The Oilers and Their 50-Man Roster

This is Tobias Rieder, the Oilers signed him to an entry-level contract today, adding to the already plump list of professional contracts.

1. Horcoff
2. Hemsky
3. Whitney
4. Nugent-Hopkins
5. Khabibulin
6. Hall
7. Schultz
8. Smid Sutton
9. Belanger
10. Jones
11. Eberle
12. Eager
13. Teubert
14. Hartikainen
15. Potter
16. Paajarvi
17. Fedun
18. Acrobello
19. Pitlick
20. Hamilton
21. Lander
22. Marincin
23. Martindale
24. Rajala
25. Roy
26. House
27. Abney
28. Cornet
29. Tyrvainen
30. Bunz
31. Pelss

Any recent draft pick signings I miss???

Anyway, according to CapGeek, these 31 men are signed going into next year, lets look at who needs to be signed...

1. Smyth
2. Gagner
3. Peckham
4. Petry
5. Petrell
6. VandeVelde
7. Dubnyk
8. Plante
9. Chorney

Now, there's an argument to be made for a few of those guys to not be re-signed; there's also an argument to be made that a few guys I left off should be. I left off Barker, Omark, Hordichuk, Danis, Keller, Green, Tremblay, Kytnar, and Rodney. Rodney is 1000 years old, Kytnar left to go back home and Omark is pissed off. They weren't on the big league team anyway, but Omark was talented. Barker and Hordichuk are putrid, and the rest are minor leaguers. Since the Oilers forced the inevitable on fans rebuild initiated in 2010, the team has been collecting youth. Where are they all going to go? Klefbom needs to be signed, as does Musil and Ewanyk... Those are just the 2-4 picks of 2011. Tobias Rieder is tearing up the OHL right now, he needs a contract, too. Gernat, Simpson, Blain, Davidson, and Bigos, good luck and may the best man win.

Looking at it from here, we can safely say that there's about 40 contracts used up for next season. We also need to include the lottery pick, a free agent defenseman and maybe one more free agent. That's 43, Tambellini also has this cool new obsession with a competitive farm team. I would imagine he will be bringing back a couple old AHL vets to take TOI away from players who actually have a shot at the NHL guide the team to victories and instill a winning culture.

Guys like Pelss and Abney should be thankful, guys with more skill and can actually play hockey are in for a tougher time making the cut, another day in the life of an Oilers fan...

We're getting a little snug to that lid, eh?