Edmonton Oilers get ‘value’ in Derek Roy trade

Monday just proved another bizarre-o day in Edmonton Oilerville – but one that actually may have made the team better?

No way!?!

Way!

Just hours after the Oilers picked up Bruins winger Matt Fraser off waivers, Edmonton dealt Mark Arcobello to the Nashville Predators for center Derek Roy … who was also on waivers earlier in the day.

Wait … but if Roy was on waivers, why did Oilers GM Craig MacTavish trade for him?

There is actually solid reasoning behind this says Oilers Nation:

 Arcobello is on a cheap, one-year contract worth $600,000; Roy is on a cheap, one-year contract worth $1.0 million. Arcobello has 12 points in 36 games; Roy has 10 points in 26 games …

 … For one thing, this reduces the dollars the team is taking on significantly and for another it doesn’t add a contract to the 50-man list.

And …

They get a player who has been a more effective scorer at even-strength this season.

They get a veteran with 692 games of NHL experience rather than a sophomore who has yet to reach 82 games

When you put it that way it sounds like Edmonton got what it needed in this case.

If its goal is to actually improve on its product, then the Oilers totally did so with Roy, and at the bargain basement price of $1 million on a one-year deal. Seriously, $400,000 is chump change in the NHL these days. 

Also, Roy was simply buried on the depth chart in Nashville after Mike Fisher returned. His one goal and nine-assist total come while just playing 13:30 per-contest in 26 games. He’s still only 31 years old, and will have every opportunity to play offensive minutes for Edmonton.

Meanwhile, Nashville gets to save on some cap numbers with Arcobello.

A win for everybody? Sure sounds like it — even if Edmonton had to give up a player to get a player it could have gotten for free. 

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper

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