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Or is it because the Oilers are trying to win with back-up goalies? Both goalies have shown better in the past. Dubnyk, Bryzgalov, Fasth, Scrivens they all saw their numbers drop under Eakins. Bryzgalov Fasth and Scrivens all came in last year and looked real good, but time spent with Eakins killed them. It's quite apparent that a lot of people don't really follow the Oilers to see just how bad Eakins ****** that team up.

Hall is a flat out super star, if you want him start with something you absolutely don't want to give up then add to it. This is why he won't be traded. GMs on the hot seat don't get to trade super star players because it's bad asset management. The Oilers will let Todd Nelson run the team for the year and evaluate since they're already out of the playoff race. Expect to see a lot of players value increase and suddenly the goal tending issues aren't so critical because Dallas Eakins the destroyer of goaltenders is gone. Seriously spending time with Eakins "system" has seen every single goaltender the Oilers have brought in come out looking worse.

you adding trouba to that offer?

Using avg. goals per game to account for the difference in games played, there was only 10 goals difference between Eakins' first season and the season before he was hired. But in the lock out year they also only played western teams. You'd think people in Winnipeg would have an appreciation for how firing a coach can change the fortunes of a team and I promise you Claude Noel was nowhere near as bad a coach as Eakins was. I didn't like them replacing either Renney or Kreuger, felt neither one of them really got a fair shake, but Eakins was a special kind of terrible and anyone who has followed that team knows it.

Putting him on the trade market is different than actually trading him. Remember a few weeks back after a particularly bad loss McTavish talked about everyone being on the block but how that talk quickly died down? Bob Nicholson won't let him make a bad trade just for the sake of making a trade and Nicholson has said basically just that. McTavish right now is trying very hard to save his job because the pressure is coming from the top down. He's got no takers on Eberle or Yakupov so next on the list is Hall thinking he might have value but he'll never get what he's worth and they won't let a GM on the way out make that trade.

They have a terrible defense that can't move the puck up to them. Look at the Avs. They're flooded with offensive talent up front but are in the bottom 1/3 in GF. It's because they also have a terrible defense. Not as bad as the Oilers, but still pretty bad. Justin Schultz is a purely offensive defenseman who can move the puck but he too can't get offense going. Petry is a pretty well rounded defenceman who can't get offense going, Martin Marincin was drafted with offense being the best part of his game and he can't generate points either. I'm telling you the coach sucked the offense out of that team. They could score a lot more goals before Eakins was hired. Just go compare before and after Eakins stats, they're easy to find.

How about the coach to continue the progress that had been made before he was hired? Instead he turned Yakupov from a goal scorer into a bust, he turned Justin Schultz from an offensive defenseman into a bust. He made everyone on that team worse. Guy was a product of the Toronto hype machine nothing more. He fooled the Oilers and they gave him a chance and he proved to be the worst head coach I have ever seen. He was the Tim Burke of the NHL he was that bad. Regarding Yakupov, how is that Eakins fault? Nail never adjusted to the NHL. Some players don't transition well to the NHL. He certainly wouldn't be the first. He won't be the last. The track record of coaching failures before him (which includes Pat Quinn - I'm pretty sure he knew how to coach a hockey team as his track record shows) shows overwhelmingly that the issues on the ice go well beyond Eakins. Does he have some fault in the state of the team? Of course he does. Is he primarily at fault? Not even close. To suggest otherwise is foolish. The day Edmonton gets rid of the "Good ol Boys" (When did they last do anything that resulted in a positive on the ice) the better off they'll be. The team has neglected the blue line and the crease for years. They have no size at forward. They're going to get dominated, especially in the western conference. That falls squarely on the player personnel staff. Dallas Eakins was the #1 problem in Edmonton. That problem has now been corrected, we just hope that the damage he has done isn't permanent. He destroyed the confidence of that entire group. Let's not forget that Anton Belov when he left to go back to the KHL flat out said the reason was because he wouldn't play for Eakins ever again. The players on that team very obviously hated him and never responded to him. If Eakins was problem number one, why has Edmonton had only two players drafted outside the first round SINCE 2007 play in more than 60 games in the NHL? Nothing will change until the scouts, GM, and president of player personnel decisions are addressed. Well because they aren't willing to load the team up entirely with rookies? Stats like that are highly misleading because of the situation prior to 2008 with the organization and the results of drafting so high that those players wind up going directly into the NHL. Their success with first rounders playing in the NHL in that time frame is probably way above average. I'll say it again, the team was making progress every year until Eakins was hired. He is the #1 problem with that team.

