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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Knightfall" data-source="post: 2477041" data-attributes="member: 2012">I'm very excited about the Oilers this year. The Oiler blueline was already solid with Marc-Andre Bergeron, Cory Cross, Alexei Semenov, Jason Smith, and Steve Staios before re-signing Igor Ulanov and trading for Chris Pronger. (The Oilers also have Jason Platt, Mathieu Roy, and Ken Smith signed up for the coming season.)In goal, they have both Jussi Markkanen and Ty Conklin signed, as well as Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers.Besides Peca, they have the following key forwards signed already: Ethan Moreau, Fernando Pisani, Todd Harvey, Georges Laraque, and Radek Dvorak, as well as many young prospects who will be trying to crack the lineup.Edmonton's restricted free agents are Ales Hemsky*, Michael Morrison, Shawn Horcoff*, Marty Reasoner*, Jani Rita*, Tony Salmelainen, Ryan Smyth*, Jarret Stoll, Raffi Torres*, and Brad Winchester. Edmonton's unrestricted free agents are Sean McAslan, Tyler Moss, Dan Smith, Rocky Thompson, Mike Bishai, Joe Cullen, and Jamie Wright.Players marked with an asterisk are those I really want the Oilers to re-sign, especially Hemsky, Horcoff, and Smyth. I could see Reasoner and Torres being used as trade bait in order to get a bigger name from a team trying to lower its overall salary, and I would be fine with that. Jani Rita is a excellent young prospect that has been improving over the last few years and this could be his best chance to find a spot on the roster.The Edmonton Oilers have currently allocated $23,884,000 US of their $39 million US Salary Cap, as per the estimated numbers on <a href="http://www.tsn.ca" target="_blank">www.tsn.ca</a>. This gives them lots of breathing room if they can get their key free agents signed at a good price. Smyth will be the player who gets the largest contract.Cheers!KF72p.s. I'll post the latest 2005-2006 salary numbers on the thread I started, so that everyone can compare their favorite teams.</blockquote>

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