After their respective rookie seasons, Flameheads were taking us Oilerfans to task for effectively trading Lombardi for Stoll. Lombardi's faster, they said, he's a scorer they said, he's already got more goals than Stoll ever will.
Fast forward a couple of years. Lombardi's the last guy signed to a 1 year contract; this is his last chance. Stoll's so integral to the team that he'll likely be taking all their major faceoffs next year - and why shouldn't he - and is being paid accordingly.
I wonder where all those Flamehead fans are now?
Normally I'm not given to gloating, and note that I haven't looked at any numbers a la mudcrutch79 style or anything. But in this case, I think it's pretty clear to even the most biased viewers that right now, Stoll is very much a part of Edmonton's future, and Lombardi... well, he's lucky he still has a job, given that better players than he (Radek Dvorak, Anson Carter) are still looking.
*twists the knife a bit more*