NHL Rumors: The Edmonton Oilers looking to improve their middle-six and their blue line

Hello Hockey Show: David Pagnotta on the Hello Hockey Show with Tom Gazzola and Shawn Belle talking about Edmonton Oilers rumors ahead of the trade deadline.

** NHLRumors.com transcription

“Edmonton was in the (Elias) Lindholm discussion as well. So another guy that’s kind of been linked there is Adam Henrique as well. Versatile type of forward. You put them at the center position, you can put them on the wing. He’ll certainly be motivated to join a contender.

But he’s got a big cap hit, $5.825 (million), something like that. Anaheim is going to have to eat half of that salary whether it’s in the Oilers or New Jersey or the Rangers or a different destination. So you’re gonna take a little bit of cap gymnastics, but I’ve heard that the Oilers at least inquired or had some conversations with the Ducks about Adam Henrique.

So I can certainly see them trying to shore up their middle-six even further. And we know that they looked at the D core. That’s still an area that they would like to upgrade if they can. But you have to be creative in potentially making these types of moves and making these cap-implicated moves.

So you may have to throw some dollars out in order to bring some in, which may get a little bit tricky. And you don’t want to overpay to get a third team in the mix to eat some salary.

So the goaltending for now you’re not touching it. you’re gonna you’re gonna keep it as is. And you’re gonna look to see can you bolster the blue line a little bit more? Can you bring in somebody in that mid-six? I think that’s, that’s at least the talk around here over the last few days has been centered around that.”