DAILY RUMORS: Shooting down a Dustin Penner to the Kings rumor

We at HockeyIndependent.com want to be your resource and filter for what is going on in the NHL. We try to disseminate the noise in the blogosphere. We don’t look to to attack those sources, but to question the veracity of the rumor with cold logic, hockey smarts and knowledge. To do that… we have partnered with the one of the best in the NHL blogosphere….Lyle Richardson of SpectorsHockey.net. Daily Rumors with Lyle Richardson will now be a regular feature on HI this summer and beyond…

Throughout the off-season the Edmonton Oilers have been shaking up their roster for 2010-11 in hopes of returning to the playoffs for the first time since their run to the 2006 Stanley Cup Final.

They’ve bought out winger Robert Nilsson, signed promising prospects Taylor Hall and Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson to entry-level contracts, and dealt away Patrick O’Sullivan to Phoenix for defenseman Jim Vandemeer.

Management has also attempted to ship out disgruntled defenseman Sheldon Souray though that could be easier said than done.

One rumor making the rounds last week suggested the Oilers might also be shopping another notable, high-priced player:

http://www.puckmeplease.com/nhl-rumors/182-dustin-penner.html

They are shopping Dustin Penner and guess what team is interested in him? The Los Angeles Kings are very interested.

Dustin Penner’s salary for the next two years is 4.25 million. He had a great season last year and the Kings would love to add him to the roster to make up for the loss of Frolov.

Can’t really see where this rumor makes sense. A year ago perhaps the Oilers would’ve been thrilled to ship out Penner, when they tried unsuccessfully to package him to Ottawa for Dany Heatley.

But since Penner had a “great season” last year (32-31-63, all single season bests) plus the Oilers addition of Hall and with a healthy Ales Hemsky returning to action this season don’t expect Penner to be going anywhere.

Furthermore the Kings have already addressed their replacement for Alexander Frolov, signing left wing Alexei Ponikarovsky to a one-year deal.  The Kings also want to ensure they leave sufficient cap space in the upcoming season to re-sign young stars Drew Doughty, Jack Johnson and Wayne Simmonds so the last thing they need is to tie up valuable cap space with Penner’s $4.25 million per season.

The focus of Oilers management is upon Souray and dealing with the aftermath of goalie Nikolai Khabibulin’s DUI conviction, not on dealing Penner to the Kings or anywhere else.

Lyle Richardson

SpectorsHockey.net
twitter.com/spectorshockey