How about the coach to continue the progress that had been made before he was hired? Instead he turned Yakupov from a goal scorer into a bust, he turned Justin Schultz from an offensive defenseman into a bust. He made everyone on that team worse. Guy was a product of the Toronto hype machine nothing more. He fooled the Oilers and they gave him a chance and he proved to be the worst head coach I have ever seen. He was the Tim Burke of the NHL he was that bad. You nailed it with the "Toronto hype machine" comment. He was crowned the "next big thing" in coaching by the Toronto media and I never really understood why. Bull. If Edmonton didn't hire him, someone else would have. Was Toronto hyping him? Sure. Were they the only ones? Not at all. Yeah but on the other hand Vancouver interviewed him and cancelled a follow up interview because they saw that he was in no way ready to be a head coach. Dallas also interviewed him I believe and they didn't give him a chance either. McTavish bought the hype and made a bone headed move thinking he was more in demand than he really was and it cost his team 2 seasons and probably cost him his job as well. Sounds a lot like Bob Nicholson has stopped him from making any trades and forced the Eakins firing. If a GM has lost his powers to the president then it's only a matter of time until he is gone.

How about the coach to continue the progress that had been made before he was hired? Instead he turned Yakupov from a goal scorer into a bust, he turned Justin Schultz from an offensive defenseman into a bust. He made everyone on that team worse. Guy was a product of the Toronto hype machine nothing more. He fooled the Oilers and they gave him a chance and he proved to be the worst head coach I have ever seen. He was the Tim Burke of the NHL he was that bad. Regarding Yakupov, how is that Eakins fault? Nail never adjusted to the NHL. Some players don't transition well to the NHL. He certainly wouldn't be the first. He won't be the last. The track record of coaching failures before him (which includes Pat Quinn - I'm pretty sure he knew how to coach a hockey team as his track record shows) shows overwhelmingly that the issues on the ice go well beyond Eakins. Does he have some fault in the state of the team? Of course he does. Is he primarily at fault? Not even close. To suggest otherwise is foolish. The day Edmonton gets rid of the "Good ol Boys" (When did they last do anything that resulted in a positive on the ice) the better off they'll be. The team has neglected the blue line and the crease for years. They have no size at forward. They're going to get dominated, especially in the western conference. That falls squarely on the player personnel staff. Nail Yakupov came in as a rookie and led the Oilers in goal scoring, led all rookies in goal scoring and was tied for the rookie lead in points. Then they hired Eakins and he looked like he'd never played hockey before in his life. That's how it's Eakins fault. Yeah he wasn't good defensively, but at least he could ******* score goals. Eakins ruined that kid and I hope it's not permanent. I'm going to educate you on the coaching "failures" as well. McTavish stepped down as head coach, he was never fired but it seems he was smart enough to see what was coming and fled that sinking ship. Quinn was brought in as a desperate move. The thinking was he was a good coach surely he could make chicken salad out of chicken ****. He couldn't, they realized they were up the creek without a paddle so they opted to go with Renney as he was seen as a better move for a rebuild. They're not wrong there and Tom Renney did a lot of good things with that team and had them making progress, especially the young players. Trouble was the organization got impatient and opted not to renew his contract because he was leaning on the veterans rather than giving the young players ice time. So enter Ralph Kreuger (who was an assistant under Renney) He was given the head coaching role primarily because the young players liked him, and he got them to respond. It was a pretty shaky roster because Tambellini was terrible at getting actual quality NHL veterans to the team but he designed a system that worked for the team. Keep everything outside defensively and capitalize offensive on the power play. The possession metrics weren't good but they won some games and looked to be turning a corner. But then they fired Tambellini and hired Craig McTavish and he didn't like Kreugers philosophy. He wasn't going to fire him but he fell head over heels for Dallas Eakins and he made that move. Really the only coach who failed in Edmonton was Eakins, the others were victims of circumstance and impatience on the part of the management. This idea that they've neglected the blue line is ridiculous. Since they started their rebuild (the year they drafted Hall) they've drafted plenty of defencemen, two of them are breaking in now and looking good in Marincin and Klefbom, they also have Nurse, they signed guys like Ference and Fayne and Nikitin as free agents. They may not be great but they're legit NHL players, they signed one of the hottest commodities in Justin Schultz (who looked promising until you guessed it, Eakins arrived) One of the reasons their drafting appears poor is because they opted to draft a lot of size after their first round picks. Goaltending? Well Dubnyk had a .920 save precentage with Kreuger which is not bad, he's got a .917% in Phoenix this year, how'd he wind up with the super low one last year? Maybe Eakins is making goalies look bad? Happened to every goaltender they brought in. Start off good then get worse the more they were exposed to Eakins. The problem here is they made 2 mistakes with the coaching. If they'd given Renney more time or simply kept Kreuger and not hired Eakins they'd be a hell of a lot further ahead than they are. People have this idea that the roster is just sooooooooooo bad that the coach was a victim or circumstances, that's bullshit. The roster now is better on paper than it has been in years, probably almost a decade yet Dallas Eakins was getting less from that better roster than anyone else had got. Dallas Eakins was the #1 problem in Edmonton. That problem has now been corrected, we just hope that the damage he has done isn't permanent. He destroyed the confidence of that entire group. Let's not forget that Anton Belov when he left to go back to the KHL flat out said the reason was because he wouldn't play for Eakins ever again. The players on that team very obviously hated him and never responded to him.

