from Nicholas J. Cotsonika of NHL.com,

The Edmonton Oilers had skill. Now they have snarl.

They will have it for a good, long time after signing Milan Lucic to a seven-year contract that ESPN reported was worth $42 million when the NHL free-agent market opened Friday, and that's the obvious concern. Seven years is a lot of term for a power forward who is 28 and locked up through age 34.

But you have to take risk if you're going to win bidding wars in unrestricted free agency, especially if you're a team like the Oilers, who have missed the playoffs for 10 straight seasons and play in one of the coldest of the cold-weather markets.

And general manager Peter Chiarelli was willing to take this risk because he knows what Lucic can do on the left wing with elite centers.

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