"Almost without exception players that leave the oilerd for cheap are revealed to be much better than people thought. MPs is one of the few that has fallen off the earth so to speak. Most others have been decent to good to great for other teams, most obtained at a cheap price."
This is simply not true.
One thing that has to be kept in mind is how much weaker the Eastern Conference is compared to the West. It is slowly evening out but still almost like two separate leagues.
The sheer size and skill of the Western Conference makes players like Petry appear better when playing the much smaller and somewhat less skilled East.
Also, pretty much any defenseman looks good in front of Carey Price. Case in point Gilbert.
Gilbert almost got bounced from the NHL before starting to get better, only because he had a solid #1 in Campbell holding him up.
Many players have left Edmonton and been the same or worse: Souray, Hemsky, Horcoff, Gagner, Dub until being resurrected in Arizona, Gilbert still from what I have seen in past years, MSP, Perron...
Lol pretty much the only ones I can think of who improved noticeably would be Cogliano, Petry (very small sample size), and that guy in Calgary (forget name).
.....I guess I should have known after the way he handled Gagner and our center situation at the beginning of last year.
