BEST DEAL ON THE MARKET right now

EDMONTON JOURNAL… Jim Matheson, 2/13:? When a team loses two of its top four offensive defencemen — Lubomir Visnovsky (dislocated right shoulder) and Denis Grebeshkov (high right ankle sprain) — the other GMs will try to make contact.? What the Oilers will likely do is scour the waiver wire or look at unrestricted free-agent defencemen. They may even look for more than one player because they are down to five proven blue-liners (Souray, Gilbert, Staios, Ladislav Smid and Jason Strudwick). Either way, it’s a dicey situation because the Oilers have 49 players under contract and the NHL maximum is 50.

This is where the Penguins and Edmonton have a deal. Ryan Whitney straight up for Dustin Penner. See? 1/30/09 post:? Getting THAT winger without TANKING. There’s a ton of talk about Whitney for just everyone including Nik Antropov… come on now. Antropov’s big… yet he’s a center who also plays the wing. Don’t we have?an overload?of those?

Penner is a wing who not big – he’s gigantic – has good hockey sense – and check out this credential – – ?he plays his best while standing in front of the net. Hello.

What makes this the ideal trade is that it doesn’t have to wait until the deadline to go down as both players address the other teams needs and the payroll amount and contract length is very similar too.? Don’t for a minute think I’m talking down Whitney because I’m not. He’s an easy target for some people searching for a whipping boy. Whitney is getting his footing (pun intended) and will be missed by the Penguins but IMHO this is a deal made in heaven for both teams.

This is DR Hook… carry on