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Would Ryan Whitney be a fit in Ottawa with Karlsson out?

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Ottawa GM Bryan Murray, who was wearing black as he told the media Thursday that the game’s best defenceman Erik Karlsson was gone for the season, jokingly said he’s getting lots of calls from “sympathetic” brethren around the league.

These are always tricky times for general managers when one of their own loses a stud player.  They want to offer their condolences because–but for the grace of the hockey gods it could have been them losing a Karlsson– but they don’t want to appear like they’re an ambulance chaser.  The don’t want to appear like Paul Newman  in that classic movie The Verdict where he’s a down-and-out lawyer Frank Galvin, always first at the scene of an accident, with his card for any prospective client.

Undoubtedly, the first words out of other GM’s mouths are “geez, Bryan, what an awful break, that’s terrible news” before they eventually get around to “I was thinking, would you  have any use for my guy…he was a  heckuva player but, you know,  we’re going in a different direction, and it wouldn’t cost you too much because his contract’s up July 1.”

Which brings us to the obvious question. Has Edmonton Oilers’ GM Steve Tambellini called Murray on Ryan Whitney?

Probably.

We don’t know if Whitney will be a healthy scratch for a fourth time in the last seven games when Colorado Avalanche are here Saturday night, but if Whitney is in the lineup, how long will he be in the lineup? Right now he’s in rotation mode with Corey Potter and Mark Fistric. He has to win back the trust of the coaching staff or he’ll get traded.

He’s gone from the dazzling high of his early Oiler days when he had 38 points in 54 games and was plus 20 after his trade from Anaheim in March of 2010 until he wrecked a tendon in his ankle right after Christmas that year, to his situation now where you’re asking every day “is Whitney in or out?”

Murray says he’s not waving the white flag on the season. He still wants to make the playoffs. He’s not giving away a first-round draft pick or a high-end prospect for a defenceman, but he does need help, and right now. There aren’t a lot of teams carrying extra D-men of Whitney’s pedigree.  And Ottawa does need an offensive D-man if they’re losing Karlsson. I’m sure the Habs would move Tomas Kaberle now that P.K. Subban is back.  Washington’s not playing UFA Roman Hamrlik but he’s 38.  Mike Komisarek in Toronto is a defensive D-man.  Tampa’s got Marc-Andre Bergeron, a shooter from the back-end. Nashville would give up Jonathan Blum, younger than the rest but with blemishes.

Here’s the questions you have to ask?

(1) How much could the Oilers get for a player who’s UFA on July 1, basically a rental?

(2) Do they really want to trade Whitney or do they want to see if they can rehabilitate his game because he has been a very good puck-moving defenceman who should be a top four guy but now appears hesitant on the ice?

(3) If they waited on Whitney until the trade deadline April 3, would they get more?

(4) Do they have to make some move quickly on a defenceman because when Theo Peckham returns from his conditioning stint in Oklahoma City they are going to have eight healthy blueliners, which is too many?

Personally, I think the Oilers should keep Whitney–they’re not so deep on their back-end that he can’t still be a useful player. They can’t just give him away, even if he’s UFA on July 1. But if they got a draft pick from the third round or      better now wouldn’t they have to listen? If they got a third-round pick that would be a retrieval of the pick they gave Dallas for Mark Fistric before the season started. Considering the going rate in trades the last little while seems to be a fifth to seventh-round selection–Winnipeg just dealt UFA winger Alexei Ponikarovsky (good size, average hands) back to New Jersey for a fourth and a seventh-round selection–a third might look pretty good.

Still, this is a guy who once played on the point on the Penguins with Crosby and Malkin when they made it to the Cup final, losing to Detroit in 2008. He’s got talent. Right now, he doesn’t appear to have the same first step to effortlessly pull away from a checker and throw the 40-foot pass on the tape to a winger as he did when  he was first an Oiler.  Maybe that his ankle, maybe his confidence is shot. If it’s his psyche that needs work, they might be able to fix that. If it’s physical, if it’s his foot, then that’s another story.

Could the Oilers get more if they waited until the trade deadline? There might be more teams in the hunt, but still he would be a late pick-up and only for a few weeks. If you dealt for Whitney now, you would get him for 30 games or so.  You might get more in compensation.

Certainly the return of Peckham will confuse things. He’s technically on their roster and part of their cap even though he’s playing in OKCity because it was a conditioning stint. But, when he’s back, that means two D-men sitting out every game. That doesn’t seem plausible.  Up front, Shawn Horcoff is another three weeks from playing (broken knuckle) and fellow centre Anton Lander (busted foot) is weeks away, too. But Ryan Jones  (eye surgery) might play next week.

Then we’ve got a real numbers game. Do the Oilers go 13 and 8 (forwards and defencemen) or 14 and 7?



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