Mike Comrie? What's The Deal Tambellini?

(Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images)

Today, the Edmonton Oilers signed centre Mike Comrie. The first thing that comes to most fans minds is: why?

Steve Tambellini, the Oilers General Manager, stated before the off season that the Oilers need impact players, specifically big players, and goal scorers. Mike Comrie is neither of these things. He is 5'10" and 185 pounds, and only scored 10 goals last year.

So why exactly did he sign Comrie, when he already has plenty of small, top six players?

There could be many reasons, ranging from wanting to run three scoring lines to just making a signing just to make a signing.

Or, could there be a trade in place? With Ales Hemsky, Shawn Horcoff, Dustin Penner, Sam Gagner, Andrew Cogliano, Robert Nilsson, Patrick O'Sullivan and now Comrie, the Oilers have 8 players who are capable to (or can only) play on the top two forward lines. There are also young players such as Rob Schremp, Gilbert Brule, Marc Pouliot, and Ryan Potulny knocking on the door. The Oilers have too many forwards for spots, and unless they want to risk losing some of them on waivers, they need to make a trade to open up some room.

Now there are plenty of fans who think (read: hope) that Heatley is on his way to Edmonton. The chances of that happening are pretty slim, unless Heatley has had a change of heart, or has given up hope of going to one of his preferred teams and just wants to get the hell out of Ottawa. Which is a possibility, albeit a small one.

Maybe there's another trade on the table where the Oilers swap 2 or more forwards for one, who knows? We will just have to wait and see how this plays out. But, if the Oilers do not make any other moves, than this signing really doesn't seem to make much sense.

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