The Edmonton Oilers Swap Problem Childs with the NY Rangers

It was announced yesterday that the Edmonton Oilers traded Ryan Strome to the NY Rangers for Ryan Spooner.

Edmonton Oilers: As it turns out, Mr.  Spooner has links to both Peter Chiarelli and Milan Lucic from their Boston days.

Lucic apparently helped Spooner integrate into the league when Spooner was a rookie.

It looks like the idea is for the change of scenery to help Spooner out in raising his game as well as develop chemistry with Lucic, which in turn helps him out as well – perhaps even propelling him into a top 6 position once he gets his confidence back and starts finishing his shots on net.

Will it work? 

It’s tough to say.  In theory, it’s a sound move, but we have to wait for time to pass and games to be played before we can render judgment on it.  Maybe neither guy takes a step forward, and both teams lose.  Maybe both players do better in their new cities, and the trade is a win-win.  Maybe Spooner does better, but Lucic continues to struggle.

What about the rest of the details? 

Other details on the trade are rather mundane as the players are virtual carbon copies of each other, but since it’s probably going to come up one way or another here they are:

Both players have identical 1-1-2 boxcars this season, with Spooner having played two more games this season due to the Oilers wonky schedule to start the season.

Spooner is a year older than Strome but has played 69 games less than Strome.

Spooner was the more expensive player with a $4 million salary, but the Rangers are retaining 900K of Spooner’s cap hit, so the cap hits of both players are identical after that.

Both players are only signed for this season, and next, after which Spooner will be a UFA and Strome will be an RFA.  That won’t be much of a difference considering both are bottom six forwards.

Both players were acquired in exports of bigger names – Strome was initially acquired for Jordan Eberle while Spooner was originally acquired for Rick Nash.

There might be a psychological benefit for both guys in getting out from under that pressure of being traded for bigger names.  After all, remember Jimmy Carson?  He was the centerpiece of the Gretzky trade/sale from the Kings, and although he racked up 49 goals and 100 points in his 1 season here. He felt he couldn’t hack the pressure of being traded for Gretzky.

So he privately asked for a trade out of Edmonton, and got his wish when he was traded to Detroit in the following season – and ironically for the Wings, he never put up 100 points again. While that trade helped produce a forward line for the Oilers that was a big reason for their cup win in 1990.

Let’s hope this time history doesn’t repeat itself and Spooner does better from the change of scenery.