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Finland is always in my heart and I will probably return to Finland to play. But now my goal is at KHL, but money does not solve everything. I want to find a good place to play a big role. It is the most important.”

Yeah, well that certainly wasn’t Edmonton, was it? As the silken voiced Rod Phillips used to say about European players from another era: “I yoost want to play hockey”. Still true.

As for Finland, Auvitu may be a native of Ivry-sur-Seine, France, but he is very much a product of the Finnish hockey system, having moved to that country at 19 to join the JYP program before gradually working his way up to HIFK in the Liiga. He was in the Nordic country for eight years, which explains the first part of that comment. From this distance a future partnership between the player and Jokerit, Finland’s lone KHL team, seems a natural.

For now, though, Auvitu joins the French national side at the World Championships in Denmark, where he will wear the Tricolorefor the ninth (!) time. I’m guessing he might get a look on the powerplay. (We’ll have coverage of Day One action at the Worlds later today.)

Back here in Edmonton, folks might look at the likes of Pakarinen, Slepyshev and Auvitu and conclude, “eh, they were marginal players on a poor team, time to move on and find something better.” Others might note the commonalities that all were guys brought over in their 20s from European professional leagues, and that for whatever reason each guy spent more time in the press box than he did on the powerplay. When their contracts expired, so did their interest in staying in Edmonton.

Bottom line: in recent days the Oilers have seen the apparent departures of three ~mid-career guys who among them had an interesting array of skills and capabilities. Assuming no bonuses accrued to Slepyshev this season, the trio cost the club a combined cap hit of $2.350 million. That’s less than the $2.500 million they will be paying ONE player to cross the pond the other way, namely netminder Mikko Koskinen.