A look at the Oilers heading into the off-season

From Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch:

“Otherwise, GM Kevin Lowe should be commended for the way he’s run this show. Yes, he took a beating from many of his colleagues throughout the NHL, but look at what’s left after the dust settled.

The Oilers have loads of potential. They’ll have $8M to $10M to spend on free agents this summer.”

Here is the full analysis of the Oilers from Puck-Rakers.

Portzline provides readers with a fair amount of information on a team that he does not cover exclusively. I do not agree with him that they “need” to re-sign Pitkanen and Stoll, because I could see them trading those players and getting something (a scoring winger?) much needed in return. Nonetheless, Portzline nails the most important point when he states that for all of the criticism Kevin Lowe received late last summer, his team looks pretty, pretty, pretty good heading into the 2008/09 season and beyond.