Predators at Oilers, G64 '10-'11

I was lucky enough to see Dustin Penner's final game as an Oiler. In the years he was with the club, #27 was routinely the best player on the ice when we were at Rexall.
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From what I know of him, Tyler Dellow has at least two great gifts: clarity and the ability to frame an issue. In his post last night (it is here) Dellow does an excellent job of explaining his viewpoint on the trade and identifying where he (and others) disconnect from my post yesterday.

I have only two issues with the article. First, his take on my views on Penner's value. Here's what I said about Penner's worth:

• If the Oilers are convinced Penner won't sign for a good number, this might be the time to deal him. Penner is having a good season, he's healthy and it isn't beyond reasonable for another team to believe he can help them go deep this spring. Return: A very good young player in his entry level contract or an outstanding prospect, plus a pick.  

And here is Tyler's reaction:

• Again, all due respect to LT, but five defencemen picked after Teubert in the first round have already played 56 or more NHL games. I’m not going to pretend to have an opinion about someone I haven’t seen but there are warning signs with Teubert already. An outstanding prospect? I don’t know that you can reasonably say that today, considering where he’s fallen relative to his draft class.

I have a slight issue with Tyler's comments, there's a little daylight between clarity and framing the issue. My original comment said "a very good young player in his entry level contract or an outstanding prospect, plus a pick." Seems to me the value of the pick (a first rounder) makes up for the gap between Teubert and my description of the player we should have expected in return. It's a small item but does play a part in his conclusion.

Tyler sums up his position with the following:

• The most notable blogger in town, who predicted exactly how it would play out, still defends the regime, on the basis of a description of Colten Teubert that is probably fairly described as “charitable.” I mean, so what if Stu McGregor likes him? He’s a guy who got a few draft picks right, it looks like - lets not set him up in a villa in Mexico yet and just wait for his pronouncements as to who will be an NHLer and who won’t, other evidence be damned. I’m genuinely baffled that people can defend them, given that there’s no consequences attached to replacing them with someone, anyone, who isn’t responsible for what went on before. The banks aren’t going to fail if Steve Tambellini and Kevin Lowe don’t have jobs tomorrow. But they’ll be gone.

Tyler makes the conclusion that I'm soft on management. I would argue that my post last night was not only tough on management, it went the extra step in identifying the true villain in the piece:

• The Oilers under owner Daryl Katz--and make no mistake this drawn out process is his vision--have decided that Edmonton fans will not see a contending team in Rexall Place.

and then later:

• Dustin Penner's birth certificate disqualified him from being a part of the future. Next stop: dealing Ales Hemsky and securing a new arena. After that, a contender.

I wrote about it here and we're still suffering growing pains. It looks like Mr. Katz isn't the quick study we might have hoped for, and the timeline is going to be longer than needed.

Mr. Katz owns the team and hopefully one day the lights will turn on and he'll realize it doesn't have to be this way. I don't think Kevin Lowe will be fired on that day, though. He'll be president of someting and chances are Steve Tambellini will have a role, too. Mike Illitch replaced Jim Devellano as GM decades ago, but he stayed on in various roles. I expect that'll be exactly what happens here.

The decision to turn back the median age, to deal Penner, to move the future, belongs to Daryl Katz.