Will Kevin Lowe deliver a free-agent frenzy day deal today to make Sunday's Lubomir Visnovsky trade look like an appetizer?
Is the Edmonton Oilers owner under pressure to hit the home run the day Daryl Katz officially takes over as new Oilers owner, the day before Katz presents himself in public for the first time?
And what would be the home run?
To me, it wouldn't be a free-agent signing.
The players out there - Mats Sundin, Jaromir Jagr, Marion Hossa and Markus Naslund - are all either past their prime or highly unlikely to want to play here considering the options likely to be available.
To me, hitting the home run for his new owner would be the reverse of those deals the Oilers used to do when they traded away a star to bring a collection of lesser lights, prospects and suspects back the other way.
To me, hitting the home run for Katz would be finding a first-rate scoring star the likes of, oh, say Rick Nash to complement Ales Hemsky as the gifted playmaker heads into the prime-time years of his career.
I'm not saying that you could do that deal, specifically.
STOCKPILE
But the Oilers have a pretty good stockpile of assets that they could put on the table to get a guy who would make Hemsky complete.
If you offered up Shawn Horcoff and Joni Pitkanen from column A, and Raffi Torres and Robbie Schremp from column B, for example, shouldn't you be able to acquire a pretty good player to be Hemsky's first-line soul- mate here?
Pitkanen, clearly, is about to be moved.
There was at least some evidence Lowe had his relocation mostly done before he sent Matt Greene and Jarrett Stoll to Los Angeles.
Lowe certainly has himself set up to hit the home run for his new spend-to-the-cap owner.
But the Oilers general manager has spent the last 48 hours refusing to make himself available to the media as he bunkered down working the phones.
Lowe issued a statement on the Visnovsky trade about three hours after he made it Sunday night.
Yesterday the Oilers made Visnovsky available by conference call from the Czech Republic and had the media on standby for Lowe's availability, but called it off just prior to 4 p.m.
It would have been interesting to have Lowe chew on the topic of suddenly having a -plethora of players signed to long-term deals.
The Visnovsky deal added not only a player who essentially already is what we hoped Pitkanen would eventually become, he's also headed to Edmonton signed well into the future.
PHILOSOPHY
Does that indicate an Oiler strategy and philosophy for the future?
Defenceman Tom Gilbert is signed through the 2013-14 season.
Visnovsky is locked up through 2012-13.
Hemsky, Dustin Penner and Sheldon Souray are signed through 2011-12.
Robert Nilsson, Steve Staios and Ethan Moreau are under contract through 2010-11.
You know they're not going to let Sam Gagner, Andrew Cogliano or likely Denis Grebishkov get away.
With Visnovsky and Souray on the points on the power play, Souray on the left and Visnovsky (who lobbied hard to get moved back to the right side from the left where the L.A. Kings had him last year), resuming his normal spot, and a star centre with Hemsky and Penner, and the Oilers' coaching staff just might have something special on their hands.
The defence, with Visnovsky, Souray, Gilbert, Staios, Grebeshkov and a couple of pretty good prospects in college, is solid.
The second line, with Gagner, Cogliano and Nilsson is going to get better and better and better.
What they really need is the main man in the middle of the first line, scoring 40-plus goals and 50-plus points.
And you have to believe Katz would very much like that player to be delivered on his first day as owner today.
