Brandon Davidson is no longer a member of the Edmonton Oilers. The club announced on Tuesday that it had dealt the defenceman to Montreal in exchange for centre David Desharnais.
The #Oilers have acquired forward David Desharnais in exchange for defenceman Brandon Davidson. #NHLTrade pic.twitter.com/bH9GI3UV4m
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) March 1, 2017
Habs retain 20 percent salary/cap hit of Desharnais in Oilers trade
— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) March 1, 2017
First, the contract details, which are always important when considering these deals. Desharnais is in the final year of a contract with a cap hit of $3.5 million, after which he will be an unrestricted free agent. Montreal retaining a percentage of his cap hit has no value going forward, but does help reduce the impact of moving a defenceman with a $1.425 million cap hit for a much more expensive forward.
While Desharnais is bound for free agency, Davidson has another year remaining on his deal, after which he’ll be a restricted free agent. This has the potential to be a value deal for the Canadiens, particularly since there are opportunities on the left side in Montreal.
Desharnais does fill a need for Edmonton at centre.
Because of Todd McLellan’s preference that Leon Draisaitl play right wing on the Oilers’ top line, the team has been looking for a third-line centre for most of the year. Drake Caggiula was handed the job in training camp and then again during the season once he got healthy, but his 0.74 points/hour at even-strength is the worst of any Edmonton regular and he was clearly not yet up to the task.
Desharnais’ own scoring rate is nearly double Caggiula’s, and this during what has been a down year for him. In seasons past, he’s been a very effective secondary scorer at 5-on-5. He’s also a good skater, which is a need on a team that has looked sluggish at times this season.
In other ways, though, the new centre is an odd fit. He plays a courageous game, but he’s 5’7″ and 174 pounds and cannot be described as a physical presence, putting him at odds with most of GM Peter Chiarelli’s recent additions.
Desharnais doesn’t kill penalties, so he won’t help there. He isn’t a right shot and has mediocre power play numbers over his career, so although he may appear on Edmonton’s second unit he probably won’t have a big impact on it. He’s 49 percent on even-strength faceoffs over his career, which makes him a big upgrade on Caggiula in that department.
This trade will certainly make Edmonton better in the short-term, where the gap between Desharnais and Caggiula at 5-on-5 is much greater than the gap between Davidson and Darnell Nurse or Matt Benning. Certainly it gives the Oilers a better shot at running three effective lines, something that’s going to matter in the postseason.
The cost on the trade is dear. Desharnais and Davidson are of similar importance in terms of their position in the lineup, with the difference being that Davidson is both cheaper and under contract longer. On the other hand, with Martin Hanzal and Brian Boyle both already off the market, there just weren’t a lot of other centre options.
There’s also the matter of the expansion draft. It was expected that the Oilers would lose Davidson to Las Vegas for nothing, so in some ways it made sense to trade him. However, there’s a cost associated with doing so, because Edmonton will now lose someone else – perhaps Griffin Reinhart, perhaps Jujhar Khaira – instead.
This is a reasonable deal from a rental perspective in that it makes the Oilers better today. In a vacuum, it’s hard to argue that a pending UFA Desharnais is a superior asset to an NHL team than a signed 25-year-old Davidson, but sometimes the short-term boost is worth giving up the superior asset.
It is, in short, a deal that makes sense for both teams. It just happens to be one that works more in Montreal’s favour than it does in Edmonton’s.
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And the effect of the expansion draft kicks in.
🙁 I know we were probably gonna lose him anyways but this still makes me sad.
Didn’t see that coming
Lol here come the pitchforks and torches. Relax everybody
A small center? I guess Caggiula isn’t going to play center any more.
WTf is wrong with Lander? Did he puss in Chia or tmacs cheerios? Had to do something because this trade makes no sense with Lander in the system already. Don’t want to lose Davidson in expansion so trade him for a guy worse than a guy we already have and that makes 2 million more?!?! Wtf
I’m with you, I don’t see Desharnais as an upgrade to lander
In 215 NHL games Lander has 35 points and 10 goals and zero playoff experience.
Dasharnais 435 GP 250 points.
Lander is simply not an NHL player.
I would rather have Lander centering Puljujarvi and helping his development than playing with the Oilers.
