the Central League and the rest of his time on a top drawer NHL team on Long Island. He scored as many as 36 goals in an NHL season and had 101 NHL regular season goals in 383 games.
Kallur is a nice example of what pro scouts can do for you, and in today's cap world NHL teams need to have nicely priced players who can help out in the vital roles. The Oilers run of 05-06 was helped a lot by several players (you know the names) who were well priced for their roles.
Here are some of the candidates I feel could fill the 'Kallur role' for Edmonton this fall:
D Tom Gilbert ($835k, cap hit $908k): Gilbert looked very good in a few late season at bats. It's dangerous to project him beyond a 5-7 role but he's a candidate for the Marc-Andre Bergeron role on this club.
F Patrick Thoresen ($543k, cap hit $570k): Had a nice debut despite the power outage through much of the year, if he can improve his offense (could he hit 30 points?) Thoresen brings enough to the table to have a solid career and is a bargain at this price. Interesting similarity to Kallur in that Thoresen also had a camp invite from Boston.
C Marc Pouliot ($942k, same cap hit): Guy Flaming's latest HF article implies Pouliot may be dealt this summer. The Oilers have plenty of depth up front but there are other options for trade whose skill set is more limited than this guy. RiversQ has mentioned several times that Pouliot is already a better player than Reasoner (whose career may be at a crossroads this fall) and at this price if he can help out in several areas Pouliot should be a bargain.
D Denis Grebeshkov (rumored contract at under 1M): Difficult to project where he'll be on the kiddie D depth chart after Smith and Staios, but Grebeshkov does have skill and could end up being a big asset should he earn PP time and use it well.
This summer the Oilers will no doubt be adding some players from Europe and U.S. colleges in order to fill out the AHL roster and possibly find a gem at a very good price. Any Fernando Pisani's out there?
Smith at $1.9 probably qualifies, hopefully Dan Hejda at $1.25 too.
ReplyDeleteTheir biggest hope might be Torres,
get him at $1.5, install a Betty Ford satellite clinic in the basement of Rexall, and hope he turns it around.
As for HF & Pouliot
Inconsistent - Agreed
Tradebait? I dunno about that.
Do you trust a guy who'd write about L Smid, "who for the first two months of the season teamed up with veteran Steve Staios to form the Oilers’ best defensive pairing"
Did Guy actually write that?
ReplyDeleteWhere's the link to the full piece? I can't believe that the Oilers would even consider dealing MP. As Riv has shown, his GA project him to be a fellow that will help you win games and while I waiver on just how much offense he'll be able to offer, there's no doubt that the kid's a player. The only way I could see him being dealt is to a team like Ott in a Redden deal. Awhile back someone posted some MP/Vermette comps and considering how the Sens have valued guys like Fisher and Vermette, it makes sense to me that they'll be all over Torres and Pouliot should the Oilers ask for Redden. I'd love to see Lupul go back the other way but the Sens look to be too smart to take him. Considering the pivots we already have in the pipe compared to the depth on the port side, I'd obviously rather keep Torres and deal off Marc. Then again, looking at those same positions on the Sens, I'd imagine they'll be coming hard for Torres. That crowd's been top heavy on the starboard side since the years when all of Alfie, Hossa and Havlat were their property.
I don't really care if this sounds harsh because it's also true as well.
ReplyDeleteI just read the Smid blurb by Flaming and Guy is either a PR agent for the Oilers or he's just a flat-out joke.
To wit:
Edmonton’s top rookie performer this year was definitely 20-year-old rearguard Ladislav Smid who for the first two months of the season teamed up with veteran Steve Staios to form the Oilers’ best defensive pairing. Eventually fatigue and inexperience caught up with him and Smid came back down to Earth but by that time the point had already been made: the Oilers have a very special player on the blueline for their future.
Smid didn’t contribute much offensively but he was more physical than most expected he would be. The calm-as-a-cucumber Czech was unshakeable under pressure and revealed good decision-making to go along with his smooth skating and passing abilities.
Checklist:
1: Best Dpairing? No. That would've been the Shaggy/Smith tandem. You can look that one up.
2: A very special player? No. I don't even think you'd find any 15 year old fanboys who'd called Smid a special player.
3: Unshakeable under pressure and good decision making abilities? No, no, no and no. If looking to pass the puck to Staios everytime someone got to within 10 feet of you constitutes as being unshakeable and a good decision maker, then I guess I stand corrected.