Was the drafting bad or could the coach simply not get anything out of the players taken after the first rounds? Anton Lander was a 2nd round pick who is producing very well in the AHL but can't in the NHL.. now given how much the rest of the team struggled to score under Eakins where does the blame lie? Arcobello was an AHL superstar for point production nothing in the NHL under Eakins, again where's the problem? Marincin came up last year as a 2nd round pick and looked good but Eakins kept sitting him. Tyler Pitlick 2nd round pick has looked solid in the AHL but less useful in the NHL though his biggest problem has been injuries. I think it is a mistake to say that the drafting has been poor outside the first round as a blanket statement. I think the biggest problem is that Eakins was so bad he didn't know how to get the best out of anyone. If Nelson can get anything out of Lander for points at the NHL level that would be huge for the Oilers because he is one of those solid all around centres whose best asset going all the way back to the day he was drafted was leadership and attitude. He can play solidly in the NHL, just an offensive black hole, but that's a common problem even among proven NHL point getters with Eakins as coach. As bad as Jets fans thought Noel was as a coach, Eakins is much much much worse. Getting a real coach in there for that team is going to be all kinds of good. I mean a team with Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle, Nail Yakupov and David Perron struggles to score goals, how do you explain that?

This is actually really big news for the Oilers. I don't know if Nelson is going to be a good NHL coach or not but he got a lot of production out of the young players on the Oilers during the lock out year and he has got a lot out of their farm team despite not being given a lot of talent (first overall picks don't spend time on the farm, they go to the NHL directly) He had players like Arcobello at 2ppg for a while in the AHL, he's got Lander producing very well in the AHL. That's the #1 problem Eakins had with the Oilers, he couldn't get production out of anyone other than Taylor Hall and even that's failing this year. Nelson has shown he can get production from guys with the Oil Barons, if he can get production from them in the NHL as well then suddenly all the talk of Eakins being set up to fail is exposed for the lies that they are. Both Renney and Kreuger got players to produce, it was just Eakins that failed. He was pure and absolute **** as a coach and should have been fired at this point last year because it was obvious then that he was trash.

How about the coach to continue the progress that had been made before he was hired? Instead he turned Yakupov from a goal scorer into a bust, he turned Justin Schultz from an offensive defenseman into a bust. He made everyone on that team worse. Guy was a product of the Toronto hype machine nothing more. He fooled the Oilers and they gave him a chance and he proved to be the worst head coach I have ever seen. He was the Tim Burke of the NHL he was that bad.