I like this deal…. Davidson has not been great this year and zhe certainly wasnt better than Benning or Nurse so we neededa centre
Haven’t read through the entire thread as this got a lot of action quick. But has anyone also considered as a rental a smaller player like Drake can learn a lot from David D. Playoff experience in hard series, same size, role and player as the drake. Like the trade
Maybe PC is not done.
Meh. Team traded from LHD depth to add to third line C depth. Nothing here that’s going to make or break a team.
Good pick up for montreal, but don’t they also need more Center depth and not less?
Vegas this Vegas that – they are only allowed to draft ONE player from each team. Stop acting like they are going to desimate our roster. Every team is also going to lose one player making each team just as vulnerable.
That plus they’re going to be filthy with decent defense options to choose from but have virtually eff-all to pick from for forwards.
They’re going to be gunning for Pitlick or Khaira.
I like Deshernais. I think it helps both teams. Both play bigger than their size.
I’m disappointed to see Davidson go, but would be even more disappointed if he left for nothing in the expansion draft. Best of luck to him!
You do understand someone else will now be taking his place and going to Vegas.
Somebody else was always going to be going to Vegas..
Somebody else was always going to be going to Vegas…….
The problem is the player we acquire is an UFA so we have to resign him. Otherwise, we lose Davidson and another player afterall.
If we manage to resign him, we have to protect him. Otherwise, if we lose him to expansion, there is no difference.
If we protect him, we won’t be able to protect all of Drisaitl, RNH, Eberle, Lucic, Maroon, Letensu and Kassian. Who would you rather lose than him?
This was done to give us Center depth going towards the play-offs?
That is what we get out of the deal. Nothing more, nothing less.
We need Center depth and already have LHD depth
Todd likes to move players around so this just adds a different look for teams to figure out.
We were going to lose DD for nothing. PC just rewarded his players by adding experience.
Relax
Oh dear lord please make it stop
Why? Is there something I say that is incorrect?
Losing Eberle and gaining that cap space would be good for you guys long term. Eberle has negative value at his current cap hit.
Only people with brain damage with come up with such comment. Or someone without a brain so he will never have brain damage.
We were going to lose Davidson either way at least nkw we have a centre
We just acquired another team’s Pouliot.
Hilarious, my brother said the exact same thing
Seems underwhelming
Awesome. Davidson hasn’t impressed this season at all.
Desharnais put up 48 points in the 14-15 season and had 52 points in the 13-14 season.
He’s having a down year but that was probably because of the 19 games missed because of his knee injury.
Having him and Letestu in the bottom 6 will help us a lot.
Caggiula has done alright but he wasn’t ready for the NHL this year.
He had that many points as a first line centre, his not close to that anymore.
Yeah, he’s shown that he can produce in a top 6 role. Perfect guy for the bottom 6.
If you’re going to trade Davidson for a centerman, trade for someone that would push Letestu to 4C… If Chia would of had to include a 5th to get someone of higher quality I wouldn’t be upset.
We were probably losing Davidson anyway, and he was probably going to be scratched most games because of our depth. But damn, he is a quality D.
Tell us who? DD was the best centre available from pending UFA’s once Boyle was traded. PC obviously knows the team needs help at centre, didn’t have a 2nd to get in on Boyle and by trading Davidson who the Oilers were likely going to lose for nothing, and likely not play much down the stretch or playoffs with Nurse healthy, he made an addition without costing the team anything.
This trade ices a better team for the Oilers than they currently had and that is all that matters.
Lets go D.D. !! Snipe.
Not really an Edmonton type player, maybe part of another deal?
I dont want to come on here and be negative but lets think about this. Desharnais is 5’7.he has 4 goals this year and in the playoffs 3 goals in 38 games. What did Chiarelli see in him? I see him as a guy that makes the team worse. Not the type of ‘character’ guys you wana add for a run!
He’s has 250 pts in 430 games. Look at his previous years stats, if I had to pick between him, Caguilla and Lander. He scores more than both of them combined.
Wasn’t even a guy I had on my radar but hasbeen in Montreal as long as Chiarelli has been in Boston. A 3C with the ability to pay up the lineup when needed and above a half point a game player over his carrer. He is also a veteran. I’m sure he is a player Chairelli is much more familiar with than I am. And I’ll wait and see how he fits in and what other movea are made before I judge the move.
You must be 8 feet tall