Confirmed with Link: Brandon Davidson signs a one-year contract

[Philly85*]

The dog days of summer

 

[Fourier]

Chorney had better draft pedigree, more prospect hype and had more NHL experience.

There's not a team in the league that would give Davidson a second thought if he ends up on waivers. Every team in the league has a player or two like him that they are going to have to try and sneak through waivers because they aren't good enough to be in the NHL.

Davidson wont make the team out of camp, he'll get waived. He'll clear. Maybe he'll get a handful of games in this season somewhere down the line if we run into major injury problems. But in no other scenario is he going to be in the NHL this year, Oilers or otherwise.

This does not change the fact that Davidson is arguably better right now than Chorney was when he was picked up by St. Louis.

Still the main counter I have is that there are a lot of teams looking to fill out their defense very cheaply because of cap issues. They can do it internally by promoting one of their own best kids but may prefer to have their top prospects mature in the AHL while a guy like Davidson fills the #6/7 spot.

Chicago is an example of a team that might do something like this. They have 6 NHL defensemen under contract if you include TVR and Rundblad and they just traded away their most NHL ready prospect. Do they want to bring up a guy like Pokka to play sparingly or instead add a guy like Davidson who saves them $350K on the cap as a #7D.

I am not saying that Davidson is a lock to get picked up. He probably clears. Nor do I think he makes the Oilers out of camp. But I would not count on him clearing either.