Calling bullshit on Wild being too small to play MLB every play. He may be smaller than the the prototype but the guy is just a damned good tackler and he is a guy who you notice when he's not in the lineup. He gets all over the field and is always involved in the play. This team needs more guys like that not less. Sears is hurt a lot and it is a concern, but when he's in the lineup he's a star. A flat out playmaker.

If Sisco does wind up here I'm calling him captain

Let's take the DC out of the equation. If a veteran player is asked to play more of a "mentor-back up role" by any coach, on any team, and he feels he can still play the game, why would he not accept that role…and play his way back onto a roster? There have been many instances where a player is asked to do just that…and he does it, all for the good of the team - you know, the reason why he's still employed and given another chance. That's a leader…and I would venture to say, a reason why he was brought here in the first place. Hell we can look at this past season for a couple examples. Alex Suber got hurt in preseason and lost his spot on the roster to a new guy playing well. We didn't hear a peep out of the guy about being unhappy and he didn't throw any hissy fits and quit, just showed up to practise and eventually got traded. Or Johnny Sears, got hurt, couldn't get back on the roster for ratio reasons. No bitching and moaning or quitting, just practised hard and waited for his chance to get back on the roster then played so well they couldn't take him out again. Part of being a football player is the professional part. Everyone on that team feels like they should be a starter, sometimes you have to put the team ahead of yourself and just work harder to get what you want.

Just look at the number of times he used I in that interview. That says all you need to know about the problem. Massive ego on an aging athlete and it never ends well. Some guys just can't accept that they're not perfect.

Something to keep in mind is that oil production isn't just a switch you can flip and lower production. In many cases the lead up time to actually getting the stuff produced is lengthy enough it will take months to start and stop. So give it 6 months to a year and see what kind of equilibrium point is reached before we panic too much. One of the big problems is that oil companies are run by panicky idiots in a lot of cases and they like to make all sorts of bad decisions. If not for that I'd actually think a bit of a dip in the price of oil could be a good thing for Alberta. Cool down the economy just a little bit.

The real problem is that all these studios see the success Marvel/Disney had with a big sprawling shared universe and screamed "ME TOO!!!!!!" with X-Men at least there's enough characters involved in that you can in theory do a wide range of movies but with Spiderman? How can you possibly do something in the "Spiderman universe" without it just being another Spiderman movie? The fact that they only seem interested in re-telling an origin story is just another black mark.

because the rights were only held as long as the companies making the movies used them. In the case of Daredevil it simply expired and ghost rider I am not sure it expired so much as there was no plans to actually try and keep them. All the deals Marvel made were use it or lose it deals, that's why we get a new X-Men or Spiderman movie every few years

I legit would not pay more than $10 Honestly if they gave me $10 to take the jersey I would decline.

yeah the problem wasn't the size of the Bombers DL, it was skill, especially when Anderson got hurt. Vega had a terrible year and Peach should be a fill in at best.

Too much money in it for Sony to give the rights back. We'll be seeing the latest Sony Spiderman film every few years like clock work just so they maintain the rights because there's money to be had in super hero films. Kind of too bad that none of the other companies that bought rights from Marvel before really understand why Marvel basically has a license to print money at this point.

Greaves is one of those solid if unspectacular types. We can and have done worse than him.

Hard to say, but you would think most agents would at least be smart enough to calculate what percentage of the cap the old salaries represented and extrapolate from there. Won't know the full impact (whether it is a uniform escalation across all positions) until a few QBs and prime Canadians sign to set the market. My guess is more money goes to Canadians, QBs, and established stars as I don't believe the league minimum was bumped up as much as the cap. As a fan, I sure wish the CFL published salaries like the NHL. As a player, not sure I would appreciate my salary being publicly available for anyone to see. That seems the most likely event given how replaceable a lot of the import players in this league are. The hard to replace guys like the qbs and Canadians and true super star players will get more but the rank and file American players likely don't see huge increases in pay.

Can't re-sign players, they're too busy firing coaches.