Last year, Tom Gilbert was an incredibly gifted offensive defenceman who seemed to be making strides and looked as though he might be a bargain at $4 million per season if he could continue on his 45 point-per-season pace. The problem is, last year is last year and this year, Gilbert has proven to be something completely different.

Struggling to find his game, fans are realizing that maybe, the 45 point Gilbert's game isn't 45 points impressive. Tom Gilbert isn't consistently a 45 point d-man and his $4 million per year salary after one rookie season with 13 goals isn't a fair value for what he brings.

So when rumours surfaced that Tom Gilbert was being moved to Buffalo for Drew Stafford, I almost pooped my pants with excitement. That is of course, until I looked further at the optics of that trade and realized it didn't hold much weight.

Why did the rumour gain so much steam?

Two reasons really. Drew Stafford is the nephew of Oilers equipment manager Barry Stafford. Drew's connection to the Edmonton area of course became obvious, except of course that no one actually knew whether or not Drew gave a rats @$$ that his uncle worked inside the Oilers organization. The odds are, while I'm sure he's fond of his uncle, Barry's employment would have no relevance in Drew's willingness to play in Edmonton. While that might not have stopped a trade, Drew Stafford quickly becoming an RFA might have.

Secondly, the Buffalo Sabres have made no secrets about the fact that they'd like to add a puck-moving defenceman to their roster. Gilbert would have made sense. Would have being the key term.

Currently, Gilbert doesn't make sense because Gilbert's contract is a salary cap nightmare and Drew Stafford's contract is an excellent one. Sure, Drew Stafford is due for a raise on his next term which ends shortly, but it won't likely come near the $4 million price tag Gilbert gets and Buffalo being a team that openly keeps it's cap numbers on the low, isn't interested in a player like Gilbert at that price.

This is especially true now that Gilbert holds little value with the type of season he's had thus far.

The fact that this trade stayed in the spot light for more than a couple days baffled me. The money made no sense, and neither did the trade-off (unless of course you're the Oilers, who would get to move a hefty contract and an over-supply of offensive d-men who aren't pulling their weight).

I'm sure Buffalo would have been excited about the prospect of taking a young, blue-chip gritty forward in Stafford and moving him for an unproven, inconsisent, overpaid and soft on the puck Tom Gilbert.

Comments (1)

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written by Jay-, December 01, 2009

Jim, great series on the Oilers rumour roundup!

I've read a number of blogs which have questioned the value of paying for offense from defensemen. Really, complete defensemen like Chris Pronger or Jay Bouwmeister are exceedingly rare in the NHL. In short, in the cap era, most of these arguments suggest that unless you're getting a complete player, it's better to limit a team to two 'offensemen.' After that, teams pay a premium for offense for dmen which is probably money better spent up front.

Most will agree that a team needs a dman who can rifle the puck from the point or move the puck and quarterback a power play. After that, if the player has another quality that he brings, even better. To my eye, Tom Gilbert certainly doesn't have much of a cannon of a shot nor does he play sound defensively. He's also not a physical player,so his cap hit can be regarded as a nightmare as you suggest based on his play this season.

He has improved somewhat of late and with a softer minutes role, we can hope to see more offense from him.

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