It’s March 1, meaning that the National Hockey League trade deadline is just one week away.
As you can imagine, there’s a ton of news surrounding the Edmonton Oilers and other teams in the league. A provincial rival’s star player could be on the move, the Oilers are seemingly willing to trade the first-round pick for the second consecutive season, and more!
Oilers will be patient before deadline…
In the latest “LeBrun rumblings”, an article from The Athletic and written by Pierre LeBrun, he underlines Edmonton’s game plan heading into the trade deadline:
“My understanding of the Oilers’ mindset going into the weekend is that they are ready to be patient and see how the market continues to develop. And here’s why I think they’re willing to be patient, especially when it comes to the forward market.”
LeBrun elaborates further by listing the buyers in the market for a forward, as well as some of the forwards that could be on the move, and points out that there are a ton of forwards and not a lot of teams.
“So what I’m getting at is that if you examine the forward market at large, you’re probably looking at just five or six teams buying when there’s at least double that amount of players available.”
Therefore, it seems that the Oilers will let the Vegas Golden Knights do whatever move they need to do with their new found cap space, but will eventually make a move for themselves as well.
Some potential trade candidates are Jake Guentzel, Jordan Eberle, Adam Henrique, and many, many more.
Oilers’ first-round pick in play…
According to The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta, the Oilers are willing to trade their 2024 first-rounder for a defenceman, using a roster player to balance the salary cap.
It was speculated by LeBrun that the Oilers offered Cody Ceci and the first-rounder for Chris Tanev before he was traded to the Dallas Stars on Thursday evening. However, just because the best rental right-shot defenceman is off the market, doesn’t mean that the Oilers are done looking for an upgrade.
In recent times, they’ve been linked to Philadelphia Flyers’ Sean Walker, a right-shot defenceman who has broken out this season. In 60 games with the Flyers, Walker has a career-high six goals and 22 points, two points shy of his career-high. Walker is a pending unrestricted free agent.
Another potential option is Alexandre Carrier of the Nashville Predators. This season, the 27-year-old has a career-high four goals and 18 points. His best overall season came in 2021-22, where he scored three goals and 30 points in 77 games. Like Walker, Carrier will be an unrestricted free agent at season’s end.
Last season, the Oilers were linked to several defencemen including Vladislav Gavrikov, before making a trade out of left field for Mattias Ekholm. Maybe a similar trade is in the works?
Nic Dowd as a fit for the Oilers…
According to Frank Seravalli’s latest article for Daily Faceoff, the Edmonton Oilers could be a fit for right-shot centre Nic Dowd.
In the article, he notes that Dowd would be an upgrade over Derek Ryan as the fourth-line centre, which is true. This season, Dowd has eight goals and 16 points in 45 games, and set career-highs in goals (13) and points (25) during the 2022-23 season.
Dowd has a cap hit of $1.3 million until the end of the 2024-25 season and kills penalties, so he’s definitely a valuable player. The most comparable trade is when the Tampa Bay Lightning acquired Barclay Goodrow and a 2020 third-rounder a month before COVID started. They gave up a 2020 first-round pick and Anthony Greco.
Acquiring Dowd certainly isn’t a bad idea, but the Oilers would also need to do more.
Jacob Markstrom unhappy with Flames’ front office…
It appears that Calgary Flames netminder Jacob Markström is unhappy with how the front office has handled the Flames re-tool.
A few weeks ago, several sources indicated that the New Jersey Devils and Flames were close to a deal that would’ve sent Markström to the Devils. However, it fell through due to a disagreement on how much the Flames would retain of his $6 million cap hit until the end of the 2025-26 season.
It’s hard to know exactly what he’s upset about, but it appears that the Devils are willing to make the move with the Flames retaining any salary. Either way, it’s fairly comical how the Flames have fallen apart after the Oilers defeated them in the 2022 Western Conference semifinals.
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