The Bulin Wall

Ok, so we are all aware that Khabibulin is facing possible jailtime for his little *glug glug vroom vroom* incident. And we are also aware that Tambellini is looking to continue his rebuild. The Bullin wall cant possibly be an honest part of that rebuild.
But if they were to trade/buyout Khabi he would be admitting that he made a mistake. For one of the first decisions he made as the GM here, it would be a big black mark on his resume if he were to make that admission.

I personally didnt like the deal from day one. Twice the length of term the Oilers needed, to be able to phase in the young goalies they already had in the system. And twice the price a good vet like Roloson (eg) would have cost. Plainly put, it was a stab at a big fish intended to keep the new owner happy and it did absolutly nothing for the team. Guys like that are about to become a thing of the past. An honest contender isnt going to bank on a guy that oft injured, and a building team would keep him to very short terms and simply hope for the best.

So the more I think about it, I'm thinking that the Oilers are secretly hoping he DOES get some jail time. Nothing serious, I'm sure there is no animosity towards Khabi. But if he cannot make it to training camp, they have grounds to say he is breach of his contract. There is no need to buy him out or make a trade, the contract would become null and void. The Oilers can publicly say that they do not stand for drinking and driving, and they get to wash their hands with out any harm to the team. The thing that isn't great about this is the timing. With July 1 upon us, Tanbi still doesn't know what he has to work with. Is it worth signing a goalie this year? Does he take the risk of having FOUR tenders on the team? Thats an even bigger risk than signing Khabi to begin with. Now I suppose he can sign someone, and then send both JDD and Dubnik down to the minors if Khabibulin beats the rap, maybe even hoping one of them gets picked up on waivers (This way there isnt a backlog in OKC either) but it is a risk. The Oilers GM has shown some stones this offseason, but I'm curious to see if he has enough to make this particular move.

In any case, there are several goalies on the market this summer, and Tabellini may very well be thinking of taking a chance and signing (at the very least) a heck of a backup for Khabi (and at most) a new starter.

Damn, I cant wait till tomorrow.