Rumor: Oilers expected to make a line up change this evening.

It looks like the Edmonton Oilers fan base will not have to wait very long to see their newest player.

On Friday the Oilers shook things up on their roster when they pulled the trigger on a very interesting trade with the New York Rangers organization. The two sides agreed to terms on a player for player deal that saw the Oilers acquire veteran forward Ryan Spooner from the Rangers and in exchange the Oilers sent forward Ryan Strome back the other way to the Rangers. 

The Oilers gave up some cap space in the move, Spooner makes $900,000 more this season and next season and counts for an additional $900,000 against the cap as well, while the Rangers clear up additional cap space that they don't really need in their current rebuild. That being said though the Oilers had reportedly been dangling Strome as trade bait for some time now so general manager Peter Chiarelli was likely very pleased to get this deal done. 

It will be difficult to gauge who has won this deal until after both men have had time to fit in to the new systems that they will be joining as both men have been relatively underwhelming this season thus far. Through 18 games with the Oilers Strome recorded just a single goal and a single assist for 2 total points and a plus minus rating of - 1 on the season. Add to that the fact that Strome has also collected 14 penalty minutes on the season and it's not too hard to see why the Oilers were frustrated with his lack of production. Spooner on the other hand had very similar numbers on the year, 16 games played, 1 goal and 1 assist for 2 total points however he was much more disciplined wiht 0 penalty minutes but boasted a plus minus rating of -5 on the season.

On Saturday Spooner joined the Edmonton Oilers for practice and head coach Todd McLellan informed the assembled media that Spooner would be in the line up this evening for the Battle of Alberta, assuming of course that everything goes well during practice. Should Spooner be able to make his mark against the Calgary Flames, arguably the Oilers most bitter rival, this evening he will almost assuredly ingratiate himself to the Oilers fan base rather quickly.

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